Canadians were mesmerized by the courage of the 15-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai and horrified by the gang rape of a 23-year-old Indian woman who later died. Prime Minister Stephen Harper signed a petition nominating Malala for the Nobel Peace Prize. In the case of Damini, as the Indian victim is referred to because her name cannot be revealed for legal reasons, Canadians are horrified by her horrible ordeal. The Taliban shot Malala because she doggedly pursued education and urged other girls to do the same. She challenged the Taliban by saying she would not give up. Malala was treated in the UK and will pursue her studies there. Damini was a random victim of savagery. She had done nothing wrong. Indian and Pakistani citizens have reacted with horror to these outrages. In India citizens are demanding action and the government has moved to bring the perpetrators to justice and has set up a committee headed by former Chief Justice JS Verma to suggest changes in the law to deal efficiently with sexual assault cases. But it's hard to believe that even the attempted murder of Malala and Damini's terrible ordeal will precipitate major improvements anytime soon. In both countries prejudices run deep and weaker segments of society, particularly women, groan under tyranny. Remember Mukhtar Mai? In 2002 tribal elders ordered that she be gang raped because her adolescent brother was suspected of having illicit sexual relations. Their interpretation of justice was that illicit sex should be punished by another illicit sex act to restore the aggrieved family's “honor.” Pakistani tradition dictates that rape victims should kill themselves to save their families's dignity, while their assailants remain free. Mukhtar Mai defied the convention, pressure and threats and became a champion of women's rights and education. While women have made gains in urban areas, Pakistan remains a feudal society and, in rural areas in particular, women and other weaker elements remain downtrodden and at the mercy of the wealthy, police, bureaucracy and the powerful. Religious fanaticism, moreover, has distorted Islamic teachings. Some minorities are being killed while others suffer severe discrimination. Civil society abhors the Taliban. But extremist, hate-mongering organizations are flourishing. India has seen some progress against bigotry. But corruption (including in the police and law enforcement), inequalities, injustices and misrule have skyrocketed, victimizing the weakest members of society. India ranks 105 out of 135 in the Global Gender Gap Report 2012. The British outlawed the practice of sati which required a widow to be burned alive on her husband's funeral pyre. Women have advanced since. But in the rural regions, and generally, women continue to suffer. Professor Anita Raj of the University of California at San Diego supports the contention of Indian women's organizations and rights activists that crimes against women have been increasing dramatically. This is true generally of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Women remain victims of acid throwing, sexual harassment, dowry death, child marriage, female infanticides and sex selective abortions, honor killings, domestic beatings and trafficking. Under the 1979 Hudood Ordinance even rape victims can be prosecuted for illegal sex. Some get locked up indefinitely in jail. The problem, actually, is universal. Women were victimized disproportionately during the partition of India and later the breakup of Pakistan. During the Bosnian war they were systematically targeted deliberately. In Africa, they were turned into sex slaves by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. In the Rwandan genocide in 1994, women were also targeted, though men were too. The United Nations states that 70 percent of women suffer physical or sexual violence at one time or another. The situation is considerably better for women in the West. Most countries have legislated equal rights and generally uphold them. But women suffer discrimination in the work place and often are victimized by abusive and drunken husbands and boyfriends. The Canadian Labor Congress says that women in Canada have lost ground. Women who suffer most are immigrants or refugees from poor families or disadvantaged groups, particularly Aboriginals. Traditionally, Aboriginal women enjoyed equality. But European settlers turned Aboriginal lives upside down. The loss of their independence, lands, culture and traditional lifestyles pushed Aboriginals into poverty, unemployment, suicide, alcoholism and violence against women. Aboriginal children were forcibly taken away from their parents and put into residential schools to erase their culture and raise them according to European values. They were degraded and sometimes sexually assaulted. Many Aboriginal elders and grandparents are products of the residential school system and bear the scars of that abuse. The Aboriginal people today are trying desperately to find their rightful place in their own land. If they succeed, Aboriginal women will hopefully join other Canadian women in attaining the dignity, justice and equality that is proving so elusive to women and other weak segments of society elsewhere.
– Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan is a retired Canadian journalist, government official and refugee judge. He has received the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario and the Queen's Diamond and Golden Jubilee awards
