The Pakistani state is failing to protect human rights of the women belonging to religious minorities.
In Sindh, the second largest province of Pakistan, abductions and forced conversions of Hindu girls frequently occur despite growing outrage from local and international civil society organizations.
According to reports by women rights groups, some 20 non-Muslim girls are abducted, forcefully converted to Islam and married off to their abductors each month. To curb this practice, Sindh Assembly in 2016 unanimously adopted the Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill but miserably failed to formalize it into law because of the mounting pressure by religious groups and right-wing political parties. However, it would be highly simplistic to suggest that such heinous crimes against women perpetuate in our society only because of the unavailability of a comprehensive legal instrument to prosecute the culprits. Instead, it is argued that violence against women of Hindu community has structural and intersectional foundations and must be understood therefore as a matter of human security.
Politically motivated and often opposing narratives of liberals and religious factions obscure the multilayer complexity of the issue of forced conversions. Without a variation, religious groups would claim that women from Hindu community get influenced by the teachings of Islam and choose to convert to Islam without any coercion. In contrast, liberals and human rights groups would always argue that women are kidnapped for sexual exploitation and later forced into marriage after involuntary conversion to Islam. These competing narratives leave little room for comprehension of patriarchal opportunism, its relationship with women’s agency and the social construction of Hindu women’s identity.
Forced conversions and marriages of Hindu girls Feudalistic patriarchy ordained by religious norms and supported by socio-economic realities of interior Sindh strengthens hyper masculinity of Muslim men who are well-connected in the local elite to prey upon the vulnerabilities of (Hindu) women around them
Forced conversions and marriages can be seen as structural violence against women of vulnerable community. Patriarchal feudal culture coupled with Islamic populism render impoverished non-Muslim women vulnerable to gendered violence. Since “honor” of a community in a patriarchal and feudalistic society such as ours is placed in female body, it is easy to understand why a Muslim man would violate dignity of Hindu women in Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The socio-political construction of the society in interior Sindh gives men of majority community (Muslim) a sense of entitlement over the women of minority community (Hindu) which is also a subject of hatred due to its origin in a country (India) which is perceived as enemy.
It is important to note that hatred against minorities especially Hindus is deeply entrenched in the history of the country. The Two Nations Theory which is vehemently protected by the state institutions and transferred to future generations through rigorous curriculum maintains that Hindus and Muslims are too different to live together in peace and that Pakistan is exclusively made for Muslims. Added to this are the painful memories of partition violence which occurred between the two communities around 7 decades ago. Moreover, religious narratives and rhetoric by firebrand clerics interpret the historic and political instances in a way that widen the rift between majority and minorities.
Similarly, feudalistic patriarchy ordained by religious norms and supported by socio-economic realities of interior Sindh strengthens hypermasculinity of Muslim men who are well-connected in the local elite to prey upon the vulnerabilities of (Hindu) women around them. In this context, conversions and marriages are employed as camouflage techniques to avert legal actions and to take the attention away from brute violence against women.
Intersectionality approach is also helpful to explain why Hindu women more often than others are subjected to abductions, change of religion and marital coercion. In fact, these women are facing several layers of discrimination which cannot be dealt with by utilizing legal and social means available to address monocausal discrimination. One needs to look into the multiple identities assigned to the potential victim to understand the complexity of the issue. Feudalistic patriarchy constructs the victim woman as a commodified sexualized body. In the same way, proto-nationalism, embedded in politico-religious narratives, others Hindu women. Similarly, the economic hardship of a Hindu woman is perceived as an opportunity to exploit her for material gains. To sum up, Hindu girls are discriminated because of their class, gender, religion and perceived national loyalty. In other words, a Hindu woman is seen as a non-believer destitute enemy alien who is loyal to India.
Unfortunately, the conduct of state institutions suggest that this perception is shared to some degree by law enforcement and legal justice systems. As a result, the usual structure to protect human rights underperforms in the case of forced conversions and marriages of Hindu women.
Partly responsible for the blatant violation of the rights and dignity of the vulnerable women and subsequent inaction of the state machinery is overstress on national security. Now, Pakistani state must prioritize human security of its citizens without discrimination on the bases of gender, race, ethnicity and religious identity. A Hindu woman in interior Sindh is as good a Pakistanis as a Sunni male Muslim in central Punjab. Therefore, she must be entitled to the same rights and privileges not only in the books of law but in practice as well. This will be not be made possible by superficial amendments in laws and occasional Suo moto notices taken by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. What is needed is a basic transformation from national security to human security and from rigid patriarchy to inclusive equality. Surely, this will reconnect us to lost dream of a welfare state.
The writer is Fulbright PhD Student in Global Governance and Human Security at UMass Boston and can be reached at [email protected]