Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
Household workers face abuse and exploitation in plain sight
I was handed a glass of water while Salma* moved the extra clothes from the charpoy and adjusted herself right in front of me, fixing her shawl and making sure I was comfortable where I was sitting.
After a few minutes of small talk (...)
GUESSTIMATES are no substitute for hard data. Efforts to improve development indicators must be based on comprehensive, granular information that highlights weak spots and challenges. Initiatives can then be tailored to the situation on ground, thereby saving time and money. Without this (...)
THE pandemic has had a large impact on women who work in the informal sectors of Pakistan’s economy. And most women in Pakistan work in this sector, where they already have lower pays, longer work hours, irregular coverage of benefits, no job security and no social protections. Non-essential (...)
If your kidnapper-husband says you are 18, or have had your first period, no more questions are asked in Pakistan about abduction-conversions of young girls.
Their names change, their dreadful stories remain the same. It can be Kavita, Maria, Simran or Huma, what bonds their doomed fates in (...)
ACCORDING to Human Rights Watch, almost 1,000 women are murdered in Pakistan in the name of honour each year — killed on the grounds of ‘unacceptable’ amorous relationships, defiance of physical or cyber-gendered spaces, brazenness in dressing and language or perceived immorality.
Qandeel Baloch (...)
Stones, sticks and shoes were pelted at the campaigners in the country’s capital, Islamabad.
New Delhi: To mark International Women’s Day on Sunday, thousands of women took to the streets of Pakistan and marched through the capital of Islamabad and other cities, for what has come to be known as (...)
Young activists and their older counterparts explain why they are uniting to fight for women’s rights in Pakistan.
Thousands of women have marched across Pakistan’s main urban centres to mark International Women’s Day.
It is the third successive year that the Aurat March, women’s march, has been (...)
PAKISTAN is a country where generation after generation of children, especially girls, have been deprived of education. However, a low level of female literacy is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gender inequality in Pakistan. Look at any gender indicator and Pakistan is a country (...)
THERE are good men in Pakistan. Somewhere sitting in some corner, perhaps a library or an office, are men who do not believe in being condescending and cruel, men who do not constantly interrupt women to insert their own thoughts or wishes or meaningless bluster. Somewhere there are men who (...)
JUNAID Hafeez was arrested on March 13, 2013, after an FIR was registered accusing him of blasphemy. At the time, he was a visiting lecturer in English literature at Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), in the city of Multan. His period of incarceration in a high security ward of New Central (...)
SINDH is facing a domestic violence epidemic, and yet hardly any woman in the province has benefited from the passage of the Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection Act.
Sindhi media does little to publicise domestic violence cases or highlight the law’s provisions, for lack of resources or (...)
The Awami Workers Party (AWP) has condemned the Islamabad administration for not allowing an indoor educative programme for women activists.
Women Democratic Front had planned a two-day political school for its activists and booked a youth hostel hall. But the management of the Pakistan Youth (...)
Chief justice says in televised speech that abuse survivors will be able to ‘speak their heart without any fear’
Pakistan is to set up more than 1,000 courts dedicated to tackling violence against women, the country’s top judge has announced, seeking to tackle a problem activists say the criminal (...)
In Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s Gilgit-Baltistan, exists a remarkable oasis with high literacy rates and gender equality.
In the disputed Karakoram mountains of northern Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war last month, the isolated Hunza valley feels (...)
Aurat [Women] March started last year in Karachi and spread to the whole country this year. It has emerged as a new wave of feminism in Pakistan — and with that, the march organizers have been receiving rape and death threats online.
Islamabad: Aurat March 2019 was held on March 8 as part of (...)
Television anchors have dedicated complete shows to what they describe as the ‘dishonourable’ and ‘objectionable’ posters that were displayed at the event.
It has been over a week since the Aurat March took place in Pakistan, when thousands of women hit the streets to demand equality and gender (...)
The Awami Workers Party extends its solidarity with the organizers of the Aurat [Women] Azadi [Freedom] Marches and Aurat Marches in various cities of the country against the vicious attacks on them from various quarters after the women’s day marches.
AWP condemns in particular the attacks on (...)
In September, two women sparked a protest by passing through the Bahishti Darwaza at the shrine of Baba Farid.
The Bahishti Darwaza, or Gateway to Paradise, at the shrine of Baba Fariduddin Shakarganj in Pakpattan opens for only five days a year. Sitting atop what must be an ancient mound, the (...)
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech to the nation was far less impressive than his first speech that was delivered after the election. It omitted the mention of women, transgender and religious minorities.
The newly-elected government needs to realise that with the exclusion of nearly half of (...)
More Pakistani women are registered to vote than ever before.
Women make up 44% of Pakistan’s 105,955,409 registered voters for the 2018 elections. While this reflects a lower proportion than their share in the adult voting age population, more Pakistani women are registered to vote than ever (...)
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