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Women are safe only in their houses in Pakistan

''Wherever you go, you are chased by men whistling after you, passing indecent remarks or even attempting to bump into you,'' laments Gul Rukh, who works for a non-governmental organisation in Pakistan.

The young woman was recently chased by a group of men in a Pajero jeep all the way from home to office. Though she was very shaken and angry, she did not go to the police for fear of her conservative parents stopping her from working. ''If we raise a voice against such harassment, we are told that we should not go out of our homes,'' she dejectedly says.

Gul Rukh could be speaking on behalf of many women and girls in Pakistan who have to suffer the indignity of sexual harassment. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in its annual report this year that ''it was not unusual for women to encounter remarks or experience physical push and shove in offices and shops, in houses and in other public places. These have ceased to offend only because of their recurrence.''

One of Gul Rukh's friends said her doctor -- a close family friend -- stroked her neck when she went to him with a throat infection. ''I just pushed him away,'' she said. ''I didn't want to make a scene because I was afraid what people would say.''

According to the Islamabad-based Progressive Women's Association, every second woman in Pakistan is a victim of direct or indirect form of mental or physical violence. The most vulnerable are those who work in the informal sector, like domestic and brick-kiln workers, says its chairperson Shahnaz Bokhari.

In a male-dominated society ''they don't have much choice -- they must submit or lose their jobs,'' she points out.

The one instance when they resisted was the case of 11 employees of the United Nations Development Programme in Pakistan who accused a senior colleague of sexual harassment. The case was probed by a team from New York and the official suspended. ''One can assert their rights in an organisation like the UN,'' observes Bokhari.

Usually serious crimes against women are not reported by the women themselves, or by family members, for fear of retaliation, the blight of social stigma, and the uncooperative attitude of officials and law enforcers.

A media study by the HRCP in Punjab province said 242 cases of crimes against women were reported in the newspapers and magazines. Of these 113 were attempted rape incidents, and 77 stripping and assault of women in public. However only fewer than half of the cases were registered with the police, and in only 23 of those cases were the accused taken into police custody.

The government's National Plan of Action, a follow-up to the 1995 Beijing Summit prepared in consultation with women's groups and rights organisations, admits to widespread sexual violence against women in the country, saying it is rooted in patriarchal system of male domination and female subordination. ''Sexual harassment at the workplace and the street takes many forms and is justified on the ground that a woman's rightful place is at home,'' said an official of the ministry of women's development, who helped prepare the NPA.

Although the Pakistan Penal Code prescribes punishments for sexual harassment offences, often policemen turn a blind eye even when they are approached by women. ''Once I reported to policemen at a checkpost that I was being chased and teased but they asked me instead why I wasn't wearing a veil,'' says Sajida Innyat who recently quit her job because she felt unsafe travelling to work. Now she gives tuitions at home.

The women's development Ministry thinks ''discriminatory'' laws are responsible for the rise in crimes against women. An internal document assessing the impact of Islamic laws on women says: ''In the past 15 years, discriminatory laws, along with exploitation of religion to control women's sexuality and productivity have been instrumental in increasing institutionalised violence in women's lives.''

UNI

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