Pakistani Sisters' Bravery Inspires Human Rights Advocates
By Kerry Kennedy Cuomo
Women throughout the world are under attack. Violence and discrimination against women are among the most pressing human rights violations confronted by the international community. According to the World Health Organization, in twenty-four countries, across four continents, 20-50 percent of adult women have been victims of domestic violence.
In the United States, one in twenty-five women are sexually assaulted by the time they are twenty-one. Think it's hard to believe? I personally know fourteen women who have been raped in the U.S. All of these women told me. Only one told the police. If you think you don't know any women who have been raped, it's not because it didn't happen. It's just that they were too ashamed, or too frightened, to tell you.
In Pakistan, in addition to bearing the shame and fear of being victimized, women who are raped must also grapple with the fact that they are considered to have compromised their family's honor. Fathers, brothers, and sons see it as their duty to avenge the offense, not by harming the perpetrators but by murdering the victims: their own daughters, sisters, and mothers. More than 500 women are murdered each year in Pakistan in the name of honor.
Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani, two sisters living and working as lawyers in Pakistan, stand at the forefront of human rights in general, and women's rights in particular. Asma and Hina have launched a campaign to abolish honor killings and hold the state responsible for failing to protect the innocent victims. They founded the Pakistan Human Rights Commission and the first all-women's law practice in the country. They lead the efforts on children's rights, prisoners' rights, women's rights, judicial and constitutional reform, and the list goes on.
On April 6, 1999, Samia Sarwar was shot dead by her father at the offices of these two sisters. Already responsible for his daughter's death, Samia's father also called for Asma to be hanged for giving his daughter legal advice. Both Asma and Hina have faced such threats since they began their advocacy efforts.
Upon hearing about these two women we must ask ourselves why people face imprisonment or torture or death for their work. What is their source of courage? All of those who take up the cause of human rights, people like Asma and Hina, inspire us to embrace our beliefs and hold fast to our dreams.
I grew up in the Judeo-Christian tradition, where we painted our prophets on ceilings and sealed our saints in stained glass. They were untouchable, and so we were freed from the burden of their challenge. But here on earth, people like Asma and Hina are living, breathing human beings in our midst. Their determination, valor, and commitment to the rule of law in the face of overwhelming danger challenges each of us to take up the torch for a more decent and just society. They are our teachers who show us not how to be saints, but how to be fully human.
Kerry Kennedy Cuomo is a board member of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in New York.
Editor's Note: This article is adapted from remarks made by Kerry Kennedy Cuomo during her presentation of the Lawyers Committee's 1999 Human Rights Award to Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani on October 19, 1999. The text of her remarks originally appeared in the Advisor, published by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Winter/Spring 2000, Vol. 4, No. 1. It is reprinted here with permission.
