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NEWS & LETTERS, October-November 2006Pakistani women fight abuseDr. Shazia Khalid, exiled from Pakistan for her attempts to prosecute her rapist, recently toured the U.S. for the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Human Rights. Below are excerpts from her speech. I was a doctor employed by Pakistan Petroleum Limited, a big energy company which is partly owned by the government, in Sui Field Hospital in a remote area of Baluchistan. The women of Sui are completely unaware of their rights. Education and healthcare facilities are almost nonexistent. Almost every woman has 10 to 15 children who are barefoot and inadequately dressed due to poverty. I was a general practitioner working with women and children. I am distressed that today even those who are working to save the lives of the poor and helpless are subjected to this kind of indignity. I was raped on the night of Jan. 2, 2005. Despite the presence of many security guards in the compound where I lived, I was not given protection. This incident ruined my whole life. My husband’s and my careers have been destroyed. The most distressing part of this ordeal is that the government did not give me justice; rather they made me leave the country. Because of this I have been forced into a life of exile without my family and my son. Pakistan Petroleum Limited Company…not only refused to assist me, they also concealed and mishandled the evidence in my case. After the rape and violence inflicted upon me, I was badly injured and could not walk, but no one was sympathetic towards me or assisted me through this ordeal. I was not given any medical treatment…they gave me sedatives and flew me to a psychiatric hospital in Karachi. After this I had to confront so many injustices that I lost faith in life and people. I attempted suicide but my husband and my family were on my side and gave me the strength to carry on. And as a result I am here to tell you my story. My case has been politicized and highly profiled, but despite this I have not been given justice. Think of the thousands of women who are killed and burnt alive in Pakistan and whose cases are never even reported…silenced by death or by the feudal culture in many parts of Pakistan. I want to work on women’s rights and to encourage Pakistani women to come forward for their rights. I am working with Aurat Foundation in Pakistan to open a crisis centre in the Lyari area of Karachi, where women victims of violence will be given free legal aid, healthcare and counseling services so that women’s poverty is not an impediment to justice and that women get the services they need to overcome their trauma and proceed with their lives. I want Pakistan to be a model of justice and equality for the whole world. I want every Pakistani woman to be able to stand up tall and say, "Yes, in our country women are treated as equal and given justice." This is the dream I have and I am sure it is also the wish of every Pakistani woman. (See "Protest for human rights in Pakistan" this issue.) |
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