Interview with leading female provincial parliamentarian

Elected to a "reserved" seat for women in Pakistan's Punjab provincial assembly, Humaira Awais Shahid, still only in her early thirties, has campaigned relentlessly for legislation to be passed, banning the rural custom of "vinni" where women of any age are bartered in exchange for crimes committed by family members. She has also tried to get legislation introduced which would classify the practice of throwing acid at women to disfigure and maim them, as attempted murder. The crime is currently a grey area under Pakistani law, often exploited by perpetrators of these horrific acts. A mother of two, Humaira Awais Shahid taught at the prestigious Fatima Jinnah University in Islamabad before opting to enter politics, believing she could make a difference. She took time out from her dual role as journalist/politician to talk to IRIN at her office in Lahore about her new role as a parliamentarian. QUESTION: What are the resolutions you've tried to get passed in the Punjab provincial assembly? ANSWER: I've contributed two resolutions - both on violence against women. One is against 'vinni' in which I sought a five-year sentence for those who trade women for crimes committed by family members as well as moving to abolish this practice. The second was on acid attacks - I have asked for any acid attack to be considered a murder attempt. Acid should be banned, the transportation, the storage, its production and sale. It should be licensed by the companies that are involved. The reason why I came up with the resolutions and not the bills is because it comes under the federal domain and the provincial government cannot legislate but can only recommend these. Because these are issues that belong to the region of Punjab, they will not be gracing the National Assembly. So it is very important what the provincial assembly is saying. The third attempt was a bill. My bill is on the prohibition of private money-lending. Because it is a regional provincial list, there's already an ordinance. I asked for a repeal of an ordinance, which is the Punjab Private Money Lending Ordinance, 1960. I'm asking in my bill is that interest-based private money-lending should be prohibited because it is a source of human-rights violations. Q: What exactly is 'vinni'? A: Vinni is a customary practise where they trade women. They barter women for crimes committed by members of their family. It's a means for reconciling disputes and, sometimes, even minors are traded. For example, there was a case when a 15-year old girl and her nine-year old sister were married off to a 20-year old man and an eight-year old boy to settle a family dispute. This is different from the custom of 'swara' in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), where they "sell" their women, they take money. In vinni, they say we will give our women as compensation for crimes committed. And this is completely contradictory to what our judicial system says: it says child marriages should be abolished because that is a punishable offence; and over here, [in Punjab] little girls are just summarily handed over. So why is there no legislation on this? It is indisputable, it is very clearly a violation. Q: And the practice of throwing acid on women to exact revenge? A: According to my rough estimates, there has been a 200 percent increase in this. The reasons are: because it's a copy-cat crime - every man that finds out about this must say to himself: "This is easy. All I have to do is buy a bottle of acid for Rs. 25 [US $0.45] and just throw it. Now it's being used against men also and children. Again, there is no clear legislation on this. It's covered by an ordinance known as the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance where the punishment accorded has to be proportionate to the wounds given: you know, a hand for a hand, an eye for an eye. Now, acid crime victims die very slowly - over eight to ten days, even for those with 80 percent burns. So within those eight days, the perpetrator can just apply for bail and get it and vanish, because the Pakistan Penal Code sections 302 (attempted murder) and 307 (murder) do not apply to it. Q: What kind of success have you had with your fight to curtail these kind of crimes against women? A: It should rest with the federal law department. In any case, after six months, I wrote a letter to President Musharraf and I printed an appeal in my own newspaper where I said these are the issues that are affecting women and I asked him to look into this issue. Two weeks ago, I received a letter from the President's secretariat that my recommendations have been forwarded to the justice law commission. Then, I met him when he addressed the parliamentarians and I quoted the issues and asked him to look into human rights issues and human rights violations. Q: What other issues are you trying to highlight? A: I'm trying to raise the issue of the rape of a minor. Two or three times, I tried to raise an adjournment motion which was rejected by the speaker; it never turned up. It was the rape of a nine-year old girl. The poor child was unconscious for two or three days because of the trauma she went through. I tried again to raise an adjournment motion, that the house should be adjourned for fifteen minutes so we could have a discussion on this. Even then, that wasn't approved by the speaker. So most of the time, if there are any issues that are not suitable for the government, the speaker is not ready to allow them to be discussed. And it seems to be a particular case of not allowing any motions tabled by women to go through - their resolutions, their questions, their adjournment motions are refused. Q: Would you classify this as outright discrimination against women? A: It's not discrimination: it's oppression! Things that they don't want to address, things that they are not comfortable with, things that they don't have an answer to.are never allowed to come up. For example, I've been saying - asking them, rather - that free legal aid should be provided to rape victims. They just ignore it, because it's not a priority. Q: How many women are members of the Punjab provincial assembly? A: There are 70 in total, out of which four were elected on general seats. The remaining 66 are on reserved seats. I was elected on a reserved seat. Q: Do you agree with the concept of reserved seats for women? A: No. Not now. Most of the women who get in on reserved seats do not qualify to be there because they are not even working women, they're not from professional backgrounds, they do not enter through a political process so they have absolutely no idea what they're supposed to do over there. So, now, I disagree. I believe there should be seats for technocrats - and there should even be categories within the allotment for technocrats. And only women who have distinguished themselves in their fields should come through. Q: So why did you decide to contest the elections? A: Because I thought it was a new system. Because I thought there was space for people like me, I thought there was space for change and reform. Also, my family encouraged me: my husband and everyone else said "more and more educated people should come forward". Q: How has the experience been? A: It's been a great learning experience for me, despite the fact that I had no political motivation. I was already an established professional in my field. I was teaching as well as working as a journalist with my husband. Initially, I was reluctant about entering politics because I believed that the system cannot digest people like me. Since then, however, I've discovered there are others like me - the void isn't that great. I've discovered, there are others who are willing to contribute on an individual level.