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2006

Pakistani women empowered by learning to sew
October 23, 2006 - (Reuters) "After I've finished this course, I'm going to sew clothes for my family," said 24-year-old Shazia Raheem. "I'll also be able to earn money and that will improve things for us." Raheem is one of thousands of women receiving training from aid groups seeking to help Pakistani women become more self-reliant and empowered in their traditional society by teaching them skills to earn an income.

CULTURE-PAKISTAN: Mai Tells Her Tale in 'Shame'
October, 5 2006 - (IPS) She is in the news again. This time appearing in a documentary film ‘Shame', that tells her tale of being ordered gang-raped as retributive punishment by a village council. Far from shrouding herself in a cloak of victimhood, taking a vow of silence or committing suicide -- which would have been in keeping with the fate of other victims of this bizarre punishment before her -- Mukhtaran Mai fought back. She told her story to the whole world.

DEATH PENALTY: "Swara" Killings in Pakistan Continue
September 27, 2006 - (IPS) In 2005, 17-year-old Rubina Bibi died under mysterious circumstances after eating a meal in the small village of Kas Koroona, in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). She was living at the time in an animal shed -- the only place where her in-laws would allow her to stay.

Musharraf urged to repeal laws that violate women's rights
September 20, 2006 - (ActionAid UK) On Friday, 22 September, US President Bush will meet Pakistan’s President Musharraf. High on the agenda for the meeting will be women’s rights and the Pakistan government’s decision to back down on its attempt to repeal the Hudood Ordinances, a form of sharia law that penalises rape victims.

Pakistan rape reform fails after Musharraf caves in
September 12, 2006 – (The Independent) In a setback for women's rights in Pakistan, the ruling party in Islamabad has caved in to religious conservatives by dropping its plans to reform rape laws. Statutes known as the Hudood ordinances, based on sharia law, currently operate in Pakistan. They require a female rape victim to produce four male witnesses to corroborate her account, or she risks facing a new charge of adultery.

Fatwa Bans Women Working With NGOs
August 4, 2006 -(IPS) Negative publicity and attacks by Islamist groups on non- governmental organizations (NGOs) working with women have forced several to close their offices and move staff out of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

A Victory for Pakistani Women
August 3, 2006 – (The Washington Times) In the more repressive parts of the Muslim world, a rape is often just the beginning of a victimized woman's tragedy. That's because a type of Islamic law known as "Hudood" means a victim of rape faces charges of adultery -- which carries a penalty of imprisonment or even death -- if she fails the almost impossible test of producing four male eyewitnesses to the crime. But now President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan is challenging his country's version of that law.

Govt to make necessary Amendments to Women related Laws: PM
July 28, 2006 (Pakistan Tribune) Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that government will make necessary amendments in laws related to women to ensure justice and security for women and to make these laws more in consonance with the teachings of Holy Quran and Sunnah. Talking to a delegation of women parliamentarians belonging to Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and the coalition parties, the Prime Minister said that government will bring protection of women’s rights laws to provide quick and inexpensive justice to women and to enable them to play their due role in the society.

PAKISTAN: Relief workers provide positive role models for women
June 7, 2006 - (IRIN) Near her house in the small town of Bisham, 250 km northeast of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, Nasreen, 10, is playing a game with her younger neighbours. Free briefly from their domestic chores, the girls are pretending to be doctors – tending to a rag doll that lies on a bed of twigs, its arm and leg bandaged. While the earthquake of 8 October 2005 destroyed many lives and many dreams, the relief effort that came after it, and the exposure of remote communities to teams of volunteers and experts who rushed to devastated areas from around the world and from major cities in Pakistan, seems to have generated a new vision.

abandoning women who have babies in poor, hot places:
Women with obstetric fistula are abandoned by their husbands due to the embarrassing incontinence
February 24, 2006.- (Daily Times)-In Pakistan an overwhelming number of women are facing obstetric complications during pregnancy and only one in twenty women with complications have access to emergency care.The country has one of the highest maternal mortality rates across the globe as three women die every hour in Pakistan from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth

2005

PAKISTAN: Small Loans Pull Women Out of Poverty Trap
December 5, 2005 - (IPS) A small loan of 8,000 rupees, about 160 dollars, has enabled 35-year-old seamstress Laila to expand her business and escape the glass ceiling of rural Pakistan's patriarchal culture.

Pakistan: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
November 25, 2005- (AWID) AWID interviews Muhammad Usman Ghani - Lawyer and Chairman of Survive Welfare Organisation in Pakistan, where violence against women remains a major concern.
AWID: Tell us about the work of Survive welfare Organization - how did the organization evolve? What specific work is the organization doing?

Survive Welfare Organization (SWO) is a non government and non profit organization working in Pakistan since May 04, 2004 with the sole object to provide the basic necessities of life and to solve grievances. Specifically, the SWO was established for the welfare and betterment of neglected women in Pakistan deprived of their basic constitutional rights, and to provide women with the basic necessities of life like education, health and protection. SWO applies all its funds for the welfare and protection of women, and works for the safety and protection of innocent women who are victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment and those women who have deserted from their houses.

Pakistani Raped by Village Order Is to Visit U.S.
October 21, 2005- (NYT) Mukhtar Mai, the Pakistani woman whose gang rape in 2002 on the orders of a village council caused international outrage, said Friday that she planned to visit the United States next week to receive an award from an American women's magazine.

PAKISTAN: Quake-hit women still await medical treatment
October 18, 2005 - (IRIN) - Zubaida Bibi lies on a narrow cot outside the ruins of her home. Her infant son Wali lies besides her. Every tiny kick by the baby causes his mother to grimace in pain.

Outrage at Musharraf rape remarks
September 16, 2005 - (BBC) Pakistani activists have reacted with outrage to recent comments on rape victims by President Pervez Musharraf. He said that rape was a "money-making concern" and many argued it was a way to get money and a visa to emigrate.

Musharraf concern at women image
September 7, 2005 – (BBC) Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said his country should not be singled out for its treatment of women. His comments came while addressing a conference on violence against women in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

PAKISTAN: Women more confident in reporting sexual violence
September 6, 2005 - (IRIN) The tale of Sonia Naz, the latest case of alleged gang-rape to be widely publicised in Pakistan, has left even the most hardened observer badly shaken. But the very fact that the incident has come to light is indicative of a growing willingness among many women in this devout Islamic country to report such crimes.

Tribal council rape ruling probed
August 29, 2005 - (BBC) Police in the Pakistani city of Karachi are looking for five members of a tribal council who allegedly prevented a rape case being reported to police.

PAKISTAN: Progress in women's participation in election
August 23, 2005 - (IRIN) Rights activists in Pakistan have hailed increased participation by women in last week's local elections. "For the first time in the country's history, civil society groups, rights activists, media and other bodies have come up with a collective campaign for women electoral rights," Naeem Mirza, a project director with a leading women rights' body, the Aurat Foundation,
said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad on Monday.

A Pakistani Rape, and a Pakistani Love Story
August 2, 2005 – (NYT) Rapes occur in Pakistan at an estimated rate of one every two hours, and the rape itself is only the beginning of the horror. As in much of the world, the victim is frequently expected to atone for her "sin" by killing herself, while her attacker goes unscathed.

Another Face of Terror
July 31, 2005 – (NYT) Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, is supposed to be our valued ally in the war on terrorism. But terror takes many forms, not all of them hijacked airplanes or bombed subways.

KARACHI: NGO concerned over women rights
July 14, 2005 - (Dawn) The Aurat Foundation, a non-governmental organization working for women rights, has condemned political parties in the NWFP’s Dir district for restricting women from contesting the ensuing local bodies’ elections, and has urged the authorities to ensure women participation in polls. Anis Haroon, Aslam Brohi, Hassan Pathan, Nuzhat Shirin and others of the NGO on Thursday said they had learnt that local leaders of various political parties had met at a hotel in Dir and had decided to stop women from filing nomination papers for the polls, which are to be filed from July 16.

Pakistan rape victim must get justice-president
June 29, 2005 - (Reuters) Pakistan wants to ensure gang-rape victim Mukhtaran Mai finds justice, President Pervez Musharraf said on Wednesday, as he invited women from around the world to come and tell of their abuse and recommend solutions.

Pakistanis Re-Arrested in Officially Ordered Rape
June 28, 2005 - (AP) Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the re-arrest of 13 men acquitted in the gang rape of a villager whose plight has cast a glaring light on the treatment of women in this conservative Muslim nation.

'Passport pledge' to rape victim
June 22, 2005 - (BBC) Pakistani gang rape victim Mukhtar Mai says the government has offered her passport back after controversially restricting her right to travel.

Pakistani man kills wife, daughter over ‘honour’
June 21, 2005 - (Reuters) A Pakistani man killed his wife and daughter by pouring kerosene over them and setting them on fire in the latest incident of so-called honour killing in the conservative country, police said on Tuesday.

Women's rights in Pakistan: The woman who dared to cry rape
June 15, 2005 – (Independent) When Mukhtar Mai was gang-raped on the orders of village elders to settle a tribal score, she shocked Pakistan by taking her case to the courts. But now she has found herself persecuted once again.

Pakistan Lifts Travel Restrictions on Rape Victim
June 15, 2005 - ((NYT) Under pressure from Washington, the Pakistani government on Wednesday lifted its travel restrictions on Mukhtar Mai, whose gang-rape and its aftermath set off worldwide outrage at the treatment of women in Pakistan.

Raped, Kidnapped and Silenced
June 14, 2005 - (NYT) No wonder the Pakistan government can't catch Osama bin Laden. It is too busy harassing, detaining - and now kidnapping - a gang-rape victim for daring to protest and for planning a visit to the United States.

Pakistani court frees 12 alleged rapists
June 11, 2005 - ((India Daily) A Pakistani court has freed 12 men accused of rape, giving a new legal twist to one of the country's most prominent cases involving violence against women.

LCWU STARTS GENDER STUDIES COURSE TO LAUCH FM STATION
May 24, 2005 - (Daily Times) Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) hopes to strike a blow for gender equality with its new course in gender and development studies and by starting Pakistan’s first FM radio station run by women.

ASIAN MEET FOR ACHIEVING MDG'S THROUGH GENDER MAINSTREAMING
May 20, 2005- (OneWorld) New Delhi: 2005 being the year for the Beijing +10 and MDGs + 5, is a year for reflection and moving forward. IFAD, UNIFEM and IDRC collaborated to organize a three day regional conference on 'Development Effectiveness through Gender Mainstreaming'. Over 120 representatives from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Fiji, India, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka attended the conference.

SOUTH ASIA CONFRONTS TREND OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
May 5, 2005 - (Reuters) Changing laws is the easy part, changing attitudes is something else.Shameful stories in recent days of horrific rapes in Pakistan and India, murders in Afghanistan and an impoverished Bangladeshi mother offering to sell an eye have all underscored how far South Asia has to go to give downtrodden womenfolk justice.

PAKISTAN RAPE VICTIM SEEKS PRESIDENT'S HELP
March 17, 2005 - (Reuters) The victim of a notorious gang rape in Pakistan appealed to the president on Thursday for the re-arrest of four men, convicted for an attack on her but later freed, until a final Supreme Court ruling on the case.

SHE WAS GANG-RAPED ON THE ORDERS OF VILLAGE ELDERS. YESTERDAT, MUKHTARAN BIBI'S NIGHTMARE BEGAN AGAIN
March 4, 2005 -(The Guardian) Mukhtaran Bibi thought her nightmare was over when the men who gang-raped her - on orders from village elders - were sentenced to death more than two years ago. But yesterday the nightmare began again.

PAKISTAN WOMEN AUTHORS HONOURED
February 10, 2005- (BBC News)The collection contains short stories by 26 women authors.
A special ceremony has been held in the north Indian state of Punjab to release a unique new book containing short stories by women writers of Pakistan.

2004

PIPFPD 10TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS BEGIN AMID TRUMPET BLASTS
September 3, 2004 - (PIPFPD Press Release) A seventy member delegation of the Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy crossed over to Pakistan at the Attari-Wahga border today to participate in the three day joint celebration of the Forum’s 10th Anniversary, being organised in Lahore.

PAKISTAN PROVINCE FOCUSES ON PRAYERS, CURBING VICE
August 30, 2004 - (Reuters) Cinemas are barred from hoisting movie bill-boards and shopkeepers are afraid to display posters featuring women in the historic northern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

PAKISTANI MAN ARRESTED FOR ACID ATTACK
August 30, 2004 - (AP) Police arrested a man for allegedly throwing acid in a Pakistani courtroom on Monday, injuring his brother-in-law and four other people with burns, an official said.

100 WOMEN STORM TOP COP'S OFFICE: PROTEST AGAINST MILITANTS' ARREST
August 29, 2004 - (The Tribune) Over 100 Muslim women, protesting against the arrest of eight Muslim youths allegedly having links with the militant outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), today forced their way into the high-security office of the City Police Commissioner here and were taken into custody.

NO PEACE WITHOUT CIVIL SOCIETY
August 28 - September 10, 2004 - (Frontline) The `detente from below' launched exactly 10 years ago through an India-Pakistan people-to-people dialogue has been a critical, if unacknowledged, input into the peace process now under way. This vital civil society initiative must be sustained and expanded.

INDIA PEACE DELGATION ARRIVES
August 27, 2004 - (Daily Times) A 22-member inter-faith delegation of peace activists, ex-army officers, educationists, parliamentarians, social activists and intellectuals from India arrived in Lahore via Wagah on Thursday.

PAKISTAN LAUNCHES EFFORT TO LOWER MATERNAL DEATHS
August 22, 2004 - (WOMENSENEWS) When complications arose at the end of her second pregnancy, Fatima Khan became the first woman from her extended family to seek out medical treatment from a hospital.

WPC TO ORGANISE PEACE FESTIVALS IN FIVE INDIAN CITIES
August 3, 2004 - (The Daily Times) The World Punjabi Congress (WPC) will hold peace festivals in the Indian cities of Haryana, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Lucknow between November 2004 and March 2005, the WPC’s steering committee has decided.

CHANGE SLOW TO COME FOR PAKISTANI WOMEN
August 2, 2004 - (The Globe and Mail) City dwellers now enjoy new freedoms, but in rural areas old rules still apply. At the Hot Spot café, a renovated railcar with retro movie posters and New York-style cheesecake, Sana Qudsia is taking the first tentative steps toward women's liberation, Pakistani-style.

KARACHI PUT ON ALERT AGAINST SUICIDE BOMBERS
July 30, 2004 - (Reuters) Security forces in Pakistan's volatile port city of Karachi have been put on high alert because of fears of suicide attacks by Islamic militants on mosques during Friday prayers.

PAKISTANI MOTHER OF CHILD-RAPE VICTIM GOES PUBLIC
July 25, 2004 - (WOMENSENEWS) Growing up was never going to be easy for Sharee Komal. Born into an impoverished family living in a hut made of odd pieces of stained cloth tied to pieces of wood next to a decrepit cemetery in a poor Lahore neighbourhood, her life's prescription was to be hard work, few amenities, and little-to-no gratitude in Pakistan's male-dominated society.

PAKISTANI COUPLE FEARS DEATH FOR GETTING MARRIED
July 11, 2004 - (Reuters) Pakistani doctors Amnat and Ghulam Mustafa are on the run, in fear of their lives, for falling in love and getting married. Hundreds of women fall victim to so-called "honor killing" by male relatives every year in deeply conservative, rural Pakistan for marrying without their families' consent, thereby being deemed to have brought disgrace on their family.

BENAZIR BHUTTO: IN MUSHARRAF'S PAKISTAN, WOMEN ARE SIDELINED
June 29, 2004 - (Gulf News) On June 27, 2004 a woman judge appointed by the Pakistan Peoples Party government to the higher judiciary, retired from the Lahore High Court.
Justice Fakhrunissa was entitled to the Chief Justiceship of the Lahore High Court. Pakistan's law stipulates that the senior most judge is to be made the Chief Justice. The Musharaf dictatorship refused to allow the law to take its course demonstrating bias against women.

UNDP ROVIDES RS29.3M GRANT FOR GENDER EQUALITY
June 15, 2004 – (PakistanLink) UNDP and the Government of Pakistan have signed a project of Rs. 29.3 million aimed at strengthening the organizational capacity of the National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW).

PRESIDENT CALLS FOR LAW TO END "HONOUR KILLINGS"
May 15, 2004 – (IRIN) Rights groups have reacted positively to president Pervez Musharraf's call to create a law banning honour killings and an acknowledgement that the Hudood Ordinances and the blasphemy law need to be scrutinised to prevent any further misuse. In his address to a human rights convention in Islamabad, Musharraf also announced the formation of an independent National Commission for Human Rights.

PAKISTAN: KILLING IN THE NAME OF HONOUR OF TWO GIRLS
May 12, 2004 – (OMCT Appeal) The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Pakistan.

RAPE SURVIVOR EDUCATES PAKISTAN
May 10, 2004 – (San Francisco Chronicle) Slight in stature and so soft-spoken that people have to lean forward to hear her, Mukhtaran Mai hardly looks the part she has been forced to play. In this overwhelmingly male-dominated society where women are seen but rarely heard, the gutsy 30-year-old rape victim is taking Pakistani society to task for the horror she experienced.

PAKISTAN: KILLING IN THE NAME OF HONOUR
April 21, 2004 – (OMCT Appeal) The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Asian Human Rights Commission, a member of the OMCT network, of the killing in the name of honour of a 36-year-old woman named Hazooran, a housewife, married with 4 children in Pakistan.

WOMAN FACES THREAT OF HONOR KILLING IN PAKISTAN
April 8, 2004 – (Feminist Daily News Wire) A young woman from the Sindh Province of Pakistan has appealed to Pakistan’s President Musharraf for protection from being killed in the name of "honor." According to IRIN News, Rozina Ujjar was divorced by her husband for standing outside of her house at the same time that a 15-year-old boy passed by. After her husband divorced her a local assembly of tribal leaders declared that the woman was “kari” (subject to honor killing).

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS: WOMEN PARLIAMENTARIANS FACE-OFF TO INSULT IN NA
April 8, 2004 – (The Daily Times) Women parliamentarians from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-QA) said that the important debate on a bill protecting women’s rights in the National Assembly on Tuesday had not been given proper coverage on PTV.

PAKISTAN: PREGNANT TEENAGER FACES DEATH DECREE BY LOCAL TRIBE
April 7, 2004 – (IRIN) A pregnant 17-year-old from rural Sindh is seeking refuge in the southern port city of Karachi in an attempt to escape death by 'karo-kari', or honour killing, says a member of the provincial opposition who is campaigning to save her.

WOMEN’S COMMISSION RECOMMENDS QISAS LAW BE AMENDED
April 1, 2004 – (Daily Times- Pakistan) The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), at its three-day final consultation reviewing the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance (Act II of 1997) and the concept of justice in Islam, declared that honour killings and all other sorts of victimisation of women have no link with Islam.

RELIGIOUS FERVOUR BLOCKING MOVES AGAINST GENDER DISCRIMINATION
March 31, 2004 – (DAWN) Religious fervour broke through political alliances in the National Assembly on Tuesday to confront moves for more rights for women and protection from customs such as honour killings.

WOMEN'S BILL SPLITS PAKISTANI MPS
March 31, 2004 – (BBC) Many MPs feel women in rape cases have little legal protection. A long-awaited bill on women's rights has been presented before Pakistan's National Assembly.

WOMEN'S BILL INTRODUCED IN PAKISTAN
March 31, 2004 – (Feminist Daily News Wire) A bill to abolish laws that discriminate against women in Pakistan has been presented before Pakistan's parliament. The Protection and Empowerment of Women Bill has received split views from members of Parliament. According to BBC News, conservatives want to keep the current laws because they were made in the name of Islam under General Zia-ul-Haw in 1979.

PAKISTAN: `HONOR KILLINGS'
February 12, 2004 – (Reuters) A man from a village near the central town of Dera Ghazi Khan shot to death his sister and brother-in-law for marrying without family consent, the police said. It was the latest in a string of rural "honor killings" and took place as President Pervez Musharraf vowed to deal sternly with them. Each year hundreds of Pakistani women are believed to be killed by family members on the grounds that their behavior has damaged the family's reputation. At a meeting of the first ladies of 17 Asian nations on Tuesday, President Musharraf said anyone found guilty of such killings would be dealt with harshly.
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/12/international/asia/12BRIE2.html

PAKISTANI LEADER DENOUNCES HONOR KILLINGS AS 'TOTALLY ILLEGAL'
February 11, 2004 – (IPPF News) In a Conference addressing the status of Rural Women President Gen. Pervez Musharraf urged all those in positions of authority and influence to: “Try cases, appear as witnesses to deal with these cases, to show civilized behaviour, to show that we are a tolerant, progressive educated society and we do not tolerate honour killing."

MUSHARRAF PLEA ON 'HONOUR KILLINGS'
February 10, 2004 – (BBC) Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has called for an end to "the curse" of honour killings. He said that crimes committed in the name of family honour would be dealt with the full force of the government.

DIVIDED INDIAN - PAKISTANI FAMILIES GATHER
January 21, 2004 – (AP) Hajra Bibi held up her 1-year-old son on the Pakistani side of the Neelum River on Wednesday so her mother, across the rushing water on the Indian side, could see him for the first time.

PAKISTAN TV SHOW FLOODED WITH WOMEN'S QUESTIONS
January 20, 2004 – (WeNews) In Pakistan, a new U.S.-style television show is airing personal advice. The show is attracting a huge female audience anxious for advice on topics such as arranged marriages and sexual abuse.

VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN IN PAKISTAN SURGED IN 2003
January 5, 2004 – (UN Wire) One thousand cases of physical abuse and 826 cases of sexual abuse against children in Pakistan were reported by the media last year, according to a study by Madadgar, a joint venture of UNICEF and Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid. The number suggests a sharp increase in sexual violence against children, Pakistan Press International said Friday.

2003

PAKISTANI INQUIRY REVEALS DETAILS OF A WOMAN'S 'HONOR KILLING'
December 14, 2003 – (NYT) News of the death of Afsheen Musarrat, 22, quickly gave rise to speculation.

IN THE NAME OF LOVE
November 2003 – (Newsline – Karachi) Shaista Almani and Balakh Sher Mahar, a young couple from Ghotki in Sindh, who dared to marry against their families' wishes and reportedly fled the country fearing for their lives, have now been forcibly brought back to Ghotki to face a tribal jirga.

TILL DEATH DO US PART
November 2003 – (Newsline - Karachi) On October 8, 2003, Shazia Khaskheli and Mohammad Hassan Solangi, a young, recently married couple, were brutally murdered in Sanghar, Sindh. The murders followed hours of unimaginably inhuman torture inflicted on the victims, in full cognisance of thousands of townspeople - hundreds of whom were present at the scene - and the authorities. Shazia and Hasan were mowed down not for any crime, but simply because they had followed their hearts and married of their own choice. And their murder was not a crime of passion, but a premeditated execution.

POLICE MISLEADING COURT, SAYS LAWYER
November 19, 2003 – (The Daily Times) The Sukkur bench of the Sindh high court on Tuesday issued 17 notices, including ones to the district nazim of Ghotki, Rahim Bux Bozdar, in connection with the fresh application filed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan for the whereabouts of Shaista Almani and her husband Balkhsher Mehr.

PAKISTAN WOMEN'S RIGHTS TAKE CENTRE STAGE
November 11, 2003 – (BBC) Mullahs deface posters depicting women; zealots burn videotapes; female students are ordered to wear shawls and women prisoners suffer discrimination under medieval laws in the name of religion.

PROGRAM IN PAKISTAN TO PROMOTE WOMEN'S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
November 7, 2003 – (UN Wire) The U.N. Development Program is spearheading a five-year, $17 million government program in Pakistan to encourage female participation in politics and reduce gender discrimination in both the work force and domestic life, the UNDP announced yesterday.

PANO AQIL COUPLE CASE DELAYED AGAIN
November 4, 2003 – (The Daily Times) A division bench of the Sindh High Court of the Sukkur Circuit adjourned on Monday hearing the Pano Aqil couple case until Nov 18.

THEATRE-PAKISTAN: A WOMAN'S JOURNEY IS THEME OF NEW PLAY
October 31, 2003 - (IPS/GIN) In a ward at Qatar General Hospital, midwives and staff nurses jostle for space on the floor matting, watching the theatre group team arrange their few props. Others, curious about this activity in the hospital lobby, peered in from the staircase.

HUDOOD LAWS: EXTREMELY MISUSED
October 12, 2003 – (The News on Sunday – Pakistan) In line with the NCSW's recommendation that Hudood laws be repealed, many legal and religious experts hold that these laws do not fulfil the criteria for providing justice under national, international or religious law

FOR 45 PER CENT OF PAKISTANI WOMEN, VIOLENCE IS A WAY OF LIFE
September 25, 2003 – (Daily Times – Pakistan) Nilofar Bakhtiar, adviser to the prime minister on women‚s development, social welfare and special education, said here on Wednesday the present government was keen to protect domestic workers‚ rights with particular emphasis on female workers‚ rights. She was addressing the concluding session of the two-day national consultation on the domestic workers‚ rights organised by the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA). The national consultation discussed and several issues faced by the domestic workers in Pakistan and gave recommendations on the issue. She expressed regret that the issue of domestic workers‚ rights had not been considered a priority issue either by the government or civil society. She said the present government was keen to protect the rights of domestic workers, and asked the participants to send them concrete proposals to the ministry of law and justice, then to the cabinet and finally to the National Assembly for legislation.

MUSHARRAF HAS COMPROMISED WITH CLERGY - ZOHARA YOUSUF
September 22, 2003 – (Gulf News) Zohara Yousuf, a leading rights activist of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Women's Action Forum, has been campaigning for the repeal of the controversial Hudood Ordinance and Blasphemy Law since they were first promulgated by former military dictator General Ziaul Haq in 1979.

"HONOR KILLINGS" IN PAKISTAN REACH 631 THIS YEAR, GROUP SAYS
September 15, 2003 – (UN Wire) A human rights organization in Pakistan said today that at least 631 women and girls in the country have died in "honor killings" by male relatives since the beginning of the year, Associated Press reports.

SAFEGUARDING THE WOMEN' RIGHTS
September 14, 2003 – (Pakistan Facts Sheet, Issue No. 50) It is heartening that we have fair-minded elements in Pakistan who are able to analyze the situation of women objectively and make sensible suggestions. That can be said about the committee set up by the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) to look into the Hudood Ordinances.

MORE THAN 600 HONOR KILLINGS ANNUALLY IN PAKISTAN
September 12, 2003 – (ENAWA) Six hundred and thirty-one women and six girls have died at the hand of male family members in the first eight months of this year as a result of so-called 'honor killings.' The human rights organisation Madadgaar (Urdu for 'helper'), a collaborative project of the Pakistani Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA) and UNICEF, publicised these findings yesterday according to a report by the Associated Press.

DEMO HELD FOR REPEAL OF HUDOOD ORDINANCE
September 12, 2003 – (Dawn – Pakistan) A demonstration was organized by the Joint Action Committee for People's Rights (JACPR) for the repeal of Hudood Ordinance and certain other laws regarded as discriminatory against women, minorities and marginalized sections of the society.

WOMEN'S COMMISSION AND HUDOOD ORDINANCES
September 12, 2003 – (Daily Times, Op-Ed – Pakistan) The contradictions of the Whipping Ordinance are surpassed only by its absurdities. It attempts to make humane what is manifestly inhuman

YET ANOTHER WOMEN'S COMMISSION
September 5, 2003 – (The Daily Times, Editorial – Pakistan) The National Commission on the Status of Women under the chairmanship of Justice Majida Rizvi has once again recommended that the Hudood Law be repealed as it degraded women, deprived them of their full rights and made the law of evidence iniquitous. Two members of the Commission - one of them is understandably Dr S.M. Zaman from the Council of Islamic Ideology - have not agreed to the recommendations as against 16 members who have backed them. The Commission was given the task of improving the status of women in Pakistan in May 2002.

PANEL WANTS DISCRIMINATORY LAWS SCRAPPED
September 3, 2003 – (Reuters Arab News) A government-appointed commission in Pakistan called yesterday for the abolition of laws that rights activists say discriminate against women.

ACTION URGED ON PAKISTAN ACID ATTACKS
August 7, 2003 – (BBC) MPs in Pakistan's Punjab Province have urged tougher sentencing for people convicted of acid attacks on women… A resolution passed in the state assembly on Tuesday called for national legislation that would treat such attacks as attempted murder.

PROTECTION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS SOUGHT
July 25, 2003 – (DAWN) The government should not only chalk out comprehensive policies for the protection of women rights but also ensure their implementation in letter and spirit.

PAKISTANIS ABROAD TRICK DAUGHTERS INTO MARRIAGE
May 15, 2003 – (Christian Science Monitor) When Neelum Aziz visited Kashmir for the first time last year, the young British girl couldn't wait to explore her family's home village. But her parents had something else in mind.

PAKISTAN'S FIRST FEMALE MARSHALS TAKE TO THE SKIES
April 10, 2003 – (WEnews) Inspired by the post-Sept. 11 demand for tighter airline security, 19 women are becoming air marshals for the Pakistan Airport Security Forces. More will likely follow. Trained in all the martial arts, they will also be armed.

HONOUR KILLINGS AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ARE DEPRESSINGLY COMMON STILL IN PAKISTAN
January 9, 2003 - (IRIN) Jamila Khan, (not her real name) was confident when she described her narrow escape from an honour killing in Pakistan's Punjab Province. "Women were always hated in my household. My mother hated having girls," the 25-year-old told IRIN in the Pakistani, capital, Islamabad.

2002

461 HONOR KILLINGS OF WOMEN REPORTED IN TWO PROVINCES IN PAKISTAN
December 12, 2002 – (UN Wire) Pakistan's main human rights body said yesterday that at least 461 women were reported killed by family members in so-called "honor killings" this year in Punjab and Sindh provinces, up from 372 reported last year, which it said shows the need for increased protection for Pakistani women. The conservative Balochistan and Northwest Frontier provinces were not included in the report, which suggests the number of actual killings could be higher.

“STOVE DEATHS” OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN
November 6, 2002 – (ENAWA) In the last eight years, more than 4,000 women in Pakistan have been doused in kerosene and burned alive by family members -- predominantly husbands or in-laws -- in the area surrounding the capital Islamabad, according to a recent article by freelance journalist Juliette Terzieff, and published online at womensnews.

POWELL SHOULD PROMOTE WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY
July 29, 2002 - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell should address violence against women and the military government's proposed changes to the constitution during his visit to Pakistan, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to him released today.

LAWS AGAINST WOMEN IN PAKISTAN
May 2002 - Rape victim Zafran Bibi was sentenced to death by stoning by a session court in Kohat under Hudood Laws for alleged adultery. This tragic case once again exposes the tyranny of Hudood Laws for women. Ever since its promulgation in 1980, the law has been subject to gross misinterpretation and misuse due to its inherent flaws and the misogyny of our judiciary and the society

2001

TRIBAL CUSTOM FROCES GIRLS INTO “COMPENSATION MARRIAGES”
August 20, 2001 – (IRIN) ISLAMABAD, 20 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - A tribal custom which forces families to give their daughters away in marriage as "compensation" to aggrieved parties is deeply entrenched in local culture and needs to be handled very carefully, according to analysts and rights activists.

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