Efforts to promote human rights praised

LAHORE:A rights group has praised the women’s struggle to protect and promote women’s rights and human rights for all. Women’s Action Forum paid tributes to women and others who continued their struggle for an egalitarian, democratic and progressive society and world order.

February 12 marks a milestone in the history of the women’s movement in Pakistan. On this day in 1983, women defied the military dictatorship of Zia-ul-Haq by taking out a public demonstration in Lahore despite martial law regulations that banned all political activities, processions and public protests. The immediate catalyst for the demonstration was the proposed law of evidence which would effectively have reduced the testimony of women to half that of men; the accumulative trigger was the dictatorship’s unrelenting push to rescind women’s rights and reduce their status to half a human.

Workshop: The Punjab University (PU) Department of Gender Studies conducted a one-day training workshop on creating safe public spaces for women and girls. The programme consisted of introduction and use of Women Safety App launched by Punjab Safe Cities Authority and sharing of research findings on Women Safety Audit in Public Transport of Lahore.

Standing Committee on Gender Mainstreaming and Women Development Chairperson Uzma Kardar, Asim Jasra, superintendent police and operation commander, PSCA, attended the event.

Department of Gender Studies Chairperson Prof Dr Ra’ana Malik presented her research findings and shared the empirical evidence for women and girls’ safety issues at public spaces of Lahore city.