HYDERABAD: Awami Tehreek leader Rasool Bux Palijo has called for ridding society of tyrannical and barbaric anti-woman system which forces people to remain silent over atrocities against women.

Mr Palijo said at a big rally organised by Sindhiani Tehreek here on Sunday against rising incidents of violence against women that society could not exist under such suffocating system.

He urged all people who believed in humanity to give due respect to woman who had taken care of this world for centuries. A man who did not respect his mother, sister, daughter and wife was not a man at all, he said.

AT president Ghulam Nabi Khoso said that society was based on tyranny and the question as to what kind of system was established after independence remained unanswered till this day.

He said that it was a system which failed to serve justice to the wronged and the establishment had produced beasts to safeguard it. The creators of this system themselves had now become scared of it, he said.

The laws framed by Generals Ayub and Zia existed on statute book even this day and no assembly could dare do away with them, he said.

He said that today edicts were issued against poetry of Bhitai because the society had failed to act upon the principles laid down by Latif and Sachal in their poetry. Slavery and excesses always existed in anti-women society and Sindh must resist this ignorance, he said.

Sindhiani Tehreek president Shamshad Leghari raised questions over the present democratic system in which women were murdered and subjugated. Thousa­nds of murder cases of women remained pending trials and girls were killed either in the name of honour or for vested interests, she said.

She held rulers responsible for their utter failure to recover Fazila Sarki despite a lapse of 11 years and said that Sindh’s daughters were made to suffer all kinds of insults for a paltry sum of Rs2,000 being doled out to them in the name of Benazir Income Support Progra­mme.

Women Action Forum activist Amar Sindhu said that women were killed in cold blood and then their cases were decided in tribal jirga.

Mother of slain Tania Khaskheli said that her two remaining daughters wanted to get education but her family felt increasingly insecure after Tania’s murder, which had led to their displacement and occupation of livestock and house.

Despite her entreaties, the chief minister did not listen to her during his recent visit, she said.

Sindhi Adabi Sangat secretary general Ahmed Solangi, Hoorunnisa Palijo, Noor Banu Mallah and others also spoke at the rally.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2017