Critical Concepts, women and Globalization

 Dr Hina Abbasi &Dr Musferah Mehfooz ,  

COMSATS, Lahore, Pakistan.  Ms Sara Saeed, COMSATS, Lahore,  Pakistan   

Abstract.

     From moral philosophy to the theistic doctrines, the intellectual roots of critical concepts and gender based ideology set the tradition of exploitation. Discrimination against women has strengthened the bonds of subordination that they denied their economic and social rights. Internal conflicts and wars place them in a more vulnerable position, displacement and destruction, especially military conflicts increases violence and crime against women and subject them to the cruel and inhuman punishments. Moreover though the world over the past decade have had processes of profound cultural  including political and social transformation which have changed the face of the world, multi faceted discrimination   and exploitation graphically captured against women. The traditional societies, like Pakistan where culture and tradition creating stereotyped roles for men and women, a super ordinate-subordinate hierarchy is constituted and is extended from family unit to society. The dilemma did not end here, the critical part, the phenomenon of violence against women a means of humiliation of different kind is inhibited women and they have been vulnerable to acts of violence in the family, in the society and even by the states.

 Key words: Moral Philosophy, Theistic doctrines, ideology, subordination, vulnerable, transformation, violence, exploitation, dilemma, critical, humiliation.

 (In the name of Pakistani young girls, who are facing the challenge of being human .)

Introduction

“Violence can be visible or invisible or camouflaged in moral terms.

 It is always a coercive instrument to uphold or

 En force cultural codes of honor. (Maithreyi.Krishnaraj)

   The Islamic Republic of Pakistan generated another horror story, which contributes to define the social basis for our contemporary moral fragmentation, rejection of ethics,provide a viable content to understand that suppression of women by egoistic brutality is a frequent practice.Honorkilling, a common phenomenon in Pakistan, but this caseof Farzana Parveen is rare of its kind, on May

27, a young woman who had married on her free will was stoned to death by her father and brother,including 20 other family members armed with bricks, they smashed her skull and she died instantly on a busy road in the city of Lahore, in the vicinity of the Lahore high court. Farzana Praveen was pregnant and on her way to court to contest abduction case against her husband.

Moreover, no public protest on wider range has been reported so far.

 Why should we care about the existing order?

 Where is the way out?

 The dynamics of violence, as mentioned by(Galtung  Johan), there is a deep rooted violence theory hurting directly with a support system of state structure and culture that justify it, the way the violence  is practiced  ,how frequently it is practiced, raises the questions of violent  behavior/attitudes, and the social fabric, how it takes the responsibility for human rights violations and act with due diligence to prevent it. The central theses, remains that in order to prevent violence, sought to eradicate traditions which prescribe, honor killing.

  ( Judy El_Bushra&Eugenia Piza),while analyzing the parameters, the root causes  of gender violence impunity at different levels through social interaction, stresses for control mechanism that how a society significantly take the responsibility to control violence affirmed  init. The control mechanism depicts, the reflection, the value the given society places to ethics, humanism, mutual respect, Universality of human rights, religion and religious toleration, democracy and good governance.

As we categorically burdened by the ideas  that history and society advance our understanding of human beings, resolving conflicts, society and its paradigms its structural development, the moral patterns,  necessarily shaped by  the  behavior of the mass of the individual of that particular society. Conception ofhumans developed in this way, human qualities identifies a society, and the norms of freedom the paradigm upon which its legitimacy rests. How could a mother takes the life of her children,  what does it reflect, violent hopelessness, which eventually project a decaying society. If religion is a significant pattern and socially salient, evidences shows the actual disappearance of religion from the lives of the people, a disastrous for culture and civilization.

( Dr Leila Ahmad) raises a very interested question, are Islamic  societies inherently oppressive to women? What does Islam says in this retrospect?

And among His Signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves, that ye may dwell in tranquility with them, and He has put love and mercy between your (hearts): verily in that are Signs for those who reflect.(Q,30:21)

 They are your garments and ye are their garments. Allah knoweth what ye used to do secretly among yourselves; but He turned to you (Q,2:187)

(Mahnaz Afkhani)in her article, gender Apartheid, cultural relativism opined, that in Muslimsocieties, women faces preordained and prescribed boundaries, and relativist discourse on human rights, essentially a western approach following the universal concept of human rights have been manipulated by Islamist as a form of cultural  imperialism.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in 2002, "As pastors of the Catholic Church in the United States, we state as clearly and strongly as we can that violence against women, inside or outside the home, is never justified."^[3]When I Call for Help: A Pastoral Response to Domestic Violence Against Women". United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (November 12, 2002). ISBN 1-57455-509-X.

(Steven Tracy), author of "Patriarchy and Domestic Violence" writes: "While patriarchy may not be the overarching cause of all abuse, it is an enormously significant factor, because in traditional patriarchy males have a disproportionate share of power... So while patriarchy is not the sole explanation for violence against women, we would expect that male headship would be distorted by insecure, unhealthy men to justify their domination and abuse of women.

(Tracy, Steven. (2007). Patriarchy and Domestic Violence: Challenging Common Misconceptions. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. 50(3):580-583.

(Marjorie Proctor-Smith) in "Violence against women and children: a Christian Theological Sourcebook" states that domestic physical, psychological , violence is a sin. It victimizes family members dependent on a man and violates trust needed for healthy, equitable and cooperative relationships. She finds that domestic violence is symptom of social sin

(Adams, Carol J.; Fortune, Mary M. (1998)). Violence against women and children: a Christian Theological Sourcebook. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company. Pages 428-9. ISBN 0-8264-0830-3

Women is formally declared even by the enlightened Aristotle, affirmed the inherent superiority , and of male to woman, and Pythagoras,who gave explicit characteristics to gender, which ordained and did not nurtured harmony and egalitarian humanity, rather continues to have negative consequences. (james w.Prescott,3/4 1995) .

 Theology of gender morality have had its roots so systematic that, it is for these reasons that no one major religion of the world has been successful in the moral education of its members to avoid violence against women.(James w.Prescott 1995).

 Family role in this context encapsulated as it has become a cite of contestation, stretch on the parameters of intimacy, towards ideas that how relationship are constituted, toward ideas which acknowledge the unique role of women inseparable of civilization itself. Civilization in extricable linked with humanism and egalitarian  system  which does not perpetuate  gender bifurcations stressing to engage all population, foster  cooperation that  societies  are stable which are made up of active citizens, men and women participate and use their voices to energize  the nation.

  A number of tools/ questions havebeen raised, some of the major questions to be asked are:

1. Existing definitions of rights, is right varies and is gender specific?
2. Is female  subordination  inherited paradigm?
3. Is it generated by traditional social taboos?
4. Is it politically constructed and maintained by patriarchal interest, ideology, and

 Institutions?

Universal declaration of human rights, article 1 says, all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, endowed with reason and conscience and towards each other in a spirit of brotherhood, the concept of women has not been endowed as a human being, equal to those of men, but as a commodity in the traditional societies irrespective of their class, ethnic and religious faction.

 The right to ownership, gave women the status of commodity, and the owner the ultimate right to decide the fate of the vulnerable, to be exchanged, bought and sold.(Tahira, 1999)

.My young faculty member Sara Saeed , being the member of this society raised , very different and debatable questions, she reveals the complexities of a society to which she is the part,

What is more important,honor or life, while honors is cultural relativism , and right to life     absolute and universal? Cultural relativism should be subjected to scrutiny.

Women andfear born together in Pakistan, lived a chained life, conditional on traditions, norms and rigid cultural set up, defiance resulted death by shooting, burning, or killing with axes, allegation matters not the truth. To protect and restore honors, the frequency of targeted women contributes to an atmosphere of fear.

 The poet ( AttiyaDawood) quoted, how a small girl in Sindh reflects contraventions of her proprietary control,

‘My brother,seyes forever follow me.My father, s gaze guards me all the time, stern and angry…We stand accused and condemned to be declared Kari and murdered.:

 Conventional wisdom with its core operates female behavior, the part of the gender identity determined cause of violence or violence provoking female behavior.

 Honor killing a phenomenon rooted so deeply in social fabric, contained women’s universal rights systematically with fatal consequences, urban and rural educated or non –educated use honor killing as an effective tool a mechanism to reproduce subordination and thereby restore honor. Honor killing, a formidable factor of Pakistani society,urban educational professionals too strikingly support the brutal inhuman act, Saima Sarwar,s mother, a doctor by profession facilitated the honor killing of her daughter in Lahore in 1999, when Saima sought divorce.

Moreover Pakistani women could not defy the traditional practices as they are the cultural manifestation of their community, they could not escape the threat of honor killing, Rukhsana Naz perceived to have extra marital relations, murdered by hermother and brother.

Community ,s culture may not be subjected to challenge, to restore honor invoke public demonstration of power considered genuine social and cultural patterns of a society, supported killing a part of cultural traditions since it was in accordance with traditions it could not be a crime, traditions remains unbroken.(Document:Pakistan:Honor killing of women).

 Punitive domestic violence is frequent and normal practice, house hold phenomenon,( Shehnaz Bokhari), of the Progressive Women Association in Islamabad reports, that the organization has monitored 1,600 burned women cases since March 1999, these are only the reported cases.Similiarly burn cases are rarely investigated by the police, in lahore183 women reported tohave died of burn injuries allegedly caused incooking incidents. The HRCP report added that at least 70 of the victims were not even cooking when the supposed incident took place.InDelhi, an average of two women per day, burned alive in dowry related incidents during 1983.

Again HRCP,s annual report reveals, women’s subordination remained a routine phenomenon, a prevalent practice by custom and tradition and even by religion, that much of the violence against women was considered normal behavior. Moreover, a sample shows 82 percent of women in rural Punjab feared violence resulting from husband’s displeasure over minor matters in the most developed urban areas 52percent admitted being beaten by husbands.

Violence against women has become a prominent issue inhuman rights discourse drawing attention to the alarming state of women’s rights in Pakistan during 1990 , human right agencies have launched campaign to stop  violence against women.

Though Pakistan has alreadysigned international human rights agreements and partly introduced them in to its legal system, but pluralism in religion  provides an inconsistent , contradictory and ambiguous definition of women’srights, which further undermine the rights of women, granted by international law and  even by constitution.(SilvieBovarnic).

The issue of killings in the name of honour began to appear on the political agenda in

Pakistan in 1999 as a result of growing pressure from NGOs, the media, activists, and

UN agencies including UNICEF. On 21 April, 2000, at a National Convention on Human

Rights and Human Dignity, General Pervez Musharraf, The Chief Executive of Pakistan

announced that such killings would be treated as murder. “The Government of Pakistan,

vigorously condemns the practice of so-called ‘honur killing’. Such actions do not find

any place in our religion or law.” The killings continue, but steps are now being taken to

address the issue. DOMESTIC  VIOLENCE AGAINSTWOMEN AND GIRLS,Innocenti Digest no. 6)

  Is civilization failing? If it is so it is just because of the failure of the discovery of its most significant root women, is clearly inseparable from the civilization, the conditions which are not compatible for a peace full, harmonious and egalitarian humanity. She did play a fundamental role in thedevelopment of the humanist persona.(JamesW.prescott!995).Domestic violence, is rampant, without any distinction of developing and developed nations, has been the specific feature, and continuum, that cuts across cultures, races, and ideology.

    As far as the struggle to be taken as human being is concerned, is a n,unfinished history, indispensable component of traditional societies, runs so deep in the social set-up and strengthened by patriarchal interest, ideology, and institutions.( Jean,Trounstine) in  her article The forgotten Minority, emphasized, that systematic institutionalized violence against women eroded their sense of  identity and dignity.

 (ArvonnesFraser), Becoming human, seek the development of women rights, in debited to education as the only essential toolto access to knowledge and power and need to understand human rights with reference to knowledge.(Julieta Kirkwood), establishes a wonder ful correlation between peace within the home and peace in the nation.

Citations& develop ment:

Violence against women has become one of the most pervasive phenomenon, continues to be a global epidemic, denying women fundamental rights of equality,security, dignity, and self –worth. Domestic violence, usually cordoned effectively by the tacit silence, even state and law enforcing agencies did not bother to interfere or know about the incident, taking it as a family matter.

Violence , against women has aglobal dimension,  and prevalence of violence against women is so alarming that no society  can claim itself a violence free place, but violence against women is there having variations in patterns and trends. The more vulnerable to violence are the specific groups including minority groups indigenous and migrant women, refugee women and those in the situations of armed conflict, women in the institutions and detention, women with disabilities, female children and elderly women.(UNICEF).

The industrial revolution first contribute to address narrow gender gaps and ,:The Dolls House, a novel by Eliot, a stroke  against the prevalence of ideologies challenge the traditional legitimacy raise the voice of women as an living entity.(NoorJehanN.gGanihar,2007).

The real argument pertaining to women struggle can be derived from the facts that the history of women rights has been a struggle in every historical epoch for equal treatment,(the United Nations Declaration on the elimination of violence against women, General Assembly Resolution, December1993) declares that violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of the full advancement of women.

    The idea of women subordination did not exist as categorical imperatives, there role have been socially constructed, Patriarchy consists of philosophical and social system in which men by force direct pressures, ritual, language, customs, etiquette, education division of labor, the role of women is determined by male.(SumitaParmar)

  Power imbalances enhanced gender violence, salient feature in patriarchic society, categorized as and manifested in culture oriented notions like, domestic violence, female feticides and infanticide, denial of health care and nutrition for girl children, and harassment.

The UN declaration on the elimination of violence against women, defines violence, as manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, and violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanism by which women are forced in to sub-ordination position compared with men.Women sub ordination, when it extended to women economic and social subordination, enhanced the vulnerability of women to violence at home, at work or elsewhere.

Moreover,” the denial of equal property right put them into greater risk of poverty, disease, violence and homelessness.”(Tracqui True).

   Owner ship of land may be served as deterrence against domestic violence. Studies in Kerala and West Bengal reveals (Tracqui True) that women with property have two times less chance of violence.

 But in case of Pakistan, this variable does not work, owner ship rights are rather at stake ,women are denied to be married  and major consideration is the property, or assets that the young women has a right to inherit, the honor defiles male control extends demonstrate his power to safeguard his assets to be divided  in this episode they are forced to marry a man more than twice of her ageeither childhood marriage or marriage with Quran, the blind traditionswhich identify roots of violence, and the culture that justify it.

From what is left by parents and those nearest related there is a share for men and a share for women, whether the property be small or large,-a determinate share.(Quran4:7)

The concept of ownership failed to serve as deterrence in Pakistan, their ownership rights are at stake when they are to be married, some parents, mostly in feudalistic culture, fearing property division used to linger on their daughter’smarriages on the various relational variables.

The status of women in the contemporary society involves history and sociocultural configuration that how the position of women finally comes to this point and the major factors contributed to the disempowerment are patriarchy, socialization, and culture including religion.

Situation in South Asia is more alarming, as it has been declared as the “least gender sensitive region in the world:” where discrimination begins even before birth would be mothers being compelled to female feticide as manifested by the rising incidents.

. Pre birth discriminationcontinues in the shape of substantive limitations imposed by traditional values and ways of life, access to a wider field of possibilities constrained by rigorous moral boundries,ethical peculiar and cultural values, while Islam condemns rigorously non –welcoming attitude towards a female child.

When news is brought to one of them, of (the birth of) a female (child), his face darkens, and he is filled with inward grief! With shame does he hide himself from his people, because of the bad news he has had! Shall he retain it on (sufferance and) contempt, or bury it in the dust? Ah! what an evil (choice) they decide on? (Q,16:58-59)

and as( Walt Whitman) so eloquently stated, ,if anything is sacred, the human body is sacred. (The children of Adam(1872).
Discrimination against women begins with the day , she opens her eyes to see the world, discriminatory process manifests itself, in access to health and education , upbringing boys and girls, denied relevance to the male child, social processes chained her  more effectively as soon as she comes of the age male domination extends in the form of early and forced marriages, exchange marriages and exclusion from participation in decision making. There are various factors that perpetuate domestic violence, cultural/ traditional dogmas, economic dependency, legal status of women, role of women in power politics and policy making.

Interfamily violence, is most frequent and normal practice , encompassing multidimensional processes, more visible and immediate to our everyday life is honor killing, the symptoms of which interpreted in, refusal to submit to arrange marriage, demanding a divorce, feud settling, get rid of wife.   Moreover, the murder relates to inheritances problems. Interfamily violence is of many kinds may be categorized as, acid burning, karo-kari, bride burning,( dowry, conflicts with in-laws, extra marital relationship in both sides) Vani, honor killing, vulvur, rape, marriage with Quran, child- hood marriage, fear of division of property denied females right to marry Adams,( Carol J.; Fortune, Mary M.) (1998). Violence against women and children: a Christian Theological Sourcebook. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company. Pages 428-9. ISBN 0-8264-0830-3

 Strauss, 1974, considers patterns of interfamily violence an abstract metaphor, outgrown of social or psychological pathology, though part of the social action, often normal but qualitatively frequent, statistically rigorous, culturally approved by the perpetrator is a part of conflict in the social relationship, including family, in the street or between nations.

 Failure to recognized ilemmas facing women provoked a serious discourse, even modern values of freedom, justice, equality and democracy fail to maintain or seriously granting parityto women. Gender based violence have  taken as an integrated approach to eliminate violence as UN secretary general 2006, recognized it as an international insecurity perspective and relating it to  peace and security, encourage women role as participation in conflict resolution and peace building.

(The hunger project) while stressing women empowerment as key change agent, discloses facts that vast majority of theworld’s poor are women, two thirds of the worlds illiterate population are female, of the millions of school age children, not in school, the majority are girls.

In South Asian perspective, women , very greatly across and within both context and that what is understood as violence is  fundamentally linked with power, reproducing  gender relations, (Silvie Bovarnick).

 In Pakistan violence against women is embedded in complex mechanism of  interplaying factors including ethnicity, social class, geographical location, culture and religion through which gender subordination is legitimized .Traditional and cultural practices under the guise of cultural and social conformism and religious belief, women suffer harmful and life threatening effects, the magnitude of the violence, have various dimensions, the most prevalent among them is, killing in the name of honors, the most effective tool to softened the legal course, which is already silent in this respect.

 During 1997 more than 300 women have been made victim of honor killing, in  just  one province( in reality the numbers are higher than reported, and( reported

 as suicides and accidents).The victim   suffered, the victim survivors forced to remain in custody  fearing death at the hands of the family, according to Aurat Foundations findings, 227 cases of honor killings were reported in Punjab in 2013. According to UN statistics of the 5000 cases reported internationally ,1000 each are from Pakistan and India. Non _governmental organizations put the number at 20,000, four times the figure of UN.

 The latest death, s in the name of honor reported as,the latest story in the series of honor killing, a Pakistani couple tied up and killed with butcher knives, for marrying against the wishes of the bride’s family. Muafia Bibi,17 and her 30-years-old husband, Sajjad Ahmad were killed in a village in Punjab province, couples throats were slit before a crowd.  Brides fathercommented, even children should stay, they should learn what would happen to them, if they married someone of their own choice.

The brutal murder of the couple in Sialkot indicates that there is no let up in incidents of honors killing wrote AounSahi. One of the resident of the Satrah village disclosed 15 girls of the same village have already left their homes to marry men of their choice. Most of the people of that miserable village support the murder. Khawer Mumtaz, Chairperson National Commission on the status of women, categorically disclosed that making laws would not help solely, it is the question of brutal mind set which needs radical change.she stressed that the people of Satrah village need to ponder on why 15 or 16 girls reached a point of no return.

Muzammil Bibi, 21,s case is the latest in a string of murders, that have sparked revulsion around the world, and clerics, issued a fatwa against honor killing. A Pakistani women killed by the man, she asked to save her from family,s honor killing, despite protection from the boy she loved, found slumped under a tree.(Washington Post).

Dowry related violence, which killed more than 5,000 women annually by their husbands and in-laws, even though India has legally abolished the institution, an average of five women a day are burned and many more go unreported, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reports  that at least four women deaths are reported in accidental kitchen fires, deaths by kitchen fires usually resulted for the un fulfilled dowry demands by the in-laws. Acid attacks are another cheap and easily accessible violence to disfigure and sometime resulted in deaths for multiple causes, such as family feuds’, dowry demands. Early marriage* a form of violence, which undermines health , education and employment opportunities for girls, by hampering the female involvement and women participation, countries are eroding human capital and human development.

 What is to be done? Where to start? How to eliminate violence against women? Human rights, the declaration, emphasized the equality with certain inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the discourse on human rights stress on its universality, while it focused only on the human rights of men. This have stimulated a debate, universality of the human rights have been challenged that how the diversity may be accommodative top address the women grievances. The next most compatible question explicate, that how far Human Right discourse would be help full in addressing violence against women in non western context, and secondly  how compatible local discourses construct violence that how  the socio_cultural norms and traditions compatible with  humanrights? The legal and political concept of human rights were developed mainly in France, England, and the US, through the philosophic and legal writing of Grotius, Locke, Montesquieu and Jefferson.(Silvie Bovarnic).

 How far in Asian context, Human Rights concept would be use full in addressing violence against women? Is there any relationship?  I must say there is a strong relationship between the Western concept of the Human Rights and the Islamic concept, they are relevant, in their substance, subject matter, integrity and validity is concerned. Islam, in its broader practice, predominantly recognizes the social behavior is divinely mandated, both men and women are the protectors of another life is sacred trust, right to life and security in particular acknowledge in these words, “If any one kills a person, it is as if he kills all mankind”.

The central  thesis remains the same, The Pakistani women and her status in this era of globalization, there has been no qualitative change and did not have a direct relevance to her lives, as globalization brought a comprehensive transformation to our lives.

 The main parameters of globalization can be traced as multidimensional processes transforming many arenas of ideology, economy, politics, and culture.  Globalization in the cultural arena is more visible and immediate to oureveryday life, through music, fashion, food, films,  and mass media, these changes are supported by technological innovations in the area of information and communication technology.(Dong-Sook    S. GILLS2002).

However, the new environment of global communication developed global networking, and the dialectic nature which can generate tool of resistance and organization.Illustrating globalization, as a set of dynamic social and cultural change the women of Pakistan remained the victim of perceived tradition and dogmas, the dynamics of social, cultural change did not emerge as a practical tool of resistance, women are all often and frequently the most vulnerable and the most exploited even during this era of radical changes.

 The political economy of globalization in which Asian women are becoming the part and continues to play a crucial role in the contemporary liberalization and restructuring economies in both urban and rural  context. it appears that tendency to suppression continues, from domestic violence to economic reductionism, from honor killing to labor victimization,they simply  looses the potential as an instrument of change, denied systematically to become a social force capable enough to protect  their own interest.

What counts most is ,whether  globalization brought a significant change in the lives of the Pakistani women or the global occurring excluded her from the processes ofdevelopment .While The idea of the politics of inclusion, defines the dynamics  of development depends only by the inclusion of social forces, which ultimately decrease social inequalities, polarization and marginalization(Gills,2002).

The processes of inclusion also focus on the inclusion of the weak majority rather than the strong minority, democracy requires structural changes to exacerbate the processes of exclusion of a broad spectrum of social forces in to the decision making processes.

(RobertCox,s1987),term this  the internationalizing of the state in which gender hierarchy, national and foreign capital how the state adapt to the forces of economic globalization and how to expose women  to diverse mechanism of exploitation.

One of our young faculty member Dr Hussain, suggested, that solutions may be sought within the society to which we are the part, contrary to this  might not resolve the ongoing conflict.

To my point, it is  (honorkilling),is pre_islamic  mind set, pre- Islamic societies, where female child were being  buried alive, the underlying structure  cultural and symbolic manifestations, which reveal the, violence and brutality, appear to be the purely cultural process. Honor associated with the female member of the family the central logic was to maintain male domination, accounted for and explained within the frame work of intense jealousy and fear of being shamed, reason s for  infanticide , and they dispose of girls one after the other .

 Conclusion.

Is ongoing onslaught against women a revival of pre –Islamic infanticide? Thus in turn brings social exclusion, in reality due to underlying social inequalities, as such processes result in the brutal experiences of victimization. The privileged position of men ensures to confine, fair and equal treatment rather goes beyond humanism to a large.

 I was doing my MS in political science, when the  teen aged daughter of our land lord attempted suicide, daughter of a rich fish harbour trollers, so afraid of his father, knowing that a house keeper child servent, reported daily his father about her telephonic conversation with a boy of her liking, the day, she knew, before her father back home, she took her life to be victimized by her father. Her mother was on her visiting visa t0 USA to see her two sons settled there. It was a fateful  day, we took her to the hospital, she expired on her way to hospital. I could not forget the tragic  death of that innocent girl, even after many years.

How institutions could help to contain violence against women?

 A number of theorist documented structural inequality is basically gender oriented in equality, a resistant to women emancipation and therefore is a durable inequality.  ( PierreBordieu) directed  us towards the salient paradigm, culture may be thoroughly analyzed, that male domination is rooted so deeply in our culture that it is almost difficult to challenge it, and symbolic violence usually perpetrated via the symbolic channels of communications and knowledge.  Sylvia Wallaby (1990)discussed the structural determinants , which determine the position of women in the societies other than culture, such as domestic labor, Wage labor reproductive role. Culture, voilence, and the role of the state. which in turn have the durability and theorizing patriarchy” or in this era of globalization referred to as gender orders, or” gender regimes.”To him the core requirement for the gender equality is to locate or more accurately its absence. Moreover violence against women, itself is an expression of inequality that it is relevant to other inequalities, and is significant in it.

   Kofi Anan, commented, violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation, and it is perhaps the most pervasive. It knows no boundaries of geography, culture or wealth. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be to be making real progress towards equality, development and peace (1999).

  Violence against women is not limited to domestic violence it is rather encompassed into various directions, such as forced child marriage, honor killing, work place harassment. Violence thread occupies   women, s life  also through social contexts, more vulnerable to violence such as conflict, dislocation ,living in a residential institution not only provide extra opportunities for violence but also reduces the chances of detection, a constraint, further limits the mobility, access to resources and basic activities. How violence perpetuate women life cycle, Heyse .L.(1994), divides the life cycle of women  correlates it with particular age and type of violence.

• Phase Type of violence.
• Prenatal Gender selection, physical assault during pregnancy.
• Infancy Female infanticide, domestic violence, access to food, medical care denied.
• Child hood   Forced child hood marriage, forced labor, denied opportunities to education                                including  access to food and healthcare.

Adolescence Harassment at school and in the street, femicide(the act of killing a woman)           forced marriage, crimes in the name of honor killing, intimate partner violence rape and assault by the relatives.

Adulthood  Harassment at work and in public place, intimate partner violence, rape and  physical assault, femicide, bride burning, dowry and bride price crimes, exploitation and trafficking.

Old age  Elder abuse, intimate partner violence, rape, abuse of widows, harassment in public place, institutional abuse.

 What is astonishing about women’s various  age phases and the kind of violence, she experiences  throughout her life , the violence against her is not perpetrated by the unknown or strangers but very close to her, trusted and intimate to whom she expects, love , honor, identity and dignity.

    How violence attributed to women’s life and physical, psychological harms implicate to her life, according to WHO at least five of women lost healthy years of life due to violence and many women lost their lives due to violence, and  legacies of violence,  undermine women in the workplace and systematically  harm women in public domain and to contribute in the decision_ making.Moreover social relations and social support are primarily understood in terms of gender as male dominating society possess more formal networks as compare to female. They lack autonomy to think about their safety, and use time  for creative activities, the capacity  to use leisure time for productive activities, the way the violence limits women, mobility and denying her to use her potential, is both,acause and an outcome of women,s inequality.

As( LizKelly )rightfully  analysed, violence against women has direct and indirect connections to continued agony, establish disparities in employment, health, well-being and political representation

Question arises that if all  societies  agreed  including ours that, violence against women  categorically has relative independence from other aspects, and one of the driving force the in equality concept therefore generate the micro-inequalities of every -day life.

   What is to be done?

 The most important  is the culture, structure, norms, traditions, the century old  biradari system, the family unit, parent child relationship( especially female child).The old dogmas that honor , basically is associated with female child, and her individual and social behavior strictly monitored by the male members of the family. A born lack of confidence as a form of systematic  discrimination jeopardizes  women, s lives, explicitly impairs their human rights and as, Beijing Declaration in 1995 declares, women are subjected to a greater or lesser degree,   to all sorts of violence  including physical and psychological legacies of violence are profound with considerable energy , common to every society that cuts  across lines of income, class and culture.

 Fear of violence remains a constant haunt which limits or rather diminish women,s access to resources and basic activities, while no women is safe, access to support, protection and justice are socially excluded from her range.Halima Rafiq,s  death , creating a virtual impunity, a legitimized violence in specific circumstances holding the 17 years old female criketer took her life, makes the incident neither a rare or random but unfortunately frequent and latest addition of gender relations added into the fabric of every- day life.

 AmatyaSen,s capability approach to gender equality, reveals, what is at issue is not only access to resources but freedom to live a valuable life – what one is able to do and be.Dignity and treated with dignity is the basic human rights , worth and dignity is continuously at stake and compromised to the benefit of men. Moreover, the society where are extensive and increasingly legitimized rights to males, gender ideology dominates, to what extent a women can claim respect and dignity, in a society where she is  treated   as a thing , a commodity and where abuse her becomes acceptable.

 In Islamic perspective, religion give space and is implicated and extends safety, dignity and extensive human rights, to women first time in the history of man-kind.  Unfortunately, the recent history of the Islamic societies, demonstrated the legacies of pre-Islamic mind –set as the violence against women is increasing and continuously becoming the part of our daily life, from the domestic violence to public life, unequal treatment implicit direct and indirect connections with theviolence against women in a systematic and consistent ways that it has become both a cause and an outcome of inequality concept

Against women further comprehend in the disparities in employment, pay and political participation. What counts most is the social change, a meaningful structural change, characterized by the convergence of opposition to social inequalities instrumental to promote gender ideology and increasing social inequalities, polarization and marginalization.

   Countries like Pakistan, where violence is incorporated, in its every form, lack of effective national laws and failure to implement such laws resulted in impunity for violence against women, priority required to bring significant change, government, leadership and critical political will is needed to fight against women. Role of police and judiciary is crucial in this regard and Pakistan is one of those countries, where police is burdened by corruption, lack of training, political pressures,  criminals  status force them to act either side. Justice delayed is justice denied, true in our case, that judiciary remained controversial in many recent cases of violence against women.

 What is to be done? A dedicated campaign by the society and community and village, by the government and NGO, increasing efforts are needed to change attitudes, and influence behavior.

Methods and Materials.

• Participatory Observation.

• Discussions with  the faculty members.
• Literature Review.

• Bibliography & References.

Bibliography & References.

1 Maithreyi Krishnaraj

 2 Judy ELBushra &Eugenia Piza.

 3Dr Leila Ahmad.

4Q ,30; 21.

5 Q ,2: 187.

• Mahnaz Afkhani, gender and apartheid and cultural relativism,
• The USconference of Catholic Bishops on violence against women inside and outside home in 2002.
• Steven Tracy,(2007)Patriarchy and domestic violence :challenging common Misconceptions: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society:50(3):580_583.
• Adams, Carol J;Fortune,MaryM.(1998).Voilence against women and children: A christian Theological Source book NewYork.The continuum Publishing Company. Pages 428-9.
• James WPrescot,3/41995.
• Tahira,(1999).
• The poet AttiyaDawood.
• Document: Pakistan Honor Killing of women.
• Shehnaz Bokhari,Progressive Women Association Report 1999.
• HRCP,s annual report 1983.
• HRCP, launched campaign to stop violence against women during 1990.
• Silvie Bovarnic,
• Jean,Trounstine, The forgotten Minority
• Arvonnes Fraser.
• 21 Julieta Kirkwood.
• UNICEF Report.21 Julieta Kirkwood
• Noor Jehan N.G Ganihar, Gender issues and Women Empowerment, DiscoveryPub lashingHouse New Delhi,2007.p .1.
• TheUnited Nations Declaration@General Assembly,s resolution, December 1993.
• Sumita Parmer’sarticle, AccessingEmpowerment: Contemporary Indian Women, edited by Chrishna Gupta,p:32.
• Tracqui True,
• Q;4:7.
• Q,1658-59
• The children of Adam(1872).
• FRH/WHD/97.8.
• Carol J;Fortune, Mary M.1998
• Strauss, 1974.
• UN secretary general declared in 2006.
• The hunger project.
• Silvie Bovarnick.
• UN Report, 2013.
• Washington Post.
• HRC of Pakistan reports.
• Silvie Bovarnic.
• Adapted from Heise,L.1994.6
• Dong-SOOK-S.Gills. 2002
• Ibid
• Robert Cox, s.1987.
• Sylvia Wallaby.1990.
• Kofi Anan, 1999.
• Heise, L .1994.
• WHO report.
• Liz Kelly.
• Beijing Declaration 1995.