Understanding violence against
women is as complex as the concept itself that manifests in many ways that may
be physical, or psychological. The first kind is easy to acknowledge as it can
be seen and therefore be remedied, the second however is a variety that not many
would consider as an offence in the Pakistani society. Gender discrimination and
hegemonic trends in relationships and institutions are still very rigid and
unbending as in olden times. The question arises as to why hasn’t society risen
from an ignorant state of existence to an exalted one where women are looked at
as fellow human beings that can experience an equal degree of happiness, pain,
humiliation, anger etc, instead of gender specific entities to be categorized or
rather sub-categorized as humans of an inferior variety.
In Pakistan, domestic violence is considered a private matter, as it occurs in
the family, and therefore not an appropriate focus for assessment or
intervention. Women have to face discrimination and violence on a daily basis
due to the cultural and religious norms that Pakistani society embraces.
According to an estimate, approximately 70 to 90% of Pakistani women are
subjected to domestic violence. Some common types of violence include honor
killing, spousal abuse including marital rape, acid attacks and being burned by
family members. Spousal abuse is rarely considered a crime socially unless it
takes an extreme form of murder or attempted murder which could range from
driving a woman to suicide or engineering an accident.
The entire scenario clearly reflects that violence against women is an enormous
public health and social problem in Pakistan, which has never been appropriately
responded and dealt by the government. According to experts, the reason why
violence against women is still on the high is that the behavior of an
individual human being is shaped by the social environment. Development is a
result of interaction at various levels of social organization that include
personal factors, societal factors where the person lives and cultural factors.
Thus, it must be noted that nothing will change until women are seen as other
than subservient, compliant victims.
It is observed that both perpetration and acceptance of physical and
psychological abuse is a conditioned and learned behaviour and it is the social
situation that is most important in determining the frequency, form
circumstances and target of aggressive actions. Therefore, as long as the cost
for being violent does not outweigh the rewards, invariably violence as a method
of control will be used. Sets of cultural rules and values guide the behaviours
of members of the society such as gender roles assigned to males are masculinity
characterized by machismo, bravery and courageousness. Females are expected to
be feminine characterized by fragility, timidity, and submission.
Further, traditional practices and attitude basing on false assumptions of
religiosity makes it very difficult for a woman to end even a violent
relationship. Women tend to believe that they were committing a sin by
dissolving even an abusive marriage. In addition, the influence of media may
also increase the likelihood of violence against women. It becomes apparent by
looking in to the interplay of these factors that violence against women in this
country may be understood. This understanding then may be used as pathways for
change, which may eventually provide substantial improvement in women's lives.
Intrinsic factors that give rise to violence include personal characteristics
like age, education, income, personality influences and acceptance of
interpersonal violence. The effects of the factors like witnessing marital
violence as a child, being abused as a child, absentee or rejecting father on
the personality of a person are also considered intrinsic factors. Studies have
shown that younger women are more susceptible to experience violence. Also,
women whose educational attainment levels are inferior to those of their
husbands are more likely to suffer beating and intimidation than those women
whose educational attainment levels are equal or exceed their husbands.
Further, inherited and ingrained personality traits predispose some men to
behave in a malicious and aggressive manner towards other people especially
women. These habits are deeply ingrained and resistant to change. Violent
intimate partners report more depression, lower self-esteem, and more aggression
than in non-violent intimate partners. In Pakistan, where awareness and
acceptance of mental health problems is limited, this area remains ignored and
unaddressed.
Role modeling plays a significant role as it has direct impact on learners. As
most families in Pakistani cultures are close knit where parents act as role
models, if the father beats his wife then his son would beat his wife. Also, the
context within which the abuse takes place needs to be looked at. Pakistani
society is a patriarchal society in which, male members who bear the
decision-making authority, head the families. Women are usually not included in
making decisions and are considered socially and economically dependent on men.
Women consider themselves insecure, incomplete, ineffective and inefficient
without males. Therefore, the male dominance becomes one of the significant
predictor of the violence against women in the country.
Another major factor is marital conflict that leads to an increased number of
cases of domestic violence. Majority of the studies around the globe have shown
that marital conflict associated with verbal and physical abuse is common in all
strata of the society regardless of geographic, cultural, psychosocial and
financial differences. The reason of the marital conflict included financial
constraints, presence of in-laws, children and absence of a male child.
Historically, in the Indo-Pak's tribal and rural cultures, women were treated as
the property of men. Role of woman has been submission, to serve as a commodity
and to sacrifice herself for the sake of values determined by man. Women were
traded for reconciliation, forced into marriages for political reasons and
attaining tribal peace. Also, they were disallowed to marry and denied legal
rights of inheritance. Being killed for the sake of man's ethics and man-made
values is an accepted norm in this part of the globe that even in this day and
age nothing substantial has changed.
A woman is still looked at through the prism of a male eye and thus always
founding lacking. Change needs to arrive not only at the individual level, but
at the societal level so that it changes the entire culture where the status of
a woman should be based on humanitarian and Islamic grounds and not on
male-dependant unfair conventions. It is my belief that if a woman is respected
in a culture, she is less likely to be abused which may serve to reverse the
ongoing violence in every household that is sustained and never gets reported.