JURIST Guest Columnist Maira Sheikh, Notre Dame Law School Class of 2012, is a Research Associate at the Research Society of International Law in Lahore, Pakistan. She discusses Pakistan’s new women’s rights laws and argues that even if these laws are not properly enforced, they are still valuable for the social progress they indicate as well as the empowerment they instill…

Pakistan’s track record for women’s rights is dismal at best. A recent poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation named Pakistan the third most dangerous country for women based on a documented history of acid attacks, child marriage, honor killings and rampant domestic violence. In recent years, the national government of Pakistan has made some effort to provide women with more rights by attempting to amend laws related to rape prosecution and by codifying anti-harassment laws for the workplace. On December 23, 2011, two new women’s rights bills were passed by Pakistan’s legislature amending the Pakistan Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure; the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill [PDF] and the Criminal Law Bill [PDF] were both approved by the country’s president.

The Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill adds a new chapter to the Pakistani Penal Code listing three particular offenses against women. Chapter XXA makes it unlawful to deprive a woman of her rightful inheritance through “deceitful or illegal means.” This is punishable by imprisonment for five to 10 years with a possible additional fine of up to one million rupees. This chapter makes it unlawful to give or compel a woman into marriage for the purposes of settling a civil or criminal dispute. This is punishable by imprisonment for three to seven years along with a fine of five hundred thousand rupees. Finally, this chapter makes it unlawful to “compel or arrange or facilitate” a woman’s marriage with the Qur’an. This act is punishable by imprisonment for three to seven years as well as a fine of five hundred thousand rupees. The bill also amends the Pakistani Code of Criminal Procedure by making it unlawful for a provincial government to “suspend, remit, or commute” the sentences of those convicted of rape.

The Criminal Law Bill makes bodily violence through the use of corrosive or acidic substances unlawful. It does this by amending Pakistan Penal Code Section 332’s definition of “hurt” to include disfigurement and defacing, so that it now reads, “[w]hoever causes pain, harm, disease, infirmity or injury to any person or impairs, disables, disfigures, defaces or dismembers any organ of the body or part thereof of any person without causing his death, is said to cause hurt.” Disfigurement is defined under this bill as the “disfigurement of face or disfigurement or dismemberment of any organ or any part of the organ of the human body which impairs or injures or corrodes or deforms the symmetry or appearance of a person.” This bill makes it unlawful to cause or attempt to cause hurt through any substance that is corrosive or harmful to the human body upon internal or external contact. The definition of “corrosive substances” is fairly broad and includes anything which may “destroy, cause hurt, deface or dismember any organ of the human body and includes every kind of acid, poison, explosive or explosive substance, heating substance, noxious thing, arsenic or any other chemical which has a corroding effect and which is deleterious to the human body.” Any act that violates this amendment is punishable by imprisonment of 14 years to life and a minimum fine of one million rupees. This bill is not gender specific; both men and women may be victims of bodily violence through corrosive substances. However, women are the primary beneficiaries of this bill as they are more frequently victims of this type of violence.

The passage of these bills is hailed as a victory by female legislators and rights groups that have long pushed for increased legal rights and remedies for women. The victory, however, is only a small one. The proponents of these bills readily admit that laws decrease in value without proper enforcement and in Pakistan enforcement is a problem. Protecting women against the practices made unlawful by this legislation will be difficult and irregular, especially in regions where these practices are more commonplace. It may eventually be the case that relatively few convictions are sustained after appeal under these new laws. This wave of pro-women legislation is all fairly new and it is premature to evaluate its numerical impact on Pakistan’s civil and criminal dockets. This does not mean that the value of these bills cannot be assessed independently of how many cases are adjudicated under them.

The Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill and the Criminal Law Bill do not just pay lip-service to the increasing demand for women’s rights in Pakistan. Regardless of whether or not these laws can ultimately be enforced, their existence alone is indicative of positive social progress. Such steps should not be undervalued, especially since only little more than 30 years ago the draconian Hudood Ordinances, laws that left women making accusations of rape vulnerable to prosecution as adulterers, were passed. The Senate’s unanimous passage of both the Anti-Women Practices Bill and the Criminal Law Bill and the quick approval thereafter by Pakistan’s president indicate strong support for the women’s rights movement by the current national government. This means that the national government is no longer satisfied with allowing the treatment of women to be guided mainly by local practices or outdated interpretations of religious custom. This kind of support for women’s rights has yet to be demonstrated consistently at the local government level, and the specific provision prohibiting alteration of a rape conviction by provincial governments speaks to this shortfall. At the very least, the passage of these bills is an attempt to standardize the belief that women deserve to be treated in a manner that preserves their dignity and their rights as human beings. For enforcement to eventually occur in a consistent and meaningful manner, people’s beliefs need to evolve to a point where these newly prohibited practices are genuinely considered intolerable by the vast majority of Pakistanis. It is only then that women will no longer be at the mercy of their fate, whether born into homes where they are valued as property, as princesses or as anything in between.

These women’s rights bills are also valuable for the empowerment and self-worth they encourage within Pakistani females. The eventual impact of these laws on society will be insignificant without the development of female empowerment through basic education and education on rights granted to females as citizens of Pakistan, rights that ultimately supersede regional, cultural or religious practices. Women, especially those that live in communities that most offend women’s rights, must teach one another to stand up for themselves and to seek legal remedies when their rights have been violated. The knowledge that there are laws that prohibit practices such as forced marriage for the settlement of disputes or marriage to the Qur’an give women the power and the platform to say “no.” For now, that “no” may go unheard or it may be met with an unsavory response, but empowerment means that “no” will become louder and more frequent as women discover that these practices are not the norm and are, in fact, illegal and unacceptable.

Pakistan’s social climate is slowly improving, as outdated and undignified practices that are harmful to women are being suppressed. Only time will tell if these new laws are truly successful in providing women with enforceable legal rights and in curbing bodily violence through corrosive substances. For the time being, the measurable value of the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill and the Criminal Law Bill is in the social progress they indicate and the empowerment they bestow.

Maira Sheikh has conducted research on international law topics and on security and development issues in Lahore, Pakistan. She is also a Staff Editor of Notre Dame Law School’s Journal of Legislation.

Suggested citation: Maira Sheikh, Progress in Pakistan: Criminalizing Practices Harmful to Women, JURIST – Dateline, Dec. 31, 2011, http://jurist.org/dateline/2011/12/maira-sheikh-pakistan-women.php.