'Honour Killings' in Pakistan and Compliance of ... - Aurat Foundation

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2. The ‘Zia’ Effect of Systematic Discrimination against Women As discussed above, women’s status in Pakistani society is considered as secondary to men. They are expected to play the role of nurturer, the mother, recognised and valued only for her reproductive capability. These highly patriarchal views are steeped in the traditional culture of Pakistan. However, these views were given massive support and formal support during the presidency of General Zia ul Haq 2 . While such views were always present, they were now perpetuated by the State through its actions, institutions and through the law. These policies did not just propagate and strengthen patriarchal beliefs in society, but also sent out the message that they were ‘right’ and it was acceptable to treat women in such a manner. The impunity granted to society’s treatment of women thereafter further served to entrench such notions into the psyche of the people in Pakistan with long lasting effects seen in different forms, including violence against women and the treatment of women by the legal system. The methods adopted by the State in this State sponsored discrimination of women are discussed a little later. As noted by Mumtaz and Shaheed 3 , it was not until the last few decades that Pakistani women even conceived of their struggle as being against a patriarchal system. These women had played a part in demanding greater rights and concessions from within the existing system, believing that achieving their own rights was a matter of ‘natural’ evolutionary process. Until the Islamization period of General Zia ul Haq, which alerted women across the country into taking note of the rights and freedoms that were being taken away from them, women had not questioned how many of 2 Ibid 3 Ibid 11
their rights were achieved on paper and how many actually filtered down to the majority of women in Pakistan. While Pakistani women may not have actively highlighted women’s issues and pushed the women’s agenda in the pre-Zia era, they were nevertheless notably present, albeit few in number, whether in the Pakistan Movement 4 or other facets of Pakistani life including labour 5 , the arts 6 , sports 7 , politics 8 etc. One of the most disastrous outcomes of the Zia regime was making the women of Pakistan invisible. Mumtaz and Shaheed have described the process by which Zia-ul-Haq and his Government systematically worked towards the removal of women from the public sphere and the perpetuation of the image of the modest and chaste woman. This process consisted of successive policies at State level that in essence laid out the behaviour women should have and roles they were expected to play. By perpetuating discrimination through administrative and legal means, the system worked towards making the position of women insecure, subordinate and inferior to that of men, thereby creating a social change within Pakistan, allowing the underlying patriarchal elements to reign freely, making women extremely vulnerable in society. The campaign started with the enforcement of the chador 9 for all female government employees and women and girls in educational institutions. This was followed by another campaign against obscenity and pornography, which in itself is not an issue, except that the Government equated women per se with obscenity, demanding that women should 4 Ibid 5 Ibid 6 Ibid 7 Ibid 8 Ibid 9 Ibid 12
Page 2 and 3: A Pilot Study on: ‘Honour Killing
Page 4: Table of Contents Preface 1 Introdu
Page 8 and 9: Preface Elimination of all negative
Page 10 and 11: the nature and extent of its compli
Page 12 and 13: Introduction The Criminal Law (Amen
Page 14: formalised by the State and ‘lega
Page 17: Gender is one of the organisational
Page 21 and 22: elatives), in effect excluding all
Page 24 and 25: 3. “Honour Killings”: their Pre
Page 26 and 27: patrilineage 17 . From this follows
Page 28 and 29: compensation negotiated to end a di
Page 30: divorced or excommunicated, an act
Page 33 and 34: Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal
Page 35 and 36: monitor women’s movements and kil
Page 37 and 38: mitigation, compensation for the he
Page 39 and 40: The discretion of the court to deci
Page 41 and 42: down for such cases. This applies t
Page 43 and 44: to properly determine the issue bef
Page 45 and 46: Table 1: Number & Percentages of Ca
Page 47 and 48: the police stations are not even eq
Page 49 and 50: Findings of the Research The findin
Page 51 and 52: When asked about the lack of filing
Page 53 and 54: Gujrat Gujrat also shows a similar
Page 55 and 56: community. Perhaps this has been on
Page 57 and 58: eporting it will do when registerin
Page 59 and 60: Jillani reiterated Justice Abbasi
Page 61 and 62: death and it was subsequently disco
Page 63 and 64: Lahore High Court The Lahore High C
Page 65 and 66: meditation falling under the defini
Page 67 and 68: for conservative and biased interpr
Page 70 and 71:
6. Perspective of the Community Whi
Page 72 and 73:
mindset and existing confining soci
Page 74 and 75:
even if cases are brought to them,
Page 76 and 77:
Role of the Community It is general
Page 78 and 79:
court settlement is preferred. Such
Page 80 and 81:
7. Conclusion and Main Findings It
Page 82 and 83:
6. There are also problems with the
Page 84 and 85:
12. These precedents are not necess
Page 86 and 87:
hold through these illegal forms of
Page 88:
24. The police can play a very nega
Page 91:
The police system is in dire need o
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'Honour Killings' in Pakistan and Compliance of ... - Aurat Foundation

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