Violence against women

Gender Studies · Women in Pakistan. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

Gender-based violence is harm done to a person because of their gender, and it grows out of unequal power between women and men. The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993) covers physical, sexual and psychological harm, in private or in public life.

The main forms are domestic violence (physical, sexual, psychological and economic abuse in the home), sexual harassment, so-called honour crimes, harmful customs such as swara, and trafficking for exploitation.

Causes include patriarchal norms, women's economic dependence, stigma and weak enforcement of the law. Remedies are of two kinds: support for survivors, and prevention that changes attitudes and women's economic position.

Rules to remember

Economic abuse: controlling income or stopping a partner from earning. Psychological abuse: insults, threats and isolation without physical contact.
Sexual harassment: unwelcome sexual conduct that harms a person's work or dignity.
Karo kari (Sindh): the killing of a couple accused of an illicit relationship, in the name of honour.
Swara (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and vani (Punjab): giving a girl in marriage to settle a feud.
Trafficking involves exploitation through force, fraud or deception; smuggling is helping a person cross a border illegally.
Dar-ul-Aman: a government shelter for women in danger or distress.
West Pakistan Family Courts Act 1964: family courts for disputes on marriage, dower, maintenance and custody.

Common mistake

Students limit domestic violence to beating. Psychological and economic abuse, such as threats, isolation and control of money, are also forms of domestic violence.

Worked example

A supervisor tells a woman clerk that she will be promoted only if she accepts his personal advances. What form of violence is this, and what is her first remedy under Pakistan's 2010 Act?

The conduct is sexual, unwelcome and tied to a job benefit, so it is sexual harassment at the workplace.
It is not domestic violence because it takes place at work, not in the home.
The Act of 2010 requires every organisation to have a three-member inquiry committee, with at least one woman, to hear such complaints.

Answer: Sexual harassment at the workplace; she can complain to the organisation's inquiry committee.

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