Rape Laws Amendments Under Consideration in Pakistan

The Pakistani parliament will consider and likely approve a bill that would ease overly strict restrictions applied under Islamic law that make it nearly impossible to prove a woman has been raped. Under the Hadood Ordinance, developed by the former dictator Gen. Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1979, rape victims are convicted of adultery unless they have four male witnesses, which human rights groups say makes a rape conviction impossible. The amendment, if passed, will erase that onerous requirement and require instead that anyone who accuses a woman of adultery produce four witnesses. In addition, forced marriage and kidnapping, as well as trafficking women for prostitution, will be more thoroughly addressed. Those convicted of gang-rape will be sentenced to death and it will be a crime to publish the address of a rape victim, reports Reuters. Mahnaz Rafi, chairwoman of the Pakistani Parliament’s special committee for women’s development, said, “This will be a historic change and it will end decades of miseries for women,” reports the Associated Press.
Excerpted from: Pakistan to Consider Amending Rape Laws, Feminist Daily News Wire, 3 August 2006

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