What Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif tweeted out to the world to commemorate International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women would have come across as a heartfelt commitment to their protection had the situation on the ground not looked so dreary. The need to proclaim out loud how “a society cannot claim to be civilised leave alone (be) democratic if it condones violence under any pretext” in the twenty-second year of the twenty-first century is enough reason to hang our heads in shame but irony works in mysterious ways. Despite being a signatory to a myriad of declarations against the menace, little has changed in our houses and on our streets. Our girls and women are just as vulnerable to petty egos, patriarchal norms and the beastly streaks as in the Dark Ages. While it has long been established that a handful of cases that manage to get reported are only the tip of the iceberg, as many as 63,367 complaints about gender-based crimes dared come forward across the country in the last three years. Nearly four thousand women murder while more than 10,000 were subjugated through sexual violence. Read this again. It might become easy to dismiss the tragedies as bloodied tallies on the report card but even a cursory glance at their plight can rob sleep for many a night. How a daughter lands inside a stove, a mother stands on the other side of a fully-loaded barrel and a wife walks on eggshells day in and out to avoid being bruised black and blue are all glaring blots on our national character, which no dodging tactics or victim-blaming can rinse out. Since it was during Mr Sharif’s last stint as Punjab’s chief minister that he opened the doors to the first-even violence against women centre in 2017, it would be a mistake to make light of his determination. However, to actually practice what he has preached, he would need to accomplish a string of Herculean tasks. Creating empathy in the law enforcement centre to side with the victim, not tear him apart for the sake of the accused, is one such cornerstone that can give many others the confidence to step out of the shadows. That violence to “straighten out” women was, is and will be a socially accepted norm remains a big stumbling block in the implementation of a comprehensive legal framework to protect women. Here is where Islamabad can also step in to quash the unnecessary propaganda regarding the “inferior role of women” in Islam. It took almost 27 years to right the wrongs incurred in Zia’s Hudood Laws. Pakistani women cannot afford to continue being punching bags for another three decades while the people supposed to champion their rights are comfortable with their heads buried under the sand. *