Musharraf Brings Out Five Point Plan For Women Empowerment
By Ali Eteraz
Posted on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 09:12:55 PM EST
Tags: pakistan, legislation (all tags)
Daily Times:
The president urged voters, especially women, to reject the “hypocrites” and extremists at the polls and elect the “moderates” who had supported the bill. “Remember, you have to vote for moderates. Reject those who do not want to see you progressing.” He also announced a five-point strategy for women’s emancipation. First, women must be empowered politically by giving them representation in elected bodies. Second, they must be empowered economically through equal job opportunities. They must be given equal education opportunities to bring them into the mainstream of national development. They must be empowered legally by enacting new laws. And finally, all unjust social practices and violence against women must be eliminated.
He said the government had already given women 33 percent representation in elected bodies. “However, more steps are needed,” he added. Though job quotas for women had been increased and they had started entering new fields such as the armed forces, “their capacity-building is very important to get maximum benefit from their talent”.
He said the government would try to push through a bill submitted by PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in parliament. The bill would address six major issues: inheritance rights, selling of women, forced marriages, marriages with the Quran, ‘vani’ and laws related to divorce.
He said he backed NGOs trying to eliminate violence against women, but urged them not to raise the issue at international forums, as this hurt Pakistan’s image. The president also announced a Rs 2,000 monthly allowance for women councillors.
There it is people. Another bill. Please keep your eyes open for all news sources on the subject. We did a great job in covering the Women's Protection Bill (we're still the only group in the West or Pakistan) who were able to obtain the bill in English. And for the most part, all the analysis involved, I did by myself. It will be even more spectacular if we all get involved.
In addition to this new women's bill -- which I don't have a cool name for -- we're going to start covering the public morality bill (Hisba Bill) in Pakistan. Other legislation involves getting involved in Iranian criminal law reform, and potentially, a world wide project about Islamic Criminal Law thunk up by some nerds at some big name university (they need to hurry their slow butts up though).
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