International
Peeling a Bitter Onion – A Project By Irum Ahsan Irum Ahsan
“Woman
is the Radiance of God; She is not your beloved. She is the creator not created.” These words of the Great Islamic thinker, philosopher, and scholar, Jalal-ud-Din Rumi, formed the basis of the project that we designed for Afghanistan and Pakistan, two Islamic countries in South Asia.
First, the legal framework of Islamic countries allows justice sector decision-makers to draw from Sharia law, i.e., religious law forming part of the Islamic tradition. This in principle should have prompted improved justice outcomes as Islam strongly promotes the dignity of women and girls. The underlying message in the Quran is “live with them on a footing of kindness and equity”.3
Background It all started when an 80 year-old woman kissed her lawyer’s forehead for rescuing her from her so called home (read prison). This woman was given as a compensation, at the age of 9, by male members of her family, to the family of the boy that they had murdered. We, a team of lawyers filed a petition in the Supreme court of Pakistan against this custom of giving girls as compensation (commonly known as customs of Swara, baad or Vani). We managed to rescue a few Swara women and she was one of them. She cherished her freedom even after 71 years. This was when I decided in my heart that I need to do more than corporate law. Some colleagues and I then decided to start a legal literacy for women project. This was as part of the Law and Policy Reform Programme for the Asian Development Bank (‘ADB’) where I worked.
Second, unconscious biases rooted in centuries of patriarchal customary norms are widely prevalent in these countries. Women are perceived as property and bearers of family honour. This spills over to the legal domain, for example, a woman who wears tight clothes and make-up is “asking for” sexual assault, and a woman or girl who does not immediately report an alleged assault must be lying.
We decided to work in Afghanistan and Pakistan because more than 80% of women in these countries have suffered at least one form of violence. Gender-based violence is endemic and pervasive across class, religion, ethnicity, and the urban and rural divide. The United Nations’ Gender Inequality Index reveals Afghanistan ranked 153rd, and Pakistan ranked 133rd, of 154 countries.1 A survey of global experts has revealed that Afghanistan is the second most dangerous country in the world for women, while Pakistan is ranked sixth.2
The project The project started in 2016 and targets both male and female justice sector stakeholders. The project seeks to redress issues affecting gender equality, such as GBV. It aims to bridge significant gaps among institutions by strengthening the capacity of investigating, prosecuting, and decision-making bodies together with an awareness building of the communities. The project followed a two-pronged approach: (i) Top-Down: increased access to justice for women through capacity development of legal service providers like judges, prosecutors, magistrates, and religious scholars in responding to clients on gender issues; and (ii) Bottom-Up: increased awareness of communities on social and legal rights through grass-roots community level training and a positive media campaign.
Despite several pro-women laws and policies in place, we delved into the reasons for increasing numbers of heinous crimes against women, ranging from physical and verbal domestic abuse to burning alive and in between these two, lie incidents of Swara; orders of informal courts (panchayats) to gang rape women for the crime committed by their male family members and so on. While conducting a needs assessment, in these two countries, we realized that we are peeling an onion with each layer more bitter than the previous one. This process was not just intellectually challenging but also emotionally tough - this onion left us all teary. Needs Assessment Survey and context The needs assessment surveys, showed that “90%” of the rape cases brought to the courts were “false” claims. The surveys also said that ‘genuine rape’ cases rarely come before the courts. In addition, some judges stated that witnesses resile in most gender based violence (‘GBV’) cases due to threats and pressure or by payment of money, (bribery). Three elements identified were: 34 | LegalWomen
Third, women and girls rarely turn to the formal justice system even in cases of the most shocking assaults. The court environment is perceived as unwelcoming; women and girls do not know their rights under the law and are forced by social and family pressures to settle disputes through informal means (such as a tribal council of local men known as panchayat, shura, jirga).
Top-Down Approach Legal literacy for women is not a new concept but our approach is innovative in several ways. We worked directly with the Chief Justices because in countries with weak enforcement institutions, judiciaries are often seen as the best option for effective relief. Chief Justices, if motivated, could bring change with just one directive, without the need for legislative reforms. To address the training needs of the judiciary ranging from mindset shift to understanding laws, customs, religion and international best practices, we assembled a multi-skilled team, including (i) a gender and development law expert (ii) a former Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia, (iii) a human rights expert and Islamic scholar from Malaysia, (iv) an awardwinning development anthropologist and filmmaker, and (v) local experts on domestic laws and customs from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
