Corinne Redfern 11:25 | 04 Aug 2015
In today's depressing news, two judges have ruled that women are second class citizens, even when it comes to raising children...
Two Supreme Court judges in Pakistan have reportedly ruled that when a couple divorces, the woman only gets to continue raising their children throughout infancy as their ‘supervisor’ - before passing them over to their husband when they’re old enough, because he is their legal ‘guardian’.
Judges Mian Saqib Nisar and Ejaz Ahmad Chaudhry also ruled that
Pakistani women cannot keep their children away from their fathers following a divorce, whatever the circumstances.
Of course, it makes sense:
these are men who have spent nine months of carrying their offspring inside their bodies… Oh wait.
Depressingly,
it’s not the first time courts in Pakistan have ruled against women’s rights. It's not even
nearly the first time. In fact,
we can't even count the number of occasions when the country's legal system has made it OK for men to treat their wives, sisters, mothers and daughters like second class citizens.
After all, this is a country where up to 90 per cent of husbands are estimated to assault their wives, where only 39 per cent of women can read (limiting their options for financial independence) and wher 24 per cent of girls are married off before they reach the age of 18 (in many cases when they’re only eight or nine years old).
And for as long as the country's judicial system continues to not only enable this, but encourage this, then change is going to be a long and drawn-out process.
‘Gender violence in Pakistan takes a variety of forms, some of which are common across cultures such as marital violence, including verbal abuse, hitting, kicking, slapping, rape and murder, and economic and emotional abuse,’ says Filomena Critelli, a researcher at the University of Buffalo.
‘Other forms of violence are rooted in traditional practices that continue under the guise of social conformism, customs and misinterpretations of religion, that also include exchange marriage, death by burning (stove deaths, which are presented as accidents), acid attacks and nose cutting (a form of humiliation and degradation). Women are also
raped and abused while in police custody, which further deters many women from reporting crimes against them.’
Thankfully, things
are improving.
This girl is campaigning for parents to keep their daughters in school, education levels are on the rise, and increasing numbers of female activists are fighting to raise awareness of women’s rights around the country.
Now if only the courts would catch up with them.
Read more at
Pakistan Women's Rights | Marie Claire
Our courts really needs a good kick to wake up! I say sack all the judges, rape the bloody male or sell them as prostitutes so they realize what shit they are supposed to help in the country ...Stupid worthless creatures! As for the female just sack them too if they cant voice for their own...
