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Women
Women in prison were the most vulnerable of detainees in Pakistan.
January to June 2012.
Some of the grave cases reported in the media in 2012 appeared to be
horrible acts of anger and blood lust, as women were tortured within their
own homes.
♦ In Multan, a woman was strangled to death her by mother-in-law for
refusing to hand over her jewellery to her husband’s second wife.
♦ In Liaquatabad, Lahore, a woman’s in-laws hanged her because she
could not have children, and claimed that she had died of a grave illness.
However, the police found on her neck the marks from the rope that was used
to hang her.
♦ In Bahawalpur, a man broke his wife’s legs and kept her locked in a
cupboard for 15 days, after she found that he was involved in an extramarital
affair. When she tried to escape, the man threw acid on her. She was rescued
only when her brother broke into the house to find her disfigured and starving.
Forced conversions and forced marriages
Forced conversion of Hindu girls often after abduction was a repeated
grievance of the Hindu community in Pakistan, especially in Sindh. Once
converted, these girls were prohibited from meeting their Hindu families. The
most widely reported cases this year were of Rinkle Kumari, Lata Kumari and
Aasha Kumari. [See also the chapter ‘Freedom of Thought, Conscience and
Religion’]
Women remained unequal partners in the union of marriage as families
gave their daughters in exchange, to settle disputes or for other financial,
social or cultural reasons. As many forced marriages went unnoticed and
unreported, exact figures were not easily available, but reports suggested that