CEDAW’S ratification led to initiatives such as women police stations and women protection laws. But crimes against women did not stop, exposing the failure of society and the criminal justice system (CJS). Des­pite defined responsibilities, why did individuals, families, society and media fail to prevent CAW? Despite the state’s legal jurisdiction why is violence against women perceived as a family affair here? Prompt respo­nse to and reporting of CAW can move CJS wheels but because CAW is seen as a family affair, countless incidents go unreported.

Owing to a discrepancy in statistics, it’s hard to quantify CAW. For suicide, rape, mur­der and injury, medico-legal opinion has decisive weight but resource constraints, ope­rat­i­o­nal problems, social taboos and poor co­­or­­dination hamper justice. MLOs delay rep­orts and write them in isolation. Better coordination between investigators and MLOs will improve report quality. Comple­t­ing medico-legal reports within a specific per­iod reduces chances of manipulation; to im­prove coordination every district should have software accessible to authorised jud­ges, prosecutors, doctors and SP investigation. Medical evidence is irrefutable. Timely medical examination helps justice. Availability of medical reports ensures that during investigation an FIR is not cancelled nor a compromise effected. 

Honour killing is seen as an intra-family cultural practice; registered cases don’t depict real numbers. In rural areas cultural norms hinder FIR registration. Even if cases are registered, these are weak as circumstantial evidence is tampered with by families, while witnesses do not record their statements. Non-observance of medico-legal formalities and biased attitudes aids the accused. Often families portray honour killings as suicide or accidents.

Autopsy refusal creates complications. Delayed receipt of reports results in forwarding the case progress to courts without medico-legal opinion. Determining the age of the accused and victim, distinguishing between murder, suicide, and honour killing require better coordination between doctors and investigators.

Women pay the price of CJS flaws.

Where the victim’s parents are complainants, they depend on fabricated evidence provided by the husband or in-laws. Upon learning the facts, they may change their statement which is to the accused’s advantage. Cultural biases and CJS loopholes help the accused. Inexperienced investigators handle such cases casually and often actors within the CJS treat the accused with respect. Sensitising the actors is necessary. 

Cultural barriers hinder male responders’ and investigators’ access to the crime scene. Witnesses and accused in the family do not cooperate and destroy evidence. Drafting FIRs in a casual language and not applying the law’s correct sections benefit the accused. Where the accused and complainant are from the same family, investigators face difficulties in attaching property under CrPc Section 88. Non-recovery of the weapon of offence and non-preservation of circumstantial evidence mars investigations. Communities must learn CAW is a criminal offence requiring instant reporting. Communication gaps between operations and investigation officers deprive investigators of access to the actual scene of occurrence. Hence, circumstantial evidence is usually tampered with.

A woman victim pays the price of CJS flaws. Out-of-court settlements negatively influence investigations. Since junior police officers are primarily from the rural areas, most have a stereotypical thinking about women. Though harassment has been elaborated on, its essence is yet to trickle down. For such minds, harassment may not be a crime. Understanding women protection laws isn’t possible without incorporating them in the police curriculum. There is a Gender Crimes Cell in the National Police Bureau but its effectiveness warrants a third-party audit. Plugging gaps between cases reported to the police and reported by media and NGOs is not possible without legal backup and institutional collaboration.

To advise the government on gender issues and standardisation, Article 160 of PO 2020 provides for a Police Management Board. But adoption of the Police Act, 1861, in Balochistan, KP Police Act, 2017, and the amended Sindh Police Order, 2019, omit the federal part in the police laws. Hence only Punjab’s police law contains the concept of PMB. Standardisation warrants the adoption of the original PO 2002. Dysfunctional public safety commissions and police complaint authorities compromise women’s interests. To improve prevention and conviction, in district criminal justice committees representatives from the health and social welfare departments must be co-opted. To cater to the needs of women, public safety funds must be used to improve police stations.

Improved prevention, response, simplification of reporting procedures, access to helplines, better linkages between police and shelters, quality of investigation, police training, allocation of resources and community empowerment will reduce CAW. 

The writer is author of Pakistan: In Between Extremism and Peace.

Twitter: @alibabakhel

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2021

ONE year ago, the world ran on different rules. The rhythm of day was different, the management of time was different, people behaved differently and were scared of different things. One custom of that bygone pre-pandemic world was the division of male and female work and space.

In Pakistan, where the number of females in the workforce is below 30 per cent, women mostly stayed at home and men went to work. When the men left in the morning, the women turned to the repetitive tasks of washing and cooking that make a household run efficiently.

All of this changed when the pandemic hit. Men began to stay at home either because they lost their job or because their employer wanted them to work from home. The small respite that their wives and mothers and sisters had during the day when men did not dominate and demand this or that was taken away from the women. As men stayed home day after day, they required waiting on, a cup of tea now, a meal prepared fresh not just for dinner but also for lunch. They dirtied dishes and created a mess.

Schools also closed and the children too made their own demands, their own messes, trapped as they were in the home. Pakistani women thus were caught in a 24/7 cycle of work, trying to sate appetites, calm tempers and maintain harmony in an uncertain and constrained world.

The constant presence of men and the absence of any external outlet for women have created a pressure-cooker situation.

Women everywhere are the primary casualties of the coronavirus pandemic, having had to pay the price whether or not they were infected with the virus. Data from around the world substantiates this truth. In China, peer-reviewed studies reveal a 300pc increase in violence against women. In Lebanon, there has been a 45pc increase in violence against women. In the United Kingdom, violence against women has doubled from the 10-year average. Similar increases in violence have also been reported in Germany and Tunisia. Next door in India, the onset of the pandemic has led to at least a 21pc increase in violence against women.

The statistics quoted here are all from peer-reviewed studies in journals. It is very likely that the situation is far worse than what is being reported. In Pakistan, social workers and those who work in shelters and in other facilities that attend to abused women, report an exponential increase. The constant presence of men and the absence of any external outlet for women have created a pressure-cooker situation.

In much of the country, women have to ask male permission to leave the home even for essential tasks; now going out and getting any kind of respite from violence has become completely impossible. Visits from family members and meeting others at family occasions (which used to function as a means to ensure that women were not being maltreated) have ceased, giving abusive men carte blanche to do whatever they want to the women at home.

The situation of working women is just as bad. Those who have been told to work from home find that no one in the household seems to understand that they have to attend to work duties during work hours. These women find themselves forced to watch children and also be available for Zoom calls or other work interactions. Many others, like the 250,000 American women who were let go of by their employers in January 2021, have just lost their jobs and their income. The pandemic has set them years behind their male counterparts in career advancement.

The meaning of all these statistics is that in the post-pandemic world women will be at an even greater disadvantage than they were before it started. Those Pakistani working women who have either been fired or have had to quit their jobs because of the pandemic may not be able to return to work after it is over. The ability to bring in an income plays a huge role in the power women wield in their households; the lost earning potential, therefore will reduce their ability to make decisions in the household and to protect their own rights. This resection of women from the workforce is likely to have society-wide effects where cultural mores that keep women out of the workplace will be strengthened.

None of these realities are being talked about in Pakistan. This past International Women’s Day, a television channel hosted a conservative female social worker who could not stop talking about how the pandemic was a blessing in disguise because it permitted families to spend quality time with each other. Some in government have also propagated this kind of fantasy because very few, if any, efforts have been made to collect statistics about exactly how many women are being abused. Nor has there been any work done to provide additional resources to shelters and legal aid cells who are trying to help these women. Instead, the ludicrous fantasy that imagines families living together without any conflict and without women waiting on everyone else all the time, has been nursed and propagated.

Pakistan needs to wake up. The women of the country cannot be expected to shoulder all the burden of housekeeping, childcare, studies and work from home. Vaccinations are now available for the Covid-19 virus but no pre-emptive solution is present for a society and a world that has just been heaping the entire burden of a terrible and catastrophic event on its women. Men must be held answerable for the cruelty and selfishness they have exhibited this past year, attitudes that they have never questioned or considered. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and indeed that is what has happened to many Pakistani males who stand and watch and live their lives, oblivious to the burdens and abuse they heap on Pakistani women.

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

rafia.zakaria@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2021