PESHAWAR: “Days and nights, I was living in hell,” Haleema Bibi, a 24-year-old mother of three, recalls her marriage.
Married to a family friend at the age of 17, she soon started to suffer mental and physical abuse at the hands of her husband and in-laws. Several years later, on the verge of a breakdown, the young woman reported them to police.
Bibi knows it was a bold decision, “but also an unforgivable step in this society.” Women exposed to violence very rarely seek formal help and accept abuse as a normal part of life.
KP police data shows an increase in the number of domestic violence cases registered in 2019, especially in murder and battery. In 2018, 180 women were murdered in their households. In 2019, the figure rose to 217.
Thirty-six women reported physical abuse at home in 2019, three times more than in 2018.
These numbers may not immediately appeal to imagination as the recorded cases represent only a fraction of actual ones – it is estimated that in South Asia less than 1 percent of gender-based violence victims report abuse to police.
To the majority of women, barriers to reporting and seeking formal help include shame, social stigmatization, financial burdens, fear of tarnishing family members, fear of retaliation. But activists are unanimous that the main problem is insufficient legal and government protection.
Qamar Naseem from women’s health advocacy group Blue Veins makes it clear that even if women report abuse, they might be left with no sustenance whatsoever. “In KP there are only six darul aman (women’s shelters). Women also don’t want to challenge prevailing traditions because there is insufficient government backup,” he said.
Seven years ago, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) lawmakers drafted the Domestic Violence Bill, but it was blocked by the Islamic Ideological Council (IIC), which objected to several clauses. Earlier this year, lawmakers tried again, and again the bill was stalled.
According to KP provincial spokesman Ajmal Wazir, “the Islamic Ideology Council and political parties have objected to a few sections” and after consultation with related stakeholders the bill will be passed into law, he told Arab News at the KP Chief Minister’s office on Wednesday.
The bill has been on the table since February.
Female legislators, who prepared the draft, are less optimistic about its fate than Wazir. “The increase in domestic violence cases is alarming,” KP Assembly member Shagufta Malik said, stressing that the lack of regulation only gives abusers get a sense of impunity.
Lawyer Khushnood Zakir said that although there are provisions for women’s protection in the Penal Code and in family laws, they have to be strengthened by a specific law on domestic violence.
“This is very unfortunate that bruises, scorches, mental torture, and minor wounds are not seen as crime in this society,” she said, adding that in such cases elders or police officers often seek reconciliation instead of penalization, which only encourages more abuse.