University of Alabama at Birmingham

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Gender violence in Pak is an act of terrorism: Expert

A University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) political scientist has said that gender violence, or violence against women and girls, should be relabelled as terrorism.

Washington, Dec.15 : A University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) political scientist has said that gender violence, or violence against women and girls, should be relabelled as terrorism.

According to Dr. Lisa Sharlach, who has written numerous articles about the use of state-sponsored violence against women in places like Rwanda, Bangladesh and Bosnia-Herzegovina, this sort of violence is pretty high in Pakistan,

Sharlach claims that family members murdered over 1,300 women in Pakistan between 1999-2002 in the name of regaining family honour.

Sharlach further goes on to say that honour killings were once confined to the rural areas of Pakistan, but now, are now occurring in the cities.

What is most shocking is the reluctance of legislatures in the country to enforce stiff penalties against perpetrators of such incidents.

In addition to the problem of honour killings, the rape laws in Pakistan are some of the worst in the world, Sharlach claims.

In Pakistan, women who charge rape can't testify on their behalf.

"The problem is that a parallel justice system exists in Pakistan, and the tribal courts have discriminatory laws against women. Unfortunately, the state has no control over tribal rulings," said Sharlach.

Sharlach's paper on gender violence as terrorism in Pakistan will appear in the March issue of the journal Critical Studies on Terrorism.

ANI