International Women’s Day

By Dr. Roshneck Hameed Khan

NCSW committed to eradicate curse of violence against Women: Nilofar Bakhtiar Says, laws on rights of women should be implemented ISLAMABAD: National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) is committed for eradication of curse of violence against women, said the Chairperson NCSW, Nilofar Bakhtiar here on other day. She expressed this while giving an exclusive interview to Country News tv in Islamabad on the eve of International Women’s Day being observed today. She said that the Commission has a list of the issues being faced by the women. Violence against women is at top of the list. When she got charge of the commission in July last year, she witnessed various incidents of violence against women including August 14 incident in Lahore and others. At that time she felt that there is no eye blinking from the fact that there are a number of issues which are being faced by the women, but the issues of violence is at the top. So in the following days the commission raised the slogan ‘say no to violence against women’ everywhere, she added. While answering a question regarding the legislations for the rights of women, she said that the best legislations for the rights of the women are available in Pakistan. But, the need of the hour is that these laws should be implemented. National Assembly passes the laws, but the responsibility of implementing these laws lies on the shoulders of society. The sad reality is that the women who really want these laws don’t have awareness regarding them. They are unaware of the laws which are for their protection. NCSW is working to aware women in this regard. The commission is currently running a proper campaign to aware women regarding these laws by translating them in various languages to make them understandable for the women of all the areas. Recently, the commission has completed work regarding the law of inheritance. But, in the coming days the work on all the other laws will also be done one by one. The commission is running these laws on its website and is asking other institutions to do the same thing for spreading the awareness. Besides this, commission is also working to resolve the issues which women face due to Jirga system in various parts of the country. For this purpose, women commissions are being established across the country, she further said. 

Nilofar Bakhtiar said that Ombudsmen have been appointed for dealing the cases regarding harassment at work place. But, usually the women lack courage to raise voice for themselves in this regard. The need of the hour is that women should be more courageous. They should raise voice against harassment at work place. She lauded the role of the father of Noor Muqaddam. She said that women should not make the international women’s day prey of their egos. All the women either they are in western dress or Islamic dress are the citizens of Pakistan. NCSW considers both the sides citizens of Pakistan. But, both the groups should talk on the issues instead of useless things. Women agenda should not become the prey of any extremism. If both these groups go for scuffle the agenda of NCSW will be sabotaged, she added.  She said that 08th March is a day which is dedicated to the women of the whole world. It is observed in all the countries across globe according to the norms and values of each country. On this day, women highlight the agendas upon which the work is yet to done. These are usually the unfulfilled agendas. Besides this, women also do celebrations on this day. They celebrate on all the goals which have been achieved and they present their demands in front of the relevant authorities regarding the unfulfilled agendas, she further said.  
While commenting on a question regarding theme of international women’s day, she said that this year international women’s day is being celebrated under the theme of climate change and impacts on women. Climate change directly impacts the lives of women. There are different issues for women in different provinces in context with the climate change. We can take examples of long droughts in Quetta, Land slides in Gilgit Baltistan, earthquake in Azad Kashmir, and all the other such disasters in this regard. In all these situations women are directly affected. She has visited all the parts of the country to compile a report regarding the issues being faced by the women. This report along with a video clip will be presented to the United Nations (UN). This video is based on a real story of a woman who is the victim of earthquake of 2005