A gift to women from Sindh Assembly
Karachi: Mehnaz Rehmat, director of the Aurat Foundation, called the domestic violence bill adopted on Friday a gift from the Sindh Assembly to women on women’s day. “For the first time a bill will include all forms of violence, including psychological violence,” she said.
Previously, due to loopholes in the law a woman could not get an FIR registered easily. “It meant that a bruise was merely written down in a roznamcha or daily diary. The police did not consider it a crime.”
The bill was first passed in 2008, and then sent to the Senate for approval, but it never saw the light of day”, said Rehmat.After the passage of the 18th amendment, the provinces obtained the independence to draft laws.
“It was women parliamentarians who brought up the issue again and again. Men in the assembly would merely mock it.”She recalled how after the bill was passed today a male parliamentarian mocked, “So we cannot slap our wives anymore?” “It was as if he considered it his right to do so,” she said.
Source: The News
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