Pakistan is facing several social, political and economic issues at this time. When we talk about social issues, certain issues cannot be ignored and they are getting worse due to the lack of addressing. Rape is one of the worst problems women are facing across the world. According to a United Nations report, Globally, an estimated of 736 million women, almost one in three have been subjected to rape, non-partner sexual violence or both at least once in their life (30 percent of women aged 15 and older).
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), an incident of rape occurs every two hours and an innocent victim is gang-raped after four to eight days.
Omer Aftab, CEO of White Ribbon Pakistan, an organisation that is trying to create awareness to end gender discrimination. He said that three main reasons in Pakistan are lack of education, Sexual frustration and the third one is poor implementation of law in our society.
Lack of education gives rise to a patriarchal society in which men exploit women sexually for their gains. Sexual frustration comes up when we don’t talk about this openly, as in other societies, and the third one is the absence of the rule of law that means everyone before the law is not equal and rich ones do not get punished whenever they commit such a crime.
In this era, parliamentarians, women advocates and gender rights activists have raised this issue to make it prioritise. Certain Acts have been passed to protect women at the workplace and outside. The Protection of Women Act 2006 favours rape victims and removes the strict punishments imposed on them under the Zina Ordinance. Rape is now adjudicated as part of the Pakistan Penal Code. Various bills are also passed to protect women. Nowadays, women can get help from online services when they find anyone teasing or trying to physically abuse them.
The situation is getting better, but we have to create more awareness in our society to eradicate this issue. We have to give women their equal rights as stated in Islam and written in our constitution. There should be justice and the rule of law because both of these can make a greater difference.
Author: Aqsa Razzaq