Pakistan - 74pc of minority women face sexual abuse: Study
LAHORE As many as 74 per cent of minority women living in Pakistan faced sexual harassment during 2010 and 2011, respectively, while 43 per cent complained about facing religious discrimination at workplaces, educational institutions and neighbourhoods.
“Moreover, 27 per cent minority women (Christian and Hindu) faced discrimination in admissions to educational institutions and were forced to take Islamic studies for absence of any alternative subject,” National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) executive director Peter Jacob disclosed this while launching a study titled ‘Life on the Margins’ conducted by the commission with rights activists, media and people from various walks of life at a local hotel on Wednesday.
The research, which was based on interviews of minority women, was led by Jennifer Jag Jivan and Jacob while it was assessed by three prominent minority women, MNA Asiya Nasir, Ernestine C. Pinto and Pushpa Kumari, with the coordination of Sobia John. “As many as 1,000 Hindu and Christian women were interviewed, the two communities forming 92 per cent of the entire minority population,” he added.
He said the study reviewed the literature available on minority women. Issues such as legal disparity, review of personal laws concerning minorities, religious and gender biases, forced conversions, lack of policy focus and segregated data were part of this study that affected everyday life of the minority women, he said.
