In Great Britain, which we try to emulate, any husband who ridicules his wife for her bad looks or being fat will be booked for the offence of ‘domestic violence.’ While in Pakistan subjecting a woman, especially a wife, to ever level of barbarity is considered the husband’s matrimonial right. Out of the hundreds of cases of killings, burning alive and acid throwing only a reach the news. Recently in Sukkar, a woman was killed for shaking hands with an uncle, and the whole village agreed to this and they unleashed hounds on her. This happened in broad daylight and the whole village watched ferocious dogs tearing her flesh. The woman managed to run away to her parent’s home. To add insult to injury the local police refused to lodge a case against the husband!
There is no dearth of laws in Pakistan to guard the safety of women and there is also countless number of Human Right NGOs receiving large sums from foreign countries, but incidents of this kind do not attract their attention. There is definitely a great need for bringing a change to the mind-set of the people, especially of the rural society to convert them from barbarians to enlightened human beings.
They take new inventions such as cars and fridges for granted but would not change their attitude to become more humane. We urgently need to set some standards and punish such criminals so that a new precedent is set.
SAYED GB SHAH BOKHARI,
Peshawar, August 30.