PAKISTAN: Women more confident in reporting sexual violence

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

LAHORE, 6 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - The tale of Sonia Naz, the latest case of alleged gang-rape to be widely publicised in Pakistan, has left even the most hardened observer badly shaken. But the very fact that the incident has come to light is indicative of a growing willingness among many women in this devout Islamic country to report such crimes.

Sonia's ordeal began nearly six weeks ago in the industrial city of Faisalabad, about 200 km west of Lahore, when her husband, Asim, was arrested by police. Asim, a low-level clerk in the revenue department, was involved with nearly a dozen other officials in a corruption case.

Most senior officials initially arrested were soon free. Asim, on the other hand, seems to have vanished - and while his family paid many bribes, and Sonia, expecting her second child at the time, repeatedly visited the police station - the young man was never located.

In despair, Sonia, in April of this year, turned up at the national assembly in the capital, Islamabad, leaving her two small children with her sister in Lahore. "I hoped to meet Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and tell him my story. I was certain he would help," she said.

Sonia, barely educated and unaware of protocol, was accidentally waved forward by a security guard right into the chamber, where she took her place among the legislators. When her presence was noticed, the bewildered Sonia was dragged away by guards, taken to a police station and charged with breaking into the assembly.

After being released following pressure from journalists and rights activists, she was re-arrested in Lahore in May, where she says she was repeatedly raped, stripped naked, beaten and abused by her police captors, despite her pleas for mercy.

After her story was published, the prime minister and President Pervez Musharraf swiftly intervened to order an inquiry and the suspension of Superintendent Khalid Abdullah and Inspector Jamshed Chishti of the Lahore police, allegedly involved in the sexual assault.

Leading rights activist and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) chairwoman, Asma Jehangir, has been nominated as her lawyer, and after meeting the police inquiry team at Jehangir's office in Lahore she was moved at the weekend to a secure shelter for women run by Jehangir's legal aid firm, AGHS.

"This is definitely one of the most terrible stories I have ever heard and we deal with women victims of crime almost every day," Jehangir said.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Zafar Qureishi, heading the inquiry into the alleged rape, said: "We began investigations immediately after recording Sonia Naz's statement. Nothing will remain unprobed."

While at least three other incidents of brutal rape in police custody have come forward this year alone, many others are thought to have gone unreported, the HRCP said.

The commission said Sonia's case demonstrates a growing determination on the part of many Pakistani women to fight back against violence. "It is in a way very important that Sonia has had the courage to go public about what happened. The times when women, fearing social stigma, refused to report such crimes or were too scared and ashamed to do so are changing," Mehboob Ahmed Khan, legal officer at the HRCP, said.

The HRCP said it had details of more than 250 incidents of rape and gang-rape in the first six months of 2005 alone. The fact that the figures are significantly higher than in the same period of 2004 is put down to an increase in the reporting of such crimes by victims.

"This is a huge triumph and shows rights campaigners have succeeded in at least convincing women victims of rape that they must come forward, and must not blame themselves for what happened to them," Khan said.

Women parliamentarians held a demonstration outside the national legislature in Islamabad on Thursday protesting against the alleged rape and abuse of Sonia Naz. The demonstrators demanded the government bring the perpetrators to justice, whilst carrying placards against the abuse of power by police officials.

[ENDS]