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Bias against women By I.A. Rehman Thursday, 26 Nov, 2009 Women shout slogans against violence during a demonstration to condemn flogging of women, in Lahore on Friday, April. 3, 2009. Authorities ordered an investigation into a video showing a man flogging a screaming woman in the country's northwest where the government recently agreed to introduce Islamic law. - Photo by AP. The central government's preoccupation with the threats to its survival has perceptibly affected its legislative programme and the worst sufferers include women. Among other things the biases against them have proved to be as strong as ever. The National Assembly recently won plaudits for passing a bill to amend the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure to strengthen the law against sexual harassment. A few months earlier it had been hailed for adopting the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill. However, the process and the delay in taking the next steps have again shown that pro-women measures cannot have a smooth sailing. The new provision in the Penal Code against sexual harassment is unexceptionable. Its justification has been summed up in the statement of objects in these words: 'Harassment is one of the most common issues faced by the women of Pakistan. They face intimidation in the marketplace, in buses, at bus stops and at the workplace. This issue alone inhibits most of the women to move out of their houses for education, for availing medical facilities and for earning a livelihood. Parents are hesitant to send their daughters out of the homes alone because the social environment is not safe.' The bill seeks to substitute Sec 509 of the PPC, which is vague and inadequate, with a text that widens the scope of the law by covering sexual harassment at the workplace and this for the first time. The amendment to the CrPC enhances the punishment for 'insulting modesty or causing sexual harassment' to imprisonment for up to three years or fine up to Rs500,000 or both. One hopes the measure will soon be adopted by the Senate and become law as early as possible. This bill was, however, a part of the two-bill package drafted after trend-setting cooperation between the government and civil society, especially women activists. The inability of the government to pilot the companion bill, which provides for the protection of women from harassment at the workplace, is causing dismay not only to women's organisations but also to all sections of society that stand for recognition of women's basic rights. The bill that has been withheld so far aims at checking sexual harassment in the formal sector - federal/provincial/district government offices, corporations, educational and medical institutions, registered civil society organisations and privately managed industrial and commercial establishments - by obliging the employers to abide by a code of conduct and providing for a mechanism for punishing wilful violators. Each establishment is required to set up a three-member committee (two members from within the organisation and one from outside) to inquire into and adjudicate upon complaints of sexual harassment against anyone within the office/establishment and award both minor and major penalties. This bill also has provision for offering victims counselling and medical treatment, something prosecution under law lacks. Appeals lie to specially appointed ombudsmen at the federal and provincial levels. The proposed arrangement not only supplements the revised section in the Penal Code but also constitutes a welcome step towards mobilising social support for women's protection against sexual abuse. Nobody can repudiate the argument that while laws are necessary to protect women from harassment they are not enough to eradicate social practices and attitudes that go against women's dignity. Harassment of women at the workplace is a social phenomenon and it can be overcome only through social engineering. The bill under reference aims at just that. It seeks to involve government authorities, private employers, trade unions and collective bargaining agents in a cooperative arrangement to ensure a harassment-free environment. The enforcement of the code of conduct and the creation of in-house redress mechanisms should guarantee working women's security and dignity without recourse to time-consuming litigation. This is something that should win the confidence of employers and employees both. Thus, one cannot see any valid reason for delaying the adoption of the bill. It is said the bill has been held back for the sake of developing a wider consensus. That the government should seek the support of different parties, including the religious factions, for its legislative proposals is understandable. What is difficult to accept is the policy of giving clerics the power to veto any proposal designed to offer relief to women. The operation of such policies is confirmed by the turn of events regarding the domestic violence bill in the Senate. This bill was unanimously adopted by the National Assembly but it ran into trouble in the Senate and it will now be entrusted to a mediation committee comprising eight members from each house of parliament. This is being done under a Musharraf amendment that has replaced the system of resolving differences between the National Assembly and the Senate in a joint session with mediation by a smaller body. Whatever one may think of the change the most disturbing part of the matter is that difficulties should arise in the case of a measure which addresses a universally condemned social evil that domestic violence is. Quite obviously this is due to deep-rooted biases against women. Apparently, legislative proposals designed to improve respect for women's rights are required to cross two bias-based barriers. On the one hand, the conservative clerics reserve their exceptionally hostile attitude to any suggestion of freedom for women. They appear determined to reject all appeals to reason or even a rational interpretation of Islam for conceding to women what God and people have granted them. On the other hand, women's causes are abandoned by their well-wishers because they yield to the religious lobby's pressures for small gains. By so doing they reinforce the biases against women. The parliamentarians may well try to face the inevitable question as to whether institutions that persistently fail to respect the aspirations of the female half of the population can genuinely claim to represent all the people. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
