ISLAMABAD: A discussion in the Senate on the annual report of the National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) on Friday took a bizarre turn when a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker attempted to justify honour killing and ridiculed women’s rights movements.

“Honour killing is a problem,” Senator Mohsin Aziz admitted but in the same breath said honour and culture were important too. He said that women should lead their lives in accordance with Shariah.

He also criticised the NGOs that organised the Aurat March protests across the country last year where slogans such as “heat up your own dinner” were chanted.

Pakistan Peoples Party’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman, while reacting to the remarks that linked culture and oppression of women, said: “When it comes to women’s rights I expect all parties to adopt a bipartisan approach in parliament. You cannot justify honour crimes or any other oppression, let alone condemn entire rights movements, in the name of culture. We [women] are neither a second gender nor will we condone honour crimes in this house.”

Thanking those who played a pivotal part in women’s rights movements over the decades, Ms Rehman said: “Those women spearheaded the women’s movement with an unprecedented bravery, offering invaluable sacrifices as they faced a dictator like Ziaul Haq. But we were not doing it for our own rights. We don’t fight for ourselves. We fight for those who are without privilege or power as honour crimes are mostly faced by those living in deeply vulnerable situations, in rural or tribal areas or situations where they don’t know their rights or are unable to exercise them, with no access to lawyers or justice.”

Ending her remarks on a lighter note, she said: “The new women’s movement too must be supported and if Senator Mohsin did not like slogans like ‘heat up your own dinner’ from last women’s demonstrations, he should be careful as we will make sure he has to heat up his own dinner too.”

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Nuzhat Sadiq said that the NCSW report pointed out that though steps had been taken in some areas like academia, corporate sector and media to improve conditions of women, yet concerted efforts were needed to uplift them in some sectors including rural women and home-based workers. Quoting one of the recommendations of the report, she said that a mechanism should be formed to collect data of those women who work in non-formal sectors, mostly home-based workers.

Jamaat-i-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmed quoting the report deplored that over 12 million women registered with the national registration authority were still missing from the electoral rolls.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2020