RAWALPINDI: At some point in life, 70pc of women have to face torture, which includes beatings, acid throwing, nose cutting, rape and other forms of abuse.

This was disclosed by Dr Saima Hamid, vice chancellor of Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU) while addressing participants of a five-day training workshop for lady victim support officer of a cell dealing with harassment of and violence against women.

The workshop was organised at the Police Lines Headquarters in collaboration with Fatima Jinnah Women’s university FJWU on Monday.

Dr Hamid presented alarming facts about violence rate in Pakistan and emphasized the need for tailor made training workshops for the professionals who can help the victims. She said this workshop would be a cornerstone on building long term partnership between academia and police.

The focal person for the training programme assistant professor Dr Sajida Naz, along with experts from various allied departments will deliver practice based sessions where participants will gain knowledge about how to assist a victim with trauma.

Dr Hamid said the purpose of the training workshop was to enhance the abilities of lady victim support officers of Rawalpindi police so that they could provide moral, legal, social and psychological support to the female victims of violence and sexual harassment.

Following the vision of Inspector General of Police Punjab, a training workshop for Lady Victim Support Officers of Anti-Women Harassment and Violence Cell has been started.

In the first session of the training workshop, SSP Investigation Ghazanfar Ali Shah also addressed the participants and thanked Fatima Jinnah University for its cooperation.

In the first session of the training workshop, SSP Investigation Ghazanfar Ali Shah also addressed and thanked Fatima Jinnah University for the cooperation.

The aim of the training workshop is to increase the awareness and capacity of the victim support officers for the legal, social and psychological support of the affected women as per the requirements of modern times.

Victim support officers will be trained to provide better assistance to the affected women in legal, psychological and social aspects. The workshop is being attended by 45 female police officers from constable to DSPs rank.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2021