Daily Times

The ticking clock and the steaming tea were the only signs giving me a feeling of my existence. Otherwise, I felt dead after hearing the phone call. It was about a woman who was burnt alive by her husband, which had gone unreported. The neighbourhood, relatives and acquaintances remained tight-lipped. The perpetrator is roaming free, being part of a system where human lives are most vulnerable. Women burnt by their own family and the criminal silence by the society is a death in itself. On human existence, Descartes says “I think, therefore I am.” As per this, we do not exist morally and socially. Thinking is not referred to our eating, earning and sleeping.Only in the surroundings of the capital of Pakistan in the last eight years, more than 4,000 women have been doused in kerosene and set alight by family members, mostly by their in-laws. Thomson Reuters Foundation poll showed that Pakistan is among the world’s most dangerous countries for women due to the threat of rape, domestic violence, and honour killing. Approximately 90 percent of the women have faced domestic violence in their lives.

The human rights activists estimate that three women die each day due to stove bursting. These victims are generally in the age group between 18-35. Most of them were pregnant at the time of their deaths. Their Husband’s family mostly bribe the police to give the murder the cover of a suicidal case. Courts are very slow, and the system is handicapped. Most of the time the perpetrator goes unpunished. Above all, the motherless children have to live with murderers of their mother.

The reasons behind this heinous crime of burning women vary. Some are burnt due to their inability to give birth to a male child, over a domestic argument, hindrance in a second marriage or over a dowry issue. Police give these cases a look of suicidal attempts, and justice remains unserved. 35-year-old Raqia had an argument with her husband over a dispute of 2,000 rupees. When she approached her father-in-law for some support, he rather advised her husband to give her an unforgettable punishment. She was burnt alive and died 19 days after succumbing to serious burns. Her three children remained in the custody of parental family. Police arrested the man but filed no charges against him despite her family’s pleas. He got free within no time. Raiqa is not alone; countless other women go through the same fate. They are burnt not once but multiple times. These women don’t even get solace and comfort in death. First, their family set them ablaze, and then the system further worsens the situation, as neither they get proper treatment nor justice. If they survive, they live in hell burning with misery and shame. If they die, their kids face the trauma of not only being deprived of their mother’s love and affection, but they live with a criminal family facing hatred and abuses. So even after her death, poor mother’s soul is restless over the sad fate of her kids.

Unfortunately, there is no accurate data available on these heinous crimes. There is a recent case of a young woman, mother of a 2-year-old girl, being burnt by her husband in Lahore after an argument over his second marriage. Nobody is willing to report such cases due to the corrupt and harassing justice system.

At the end of the day, the dispensation of justice begins with acknowledging a crime. If the police and society give domestic violence and crimes an umbrella, they will not stop.

Acid Survivors Foundation is working for a wider framework proposal with Pakistan Provincial Commission for Women to frame a complex legal and medical aid for Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A bill was presented before the National Assembly in 2014 covering the details for legal protection of acid and burn victims. In 2011, some legal reforms were also added for the protection of women. But we live in a multifold society, where law implementation is the biggest question. A higher authority investigative officer needs to be in charge of such cases. Local community-based Women and Child Protection Centers and councillors need to be established on an emergency basis. Implementation needs micro detailing according to the makeup of our society. Crimes against women and children mostly go unreported. Our system demands unnecessary bureaucratic filing and stereotype witness criteria rather than an investigative approach. If it prevails, daughters of East will not be able to avail the most basic right i.e. the right to live. Giving a perpetrator a second chance is like giving him a second bullet for the gun if he had missed the target on his first attempt.

The writer is a children’s rights activist and a former educationist. She can be reached at nabiha.shahram@gmail.com