The Women's Action Forum will hold a protest march in Islamabad on July 20, to press the government to repeal Hudood Ordinance, being devoid of justice against the women and minorities.
The Forum representatives told newsmen here on Thursday that the Hudood Ordinance was promulgated by General Zia-ul-Haq in 1979 in a bid to justify and perpetuate his military rule.
"Zia's retrogressive rule for 11 years particularly targeted women and those from religious minorities. His so-called 'Islamisation' severely fragmented Pakistani society as a whole and led to the violence, the sectarianism and the lawlessness that Pakistanis now have to live with," they pointed out.
Women's Action Forum waging struggle against anti-woman laws brought in or articulated by the military regime while they also struggled for a democratic, progressive and a just society. WAF's continuous struggle drew in other democratic forces and human rights groups and together this became a collective movement against the Ordinance and other discriminatory laws.
WAF has relentlessly focused on the injustices and discrimination that are built into the laws especially as they victimise women and discriminate against minorities, they said.
WAF representatives demanded that a fresh amendment in the PPC should be made to provide a new definition of rape (in which martial rape and custodial rape are also included) so as to remove the concept of puberty to define adulthood, protect survivors and facilitate effective prosecution of perpetrators.
They called upon all those interested in justice and equality to strengthen the hands of WAF for repealing the Hudood Ordinance.
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