Pakistan: Daughters of a lesser god?

The response of the religious political lobby to Aafia’s plight is symbolic of our social mindset where we, while throwing stones at others, refuse to speak up for the downtrodden right under our nose. Aafia has been dubbed as Pakistan ki Beti; one wonders why the same right-wing lobby is impervious to the plight of many betis in Pakistan who are denied access to justice within the Pakistani judicial system.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff |
Source & Credit:  The News | Pakistan | March 3, 2010
By Mrs.Talat Farooq | Executive Editor, Criterion, Islamabad

Several rallies and protests have been organized by the religious political parties and their supporters in the aftermath of the Aafia trial in New York demanding her release and return to Pakistan. Members of some non-conservative educational institutions have also joined in this flurry of emotional outbursts. The media has highlighted her ordeal without debating the downside of her story in objective detail and the so called alims on and offline have as usual played with the emotions of the masses. A whole generation of Pakistanis, grown up in an environment that discourages critical analysis and dispassionate objectivity in its educational institutions, has more or less allowed their emotions to be exploited. The Aafia case is complex and involves more than one explanation; it cannot as yet be seen in black or white. The grey lady is grey precisely because of her murky past and the question mark hanging over her alleged links to militants. After all she was not a run of the mill housewife. Her family’s silence during the years of her disappearance and her ex-husband’s side of the story certainly provide fodder to the opposing point of view that does not consider Aafia’s case as straightforward.

The right-wing parties and their supporters have once again played the card of anti-Americanism to attain their own political ends while simultaneously denouncing the human rights organizations for their silence. Our hatred of America, based on some very real grievances, also serves as a readily available smokescreen to avoid any rational thinking on any issue of national importance or public interest thus allowing the vested interests to get away with murder.

The response of the religious political lobby to Aafia’s plight is symbolic of our social mindset where we, while throwing stones at others, refuse to speak up for the downtrodden right under our nose. Aafia has been dubbed as Pakistan ki Beti; one wonders why the same right-wing lobby is impervious to the plight of many betis in Pakistan who are denied access to justice within the Pakistani judicial system. Even as they stir up our emotions in the name of Aafia’s motherhood and her suffering children they conveniently turn a blind eye to the plight of hundreds of mothers suffering in Pakistani jails. While unprecedented diplomatic efforts continue to bring Aafia back to Pakistan there are numerous women in Pakistani jails awaiting justice that could allow them to eventually return home. And this after the National Judicial Policy has directed the courts to dispose of these cases on priority basis!!

A survey of the jails in Punjab shows that about 45% of female prisoners are awaiting trials. 80% of all women female prisoners are mothers and 25% have children aged between 1 to 3 years. More than 70% are illiterate which goes to show why almost 85% of them are unaware of the status of their legal proceedings including those who are unacquainted with the charges registered against them; 35% have failed to engage lawyers. According to another survey, in Punjab alone nearly 78% of women prisoners complained of maltreatment in police custody and 72% claimed sexual abuse. A female juvenile offender fares no better and, like her adult counterpart, spends long periods awaiting trial or hearing, often in violation of the law. She is even more vulnerable to abuse while in detention despite The Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2002. Judging from the Punjab statistics the situation in other provinces cannot be any better.

   Although women police stations were established in response to complaints of custodial abuse, minimal efforts have been made to provide them with human and material resources as compared to regular police stations. Females continue to be detained at regular police stations overnight despite court orders and regulations and sexual abuse by police or guards remains a sad reality. According to Ansar Burney Trust, women prisoners are raped on a regular basis in police custody and in prison. Children born as a result of rape, as well as those who live with their mothers in jail, usually grow up to be emotionally disturbed individuals.

 In Aafia Siddiqui’s case the Pakistani government has spent US $ 2million already and the President has directed more legal assistance after her recent conviction on all seven counts. In Pakistani jails a majority of women continue to suffer due to financial deprivation because successive governments have failed to build a separate financial pool to foot the legal bills for these Pakistani Betis.  According to a recent study the women prisons in Pakistan are in dire need of health facilities. In most of the rape cases if the woman is pregnant she ends up delivering the baby in jail where there is hardly any access to pre or post-natal care. This leads to an increased rate of infant mortality and maternal deaths. The women are undernourished and suffer from multiple health issues including mental health, substance abuse, physical abuse and resultant trauma. A large number of these women have a pre or post-arrest history of physical and emotional abuse and suffer from depression, anxiety and are more likely to attempt suicide. The study informs us that over the last couple of decades the number of women prisoners has increased by 273% thereby multiplying the problems manifold. Wouldn’t it be more meaningful if the pro-Aafia lobby also pressurized the Pakistani government to spend another US $ 2 million on improving women jails in Pakistan?

If Aafia has been wronged the judicial process must be allowed to run its due course to redress her grievances. There is no question about that. Instead the fundamental question is this: Justice for Aafia Siddiqui or justice for all? Only when our religious and liberal lobbies decide to transcend their opposing worldviews to jointly work toward a just social system, will justice prevail in letter and spirit in Pakistan. Till then we can brace ourselves for more political stunts in the name of justice.

Read the original post here: Daughters of a lessor god?