Pakistan is ranked 145th out of 146 nations in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, with Afghanistan being the only nation with a worse ranking.
According to a study by the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat for Protection Against Harassment (FOSPAH), the organisation registered 398 cases of harassment from 2013 to 2018, and 5,008 cases from 2018 to 2022.
According to the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat’s report, 1,000 courts were designated in 2019 to handle women’s issues with the goal of making the home and larger society safe for them.
Additionally, it was noted that 40% of married women experience harassment, and 32% of gender-based crimes victimise women.
Women have been enduring fear and the severe psychological effects of the terrible act since the F-9 Park rape in Islamabad.
Two armed men are accused of forcing a woman to consent to a rape in Islamabad’s F-9 park in February of this year. According to the first information report (FIR), the case broke two days later, shocking the nation with the brazenness of the offenders who approached the victim at the park while she was with a coworker.
A lawyer who focuses on women’s problems, Rabia Shahzad Malik, stated that some incidents of violence against women have resulted in convictions, fines against the culprits, and even life imprisonment.
Domestic abuse and violence laws has also been passed in the meantime. The attorney noted that 1,000 courts had been established to hear cases involving gender.
Malik added that these instances will be prosecuted by public prosecutors without charge and without disclosing the identify of the woman, and that their trials will take place in a “short time period”.
An advocate for women’s rights named Tasneem Ahmer stated that it is more crucial to train kids than it is to train the police to deal with crimes that are motivated by gender.
Women officers are now being accepted into the force, and each police station has been converted into a female-only cell, according to a report by the Islamabad Police.
In order to reduce crimes against women, the study also stated that female police teams will patrol various areas of the federal capital.
