Aurat Foundation wants bill passed to protect women

PESHAWAR: The Aurat Foundation on Tuesday urged government to pass the domestic violence bill to control the honour-related crimes against women.

Speaking at a press conference, Resident Director of the organisation, Shabina Ayaz, asked the KP government to focus attention on legislation on the honour killings so that violence in the society could be stamped out.

Accompanied by Saima Munir and other senior staff members, Shabina Ayaz said KP was the only province wherein the bill had not been passed unlike other provinces. Citing figures, she said the KP was on the top as far as killings in the name of honour, domestic violence and other similar crimes were concerned.

Shabina Ayaz said the AF shared and published the data about the women victims of honour killing, domestic violence and others forms of violence. She said this year data showed that such types of crimes had increased.

 She said that the girls enrollment rate was 44 percent while that of boys was 56 percent. The AF regional chief said the girls’ enrollment rate dropped drastically after primary grade in both public and private institutions.

Saima Munir said it was the need of the hour to pass a law in KP province to ensure protection of women, adding, the cases pertaining to women issues should not be decided by jirgas but courts.

She said millions of children, especially the girls, had to drop out due to the growing incidents of violence. Saima Munir said the AF through 16 days of activism against gender-based violence campaign would create awareness among the masses.

She maintained that the KP women faced various challenges including domestic violence, early age marriages, honour killing and other problems. Efforts should be made to change a specific mindset about the women in the province, she added.