By Zeeshan Shah
KARACHI: On International Human Rights Day today, it is time to revisit the origins of gender-based violence (GBV) against women in Pakistan by going to the root cause through fact-finding missions to explore why gender-based violence continues to rise in Pakistan. Is it weak legislation or cultural taboos? Is it a governance failure, poor health facilities, or lack of regulatory compliance? It is time to reflect and understand the reasons behind excessive human injustice and emotional trauma in our society.
We need to invest in the protection of our women against gender-based violence. Pakistan has always been under the radar when it comes to understanding human rights as we continue to ignore our mandatory commitment to public health. Women and children continue to face tragic mental and emotional trauma, as the post-covid era for Pakistan has been tremendously turbulent and chaotic. As we slowly continue to stumble out of the post-pandemic crisis, we refuse to see the misery of our population enduring severe mental health issues of deprivation, isolation, and insecurities that are toxic and deep-rooted.
According to the UN Secretary General’s call to UNITE by 2030 to end violence against women, these 16 days made us realize how far behind we are on this mission to protect our women from the dangers of mental health, emotional trauma, and physical violence.
This month, the World Health Organization (WHO) has taken a bold step forward in the fight against Gender-Based-Violence (GBV), commemorating “16 days of Activism” –for a world free of Gender-based violence that started on 25th November and culminates today on Human Rights Day. The initiative was commendable as it stood out as a stark reminder that we must take the fight against GBV to the next level of advocacy and awareness. It was yet another beginning of the battle against GBV.
In a recent event earlier this month in Karachi, WHO Head of Office Sindh Dr Sara Salman further emphasized on immediate collaboration of key stakeholders to unite to fight against gender-based violence. According to recent WHO global updates, approximately 736 million women (1 in 3) experienced physical and sexual violence while 1 in 8 women aged b/w 15-49 faced excessive violence from their partners. Shockingly, more than 65% of all homicide crimes and killings of women are committed by partners or family members. In 2022, approximately 89000 women and girls were killed globally.
We are entering a new age of “Human Trauma”, stated one of the participants.
By 2030, there will be an estimated 9 million forced marriages of underage girls worldwide. In contrast to men, 70 % of women have experienced GBV in humanitarian contexts while the percentage of displaced women due to climate change has risen to 80%. While over 104 countries have comprehensive laws addressing domestic violence against women, most nations including Pakistan, have extremely low conviction rates against such horrific crimes.
We are a fragmented nation today, embroiled in crimes of cruelty across all fronts where women and young children bear the brunt of it all. Most people today are in the process of healing and recovery while some are dealing with extreme traumatic stress disorders. On the exterior, things may look very calm and stable, while the trauma remains hidden and dormant inside. As a civil society, we must venture out carefully. It is extremely important today to register the reality of the “man-made stress” as we try and heal as a delicate nation and reset our lives.
The pandemic is still not over in our minds as people learn to understand “traumatic stress” to navigate their lives. For example, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a seriously ignored ailment in some parts of the world where knowledge of treatment is limited. In Pakistan, a severe degree of mental health disorders is not reported.
We need to analyze the triggers. Real problems faced by families today like poverty, population, and polarization lead to fear, numbness, or disconnection as people simply cannot cope with the stress. Individuals end up with permanent mental scars that they genetically pass on to their children. PTSD is a long-term condition with severe consequences for the entire family and not just the individual patient or victim.
According to a US report by the National Center for PTSD, women are at a higher risk of developing PTSD at 10.4%, compared to men at 5%. In less developed nations like ours, the numbers are higher, due to the severe number of rapes, childhood physical abuse, and general illiteracy, and the absence of justice.
How we respond to stress is important today. No one is alike therefore everyone reacts to stress differently. Trauma victims may develop different emotional responses to highly stressful experiences, be it terror, blame, guilt, shock, anger, sadness helplessness, grief or difficulty feeling happy. Some are ‘cognitive’ responses where the symptoms of mental stress are not physically identifiable. For example, common symptoms like confusion, self-blame, disbelief, nightmares, intrusive memories, decreased self-esteem and impaired concentration are usually ignored and not taken seriously.
Traumatic stress may also affect us physically leading to side-effects like fatigue, insomnia, poor appetite, severe headaches, decreased libido, and a reduced immune response. Once again, we fail to predict common psychological interpersonal disorders, The obvious signs and triggers we ignore include increased relational conflict, alienation, social withdrawal, impaired work performance, distrust, rejection, over-protectiveness and feelings of abandonment. In our women today, GBV leads to all of the above and eventually becomes a long-term human trauma.
One thing we must avoid is “burnout”. In a close-knit culture, we live & thrive as a family unit. Sometimes, the helpers get impacted by the victims and the healthy person becomes a patient in the process. Longer working hours, lack of empathy, professional isolation and failure to live up to expectations of self. For example: doctors are given weekly breaks from duty rosters to avoid slow depression or exhaustive burnout.
We are a “modern primitive society” – with negative media shaping our savage instincts and feeding our lethal mindsets. Here, the men in our society must play their part in protecting their women and children. Unfortunately, they usually become part of the problem rather than a part of a solution.
In the post-covid world, we must re-align our priorities when talking about GBV. We need multi-sectoral collaboration and vital stakeholder management between individual experts and government agencies, medical experts and general educationists, media, and civil society at large.
This mission must carry on beyond 16 days of activism as our women & children need protection and peace of mind and in a way, so do our men. Mental health and wellbeing remain primary human rights and we must fight for them every day.
The Writer is a freelance writer/columnist, and broadcaster.
