Sexual harassment: Parliamentarians urged to promulgate law to protect women

Human rights groups in Pakistan with substantial intellectual input and efforts by women rights activists have succeeded in impressing upon the parliamentarians to move forward and promulgate a law for saving women from sexual harassment.
The efforts are now underway to motivate the government to legislate for prevention of domestic violence and adoption of the policy on the rights of home based workers, which are mostly women said Muhammad Tahseen Executive Director South Asia Partnership-Pakistan.
Addressing the representatives of Sialkot based community organisations meeting held on Saturday organised by Baidarie (NGO) Sialkot to deliberate on the best strategies for encountering challenges facing women rights in the county. Muhammad Tahseen said that our children are our future and it is mandatory obligation on us to hand over such a peaceful society to them as would provide them with their basic rights, ie quality education, better health, safe drinking water, employment and self-respect etc. "How would such a society come into being when our social set up at all levels has become intolerant?" he said.
Tahseen further said that gender based discrimination and violence crops up rights in our homes where we have different set of treatment with male and female members of the family adding that if we want to develop our society to become tolerant, peace loving and co-existent then we will have to provide even-level playfield for all the players disallowing every kind of discriminations and for this purpose every one in the state and society will have to make efforts for provision of equal rights, liberties and opportunities for every one.
Speaking on the occasion, Ms Hina Noureen President Baidarie Sialkot said that the conducts and behaviours in our society have been propped up on the basis of inflexible patriarchy and the societal practices perpetually contribute to further strengthening of the male dominance.
She said that women are considered inferior to men and they very often become helpless target of the masculine outburst adding that violence against household at the household level not only evaporates peace and tranquillity from the family, but also casts highly negative effect on the psyche of the children. Ms Hina demanded that it is inevitably necessary that government should move forward for adoption of bill for protection of women from domestic violence. The bill was previously passed by the National Assembly of Pakistan but could not be tabled before Senate of Pakistan to become a statute.
This demand has also been endorsed by thousands of women rights activists in response to an on-line petition made by Baidarie which has been working for the last seventeen years for the protection and promotion of women rights she added. Speaking on the occasion Professor Arshid Mehmood Mirza said that there is a sizeable majority in the country which claims that human rights and in particular women rights and minority rights are immune to every kind of excesses.
This is propaganda launched under western influence, which says that the rights of women, minorities and other vulnerable classes are under regular threat of violation in Pakistan. He said that unfortunately quite contrary to these euphoric statements and versions the practices tell a different tale here. It seems that the birth as a female is an unpardonable individual offence of some human being for which she has to face life-long punishment. Similar is the case with religious minorities, voiceless workers, mozareen, and small peasants whose rights are very often violated and usurped by the powerful ones in the society, he added.
Professor Mirza said that if the economic disparities leading to social discriminations are to be eliminated for promising peaceful and dignified living to everyone then the existence of these critical problems will have to be acknowledged by the opinion, policy, decision makers in society and state. He regretted that violence against women is often justified through irrational and self-suited interpretation of the religious dictates. Unfortunately our society has become a fertile hatchery of intolerance, hatred, fanaticism and extremism.