Daily Times

Six-year-old Iman Fatima had left the safe confines of her house to buy sweets from a shop in her neighbourhood and never returned only to be raped and then murdered. Her body lay limp and lifeless on the neighbour’s roof until it was discovered by police. Nothing is sacred in Pakistan, even the innocence of childhood isn’t respected. Women in Pakistan live in a world structured by strict patriarchal norms that begin infiltrating their lives the minute they are born-dowry deaths, honour killings, acid attacks, gang rape; name it and you’ll probably find it in Pakistan. The mounting trend of Islamic extremism in the country has only aggravated the issue by perpetuating the notion that a woman’s true place is inside the home. Even women who are the sole breadwinners for their families are defined in relation to the men in their lives as if their value does not transcend their relationships with men.

Shame is the defining value of all patriarchal setups such as in Pakistan. Women are fated to a life of cruel contradictions On one hand, they are encouraged to present as pious and pure and then shamelessly murdered or raped or defiled in a hundred other ways after which they are no longer considered trustworthy. These patterns are particularly dominant in tribal areas where feudal lords and local elites enjoy unlimited power and are not held accountable to external bodies of law-this parallel justice system has historically been apathetic to women’s concerns and needs. If a woman is perceived to challenge the prescribed norms of a community, they are met with severe backlash.

The law isn’t on their side either. Pakistan’s notorious Hudood Ordinances have relegated women into the margins and are routinely weaponised by criminals to exonerate themselves. The Shahadat Law, for instance, bars women from providing evidence if they are raped. The Zina Ordinance goes as far as to rape victims unless proven otherwise by four Muslim male witnesses. It is not surprising then that Pakistan consistently ranks low on the Global Gender Gap Index; even the legal system has made it a point to punish women for transgressions against their bodies. The state must ask itself why women’s bodies are so disposable especially when they are a fundamental component of society-without them, the country would fade into virtual oblivion. The key to protecting women isn’t to shut them inside their homes but to punish those who have made it their prerogative to wage a war against women. *