PAKISTAN
Shirkat Gah Women ’s Resource Center
by Shahina Hanif

The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence is an International Campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership Institute, and Shirkat Gah (Pakistan) has been an active campaigner of this 16 Days movement for many years. In support of the campaign this year we have organized activities in our three offices and provided support to our partner organizations working at the grassroots level.

On the 25th of November, 2009, Shirkat Gah (Lahore) in collaboration with Behbood-e-Niswan Network, was holding a one-day Policy Dialogue on the new Guidelines for Government-run shelters (Dar-ul-Amans) in Faisalabad district. The aim of the event is to bring together the relevant departments and facilitate and strengthen their coordination.

In collaboration with National Commission on the Status of Women, Shirkat Gah has arranged a colloquium on forced marriages in Lahore on 2nd December. A panel of distinguished speakers will highlight the issues of women’s rights in the light of the Quran and Hadith, rights perspective in health and education, and the legal rights of women in Pakistan.

Our Peshawar office held a one-day seminar on Violence against Women on the 24th of November in Abbottabad. This seminar has been arranged for women from rural areas. The speakers at the seminar discussed the current issues of women, the impact of VAW on health, and the gaps in the domestic violence bill that has been drafted in Pakistan, as well as its impact on women. The discussions was followed by a theatre performance raising awareness on the custom of swara and the situation of the IDPs.

Shirkat Gah’s Karachi office was engaged in coordinating a two-day program starting with an interactive theatre on issues of VAW, followed by an open discussion where subjects like early-age marriages, lack of education, access to resources, etc were broached. The planned activities were conducted in the city of Quetta on 8-9th December.

In addition to our own planned activities, we have created special advocacy materials for the 16 Days Campaign, and we were heavily involved with supporting our partner organizations with their planned activities by providing them these materials to support their programs.

Link: http://www.shirkatgah.org/