End to discriminatory legislation against women: constitutional reforms bill to be submitted

Fouzia Ejaz, Member Parliament, declared on Monday to undo discriminatory legislation against women when the bill on constitutional reforms will be submitted before the Parliament. She was addressing an interactive session on "Combating violence against women through community ownership initiatives," organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).
Fouzia said that culture, tradition and sometimes religion are also used to suppress the rights of women. She said that violence against women goes back to the early history of man. Laws are always there but not implemented, Fouzia added. She said that 30 organisations including SDPI are part of an investigation to find community solutions and strategies for combating violence against women.
She threw light on methodology of the investigation to be carried out in all the four provinces. She said that policy-makers, local elected members, police and MPs are also engaged in addition to networking with NGOs and so far 30 informal meeting have been conducted among men and women separately in Muzaffargarh, Burewala, Sialkot, Qasur, Tharparker, Badin, Khairpur, Batgram and Haripur.
She lamented that women are unaware of their legal and religious rights and additionally social, cultural and economic factors inhibit their choice to lodge a complaint against a husband in this patriarchal society. She also referred to non-serious attitude of state institutions and lack of infrastructure on the part of government to augment women's rights. She said that society should provide protection as without ownership, a violence victim cannot bring forth an incident to public notice.
In reply to a question, Fouzia Ejaz said that even clergy needs enlightenment. A male participant said that local nobles who are called upon to mediate disputes are themselves violators of women's rights in their families. A lady worker said that men in the community do not participate in advocacy or implementation campaign as they first want what they will get in return.