KARACHI: The Uks Research Centre launched its annual desk diary titled “Women of Pakistan say there is no ‘honour’ in killing” at a gathering on Sunday.

Uks is a resource-based publication centre dedicated to the cause of gender equality and women development, and this is the 19th diary launched since its inception in 1998.

The yearly diary boasts of an informative compilation of old and new clippings from the print media. The team at Uks painstakingly collected, compiled and collated material from the past several decades from its own archives as well as from other places.

The director of Uks spoke about the need to understand what is ‘honour’ and why the entire burden falls upon women. “The concept of ‘honour’ killing in all its hideous manifestations has been chosen as the theme for this year’s desk diary.”

She mentioned that the diary unfolds the print media’s take on ‘honour’ killings. “This year’s diary, like the previous ones, aims at providing food for thought for the readers and also leads them to positive thinking. ‘Honour’ crimes are now actually being written and spoken about as ‘dishonour’ killings and that’s what we, the public, need to reinforce.”

A radio programme based on Uks’s media monitoring was also played for the participants at the launch. The 10-minute programme focused on how every word the media writes or speaks, every dialogue that is delivered in a drama, has a very strong impact on viewers, listeners and readers. The programme included clips of various news headlines and a few dialogues from ongoing television serials indicating that the entertainment media, as much as news and current affairs reportage and opinion, play an important role in influencing society as well as in reflecting the various shades of the social fabric.

The participants lauded the efforts of Uks in trying to monitor and sensitise the media.

Published in Dawn January 31st, 2017