PESHAWAR: After consulting stakeholders and experts, the Provincial Commission on the Status of Women, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has planned to launch a pilot project to provide a police desk, forensics and medico-legal services under one roof for women rape survivors.

“There is no data of such cases but it doesn’t mean sexual violence or rape is not an issue here in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The issue is that rape survivors don’t speak up due to shame and lack of a support mechanism. We want to support them under this pilot project,” Neelam Turo, chairperson of the KPPCSW, told Dawn during a two-day consultation on the issues faced by such women.

The PCSW organised the event, which concluded on Wednesday, to design a KP-specific initiative on violence against women through a consultative process by bringing together stakeholders.

Activist says such women disgraced at medicolegal examination centres, police stations and courts

The draft or outline was developed for the PCSW Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to initiate a pilot project to support and facilitate rape survivors in Peshawar.

The main partners for the initiative include Rozan, Foundation Open Society Institute Pakistan (FOSIP) and International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

The consultation, which brought together researchers and practitioners from across the country, highlighted their findings on legal, medical and policing matters in cases of sexual crimes against women and follow-up discussions pointed out existing initiatives and gaps by practitioners and participants.

Neelam Turo said the people discussed divorces, child marriages and domestic violence but ignored the serious issue of rape that had silenced many women.

“Women who have been raped feared coming out in the open to access justice due to stigma and hurdles they face at police stations, forensic labs during medic-legal examination and investigation,” she said.

Robina Naz, a member of PSCW and a lawyer, said women rape survivors were disgraced at medicolegal examination centres, police stations and courts and that they were unable to narrate their ordeal due to stigma. The entire environment is such that their rape case gets mishandled.

She said from registering an FIR at the police station to appearing in the courts, such women went through so much humiliation and that most of them often gave up in the middle.

“The courts should hold in-camera proceedings of such case so that a woman rape survivors could speak and present her case,” said Robina Naz.

She said judiciary in KP was gender-sensitive but from registration of FIR to investigation, a rape survivor case was often so weak and full of lacunas that such women went through hell while fighting for justice.

Farzana Bari, a researcher, highlighted how police being the face of the state was unable to help such survivors.

She said the police stations with very few women officers were places which women rape survivors feared contacting.

The chairs of the women commission at national level and Sindh and Punjab provinces discussed gaps and provided comprehensive recommendations for addressing issues related to lacunas in laws and its implementation, in policing, and in forensics.

Khawar Mumtaz, chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women and a rights activist, said the patriarchal mindset of the state and society was biggest hurdle to women survivors of violence.

She said trainings of police alone were not enough and that the rights activists needed to raise awareness of the issues with evidence and data.

She said instead of creating separate complaint or gender cells at various government departments, there was a need for cohesive effort and mechanism to help women victims of violence.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2017