11.1. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
The term violence against women has two major elements: “violence” and its occurrence “against
women”. For better understanding, we need to first understand the term “violence”, its nature and
what it includes. Second, we need to understand what forms and implications it has when it comes to
happen with a woman. Both the things are separately dealt in detail in the following sections.
11.1.1. Defining Violence
In common daily usage, the term “Violence” is understood as physical force to harm, damage, injure or
abuse someone. Before understanding the term violence, we need to understand two relevant terms;
“violate” and “violent”. The word “violate” connotes to treat (someone or something) with disrespect
and disturb (Thompson, 1997: 1564). The literal meaning of the term “violent” as provided in dictionary
also refers to “using or tending to use aggressive physical force” against something or someone. In legal
terms, it is identifying to “an unlawful exercise of force” (Thompson, 1997: 1564).
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Meaning
The term “Violence” is derived from the word “Violent”. Violence refers to “violent conduct or
treatment” of someone or something. It can further be elaborated as “the quality of being violent” with
someone or something (Thompson, 1997: 1564). Galles and Straus (1975: 5) defined the term violence
as “an act carried out with the intention or perceived intention of physically hurting another person”. It
can also be defined as the exercise of power in order to impose one’s will on a person or to have one’s
will with a thing (Babur, 2007: 9). Pilcher and Whelehan (2004: 173) defined the term in its narrow
and broader conceptualizations in the following way: “Violence may be narrowly defined, as in the legal
sense of it being the unlawful use of physical force by an individual against others. A broader approach
defines violence as behaviour which harms others, either physically or emotionally.” One example of this
broader conceptualisation is the idea of a ‘continuum of violence’ (Kelly & Radford 1998) within which a
range of harmful behaviour from physical acts of murder and rape to verbal acts of sexualised and
racialised abuse is included. In short, violence is a behaviour pertaining to treat someone with
disrespectful, illegal, aggressive physical force and disturb that individual. The aim of such violent
behaviours towards any individual or group is usually to establish and maintain control over that person
or group.
11.1.2. Defining Violence Against Women
When the violence, as defined above, comes in the circle of gender relations, it becomes a pervasive
and prevalent problem worldwide, touching all aspects of women's lives from home to the workplace
(Schular, 1992). Pilcher and Whelehan (2004: 173) argue that “[w]hether a narrow or more broader
concept of violence prevails, however, it remains the case that violence is gendered. In other words, it
exhibits patterns of difference between men and women, being especially associated with the behaviour
of men”. Connell identifies a range of ways in which men ‘predominate across the spectrum of violence’
(2000: 22), whether as members of the armed forces, as violent criminals under the law, as abusers of
family members, or as participants in and audiences of the various contact sports which centre around
the use of physical force” Pilcher and Whelehan (2004: 173). It is men’s violence against women that
has especially been the concern of feminist researchers (Pilcher & Whelehan, 2004: 173). Now, it is easy
to understand the term “violence against women” (VAW) in the light of above explanation provided for
the words violate, violent and violence. Whenever any such unlawful, disrespectful, aggressive and
violent act is primarily and specifically directed to a woman intending to disturb, disrespect, harm or
subjugate her is called violence against women. It is any violent act primarily or exclusively committed
against women. There is a variety of expressions and terms which are used interchangeably to express
whatever here is meant to symbolize violence against women. “Male violence against women”, “sexual
violence”, “gender violence”, and “gender based violence” are to name a few. There is no universally
agreed definition of the term “violence against women” except what is available in United Nations’
documents. Different definitions of the term violence against women are given from UN documents as
following to facilitate readers’ understanding: 1. At the UN World Conference on Human Rights in 1993,
gender violence was defined as “violence which jeopardizes fundamental rights, individual freedom and
women’s physical integrity”. 2. The Article 1 of the United Nations’ Declaration on the Elimination of
Violence against Women has defined the term as “any act of gender- based violence that results in, or is
likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of
such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life”. The
Article 2 of the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women further elaborates in its
text in following words that what includes violence against women:
“Violence against women shall be understood to encompass, but not limited to the following: (a)
Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of
female children in the household, dowry related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and
other traditional practices harmful to women, non spousal violence and violence related to exploitation.
(b) Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring within the general community, including rape,
sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere,
trafficking in women and forced prostitution. (c) Physical, sexual, and psychological violence perpetrated
or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs.” In short, violence against women includes any form of
physical, sexual and psychological abuse and sexual exploitation perpetrated by a range of offenders
from any individual person, family members, community groups, to even the state, both in public and
private sphere.
11.2. TYPES OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN PAKISTAN
There is a variety of the behaviours adopted while dealing in a violent way with a woman, as well as,
women suffer from a large variety of effects these violent behaviours leave on them. This section will be
dealing with several types of violence against women in Pakistan. The types of violence against women
refer to any particular methods used to disturb, disrespect or subjugate any woman or group of women
for establishing and maintaining control over them and mould their behaviour to serve perpetrator’s or
anyone else’s interest. The common forms of violence can be categorized as verbal abuse, physical
violence, psychological violence, sexual violence, emotional violence, cultural violence, economic
violence, and legal violence. These types of violence are briefly defined in the following sections.
11.2.1. Verbal Abuse
Verbal abuse simply refers to use of unkind or painful words. It means a behaviour someone adopts by
using spoken or written word with an intention to cause harm or disturbance to someone else. Physical
abuse is easy to identify while the verbal abuse is difficult to be proved. It may often be condoned as a
way one talks. For example, name calling, abusing for mistake, insulting, threatening, etc.
11.2.2. Physical Violence
Physical violence occurs when a person violently uses any part of his body or an object to control or
amend any other individual’s action. It commonly refers to coercion. For example, beating, kicking, and
cutting, etc. Physical violence may result in a range of consequences for victim ranging from minor scars
and injuries, physical disability, lose of some bodily part (e.g. eye, etc.), and disfigurement, to loss of
one’s’ life.
11.2.3. Psychological or Mental Violence
Psychological violence occurs when someone adopts a systematic pattern of malicious or explicit non
physical acts against another individual with an intention to cause fear in and achieve control of that
individual. For example, it may include, threatening, stalking, verbal aggression, social isolation or
exclusion, treating with contempt and dishonour, depriving of freedom, etc. Psychological violence may
result in degrading physical health, lack of concentration, emotional disturbance, or suicidal thoughts
among the victims.
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11.2.4. Sexual Violence
Sexual violence refers to the behaviour that forces a person to unwillingly get involved in any sexual
activity. It may include from touching (for sexual pleasure), grabbing, fondling, forcing a person to
perform degrading and painful sexual acts or to have forced or violent sexual intercourse, etc.
Psychological and physical violence often occurs prior to sexual violence. In turn, sexual violence effects
on victim’s physical, psychological and emotional integrity and balance.
11.2.5. Emotional Violence
Emotional violence occurs when a person acts in a way by saying or doing something that makes the
victim feel stupid, worthless or deceived. Psychological and emotional violence are sometimes
considered same or closely related to each other. It may include name calling, blaming, causing
humiliation, jealousy, and fear, or may feel a threat on valuable and important possessions and people.
It results in loss of emotional balance or excitement of any particular feeling like anger, love, or
insecurity that affect human performance in daily routine life or at work.
11.2.6. Cultural Violence
Cultural violence refers to any act or behaviour practiced as a part of a culture or tradition of any
society but, at the same time, harms or damages the interest of an individual or a group of individuals
within same society. When such cultural and traditional practices discriminate against and harm the
interest and rights of women as human being also become part of violence against women. Cultures of
various regions in the world are different. They have different value frameworks. There is a variety of
practices in different cultures that effect women in a negative way. Let’s take example of Pakistani
culture, where women are suffering from a variety of such harmful cultural practices. These practices
include: Karo Kari (Siah Kari), Dowry, Watta Satta, Vani, Swara, Walwar, etc. Several of these practices
will be discussed in detail in next chapters of this book.
11.2.7. Economic Violence
Economic violence means a behaviour by which a person controls, misuses or exploits any other
person’s financial or productive resources without the latter’s consent. It may includes: either forcing or
not permitting a person to work outside home, controlling an individual’s chances or choices for joining
a particular profession, misusing fund, money, or income of a person, discriminating against someone in
share of property, money, and inheritance, etc.
11.2.8. Legal Violence
Legal violence refers to institutionalization of the discrimination done to an individual or a group
through the legislative structures, the laws formulated in that structure and the law enforcing agencies
implementing these laws in broader society. It involves state violence. Normally the legislative forums,
the laws and the law enforcing agencies are part of state machinery. If these institutions systematically
harm any person or groups’ interest that is considered as a result of the lack of political will among
political actors and state. Pakistan has experienced discrimination against women in all the above said
three areas. The legislatures have always been dominantly men as women are least represented in the
parliament and assemblies throughout Pakistani history. The laws formulated especially in the name of
so-called islamization have widely been criticized for gross violations of women’s human rights (e.g. Zina
Ordinance). The gender insensitive attitude of police and law courts along with complex and lengthy
legal procedures have always been considered a problem resulting in victimization of women. There
are problems in identifying the several of above listed types of violence against women in the country
and collection of authentic, reliable and comprehensive data in this regard. First, the incidences of
violence against women remain rarely reported. When reported and brought to be included in the
statistics often referred to understand the severity of the problem, failed to express and include several
forms of violence. Most of the cases reported and counted in statistical data sets are of physical or some
popular types of cultural violence. The incidences of verbal,
psychological, emotional, economic violence and a large variety of cultural practices are condoned by
the society as not violence in typical term rather a normal part of the daily routine of a patriarchal
society. Thus, a large variety of these types of violence neither get reported, nor counted and
successfully escape from observation of a common person.