In a country where even protesting against violence against women is policed and seen as going ‘too far’, surveys, news reports, and survivors’ accounts shared on different forums try in vain to get the attention of both society and authorities. The latest such data comes from a report by the Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO), a research-based advocacy firm, has found that the Punjab Police registered the highest number of FIRs against cases involving violence against women and children in the first four months of the year 2023; over 12,000 cases were reported in Punjab. As many as 5,551 women were kidnapped during the same period in the province. This data shows that around two women are kidnapped every hour in Punjab. It is also true that most rape and harassment survivors prefer not to file an official complaint for they fear that sharing the trauma will make them restricted to their homes forever. Those who do are often met with victim blaming.

Violence against women has long remained an ignored topic, and lack of strict punishments and behaviour therapy for perpetrators only adds to the number. The speed with which the problem is increasing calls for the government to implement the existing laws strictly. Government leaders have to work with medical professionals and religious scholars to identify and rectify the underlying causes of this behaviour against women. It is time we taught men to treat women as an equal, and it is also important to build safe centres for women where they can file a complaint against their abusers without any harassment. This is an uphill task – and one that involves not just the very brave women who protest at the risk of their lives and their reputations but also the men of the country and the state itself. In matters of sexual and domestic violence, we need to start with police investigations. In so many cases, the police do not give the same weight to the testimony of women as it does to (mostly) influential men. The judicial system too seems to make it more difficult for women to get justice in such cases. It should not take extraordinary efforts on the part of women just to see violent men behind bars.

No country can progress when half of its citizens live in a constant state of fear. Pakistan is already witnessing a situation where people are leaving the country in large numbers. Besides the economic situation, lack of safety also makes individuals increasingly anxious. The fear of raising their families in an unsafe place compels most people to leave the country and settle somewhere safe. Nothing will really solve this problem until we, as a society, acknowledge the problem of violence against women and girls. Until then, the only sounds we will hear are the silent screams of women facing systemic violence.

News Published in The News