By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
Hats off to the women who lobbied for the two bills on sexual harassment, and managed last week to move them a step further towards becoming the law. At long last the ruling coalition partners mustered enough courage to take a stand on women’s rights in this matter.
Continue reading Women’s bills revisited
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
ACCORDING to the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2006-07, the country`s population growth rate has fallen to 1.9 per cent from a record high of 3.7 per cent per year in the 1960s.
The survey also gives the total fertility rate (the average number of children a woman would have if she went through her entire reproductive period, 15-49 years) as 4.1 which has been reduced considerably from 5.4 in 1990.
Continue reading Untold story of abortion
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
PUBLIC memory is proverbially short. But the bills passed on women are too recent an event to be consigned to oblivion. Twice in the last four months the government’s attempts to enact pro-women legislation – one on domestic violence and the other on sexual harassment — have ended in a fiasco.
Continue reading Mystery of the women’s bills
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
THE list of human rights recognised by the international community continues to grow. Since 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly the dimension of the rights issue, especially its nature, has changed enormously.
Continue reading A question of human rights
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
HAVE you noticed the invisibility of women in the IDP camps? Although they constitute a substantial number of the displaced, it is the men who speak on their behalf.
Not at all surprising. Remember for years the election commission reported areas in the NWFP where not a single female vote was cast because jirgas had banned women from voting.
Continue reading Trapped in their seclusion