Daughters of a lesser god?

Mrs.Talat Farooq

Executive Editor Criterion,

Islamabad

Several rallies and protests have been organized by the religious

political parties and their supporters in the aftermath of the Aafia
trial in New York demanding her release and return to Pakistan.
Members of some non-conservative educational institutions have
also joined in this flurry of emotional outbursts. The media has
highlighted her ordeal without debating the downside of her story
in objective detail and the so called alims on and offline have as
usual played with the emotions of the masses. A whole generation
of Pakistanis, grown up in an environment that discourages
critical analysis and dispassionate objectivity in its educational
institutions, has more or less allowed their emotions to be
exploited. The Aafia case is complex and involves more than one
explanation; it cannot as yet be seen in black or white. The grey
lady is grey precisely because of her murky past and the question
mark hanging over her alleged links to militants. After all she was
not a run of the mill housewife, whisked away by the CIA while
cooking biryani in her kitchen. Her family’s silence during the
years of her disappearance and her ex-husband’s side of the story
certainly provide fodder to the opposing point of view that does
not consider Aafia’s case as straightforward.

The right-wing parties and their supporters have once again

played the card of anti-Americanism to attain their own political
ends while simultaneously denouncing the human rights
organizations for their silence. Our hatred of America, based on
some very real grievances, also serves as a readily available
smokescreen to avoid any rational thinking on any issue of
national importance or public interest thus allowing the vested
interests to get away with murder.

The response of the religious political lobby to Aafia’s plight is

symbolic of our social mindset where we, while throwing stones at
others, refuse to speak up for the downtrodden right under our
nose. Aafia has been dubbed as Pakistan ki Beti; one wonders
why the same right-wing lobby is impervious to the plight of many
betis in Pakistan who are denied access to justice within the
Pakistani judicial system. Even as they stir up our emotions in the
name of Aafia’s motherhood and her suffering children they
conveniently turn a blind eye to the plight of hundreds of mothers
suffering in Pakistani jails. While unprecedented diplomatic efforts
continue to bring Aafia back to Pakistan there are numerous
women in Pakistani jails awaiting justice that could allow them to
eventually return home. And this after the National Judicial Policy
has directed the courts to dispose of these cases on priority
basis!!

A survey of the jails in Punjab shows that about 45% of female

prisoners are awaiting trials. 80% of all women female prisoners
are mothers and 25% have children aged between 1 to 3 years.
More than 70% are illiterate which goes to show why almost 85%
of them are unaware of the status of their legal proceedings
including those who are unacquainted with the charges registered
against them; 35% have failed to engage lawyers. According to
another survey, in Punjab alone nearly 78% of women prisoners
complained of maltreatment in police custody and 72% claimed
sexual abuse. A female juvenile offender fares no better and, like
her adult counterpart, spends long periods awaiting trial or
hearing, often in violation of the law. She is even more vulnerable
to abuse while in detention despite The Juvenile Justice System
Ordinance, 2002. Judging from the Punjab statistics the situation
in other provinces cannot be any better.
 Although women police stations were established in response to
complaints of custodial abuse, minimal efforts have been made to
provide them with human and material resources as compared to
regular police stations. Females continue to be detained at
regular police stations overnight despite court orders and
regulations and sexual abuse by police or guards remains a sad
reality. According to Ansar Burney Trust, women prisoners are
raped on a regular basis in police custody and in prison. Children
born as a result of rape, as well as those who live with their
mothers in jail, usually grow up to be emotionally disturbed
individuals.

In Aafia Siddiqui’s case the Pakistani government has spent US $

2million already and the President has directed more legal
assistance after her recent conviction on all seven counts. In
Pakistani jails a majority of women continue to suffer due to
financial deprivation because successive governments have failed
to build a separate financial pool to foot the legal bills for these
Pakistani Betis. According to a recent study the women prisons in
Pakistan are in dire need of health facilities. In most of the rape
cases if the woman is pregnant she ends up delivering the baby in
jail where there is hardly any access to pre or post-natal care.
This leads to an increased rate of infant mortality and maternal
deaths. The women are undernourished and suffer from multiple
health issues including mental health, substance abuse, physical
abuse and resultant trauma. A large number of these women
have a pre or post-arrest history of physical and emotional abuse
and suffer from depression, anxiety and are more likely to
attempt suicide. The study informs us that over the last couple of
decades the number of women prisoners has increased by 273%
thereby multiplying the problems manifold. Wouldn’t it be more
meaningful if the pro-Aafia lobby also pressurized the Pakistani
government to spend another US $ 2 million on improving women
jails in Pakistan?
If Aafia has been wronged the judicial process must be allowed to
run its due course to redress her grievances. There is no question
about that. Instead the fundamental question is this: Justice for
Aafia Siddiqui or justice for all? Only when our religious and liberal
lobbies decide to transcend their opposing worldviews to jointly
work toward a just social system, will justice prevail in letter and
spirit in Pakistan. Till then we can brace ourselves for more
political stunts in the name of justice.