NOTWITHSTANDING what might be going on in other countries, Pakistan has a real problem regarding violence against women. In the past few months alone, we have seen some horrendous incidents: ‘honour’ killings, marriage-of-choice killings, rapes, domestic violence, spousal violence and killings, abduction, rape and killing of minors, and violence against employees and staff. There is no dearth of reports from national and international bodies documenting the extent and severity of these issues.

A couple of points stand out in these reports. One, we do not have good data on violence against women. Incidents are underreported, and there are no national registries or data sets of any sort. Most reported data comes from newspaper reporting, police case registrations, hotline reports, and so on.

Two, though many reasons — poor laws and weak implementation, few protections, pathetic institutional arrangements, low reporting and conviction rates, delays, social and societal taboos, etc — are cited in these reports, a primary one is the impact of patriarchy: the control of men over society. Patriarchy shapes not only laws, norms, and expectations in this society; it also shapes responses: what she was wearing, why she was out at that time, why she was driving, and so on. Patriarchy is hard to spot, fight, and neutralise because it is embedded in almost every norm, rule, and law. Most societies have, historically and even today, used........

© Dawn