Headline from the Telegraph, as I scrolled their news feed for details about Baitullah Mehsood's death: Pakistan to Outlaw Domestic Violence.
I'm impressed-
Once the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill is enacted into law, Pakistan will become one of surprisingly few countries to have specific legislation on the issue of domestic violence.
Not only does the bill define domestic violence [acts of physical, sexual or mental assault, force, criminal intimidation, harassment, hurt, confinement and deprivation of economic or financial resources], or explicitly state the punishment (fines and jail terms) for offenders, it lays out provisions for relief for victims – relief that includes but isn't limited to simply financial compensation.
Additionally, the bill actually includes domestic help in their definition of those involved in a domestic relationship.
An editorial from The Daily Times proclaims:
When I worked at WAR, I found that often when legal proceedings began on rape cases, the police were unhelpful as they didn't believe that women needed a court case or legal justice, especially when they were married to the offender. The law addresses, and fixes, only one part of an intricate problem.Unfortunately, nothing will come of the law until we can convince the police that domestic violence is a crime, and one that they must punish.
I'm impressed-
Once the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill is enacted into law, Pakistan will become one of surprisingly few countries to have specific legislation on the issue of domestic violence.
Not only does the bill define domestic violence [acts of physical, sexual or mental assault, force, criminal intimidation, harassment, hurt, confinement and deprivation of economic or financial resources], or explicitly state the punishment (fines and jail terms) for offenders, it lays out provisions for relief for victims – relief that includes but isn't limited to simply financial compensation.
Additionally, the bill actually includes domestic help in their definition of those involved in a domestic relationship.
An editorial from The Daily Times proclaims:
Some wives will use it as the last resort. Some wife-bashers will be put to shame when a police station welcomes an FIR from a battered wife instead of telling her to go back home and live with violence. A domestic quarrel among the educated will now unfold in the full consciousness that blows will not follow harsh words from the husband. Among the poor, where husbands habitually thrash wives, the police can intervene to apply reconciliation together with the threat of incarceration.While a tad naive, the editorial points out an extremely important facet to the law- Pakistan's police must uphold the law and order.
When I worked at WAR, I found that often when legal proceedings began on rape cases, the police were unhelpful as they didn't believe that women needed a court case or legal justice, especially when they were married to the offender. The law addresses, and fixes, only one part of an intricate problem.Unfortunately, nothing will come of the law until we can convince the police that domestic violence is a crime, and one that they must punish.
Sometimes, I'll find myself in the car, driving somewhere from one end of Karachi to another.
Mostly, I'll be on Sharaah-E-Faisal, or by the KPT Underpass.
And then, I'll notice them. The traffic police.
Dressed in their white uniforms, in all their glory, they'll stand by their two-wheeled transport vehicles and gab to one another.
The car crossing the intersection during a red light? The motorcycle that turns illegally? The blatant misuse of u-turns at round-a-bouts? Riding pillion?
These should be the very things that Karachi's traffic police should stop. Tickets out of the wazoo could await them. The truth, unfortunately, is much more complex than "The police in Pakistan just don't care," a statement I've heard countless time.
Sociologically speaking, it's difficult for me to be irritated with a sector of the populace that's so abused, underpaid, and ill-educated.
When I came across this article about police in India on The Guardian [it's not long, click it], I found myself somewhat appalled, but not surprised – I've heard stories of women who've been raped going to the police, and being subjected to even more rape at the police headquarters.
This is frightening. It's much too difficult for us to feel safe on the streets of Karachi- and even more frustrating to realize that government spending isn't being spent to assuage any of these problems.
Building one of the largest fountains. Reclaiming land to reconstruct a park. Issuing multiple vehicles to government workers. This is where our money is going. What about mandating education; laws prohibiting aerial firing and civilian possession of firearms; disassembling the kunda system of electricity theft; harsher consequences for tax evasion?
Perhaps we can begin with paying our police force enough to where they feel compelled to value the wellbeing of the citizen they are currently not protecting
Mostly, I'll be on Sharaah-E-Faisal, or by the KPT Underpass.
And then, I'll notice them. The traffic police.
Dressed in their white uniforms, in all their glory, they'll stand by their two-wheeled transport vehicles and gab to one another.
The car crossing the intersection during a red light? The motorcycle that turns illegally? The blatant misuse of u-turns at round-a-bouts? Riding pillion?
These should be the very things that Karachi's traffic police should stop. Tickets out of the wazoo could await them. The truth, unfortunately, is much more complex than "The police in Pakistan just don't care," a statement I've heard countless time.
Sociologically speaking, it's difficult for me to be irritated with a sector of the populace that's so abused, underpaid, and ill-educated.
When I came across this article about police in India on The Guardian [it's not long, click it], I found myself somewhat appalled, but not surprised – I've heard stories of women who've been raped going to the police, and being subjected to even more rape at the police headquarters.
This is frightening. It's much too difficult for us to feel safe on the streets of Karachi- and even more frustrating to realize that government spending isn't being spent to assuage any of these problems.
Building one of the largest fountains. Reclaiming land to reconstruct a park. Issuing multiple vehicles to government workers. This is where our money is going. What about mandating education; laws prohibiting aerial firing and civilian possession of firearms; disassembling the kunda system of electricity theft; harsher consequences for tax evasion?
Perhaps we can begin with paying our police force enough to where they feel compelled to value the wellbeing of the citizen they are currently not protecting
I had lunch today at KOEL- a gallery and cafe combination that seems like it has never seen the real (read: hot, polluted, noisy) Karachi.
As I sat there eating my blackened chicken with alfredo, one of the girls I was sitting with was talking about the concept of halal vs haram – an interesting conversation, especially considering my agnostic tendencies. She was arguing that pigs didn't clean out their blood through their kidneys well enough, and thus made people much more susceptible to diseases- she even cited reading an article about how eating pigs led to some man's brain cancer.
Frankly, I'm tired of the bad rep that pigs have received as of late. Wilbur from Charlotte's Web, and Babe have all been extremely close friends of mine in my youth. Swine flu, higher cholesterol, and increased risk of obtaining tape worms aside, can we please redirect our attention to the pig bladder (aka pixie dust).
Lee Spievack from Cincinatti regrew his finger after sprinkling it with pig bladder powder.
Read more here, and here. Okay, that may have been a slight exaggeration, he'd only sliced off the top of it, and there was neither bone nor ligament damage. Regardless, pretty damn cool for an animal so harshed on.
I direly wanted to bring up the event during my lunch conversation, but chickened out when Alyna's argument that red wine had actually been proven to be beneficial to health was countered with the girl repeating that she wouldn't drink alcohol, not for religious reasons but for health ones. I've learned the hard way that snark generally doesn't bode well when people are blindly religious.
As I sat there eating my blackened chicken with alfredo, one of the girls I was sitting with was talking about the concept of halal vs haram – an interesting conversation, especially considering my agnostic tendencies. She was arguing that pigs didn't clean out their blood through their kidneys well enough, and thus made people much more susceptible to diseases- she even cited reading an article about how eating pigs led to some man's brain cancer.
Frankly, I'm tired of the bad rep that pigs have received as of late. Wilbur from Charlotte's Web, and Babe have all been extremely close friends of mine in my youth. Swine flu, higher cholesterol, and increased risk of obtaining tape worms aside, can we please redirect our attention to the pig bladder (aka pixie dust).
Lee Spievack from Cincinatti regrew his finger after sprinkling it with pig bladder powder.
Read more here, and here. Okay, that may have been a slight exaggeration, he'd only sliced off the top of it, and there was neither bone nor ligament damage. Regardless, pretty damn cool for an animal so harshed on.
I direly wanted to bring up the event during my lunch conversation, but chickened out when Alyna's argument that red wine had actually been proven to be beneficial to health was countered with the girl repeating that she wouldn't drink alcohol, not for religious reasons but for health ones. I've learned the hard way that snark generally doesn't bode well when people are blindly religious.
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