Content provided in partnership with
Women and violence
WIN News, Autumn, 2002
Two of the ordinaces, relate to offences against property and drinking...A third prescribes the mode of carrying out a punishment - whipping. A fourth created a new offence and has rarely been invoked. The fifth ordinance, commonly known as the Zina ordinance, under which thousands of women have been made to suffer, made women victims of rape vulnerable, and prescribed a punishment, stoning to death of the raped woman - which has been haunting women.
While 'zina' covers rape, adultery and fornication the ordinance made radical difference to the law relating to these acts. Under the Penal Code women could not be charged with rape, only men could be punished for it. A child under 14 subjected to sexual intercourse was presumed to be raped...This regime was based on an assessment of the disadvantaged status of women made by the authors of the penal code in the first half of the 19th century...
- Most Popular Articles in News
- The Ten Best Laptop bags
- Tata plans cheapest-ever car for Indian market
- GLOBALIZATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF THE THIRD WORLD
- Corn is good for you; Corn is not only a tasty treat, but also a cereal that ...
- THE 50 BEST STYLISH HANDBAGS TO CARRY
- More »
The condition of women had not changed materially by 1979, in a large part of Pakistan, but General Zia ul Haq had no concern for this reality. Over the years the Zina ordinance has been an instrument of oppressing women. The main grounds are: Rape is extremely difficult to prove because the crime is not committed in the presence of four adult Muslims of Unimpeachable integrity who are required as witnesses to confirm the rape. At the same time a woman complaining of rape is presumed to have confessed to illicit sex, and if she gets pregnant that is held as absolute proof of her crime. As a result a large number of women have suffered imprisonment for failing to establish their case against rapists.
Instances of the abuse of this law are legion. The Zina Ordinance has been employed by men to prosecute their divorced wives and by parents of girls who marry against their wishes. In the rural areas generally divorces are verbal affairs. In many cases when divorced women take new husbands the former spouses have gone to the police and courts to deny divorce and accuse women of living in adultery. In cases of women entering into wedlock against parents ('guardians') wishes, the latter have initiated proceedings against them, denying their marriages and even forging documents...
Every year such cases come up before superior courts and in many cases the police have been found to be in collusion with complainants...Since marital rape is no longer an offence the victims can have no redress. This was demonstrated in a case which came up before the Lahore High Court. A 13-year-old girl appeared in the court. The effects of violence committed by her husband were visible all over her body but the court declined to intervene.
The ordinance has reinforced the anti-women biases of the judiciary...There is the indefensible provision of the Zina Ordinance which prescribes the punishment of stoning to death for adultery. . The provision was made on the basis that Islam provides for this punishment...As long as the law exists in its present form the sentence of stoning to death will continue to be made under Islamic law.
