Depilex Smile again Foundation is a supportive organization working from treatments to rehabilitation for acid attack and burn incident victims. This organization started its operations almost a decade ago and was founded by renowned beautician Masarrat Misbah, who wanted to help acid attack victims by not just getting them treatmentsbut also giving them a reason to live their life on their own.
The term violence against women has deeply penetrated in our society, and is resulting in creating different problems at the societal level. The term violence against women must be understood as any act of gender based violence, which results in physical, sexual and psychological harm to women. Every now and then we come across different press reports of violence against women, throughout the country. Still many uncivilized practices are being followed with in our society with a rapid momentum like acid throwing, marriage to Quran, etc.
Women in Pakistan represent the 50% of the population, but still they are not in a position to enjoy their given rights. In the history of mankind, religion has played a vibrant role in shaping the overall civilizations. Islam has also laid a great emphasis on the proper deliverance of rights of women, and gave women a respectful status. Violence against women is not prevailing in a single practice, but it has many shapes.
In our daily lives we come across different practices of violence against women, being followed in our society so often. Violence against women prevails in different practices such as violence occurring in the family, including physical and mental aggression, emotional and physiological abuse, threats, rape and sexual abuse, crimes committed in the name of honour and other traditional practices that are harmful to the women such as forced marriages, vanni, karo kari etc.
The violence against women is also mounting with in the general community including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and terrorization at work, in institutions etc. The statistics of violence against women in the first six months of 2012 are quite frightening with 4,585 cases across Pakistan. By average, the frequency of reported cases of violence against women in Pakistan has increased by 7% as compared to the year January to June 2011. It has been also noticed that the younger and married women were the main targets of violence against women. Around 1913 cases of violence against women occurred with married women, 1,615 occurred to women who were unmarried, 38 victims were divorcedand 71 were reported widows.
The figures clearly highlighted that woman below 18 years of age were also prone to violence, as 59% of the victims were below 18 years of age, 31% were 19-36 years oldand 9% were over 36 years of age. The FIR has been registered for nearly 65% of the reported cases of violence against women. The cases of suicide in Pakistan have also gained momentum, and women in most of the far flung areas of Pakistan are suffering from such practice.
The main reason for such practice is that the women are not in a position to report about the violence they are suffering with. The media has also a less access to such areas, and as a result most of the women go for suicidal practices. Suicide was also reported frequently with 349 such cases reported from all over Pakistan in past six months. Only in Baluchistan 17 women reportedly committed suicide from Jan-June 2012. In Islamabad Capital Territory 44 violence against women cases have been reported.
Abduction and kidnapping was the most extensive crime against women in Islamabadand 33% of the reported cases were of abduction or kidnapping. Abduction and kidnapping was the most frequently reported incident of violence against women from all over the country. A total of 1,086 incidents of abduction and kidnapping were reported which amounts to nearly one fourth of all crime reported during the monitored period.
A total of 435 rape and gang rape cases were reported in the first six months of 2012, Honor killings were the fifth most repeatedly reported category of violence against women(346 cases) and there were total 289 cases of domestic violence reported in last six months. There were 50 cases of sexual attack, 46 cases of acid throwing and 32 cases of burning were also reported. Figures illustrate that 69% of violence against women incidents were reported from Punjab mainly from Lahore, Okara and Sargodha topping the list districts with highest reported cases. Apart from these districts, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Gujrat, D G Khan, Pakpattan, Muzaffargarh, Sahiwal and Sheikhupura are among the 15 topdistricts with highest number of violence against women cases. It is significant to know that women in Punjab are more able to reach law enforcement and media as compared to women in KP or Baluchistan.
Amongst total number of violence against women incidents, 3,153 cases were reported in Punjab, 1,027 in Sindh, 283 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 78 cases were reported in Balochistan. Murder was the most prevalent crime against women reported in Sindh and KP. Around 15% from Sindh and 55% of the reported VAW cases from KP were of the murder.
By keeping in view all these alarming statistics it is importantthat the society as whole must unite together for eradiating the uncivilized practice of violence against women from society. Women are an importantconstituent of our society and it is important to equip them with their given rights, so that our future generations must be safeguarded.
Source: http://www.thefrontierpost.com/article/198515/