Delays in Pakistan's rape law reform

[Skylace]

Pakistan's government has delayed presenting a bill in parliament which would have reformed rape laws.

The bill would for the first time have allowed rapists to be tried under civil law as well as Islamic law.

But following complaints from Islamic and secular parties the government says it will now re-draft its proposals to create more of a consensus.

Rape is currently dealt with under the Hudood Ordinance, an Islamic law strongly criticised by women's groups.

The government is trying its best to placate the mullahs
Human Rights Commission Pakistan Director IA Rehman

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says that the government's attempt to reform rape laws have suffered a setback amid growing controversy.

Our correspondent says those political parties which supported the original bill are furious and the Islamic parties are now demanding even more changes.

The government had already revised its original draft to satisfy strong opposition from Islamic parties, and critics accused it of rolling back the reforms to make it even harder for women to take action in rape cases.

The Hudood Ordinance criminalises all sex outside marriage, so if a rape victim fails to present four male witnesses to the crime she herself could face punishment and prosecuted for adultery.

The government says that makes it almost impossible to prosecute a rape case.

It proposed putting the offence of rape in the secular penal code where normal rules of evidence apply.

But it revised the bill because of strong opposition from Islamic parties.

A compromise draft was presented, which said that rape would fall under both Islamic and secular penal codes.

Human rights activists say this will create confusion, allowing powerful religious lobbies to manipulate what is seen as a weak judicial system.

[IRiSHMaFIA]

I felt rage after reading this. Those dirty, filthy scumbags don't take it seriously at all and feel women are the lowest form of life that don't deserve any rights whatsoever.

This reminds me of the show that faceless posted about the iranian girl that was hung. She was raped for years by a man old enough to be her grandfather but couldn't say a word because she'd of been the one punished for it, and basically was by her life being taken.

Even tho it was illegal to hang a 16 yr old, they doctored the papers to say she was 22 I think it was and hung her in public off a crane.

Pakistan is no bloody different with their complete and utter lack of respect for the female race. It just sickens me. If a woman complains then she suffers for it whereas the rapist gets off with not even a harsh word I'm sure.

[faceless]

I'm quite surprised that Pakistan still have laws like this, but at least there's some movement to get things changed. Thing is, even with all the legal framework in Britain there's still a huge percentage of rapes that go unpunished, so it seems it's not just having the laws in place that matters.

Reported rapes in the UK (male and female):

# in 1995 - 5,136
# in 2004-05 - 14,002

Conviction rates
# in 1995 - 10%
# in 2004-05 - 5.29%

[IRiSHMaFIA]

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