Gender based violence

Ehsan Ali

No one can love more than a mother, no one can care more than a sister, no one can serve more than a daughter and no one can sacrifice more than a wife and yet, these amiable relations are tortured, harassed and killed by the vile fellow-men. Women have long suffered the discriminatory behavior in the male dominated world and are still facing the vindictiveness and malice by the male members of the society.

Karo-kari or honor killing is more of a tradition which has gained a lot of legal and social protection in various countries. Even though Islam strongly oppose such act but these crimes are more prevalent in Muslim countries.

Despite of all the technological advancement and progress in the world these barbaric incidents continue to occur. The pressure groups have influenced governments of many countries to enact laws against it and this has also reduced the number of honour killing events. However in the countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Jordan these events still occur at a massive level. The only way to minimize the society by introducing more purposeful and peaceful tasks which can contribute better towards social and economic progress of the state.It is really essential to practice the following measures in order to remove this curse from our society:

1) By initiating awareness campaigns which highlight the rights and responsibilities of the human beings. Through giving people the insight of their role in the society a more groomed vision about humanity and opposite gender can be gained.

2) Increase in literacy level will reshape the thinking of people in a positive manner.

3) Enactment of more focused and equitable laws and effective implementation of the present laws is the key factor towards eliminating the crime from the society.

4) By making the jury independent; and abolition of jirga system which challenges the sovereignty of parliament.

If society recognizes this cruelty as a crime, only then can we get rid of this brutal tradition.

These recommendations only cover the apparent picture however; there are many cases which are merely disguised as honour killings. To combat this problem free, fair and just judicial system of the state is required without which the state cannot flourish and function efficiently.

Therefore, for better social, individual, economic, political, cultural, ethical and moral development, tolerance, awareness and acceptance of the opposite gender has to be promoted.