KARACHI, July 29: Speakers at a workshop here on Saturday stressed on launching an awareness campaign regarding gender equality in order to counter the menace of discrimination and exploitation of womenfolk in society.

The workshop, on How to Prevent Violence Against Women was organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

The speakers said that unless the mindset of the society was changed, the womenfolk would continue to be exploited and discriminated against in Pakistan.

They said that end to discrimination should start at home, being first place of learning for a child. Therefore, a family should stop giving preferences to a male child over the female one. The male child be taught to give due respect to females.

The speakers also asked the government to review textbooks as the same contained gender bias in a very sophisticated way, and children just grow up with such things like a girl child helping her mother in cooking or household chores while the boy child would be out playing. The text and photos in the books would show a woman busy in household affairs while a man smoking. The schoolchildren who are in the reformatory age get influenced by it and they grow up with a similar mindset.

They pointed out that the attitude of police often appeared hostile towards the women approaching them to lodge a complaint regarding violence she would be subjected to. They suggested that gender sensitisation training be provided to police and members of the lower judiciary who happened to be the first people to be approached by a woman victim of violence.

They suggested that women be made aware of their rights to ensure the required courage in them to stand up and seek justice in case of being subjected to violence. They said that many a times, such cases would be withdrawn or statements changed under family pressure on victims. In such a situation, a culprit would evade punishment.

They demanded strict implementation of the superior judiciary order declaring the parallel judicial system of jirgas illegal. They said that jirgas were still being held and government did not do much against the illegal practice.

They also demanded that specific laws be formulated against sexual harassment at workplaces so that women could perform their duties in every sphere of life with peace of mind.

Those who spoke at the workshop included I. A. Rehman, Iqbal Haider, Zohra Yusuf, Ghazi Salahuddin, Nayer Hasnain, Kaiser Bengali, Zakia Sarwar, Saira Kazmi, Amar Sindhu, Mohammad Shahid and Beena Sarwar.

Uzma Noorani conducted the proceedings.