Domestic Violence in Pakistan: A Grave Violation of Human Rights
Defining Domestic Violence: Coercive Acts Against Women
Understanding domestic violence remains challenging and always a topic of debate due to a myriad of justifications and social theories confined to it. In the simplest version, it has been defined as the range of sexually, psychologically, and physically coercive acts used against women by a current or former family member. Violence type may vary from place to place, likewise from society to society. But a valid point of view that can be derived from several surveys and reports published regarding the subject is that hardly a single abode spares from morally and legally wrong acts by male members of society.
According to an estimate, approximately 70 to 90% of Pakistani women are subjected to domestic violence. The issue has still failed to draw extraordinary and consistent attention from the local, government, and civil society that propagates human rights that culminated in such a widespread predicament of unrecognized abuse of human beings.
Undervaluing Women’s Strength and Competence
Several unjustified factors contribute to such inhuman violence from one living on another marginalized or less empowered human being. Firstly, male dominance over monetary as well as non-monetary affairs has commonly been embedded within our dwellings or next to the door which drives authoritative behaviour by males for taking everything for granted to coerce women. Secondly, women’s physical strength and capacity to deal with matters which contain analysis and serious thought are always underrated, which poses a significant threat to their mental well-being, and receiving such repetitive treatment pushed them to acknowledge inflicted fragility and a sense of less competence. Thirdly, unemployment and insufficient growth opportunities in the workplace make them dependent on men, then failing to meet the daily requirement of men also causes unjustified domestic violence. Lastly, feudalism and tribal systems circulate in the veins of any nation and tend to attract more bigoted and quite often immoral attitude from male members of such social strata. For example, it depicts in a famous proverb used and believed so universally in such societies, “Zan, Zar, Zameen” (Woman, Money, Land) being the source of everything evil.
Every man should feel their moral responsibility to offer a conducive environment and equal rights to all those special women who are working unpaid jobs in our homes as core members of the family or struggling hard outside to make ends meet. Without a doubt, no nation has soared to the heights of success by excluding women’s invaluable participation in society. In a nutshell, women’s strong mental well-being and independence would reap massive outcomes for every one of us.
Facts and Figures:
According to a report by the Aurat Foundation, a Pakistani women’s rights organization, 6,000 women were killed in Pakistan from 2008 to 2018 due to domestic violence.
A 2019 survey by Human Rights Watch found that almost 90% of Pakistani women surveyed said they experienced some form of domestic abuse in their lifetime.
A 2020 report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) found that domestic violence in Pakistan increased by nearly 200% during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.