THE Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Act, 2006 enacted on Dec 1, 2006 was the culmination of more than twenty-seven years of protests against the Zina and Qazf Ordinances.

Its avowed aim was to bring these ordinances in conformity with the injunctions of Islam and the principles of social justice enshrined in the Constitution. Although it may be interesting to assess whether and to what extent the Act fulfils these objectives, it is perhaps more important to determine what it actually does to protect women.

In the fifteen months since its enactment, no cases have been decided under the Act and its provisions remain judicially untested. Does the absence of reported cases suggest that women are now better protected? To answer this question it is nearly as important to trace the circumstances surrounding the genesis of the Act, as it is to understand its provisions.

The Act amends the Zina and Qazf Ordinances promulgated during the wave of Islamisation in the late 1970s. These ordinances had dramatically altered the law relating to adultery, rape, kidnapping a woman for marriage and buying and selling a minor for prostitution. Interestingly, despite their Islamic underpinnings, these edicts applied to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

The Zina Ordinance replaced the offences of adultery and rape with Zina and Zina-bil-jabr respectively. Unlike adultery and rape for which only men could be held liable, for Zina and Zina-bil-jabr both men and women were liable to the punishment of Hadd, which entailed whipping or even stoning to death.

This punishment however could only be awarded if four male, adult Muslim eyewitnesses gave testimony against the accused (absurdly for non-Muslim accused only non-Muslim eyewitnesses would suffice). If however the requisite number of eyewitnesses were not available the accused could only be punished with the maximum imprisonment of ten years for Zina and twenty-five years for Zina-bil-jabr. Also, if it transpired in the course of Zina proceedings that the accusation had been false, the false accuser could only be punished in independent proceedings initiated under the Qazf Ordinance.

The provisions of the Zina and Qazf Ordinances had the potential to work against women and did, particularly when a woman married against the will of her family or when she was raped. A woman who married of her own choice could be falsely accused of Zina by her family members and be prosecuted if she failed to produce a nikahnama. A victim of rape could find herself being punished for Zina because she had not raised sufficient hue and cry against her aggressor.

And, a woman who was gang-raped could watch her aggressors walk free because the Zina Ordinance did not prescribe a punishment lesser than death and the court did not feel justified—on technical grounds—in awarding the death penalty! These injustices were showcased in the period 2002-2005 in the case of Mukhtar Mai.

The procedural hardships she faced in trying to bring her culprits to book exposed the shortcomings of the law and the biases of the system and gave impetus to the movement for reform. Perhaps having germinated against this backdrop, the Act naturally focused on rape and on facilitating the judicial process. It deleted Zina-bil-jabr from the books and reintroduced rape in the Penal Code. According to its new definition only men may be liable for rape—which some may argue is retrogressive even though it benefits women! Sexual intercourse between a man and wife may be rape if it is against the wife’s will.

Sexual intercourse with girls below sixteen, whether with or without their consent is also rape—although underage boys are not similarly protected. Most significantly, the testimony of four male eyewitnesses is no longer required to secure punishment for the offence, which may now only range from death, to imprisonment or fine. For persons guilty of gang-rape, the Act provides the alternate punishment of life imprisonment.

The Act also introduces the new offence of fornication, which although identical in substance to Zina, requires the testimony of only two eyewitnesses and is not liable to Hadd but only to imprisonment extending to five years.

The Act has certainly improved the legal process. Unlike the Zina and Qazf Ordinances, which required FIRs to be lodged with the police, the Act allows complaints of Zina and fornication to be filed directly in the courts, with the objective perhaps of discouraging frivolous complaints and potential harassment of victims at the hands of the police. The Act however does not consolidate Zina and Qazf proceedings and a woman falsely accused of Zina is still required to file independent proceedings under the Qazf Ordinance to have her accuser punished.

The Act also does nothing to facilitate proceedings in cases of rape. As with offences generally, proceedings in these cases may only be initiated with a FIR. The Act neither relaxes the evidentiary and procedural rules for women nor mandates the presence of female court officers at any stage of the proceedings.

Legal reform is only an aspect of social progress. It cannot prevent real or imaginary grievances of Zina from being ‘settled’ out of court with the axe, the pistol or the trusty kitchen fire, nor can it wash away the stigma attached to rape, which prevents women from seeking recourse from courts.

The success of any law therefore lies not in its ability to eradicate social evils but in its capacity to act as a deterrent and to provide easy access to justice. Measured against this yardstick, the absence of reported judgments in matters of Zina suggests that the Act may have curtailed frivolous Zina complaints and therefore succeeded as a deterrent.

More disturbingly, the absence of reported judgments in rape cases, suggests that the Act has failed to provide a stimulus to the institution of genuine rape proceedings, and has therefore faltered in providing easy access to justice to the very women it purports to protect. Even though the full measure of the effectiveness of the Act may only be had once it has been submitted to judicial scrutiny, it clearly marks the first, perhaps most difficult step in affording women the rightful and much needed protection under law.

IS it a day of celebration for women in Pakistan? You would ask. What would a woman celebrate in this country, with its entrenched patriarchy, its killing fields, its one brand of men who kill women for ‘honour’ and another brand who bomb girls’ schools?

From up north to down south and from east to west, you read and watch stories in the media that trouble your soul and make you wonder if women in this country would ever live a life of dignity, respect and freedom. ‘Not in your life time’, you shake your head in gloom.

Let’s take a pause and a closer look. The life of women has indeed changed in your own lifetime; your life is better than your mother’s. Or is it not? If you belong to a privileged class you might say that the sense of freedom your mother recollects, such as the kind she experienced in public spaces in the 1950s and the 60s in this country, you certainly have not known. Or some similar observations may make you feel that conditions were better in this country for women back then. But ask any young woman in any god-forsaken village, or in any bursting-at-the-seams city, whether her life is better than her mother’s and you will find her nodding in agreement. And she will wax eloquent about how she can do things her mother never imagined or will share dreams that her mother never dared to dream.

You may argue that this scenario contradicts what our researchers, development analysts, human rights activists and statisticians tell us about the status of women. But differing perspectives, both macro and micro, do not question or undermine the veracity of their findings as truth has many layers and is multi-dimensional. And its layers and dimensions can appear contradictory. The truth is that the life of our women is changing for the better. And the truth is: this change is slow, not dramatic or revolutionary.

The truth is also the fact that there is a backlash of increasing women’s empowerment linked mainly to the peculiar patriarchy of the region and partly to the backlash of the US-led ‘war on terror’ in Pakistan. The truth is: women’s empowerment is tied to the social and political fabric of society and deeply linked to the empowerment of all strata of society, particularly the poor and the vulnerable.

My continuing association with the NGO sector, since the mid 1990s, has allowed me many glimpses into the lives of countless women, both individually and collectively, in various habitats and diverse social milieu. Whether these young women are football stitchers in Sialkot, factory workers in Multan and Faisalabad, cotton-pickers in lower Sindh, primary school teachers in Dadu, cattle raisers in Thar, lady health visitors in Shahdadpur, housewives in Mingora, councillors in Lahore, or textile workers in Karachi, threads of individual resistance, collective struggle and hope are interwoven in their life patterns. Young married women have two foremost goals; a good education for their children and decent earnings for the household whereas young girls nurture dreams of continuing their education and marrying a man of their own choice.

At a macro level the gains women have made in accessing opportunities are modest and limited to a few areas. Female literacy has risen from 36.9 per cent in 2001-02 to 40.6 per cent in 2005-06. The net enrolment rate for primary schooling has increased from 38 per cent to 48 per cent during this period.

Life expectancy of females at birth is now slightly better at 63.2 per cent, than that of males which is 62.8 per cent and the sex ratio has declined — both positive indicators — from 108 in 1998 to 105 in 2006-07. Female labour force participation has increased from 15.9 per cent in 2003-04 to 18.9 in 2005-06. Political participation of women has also improved with 33 per cent seats reserved in local councils, 21 per cent in the parliament and 17 per cent seats in the Senate.

Viewed from a global perspective, these gains are minuscule compared to the giant strides women have taken elsewhere. Under Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) for women’s economic and political participation, decision-making and power over economic resources, Pakistan is placed at a dismal 82nd position out of 93 countries. Women who have fewer opportunities to access basic rights, such as education, health and skills, are unable to benefit from a productive labour market and from technological advancements and those who are counted as employed are engaged in low skill, low wage economic activities. The majority of our female labour force — 59.2 per cent — works as unpaid or poorly paid family helpers. Also, violence against women is growing with the widening divide between the rich and the poor and with the rising conflict between the forces of tradition and modernity.

Despite constraints and a disabling environment, women have continued their struggles for equality and dignity on many fronts — legislative, social, political — at both personal and collective levels. Although it is not a concerted, unified process that could be termed as a broad-based, visible social movement, the last four decades have witnessed the expansion of women’s struggles in various forms.

The 1970s witnessed the birth of a few organisations of educated urban women concerned with women’s deteriorating status in society. In the early 1980s the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) emerged as a pressure group to challenge Gen Ziaul Haq’s Islamisation campaign. The 1990s spawned hundreds of women’s grassroots groups and organisations in rural areas as a response to escalating poverty and gender inequality.

Facilitated by national support NGOs, these community-based organisations focused on women’s access to education, health and micro-credit. In the current decade, marked by many global events after 9/11, women in Pakistan face three challenges — neo-liberal economic policies, growing militarisation and rising fundamentalism. Undermining of public economic control and accountability, erosion of labour rights and the growing exclusion of the marginalised and the poor have impacted our women the most. Pakistan’s alignment with the US-led ‘war on terror’ has accelerated fundamentalist backlash and intensified localised insurgencies.

The state-versus-‘terrorists’ wars have led to the loss of lives and property of innocent civilians, caused economic hardships and displaced large numbers of families. In armed conflicts, beside emotional traumas and losses, the burden of economic survival and care of the family falls largely on women. Today, there exist a significant number of active women’s groups, resource centres and organisations engaged in mobilising and sensitising grassroots women as well as policy makers on gender issues and women’s rights.

In recent struggles for control over resources — for land rights by Anjuman Mazaren Punjab, and for control over water resources by Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum — women have been in the forefront. How these diffused struggles and sporadic bursts of mobilisation are transformed into a sustained and unifying movement and translated into policy measures remains to be seen.

One of the keys lies in grassroots activists, academicians, parliamentarians and policy makers — not just feminists but both men and women — joining forces on a single platform. Ideally, political parties should have taken up this role. But unfortunately none of the political parties, in government or in opposition, have taken up the task of ensuring a dignified and equal status in society to women with resolute will and sincerity. Let us hope that the new government will chart out a workable strategy to achieve this dream.

IT is Women’s Day 2008 and I’m inviting men to start a men’s liberation movement. I can sense knitted brows and furrowed foreheads, but men, I’m not being facetious when I talk of your liberation. Liberation from what, you might ask.

Well, from the prison of gender roles most men are locked into. Just in case you hadn’t noticed, “Macho men, with six pack abs, and a severely restricted emotional vocabulary are no longer the most sought-after long-term partners women are looking for.” Which is not surprising.

Considering we are living in the information age, we no longer need men to function as hunters, sole providers, and protectors. Far more desirable are men who are better listeners, who can share feelings as readily as diaper duty, and don’t feel emasculated if it is their turn to get dinner ready. And the real man, women will tell you, can handle this role-sharing without feeling as if his manhood is being assaulted.

For it is this very entrenched idea of traditional masculinity that men seem so reluctant to let go of. About time men realise that this obstinate hanging on is sounding the death knell of relations between the sexes. We know that men of quality are not threatened by women’s equality. Most well-meaning men have been involved in some way or the other in ensuring women’s equality in the domestic sphere as well as economic, political and social realms.

However, what I’m suggesting is that well-meaning men reverse the focus of their efforts from saving women towards saving their fellow men. Women’s movements have taken on the task of liberating women from their traditionally prescribed gender roles. But no such liberation has taken place yet for men on a large scale.

There are fledgling men’s groups in different parts of the world but these have not built up to a mass movement. What I am suggesting is that men need to defect in large numbers from their prescribed gender roles and embrace a more inclusive, less rigidly defined masculinity.

No long-lasting change occurs unless it is beneficial for those who change. The benefits of changing for men are many. Research shows that men who take on parenting responsibilities actually perform better professionally. A high emotional IQ, which parenting engenders, helps men in their professional roles too.

It is already well-known that men’s tough and silent outer stance is not good for their health or longevity. Their reluctance to seek help, a need to always appear in control, and their tendency to mask emotional problems predisposes many men to violent and high-risk behaviours. And high-risk behaviours make them more likely than women to die in road accidents, of fatal diseases, heart attacks, and addictions —whether the addictions are to drugs and alcohol, or to achievement and overwork. You would think these are serious enough reasons for men to take up as clarion calls to change.

And yet, men are not talking about changing, they are not connecting with other men to discuss change. There is a puzzling silence among them on issues related to their gender. I sense a deep inner loneliness and confusion among many men of the younger generation. They might have some idea as to what’s gone wrong, what needs to be done, but are reluctant to let go of the power they have enjoyed as males historically.

The world is in a pretty bad shape due to men’s aggressive stance on conflict. Again the cult of the warrior male is predominantly responsible. More and more men are in prison, more are dying as a consequence of ethnic and sectarian conflicts and needless wars. But it is difficult if not impossible to imagine male world leaders engaging in mutual dialogue to promote peace. Ever wondered why? Why is it farcical to imagine the world’s most powerful political and business leaders, most of whom are men, sitting together in monk-like silence, respectfully meditating on world problems? Non-violent means of conflict resolution requires the cultivation of feminine traits of empathy, listening, negotiating, and collaboration. And these traits are precisely the ones men are ashamed to adopt.

It is Women’s Day and I’m extending an invitation to men to take on the heroic task of changing the world by changing the male-dominated power structure of social and intimate relations. Men, why not start a men’s group in your workplace or neighbourhood? Be willing to take tips from women leaders in your family and community. Go to the net for ideas. Websites of groups such as The White Ribbon Campaign, XY masculinities, and A Call to Men, provide creative ideas for discussions and campaigns. If you falter or feel bashful starting a grassroots men’s movement, take heart. Scores of women will applaud you. You will be the true heroes.