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RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Teenager’s Rape – Test for New Women’s Law

Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Feb 6 2007 (IPS) - Proceedings underway against 11 men accused of gang-raping a 16-year-old girl, to extract customary revenge for an elopement, will test the soundness of Pakistan’s new legislation passed in December to protect women from crimes committed in the name of defending honour.

Nasima (second name withheld) was allegedly kidnapped from her village of Habib Labano, 525 km northeast of this port city on Jan. 27 and raped by the men because one of her male relations had eloped with their kinswoman. To add to her humiliation, she was made to walk home without her clothes.

So far, police have arrested six of the 11 accused against a complaint filed by her father with the case drawing the interest of women’s rights groups that have been fighting Pakistan’s feudal customs that allow women to be raped, forcibly married off or even murdered with impunity in the name of preserving family honour.

Many of these groups are demanding that the government be more proactive in bringing revenge-rape cases to book. ‘’It is only when such incidents are highlighted by the international media that our government awakes from its slumber,” said Anis Haroon, director of Aurat Foundation, a leading women’s group.

According to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a woman is raped every two hours and gang-raped every eight hours. And this, say rights groups, is probably an underestimation as many rapes are still not reported.

Last month alone, in the province of Sindh, four gang-rape cases were reported. “Only in one case, did the district government intervene and help the victim’s family financially to hire a lawyer.”

“I think the state should take serious note of why there is such a marked increase in incidents of violence against women. They think by handing some paltry sum to the aggrieved family they can wash off all responsibility,” Haroon said.

According to Haroon, Pakistan’s ‘’gradual de-politicisation, the new corporate culture and the sense that no amount of agitation is going to make a difference” are responsible for the rise in incidents of crimes committed against women.

The perpetrators, usually local feudal lords, know they can buy or even scare people into silence, Haroon said. “In a majority of these cases, the culprits are acquitted because they have money and political influence and can therefore buy justice. The fear of being convicted is not there.”

Haroon and other activists are now pinning their hopes on the Women’s Protection Bill that was adopted in November 2006 and passed into law after Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf signed it in December.

But the law, activists and lawyers confess, remains extremely ambiguous. ‘’It’s difficult to understand as it’s been written in a roundabout manner. Even for people like us who are sensitised, it’s confounding,” says Nuzhat Shirin of the Legislative Watch Programme of Aurat Foundation.

The bill was passed after much wrangling and many amendments, with the government employing backdoor methods to appease a coalition of six religious parties that was out to scuttle it from the beginning.

“The recent case of this teenage girl’s gang rape is still at a pre-court stage,” says Danish Zuberi, a lawyer and rights activist. “We should not pin too much hope on it,” she says.

But Zuberi pointed out several positive points in the new law. ‘’Under the new bill, the charge of rape will be tried under the Pakistan Penal Code, based on civil law and not Shariah (Islamic religious law). There is no need for women to produce four witnesses and if they fail to prove the charge, they will not be automatically tried for adultery.”

The punishment for adultery under the earlier Hudood Ordinances was lashing and stoning. The Hudood law was promulgated through presidential decree by former military dictator Gen. Zia-ul-Haq in 1979 as part of his policy of Islamising Pakistan.

“The good news is that more cases are now being reported as the fear of failure to prove the charge (and inviting adultery charges) is not there,” said Haroon. She and other activists are campaigning for the Hudood Ordinances to be repealed altogether.

But a bill, says Zuberi, remains inanimate until it is enforced properly. “Getting a good bill without fine tuning other areas like strengthening the police investigation system, providing protection to key witnesses, losing precious evidence – forensic as well as medical – due to delays can hamper the provision of speedy justice.”

In the case of this teenager, says Zuberi, there is enough circumstantial evidence to prevent delay. “This will be a test of this bill. Once the petition is filed, let’s see how quickly the perpetrators are brought to justice.”

Haroon believes that more than the government and the law a strong social movement can sensitise people to the problem of attacks on women. “There never is a strong reaction from the people to such ghastly incidents,” she lamented.

Women’s rights movements in Pakistan draw much strength from the case of Mukhtaran Mai- a peasant woman who was gang-raped in Punjab province in 2002 on the orders of a village council and made to walk home half-naked.

Because Mai had the courage to take her case to international fora she could galvanise public opinion that helped the passage of the new law. So far, the men who raped Mai have gotten off lightly.