Islamabad. 25th November, 2017: In her message on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Senator Sehar Kamran (TI) said the premise of this day is to raise awareness by recognizing the fact that violence against women, and highlight that women globally are not only subject to domestic violence, but all other forms of violence, including honour killing, watta/satta, rape, female genital mutilation/cutting, among others. She said according to the UN, around the world, more than one in three women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence in their lives; 750 million women were married before age 18, and more than 250 million have undergone female genital mutilation. In this regard, she said her bill on ‘The Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill, 2017’ is a humble effort to protect the future of our girls and the country.
Senator Kamran said no society or country in the world can achieve greatness without addressing the systemic discrimination against women in the form of violence, because violence against women is the extreme form of discrimination. She stated that despite multiple articles related to protection of women rights in the Constitution, a lot needs to be still done as Pakistan lags behind in preventing violence against women and providing them with justice. She said no significant change can be without the implementation of law in its true letter and spirit which remains a serious challenge.
Senator Sehar Kamran said it is a fact that violence against women doesn’t just harm women but it weakens societies and their path to progress and development. How can any country develop when almost half of is population is being discriminated against physically and mentally? She stated that research shows that conflict is prevalent in those areas around the world where there are high rates of violence against women. All segments of society must work together to eliminate this menace from society, she added.