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| June 15, 2005 | Wednesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 7, 1426 |
Darul Aman: Apwa awaiting probe report
PESHAWAR, June 14: The All Pakistan Women’s Association (Apwa) is contemplating closing down its decade-old shelter in the city following allegations that women living there are forced into prostitution. Apwa chairperson Begum Zari Sarfaraz in a letter to general secretary Ayesha Bukhari, who looks after the affairs of Darul Aman, hinted at its closure after she heard rumours about the alleged involvement of some staff in the immoral trade.
“Apwa has not yet decided to close it down and is waiting for the inquiry into the allegations to complete. But most of the board members are in favour of closing the institution as these allegations have earned it a bad name,” said Ms Bukhari, who is associated with Apwa since 1976.
The regional directorate of the ministry of law, justice and human rights took notice of a news item published in an Urdu daily on April 14, 2005 about forced prostitution in Darul Aman and asked the social welfare directorate to investigate the matter.
Robina Riaz, the inquiry officer, told Dawn that she had completed the probe and submitted the finding to the provincial social welfare directorate which would forward the report to the ministry for action.
Apwa director Sitara Ayaz, who described the news item as baseless, said there were 16 women in Darul Aman and most of them were victims of domestic violence. She said the inmates remained busy in woodwork, carpet weaving and sewing and added that those who were educated were doing private jobs.
“They are in a shelter house and not in a jail. They go out for jobs and shopping, but it does not mean that they are engaged in illegal activities,” she stressed.
“Nobody has the proof that women of the shelter house are forced into prostitution. Such rumours are spread just to harass Apwa workers,” Ms Sitara said.
Apwa, she said, had helped 15 women to get married into honourable families. There were some cases in which inmates went missing or ran away, she said. Those women were not of good character and they could not survive within the protected walls of Darul Aman, she added.
Inmates Shamshad, Rukhsana and others told Dawn that most of them had been living in Darul Aman for the past three years and they felt protected in it.
“If we were forced into prostitution or involved in any illegal business we would not have been living there,” said Rukhsana.
Zamrina, an aged inmate, said her husband had married a younger woman and expelled her from the house. “If the shelter house is closed I have no place to go to in this old age,” she said.
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