The Forgotten

international | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Wednesday October 04, 2006 17:02 by Orlaith Farrell orlaith.farrell at gmail dot com

Fourth Rape reform ran aground in Pakistan due to conservative Islamis parties. A woman is raped every two hours and the rapists are protected by fundamentalist legislation. Where is the attention of the World Media?

As the eyes of the World focus on the ‘War on Terror’, oil prices, political scandals at home and abroad what are we missing? What is our media failing to see or choosing to ignore?

According to the Human Rights Commission a woman is raped in Pakistan every two hours, a woman is gang raped every eight hours. (These figures may be higher as victims rarely come forward.) Three weeks ago the latest Rape Law Reform ran aground. This received very little coverage in Western Media despite the enormity of its significance. At the moment rape is prosecuted under under the Hudood Ordinances, which were established in 1979 and were originally intended to make the justice system conform to Islamic Law. These Laws cover offences including Zina crimes (unlawful sexual intercourse including sexual intercourse and rape) and Qazf (wrongful accusation of Zina crime. These laws stipulate that a rape victim must provide four male witnesses to the crime or the rapist must confess other wise the victim will face prosecution herself. When victims do come forward they are met with hostility from the police and the medical exam conducted (if any) concentrates on the hymen, automatically alienating sexually active married and un-married women. The burden of proof is insurmountable and deters the majority of victims from reporting the crime. Marital and Statutory rape are not recognised as crimes at all.

Women’s plight in Pakistan is a daily struggle. Society and the police consider domestic Violence a ‘private matter’ and honour killings are rarely investigated or prosecuted. This latest reform aimed to remove rape from religious law and prosecute it as part of the penal code where normal rules of evidence would apply. The Draft was amended after President Musharraf caved into the ultra-conservative Islamic Parties, Muttahida Majilis-e-Amal (MMA) The MMA threatened to resign en masse from Parliament and the draft was amended so that rape will fall under secular and religious law. It introduced a new category of ‘lewdness’ into the penal code but established the Hudood Ordinances as the primary source of Law.

Commentators believe President Musharraf’s growing alienation from the other parties was one of the reasons he succumbed to the Islamists combined with the fact that his main support the Pakistani Army were not prepared for conflict with the Islamists over Women’s Rights.

The women of Pakistan continue to live in daily fear; burnt, battered, raped and abused. Their abusers protected by fundamentalist legislation and their suffering ignored by the rest of the World.