ISLAMABAD, May 5: A three-day learning forum on Gender Equality Project (GEP) concluded here on Friday by calling for repealing discriminatory laws and framing protective laws to end violence against women in the country.

Organised by the British Council with the support of the British government’s Department for International Development (DFID) the forum brought together policymakers, donor agencies, politicians and civil society organizations to develop a shared vision of the policy on women’s empowerment and gender equality.

Their policy recommendations dealt with women’s political, legal and economic empowerment, emphasising that the task of empowering women was a shared responsibility.

Wider structures of policy and democracy were needed to challenge male domination and patriarchal culture of the society, the participants stressed.

In their discussions, they observed that socio-cultural frameworks create conditions of subordination, low investment and restrict women’s movement.

Women’s access to political power needed to be linked with redistributive justice and access to resources, said the speakers suggesting that women’s relationship with the state should not be mediated through families or any other community structures.

They wanted the family laws to be strengthened, especially in areas of divorce, marriage, maintenance and custody of children. They asked members of the bar to provide legal aid to the poor and the vulnerable sections of the society.

It was also suggested that legal aid clinics be established in all law schools throughout the country.

Civil society organizations and experts should be involved in planning and delivery of programmes and teaching, the forum said.

It called for change in the patriarchal mindset and its manifestations at micro and macro levels. Direct interventions were needed at individual and policy level to catalyse women’s economic empowerment.

Other recommendations by the forum included change of text books and language that reproduce systems of female subordination, strengthen women’s self-esteem, close gender gaps in access to education, use affirmative action to overcome obstacles for women to enter paid work.

The speakers at the concluding session on women’s economic empowerment shared their views on implementation of relevant ILO conventions and an end to unprotected home based work, wages discrimination and sexual harassment.—Lamia Zia