8th March. International Woman’s Day. That’s it. Just a day. In some parts of Pakistan not even a day. Those some parts include Sindh. Women have been at the receiving end. Women have been made to face a horrible end. And it does not end. And it does not begin. There is no end and there is no beginning as women suffer relentlessly. Every day and every hour stories of horror despite suppression escape and aghast human mind and hurt human heart. And then they disappear. The women and the story both. As, has the hashtag #SaveDaughtersOfSindh.

The frightening thing about the latest development is that this is not about educating and liberating the oppressed, suppressed, depressed poor and illiterate women mass of Sindh. It is about the supposed educated, empowered and independent women pursuing professional degrees. It is about the minority of girls who have broken many shackles to reach this level. It is about the talented, hardworking, ambitious, rare breed of girls who are pursuing medical education dreams. It is about women who are being trained to save lives.

It is about daughters who want to do their parents proud. It is about role models who have broken taboos for millions of other girls to get inspired for a ‘MeToo’. But they have become victim of #MeToo. They have been victimized by a set of brutes, ably abetted by college admins and thoroughly ignored by the government. Talk we must. Voice we must. Keep the story alive we must, or, we will be in the category of facilitators of this organized institutional harassment, torture and murder. Let us face the ugly facts:

1. Sindh’s dubious medical colleges autopsy— When people talk about interior Sindh, it is hair raising. Medical colleges in Sindh are prime example of this covert killing spree. Three years ago, on 15th September 2019, the body of Dr. Namrita Kumari, a final year student, was recovered from the girls’ hostel of the National College. According to the post-mortem report of Dr. Kumari, she was killed after being raped. They tried to colour it as suicide. Nosheen Kazmi was a fourth-year student at Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University.

In November, she was found dead in her hostel’s room. In November 2021, a fourth-year student of a medical university killed herself in her hostel room, and another student of the same university did the same. Dead people cannot tell the truth, cannot expose, cannot defend. Thus the story of suicides keeps on creating enough legal and social doubt to let the issue die with the dead.

1. Sindh’s law of the law breakers— Calling Sindh as a land where law of jungle prevails is a euphemism. There is no law. There is a state of the “wadera raj” (powerful rule) where the big guns fire, loot, decide who will be allowed to breathe or live. The recent incident in Shaheed Benazirabad is a hair-raising example in this regard. Allegedly arrmed persons of the Zardari tribe, along with a heavy contingent of police in 20 vehicles, purportedly reached the land of Bhand and Mallah community and tried to harvest their crop. However, when the local people offered resistance, they allegedly opened fire, killing five members of the Bhand community and injuring ten others.

A police officer trying to stop was also killed. With the same ‘terror’ tactics this group has allegedly encroached and taken over 800 acres of land. All of this and more by the ruling party leaders with the support of local district police.

1. Sindh’s inhuman development— Sindh ranks abysmally on poverty, education and health services. Schools in Sindh are either on paper as was recently revealed report on 1459 ghost schools or without proper teachers and facilities. Sindh’s literacy rate instead of increasing fell down from 63% to 62%. Health facilities are a ticking time bomb. There is a dog bite ‘epidemic’. Children are dying of malnutrition. 6,000 children have HIV/AIDS. As people become more impoverished, resistance becomes a luxury.

This state has existed for decades as nobody dare or bother challenge the entrenched culture in interior Sindh. The brave action of Parveen Rind of Chandka Medical College needs support, help and resonation by:

1. Protection of voice raisers— The biggest problem in Sindh is that raising a voice can easily turn into shooting the messenger. Sindh has had a bad record of journalist safety. The killing of Aziz Memon is a case in point. He “revealed” in his video before death that he was being threatened by Government officials who were upset at him revealing that PPP’s ‘train march’ had women who were paid by Sindh government to participate.

In the Chandka incident, student Parveen Rind revealed how her life was in danger. She also claimed that the other two girls who had supposedly committed suicide were also killed. She had met the health minister Dr Azra Pechuho and showed to her the body wounds but no action was taken. She needs protection and her family as well. There needs to be a constant vigilance and high level security for them.

1. Developing competitive pressure— Sindh has been complacent as PPP has literally no competition in interior Sindh. Federal governments of PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) were never interested beyond Punjab. PTI has started focusing on Karachi and needs to do the same with the rest of Sindh. Lately, due to pressure from federal government’s ‘health card’ initiative, etc., they have become a bit active. The Green Line Bus project has forced them to request federal government to help in purchasing buses for their own project. Similar pressure needs to be built on women protection and law and order in Sindh.

2. Raising a national alarm— While most people feel that women of rural areas are being denied their rights, very few know what is going on in the elite circles. Women in colleges, workplaces, etc., are victimized and blackmailed. It is necessary to start an official local “MeToo” movement that keeps track of the growing insecurity and harassment in these circles. A comparable table of not just provinces but cities needs to be done to bring public alarm and focus on these areas.

Young, bright, educated, empowered, professional women are being silenced. If women have to resort to hastags #SaveDaughtersOfSindh, and that too women of the most progressive segments, just imagine the condition of the marginalized women. Waiting for women’s Day to talk, write, debate these issues is trendy but not useful. What is useful is a continuous legal, social, political struggle to counter, induce and then develop a strong system and social rejection of people’s actions and behavior that disgrace daughters of this country.

(The writer can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022