We, the women of Pakistan, have been at the receiving end of the patriarchal State and society’s brutality and violence for the last many decades. As we fight against all odds for equality and empowerment, the violence against us has only increased, facilitated by a grossly inadequate criminal justice system; a victim-shaming culture in the police and society at large; and civil and military leadership that endorses misogyny at the highest levels.

The signatories of this letter hail from all backgrounds, religious, social, economic and political backgrounds. We have come together to pen this collective expression of our pain and our demands to the State. We have had enough - and we have pledged to take up the cause for our fundamental rights as one collective.

In the face of adversity and oppression, we find strength in our collective fight for a more inclusive Pakistan: a Pakistan where the invisibilization of women is finally brought to an end.  Any deflection, refusal to acknowledge, or complicity in our oppression is unacceptable.

On 9th September this year, a woman was travelling on the Motorway in Punjab with her two children. She was robbed and gang-raped at gunpoint, in front of her children, despite having called the police at least twice after her fuel ran out on the Motorway. The fact that a woman in Pakistan is not safe (especially after alerting law enforcement) in a public space is not only unacceptable but is also a sickening reflection of where our society stands today.

Following this incident, the CCPO Lahore, a public official tasked with protecting citizens and upholding law and order, publicly questioned why the woman had not taken the GT Road; why she was out at that time; and why she didn’t have enough fuel in her car, in an interview with a national TV news channel. This attitude prevents victims of sexual crimes from coming forward and encourages a culture of impunity for perpetrators. The CCPO Lahore is not the only one with this misogynist mindset – this mindset is a mirror image of our society, which has always blamed women for the crimes of men.

Not one but two Government Ministers downplayed the ramifications of the CCPO Lahore’s statement and the official in question. Despite being served a show cause notice, the CCPO Lahore still remains firmly in his position. While the Prime Minister and much of the male leadership (opposition included) in the Parliament emphasized the need for stronger penalties, they failed to recognize the penalties already exist – but they are not enforced; that the investigation process is torture for women; and that the trial entails forcing victims of violence to relive their trauma, with little to no chances of convicting of the perpetrator.

In this regard, we oppose calls for capital punishment because research clearly shows that the death penalty has no correlation with the prevention of rape. Instead, we must ensure the conviction of rapists and perpetrators of sexual assault, which is currently less than 3% in Pakistan (excluding the higher rate of conviction, i.e. 19% in GBV court).

Most women who are subjected to violence do not report it. We are then asked why we don’t go to the police and courts. This is why - because the police facilitate rapists and criminals and refuse to respond to emergency requests for assistance made by women. Despite already being underreported in Pakistan, the conviction rate, as mentioned above, in rape and sexual assault cases is under 3% (excluding the higher rate of conviction, i.e. 19% in GBV court) because courts do not convict rapists and harassers.

Around this time, news from Karachi surfaced that a young woman in Karachi was abducted in a double cabin vehicle outside a mall in Clifton by two men who took her to an apartment where they, along with a third man, raped her. The woman was dropped back to the site of her kidnapping the next morning.

Just prior to these incidents, also in September this year, journalist Shaheena Shaheen was shot dead in her home in Turbat. These are not isolated incidents. They fit into a pattern that has been ongoing for decades. A pattern that has been facilitated by a State that refuses to recognize the scale of hatred and violence against women in this country.

In April 2018, Yar Mohammad Jatoi axed his fifty-year-old wife to death in Sujawal District, Sindh for not preparing his dinner on time. In August 2016, a man strangled his newborn daughter and buried her in the courtyard of his house in Herjoki village, Kasur because she was born a girl instead of a boy. Also in August 2016, a man killed his four-year-old daughter by drowning her in Upper Jhelum Canal to receive financial ‘compensation’ from the provincial government. A few months later, in October 2016, a father killed his daughter in the name of ‘honour’ in New Afzal Town, Rawalpindi. In September 2015, a man in Azeem Park area, Lahore beat his daughter to death because she didn’t make chappattis properly.  In July 2013, Rashid Mehmood shot his sister dead in Pindora (New Town), Rawalpindi for delaying preparation of his sehri.

We refuse to accept the narrative being propagated at the highest levels that women are safe in Pakistan. We are not safe in our own homes. We are not safe in schools. We are not safe in hospitals. We are not safe in public spaces. We are not even safe in our graves. We are not even safe as tiny little girls: Zainab (Kasur), Zainab (Charsadda), Marwah (Karachi).

Many of us are not safe in most spaces at most times.

Instead of being reassured that we will be provided protection and that the State will take it upon itself to improve policing and secure inclusion of women in all public offices, attempts are being made, in the name of religion, to subjugate us.

When women challenge the everyday misogyny we are subjected to and continue our fight against the violence and patriarchy in Pakistan, the debate is shifted towards religion, politics, culture – everything except the unequivocal recognition that we have been wronged and that our long-denied demands for protection, justice and equality are legitimate.

We are presenting the following Charter of Demands to the Government in good faith and with the genuine belief that our voices will be heard. The State must not abandon us yet again. This is the 21st century and we are no longer silent and invisible.

Charter of Demands

1.   Implement Article 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973

2.   Expedite and increase recruitment of female police officers and immediately establish additional women police stations. Where women police stations cannot be immediately established, set up a woman-staffed unit at each police station nationwide

3.   Remove CCPO Lahore

4.   Expedite inclusion of female prosecutors and provision of adequate resources and facilities to Gender Based Violence Courts to conduct trials with use of all special protection mechanisms

5.   Implement a judicial sensitization program on dealing with victims of sexual violence and harassment

6.   Conduct compulsory gender sensitization training for all civil servants, police officers and judicial officers at induction; and mandatory gender sensitization training courses must be instituted for serving officers, as part of the MCMC and NMC courses by the National School of Public Policy and the Judicial Academy (making this training a prerequisite for promotions)

7.   Conduct police sensitization and training across the country on handling cases of sexual violence and harassment. Further, women police officers must be made part of any and all investigating teams constituted to investigate cases of sexual violence, domestic abuse or harassment. The prosecuting team in GBV cases must include at least one female prosecutor.

8.   Establish one government universal access number/distress line for women countrywide

9.   Prohibit the two-finger (virginity) test for all rape and gang-rape survivors

10. Mandate use of forensic evidence in all cases of sexual violence

11. Provide swift, affordable and accessible administration of justice in all rape cases in the 3-month time frame provided under the law, through constitution of women’s courts and provision of free legal aid where required

12. Hold regular and periodic gender sensitization sessions for young and senior lawyers by the Pakistan Bar Council and all provincial bar councils

13. Mandate gender sensitization training for all elected officials

14. Repeal criminal defamation law contained in PECA, under which the right to expression of survivors of sexual harassment, journalists and members of civil society is curtailed

15. Immediately remove all elected and appointed state officials that engage in victim-blaming survivors of sexual assault and implement a zero-tolerance policy for both sexual harassment and misogynistic comments and behaviour by elected and appointed officials

16. Conduct regular and effective monitoring of judiciary, police and prosecutors working on GBV cases with incentives and deterrents based on performance

17. Appoint sufficient number of female medico-legal staff to ensure Women Medico Legal Officers are available 24/7 in every district of the country

18. Make all efforts to ensure more holistic discussions on the nature of rape, consent and victim blaming, which can be achieved by State-sponsored televised programs, advertisements, radio broadcasts, etc.

19. Immediately appoint greater number of female judges at trial level, through affirmative action, to deal with rape cases

20. Immediately change procedural law to ensure the process of reporting rape and abuse takes into account sensitivity of the situation for survivors

21. Establish State-sponsored bodies to provide psychological and physical treatment to survivors of sexual violence

22. Immediately introduce, and make compulsory, intermediate and secondary level courses highlighting legal and moral viewpoints on gender sensitization, harassment and sexual violence