Gender Equity Program (GEP) of Aurat Foundation and First Women Bank Limited (FWBL) celebrated Independence Day in a ceremony held at FWBL on 12 August, 2016. Chief of Party, GEP, Ms. Simi Kamal and Ms. Mahpara Shakil Ghori, Director CB&EU, FWBL, attended the Ceremony.

Gender Equity Program (GEP) of Aurat Foundation and First Women Bank Limited (FWBL) celebrated Independence Day in a ceremony held at FWBL on 12 August, 2016. Chief of Party, GEP, Ms. Simi Kamal and Ms. Mahpara Shakil Ghori, Director CB&EU, FWBL, attended the Ceremony.

Speakers at a public event on ending violence against women urged the government to implement CEDAW and other international conventions to end violence against women in Pakistan. They were invited at the launching ceremony of the Institutional Capacity Strengthening of Women Development Department (ICSWDD) project on 11 August, 2016, at Rawalpindi Arts Council.  The event was organized  jointly by Aurat Foundation, Oxfam Pakistan and Ahsas Foundation.

“Violence against women is on rise every day, but we can control it. Although civil society organisations are doing their best, but unless the government cooperate and fulfill its responsibilities towards ensuring women’s rights, violence against women would continue in one way or the other”, said Mr. Shafique Chaudhry, Member National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR), and former Advisor to Ministry of Human Rights. He stressed that that the government shall sincerely implement the international conventions, which it has ratified over the years, including CEDAW, in true spirit. While talking about the objectives of National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR), he said that the NCHR is planning to introduce the preventive measures to end violence against women.

Mr. Sajid Mehmood, Associate Country Director Oxfam Pakistan, while speaking at the launch, said that Oxfam GB is committed to ensuring women’s rights in Pakistan through various programmes like Gender Justice Programme which is operating in 52 districts in Pakistan. Other programmes which directly or indirectly address women and girls rights include Economic Justice Programme, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Humanitarian Assistance, Governance and Girls Education Programme.

Ms. Khalida Perveen, SHO, Rawalpindi, said that women police is doing its best to address the issue of violence against women. “We have established Women Protection Desks and also developed an online system of FIR registration where women can register complaints of violence against them”, she further said.

Ms. Sarkar Abbas, Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan, while appreciating Aurat Foundation and civil society’s role in ending violence against women through legislation and policies, said that the government shall ensure implementation of pro-women legislation already passed in recent years. She said that courts are always there to do justice on the issues of violence against women if approached properly. She mentioned the acid throwing case of Zakia Begum, and a recent case of rape of Shabana Riffat, where the culprits were sentenced to life imprisonment. Both the cases were advocated by Ms. Sarkar Abbass, who have also been former member of National Safety Commission, and District Public Safety Commission.

“Violence against women escalate manifold during times of conflicts, wars, terrorism and dictatorship”, said Mr. Naeem Mirza, Chief Operating Officer, Aurat Foundation, while speaking at the project launch. He was referring to suicide bombing and mass shootouts in Pakistan like the Quetta carnage, the other day. While tracing the roots of violence against women, he said that the ‘power and control’ is the only weapon which men exploit to suppress women through violence. Violence against women is a centuries’ old phenomenon, but the positive thing to celebrate today is that now there are laws to protect women against violence and discrimination and empower them politically and economically. Referring to great philosophers like Aristotle, who said that women are mutilated part of men, and Sigmund Fried, were all anti-women. He praised women leaders like Razia Sultana, Rani Jhansi, and recent times’ great Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.

Ms. Mumtaz Mughul, Resident Director, Aurat Foundation, Punjab, said that through this programme Aurat Foundation and Oxfam will work together with the district governments and Women Leaders’ Group (WLG) to ensure the implementation of 100 plus women’s rights initiatives taken by the Government of Punjab. This project is designed to make its working three districts (Kasur, Rawalpindi and Muzaffargarh) as ‘Violence Free Districts’.

Earlier, Ms Shamaila Tanvir, National Programme Coordinator, Institutional Capacity Strengthening of Women Development Department (ICSWDD) project of Aurat Foundation, while sharing the salient features of the project, said that AF, in collaboration with Oxfam GB, is striving to work closely with Women Development Department, Government of Punjab, in developing their road map and enhance their capacity in implementing ‘Women Empowerment Package’ of the Chief Minister in Punjab which aims to achieve sustainable development through women empowerment and gender justice. She said AF is currently working in three districts of Punjab i.e. Kasur, Rawalpindi and Muzaffargarh to implement, monitor and evaluate women empowerment initiatives to put collective efforts in making these districts ‘Violence Free Districts’.

Mr. Shafique Chaudhry, Member NCHR, Mr. Sajid Mehmood, Associate Country Director Oxfam, Ms. Khalida Perveen, SHO, Rawalpindi, Ms. Sarkar Abbas, Advocate Supreme Court, Ms. Asma, Superintendent Dar-ul-Aman, Ms. Mumtaz Mughul, Resident Director, Aurat Foundation, Ms. Razia Sultana and Ms. Riffat Sultana, President and Secretary (respectively) Women Leaders Group Rawalpindi, Mr. Younas Khalid, Chief Strategy and Policy Officer, Aurat Foundation, Mr. Asim Malak, Director Outreach and Networking, Aurat Foundation, Ms. Saleema Muneer, Programme Manager Oxfam, were presented shields for their services for women’s rights.

Aurat Foundation organized a progress review of LISTEN project during its Annual Planning and Review Meeting on 26 June 2016 at Nathia Gali. Objective of the meeting was to discuss and review the progress of LISTEN project, including assessment of project interventions, success indicators, and future strategy for way forward to implement the objectives of the project.

Ms. Shamaila Tanvir, National Programme Coordinator, briefed about the different dynamics of LISTEN project.  While discussing on future strategy of the project, she said that the entire LISTEN team should focus on exploring innovative ways to implement the project objectives and also for engaging policy makers, politicians, legislators and decision makers in this process of change. She also pointed out that society seriously lacks of ideology and vision. Speaking about the socio-political context of the society, she said, “We as a nation will have to head on towards the industrial revolution if we seriously want to combat the giants of poverty, inflation, unemployment and other socio- political and economic instabilities”. Mr. Asim Malik, Director Outreach and Networks, stressed on the need of holding healthy dialogues and discussions among AF staff on different social, political and economic issues of special concern. He further added that knowledge is a source of producing mindset and building ideology thus acquiring knowledge and reproducing it should be continuous feature and LISTEN project is greatly contributing in this regards.

Mr. Anjum Rafique and Ms. Malka Khan, Regional Coordinators, LISTEN project, discussed in detail about the achievements and challenges they faced during implementation of the project. They said lack of political will for legislation on women issues, unavailability of proper budget allocation for provincial alliance building, lack of coordination, extremism and excessive work were the main hurdles in the way of implementing LISTEN activities. The participants stressed the need  to engage women leaders groups more efficiently for project implementation in 30 districts and influencing policy makers, ensuring effective community engagement through capacity building, awareness raising and advocacy for the rights and protection of women, discriminated and marginalized groups of the communities.

Aurat Foundation organized an annual learning and review meeting with stakeholders under the Institutional Capacity Strengthening of Women Development Department (ICSWDD) project on 25th of June 2016 at Nathia Gali. The meeting was aimed at the overview of the project, learning of the inception phase, future strategy and planning of activities to generate support at district level for a Gender Based Violence (GBV) free district keeping in mind the project extension with further inclusion of Rawalpindi and Muzaffargarh, all being done in cooperation with Oxfam GB.

In the meeting, Ms. Shamaila Tanvir, National Programme Coordinator, presented a comprehensive review of GBV situation in Punjab with inclusive insight into the purpose and functioning of the project.  She said that project is designed to facilitate a process that leads to women empowerment and inclusion while exploring the possible modes for carrying out some reinforcing initiatives to collaborate with the Women Development Department of Government of Punjab. The programme is centered on bringing change at three levels: household, civil society and the state systems. This institutional capacity building initiative will direct to better prioritization, ownership, oversight and impact. The project is envisioned to bring about a sustainable change through a set of activities including sensitization of government officials, filling staff gaps, providing equipment, developing measurable impact indicators about their gender role in development initiatives and their impact on both men and women, ensuring women gain access to and control over financial resources, and leadership opportunities.

Furthermore, Mr. Anjum Rafiq, Regional Coordinator, Punjab and Ms Uzma Idrees, Secretary District Resource Center, Kasur, shared project implementation strategies and lessons learned during project’s initial implementation phase in district Kasur. She highlighted the major achievements of the project and shared some challenges faced during the implementation of the project.  Ms. Komal Zahra, Secretary District Resource Center, Muzaffargarh, shared findings of SWOT Analysis.

For better implementation of the project at district level, SWOT analysis was conducted and each team of three districts presented their findings keeping in view the contextual background of their area.  After a discussion on SWOT findings, Mr. Asim Malak, Director Outreach and Network, Aurat Foundation, shared the strategies required for implementing the project in accordance with approved work-plan. Mr. Muhammad Ayaz, Assistant Manager M&E Aurat Foundation, explained monitoring, evaluation and reporting technicalities required for reporting activities and outcome achieved during project implementing.

Civil society organizations and networks organised a candle light vigil to pay tribute to renowned qawwali singer Amjad Sabri who was murdered in Karachi on 22 June 2016.  In their condolence message they strongly condemned the murder of Amjad Sabri as an attempt to diminish socio-cultural spaces from society. 

The vigil, held on 24 June 2016, outside Karachi Press Club, was jointly called by Aurat Foundation, PILER, PQF, Qazi Faiz Memorial (QFM) Committee, Voice of Sindh and Concerned Citizens.

Ms. Mahnaz Rahman, Resident Director, and Ms. Malka Khan Program Officer, represented Aurat Foundation.

Aurat Foundation, in collaboration with Women Learning Partnership (WLP), organised a six days Training of Trainers in Nathia Gali from 16-21 June 2016. Aurat Foundation and WLP enjoy a longstanding partnership for empowerment of women and joined hands to build capacity of leading advocacy organizations and networks across Pakistan. Through such capacity building trainings a number of women’s rights defenders are trained and imparted with advocacy and lobbying skills in community based networks.

The objective of the TOT was to reflection on discriminatory perceptions, attitudes and practices, develop a common understanding on gender and women rights and anti-women practices.

Substance of various sessions included: Enabling a selected group of facilitators to review and evaluate the success of leadership and political participation workshops, building knowledge and training capacity of a new group of facilitators, strengthening each partner’s capacity for follow up and evaluation, thus bolstering their national/regional outreach, and  supporting the WLP partnership by sharing information, building organizational capacity, and deepening understanding of each partner’s unique context and opportunities.

 

Ms. Rabeea Hadi, Director Advocacy, conducted the training, and Ms. Hina Akram, Assistant Manager Capacity Building, facilitated the training.

Aurat Foundation, in collaboration with Trocaire and AusDFAT organized a Show & Tell Convention on 15 June, 2016 at Islamabad.

The event was organized to provide an opportunity to the event, Gender Based Violence (GBV) response institutions to showcase their performance and services related to the strategies adopted for minimizing GBV against women and girls. The institutions like Women Parliamentary Caucus, National Police Bureau, Ministry of Human Rights, medico-legal officers and shelters etc. from the national and provincial capitals (Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) highlighted their progress within their respective domains and the challenges faced during effective service delivery.

Mr. M Hassan Mangi, DG (IC), Ministry of Human Rights, in his address that said that the ministry is pro-actively working on fine-tuning of various women and children friendly laws and would very soon sent to the parliament.  For example, the draft policy on violence against women, recently developed in collaboration with Aurat Foundation, would soon be sent for approval.  Similarly, the ministry has successfully introduced some amendments in the Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act 2016, recently signed by the President of Pakistan, which states that any cruelty with the child would be dealt with as criminal activity.  An amendment has been made in section 83 of  the PPC in which age of  a  child has  been increased from seven to  ten tears  when s/he is  able to judge the  consequences of  his /  her conduct.  

The ministry is also working on devising a law to address the child labour in the Islamabad Capital Territory.  “We are also working on to finally fine tune the draft policy for home-based women workers and adopt it for implementation. Laws Reforms Committee in the Senate is also reviewing law to end violence against women and girls workers”, he further said.

Ms.  Rabeea Hadi, refereeing to Mr. Hasan Mangi’s comments on the proposed policy on violence against women, said that the draft policy is present on the website of the Ministry of Human Rights for the comments from parliamentarians and concerned women and human rights activists and government institutions from all four provinces.  The increase in number of reported cases of violence against women sometimes put us in deep disappointments but in events like this where we share our experiences gives us hope and provide us joint strategies on combating violence against women, she further said.

Mr. John O Brien, Country Director, Trocaire, while briefing Trocaire’s work on ending violence against women, in his address said that Trocaire is also struggling hard with the national civil society organizations to end violence against women.

Ms. Shaista Pervaiz Malik, Chairperson Women Parliamentary Caucus (WPC), while addressing the gathering, said that WPC has been on the forefront to ensure women’s empowerment through active legislation.  She said the WPC is building partnership with civil society and national and international organizations to end the violence against women.  Recently MoUs  were signed with some credible organization like Aurat Foundation  and Henrich Boll Foundation. 

Ms. Huma Chughtai, Technical Advisor, WPC, gave a detail presentation on WPC’s vision, mission, key objectives and strategies.  She said that the MoU signed  between Aurat Foundation & WPC  on 19 May 2015 had  three basic features to work  on:  addressing GBV issues according to their respective mandates, discussing the existing pro-women laws, procedural and implementation gaps, and sensitization of the legislators on primary and secondary legislations on women issues, and to enhance the knowledge of newly elected women parliamentarians on legislative process through seminars and workshops proposed by Aurat Foundation for members of the Caucus.

During this one year partnership, various activities were organized including orientation session on ‘Legislative Business and Role of Parliamentarians in Pro-Women legislations’, study circles on ‘SGDs Post Development Agenda’, observing ‘16 Days of Activism to Eliminate VAW’, addressing women’s and girl’s health issues in Pakistan and its impact on their productive economic lives, and on ‘Child Marriages Restraint Bill 2014’ etc.

Ms.  Mahreen Maqsood, Deputy Director, National Police  Bureau, appreciated the  reporting of  violence against  women  by the Gender Crime Cell and  National Police Bureau, though NPB does  not have  infrastructure and resources to  publish that  data.  The National Police Bureau acts as think tank for Ministry of Interior on collecting and analyzing the data on cases of violence against women.  She said that to end violence against women country needs a national action plan.  She also emphasized on providing training to women police to actively response the violence against women cases, and for that the NPB need support from civil society organizations.  The NPB is working on toll free help line for women and children to address the cases of violence against women and girls, and we would be looking forward to bring all the similar toll free lines established by other organizations together at one point.

Ms. Munaza  Hasan, member  WPC, commenting on  the  work done reference to the partnership between Aurat Foundation and WPC, said that  although we still need more  laws on women’s rights, but  we shall strive hard that the already passed  laws are executed fully.   She also pointed out that there is a need that women shall be given easy knowledge and information about such laws so that they could defend their rights.

Mr. Shafqat Javaid, Director General, Ministry of Health, said, “as a doctor I see violence against women is a public health issue.  We need to see if the health policy also addresses violence against other sections of society e.g. the trance-gender community”.  He also pointed out gaps in the medico-legal services in addressing the gender based violence which needed to be addressed.  He also  pointed out  that  the lack of  gender based  data on  violence  against  women hinders  addressing the  GBV.   The issue of reporting violence cases is weak, and it is leaked out to help the culprits, he further said.

Ms.  Meraj Khan, Member KP Assembly, and  Chairperson Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Women  Parliamentary Caucus, in her address said that  united  struggle of members of the provincial caucus has brought many achievements e.g. having a separate ministry for  women and celebrating  the International Women’s Day in the provincial assembly for  the first time.  While pointing out the gaps in addressing women’s empowerment, she said that there is no ‘women empowerment department’.  She also criticized the allocation of very low budget for women’s social welfare i.e. only Rs.1.6 billion in the recent budget, but she hoped to get some more budget form Chief Minister’s special budget.

Mr. Taimur Khattak, Deputy Public Prosecutor from KP, in his presentation, covered the state of prosecution in GBV cases.  While briefing on  the achievements on women’s  empowerment in the  KP, he mentioned the passage of The North-West Frontier Province Establishment of a Commission on the Status of Women Act 2009, Elimination of Custom of Ghag Act 2013 enacted by Provincial Government of KP, passage of KP Deserving Widows and Special Persons Foundation  Act, 2014, women empowerment policy, wherein Provincial Commission on the Status of Women has been given autonomy to address all forms of violence against women.

Ms. Roohi Khan Babar from Noor Education Trust (NET), in her presentation briefed the audience about the aims, objectives and services of the Trust. The Mera Ghar Rehabilitation Program (Response Program) responds through direct intervention for protection and empowerment of GBV survivors and promoting awareness and education on Fundamental Human Rights.  While mentioning the achievements so far she said that the NET registered survivors 1900, provided free legal aid to 3000 survivors, trained community groups on prevention, response and advocacy, established referral network.

The The reflections on GBV Programme Sindh was given by Ms. Rubina Quaimkhani,  Member Sindh Assembly, Ms. Saira Furqan,  Manager SBBCW,  Ms. Rehana Yaqoob from Shelter, Mr. Iqbal Detho, Lawyer / Human Rights Activists, Mr. Faizullah Korejo,  AIG, Sindh Police, and Ms. Mahnaz Rahman, RD, Aurat Foundation.

First Women Bank Limited (FWBL) and Aurat Foundation (AF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at a prestigious ceremony held at Islamabad on May 26, 2016. The event was organized to showcase the products developed under ‘Women Making Strides in Economic Empowerment’ and focusing on how Gender Equity Programme (GEP) has developed a linked progress on helping women grow economically under USAID grant and recognizing the role of National Advisory Forum of GEP.

The MoU was inked by Ms. Tahira Raza, President FWBL and Ms. Anis Haroon, AF Senior Representative. Ms. Simi Kamal, Chief of Party GEP, AF and Ms. Fouzia Janjua, SVP/ Coordinator Development Cell and Strategic Initiatives witnessed the signing of MoU.

The FWBL and AF are determined to work together to strengthen, promote and create new value with an aim to provide financial services at doorsteps to unbanked women. The FWBL and AF have join hands and shown commitment to serve the women of Pakistan by changing their role from passive beneficiaries of social support to active catalyst of change and economic empowerment.

Under the MOU responsibilities FWBL will create a platform for empowering women for inculcating the habit to save money as well as get access to finance to establish new business and or develop existing business. FWBL will enhance women’s economic empowerment through capacity building, skills development and by imparting trainings on banking products, customer service delivery and support.

AF will share complete data of women population along with network support with FWBL and enable FWBL in contacting them. AF will also facilitate FWBL in identification of clusters in respective geographical regions in order to develop tailor made banking products and services that can help FWBL in the economic empowerment of Women of Pakistan.

The event was attended by leading women activists, female judges and prominent lawyers, representatives from academia, GEP Pakistan Gender Coalition members, GEP female beneficiaries from different provinces, USAID representative, media and press.

Aurat Foundation, on behalf of its Executive Director Ms. Nigar Ahmad, presented the first ever ‘HABIB JALIB COURAGE AWARD to women rights activist Ms. Nasreen Azhar in recognition of her services for democracy, human rights and women’s rights.  The award was arranged in memory of ‘12 February 1983 – Lahore demonstration against discriminatory laws’ in which Habib  Jalib  was also baton charged along with other  women’s rights activists.

Mian  Raza Rabbani, Chairman Senate of Pakistan, was the Chief  Guest, and presented  the award to Ms. Nasreen Azhar.  Speakers included former senator Mr. Afrasayab Khattak of Awami National Party, Senator Mir Hasil Bazinjo of the National Party’s, Mr. Naeem Mirza, Chief Operating Officer Aurat  Foundation, and Mr. Mujahid Barelvi, a senior journalist who  has written two books on Habib Jalib.

The ceremony witnessed climax when Jalib’s daughter Ms. Tahira Jalib read out the poem ‘Aise dastoor ko, subh-e-benor ko, main nahi manta, main nahi janta’ in the same way, his father did.