Equality Now Calls on Pakistan's Government to Protect Girls and Ensure Their Right to Education
In late December 2008 the Taliban ordered a ban on girls’ education in the district of Swat in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. The announcement made by an extremist cleric, Maulana Fazlullah through an illegal FM radio station, asked all parents to remove their daughters from school (both private and public) by 15 January 2009, failing which schools would be bombed, girls murdered and, like the recent case in Afghanistan, acid thrown in their faces.
What You Can Do:
Equality Now is calling on the Government of Pakistan to take immediate action, coordinated between law enforcement, legislature (national and provincial), the Ministry of Education and other line ministries to ensure women and girls in FATA and Swat are able to fully exercise their rights without fear of violence or intimidation including the access of all girls to school as well as their security in school. In addition, the Government should reject the endorsement of any alternative legal system which does not guarantee to all citizens the rights provided under the Pakistani Constitution and the international human rights instruments to which Pakistan is a party. Please write to the officials listed below asking them to give immediate and urgent attention to eliminate the threat to girls’ education in Swat and to curb all moves to reduce or deny women’s rights in Pakistan.
President Asif Ali Zardari
President of Pakistan
President's Secretariat
Islamabad, Pakistan
Dr. Fehmida Mirza
Speaker, National Assembly of Pakistan
Parliament House
Islamabad, Pakistan
E-mail: speaker@na.gov.pk
Meer Hazar Khan Bijarani
Minister of Education
Ministry of Education
Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel: (0092-51) 920-1392, 921-2020
E-mail: minister@moe.gov.pk
Letters:
[add address of relevant official]
Dear [President Zardari/Dr, Mirza/ Minister] [delete as appropriate]
I am writing to express my deep concern about the violence and discrimination being faced by women and girls in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Swat in Pakistan and, in particular, the targeting of girls’ schools by militants who have announced a ban on girls’ education effective 15 January 2009. I am also concerned about reports that the Government of Pakistan is considering the adoption of shariah (Islamic law) in these areas as a way to compromise with the militants.
I urge the Government of Pakistan to take immediate action, coordinated between law enforcement, legislature (both national and provincial), the Ministry of Education and other relevant ministries in order to ensure that women and girls in FATA and Swat are able to fully exercise their rights without fear of violence or intimidation, including the access of all girls to school as well as their security. I urge the Government to ensure that any intervention upholds Pakistan’s commitments to gender equality and education under its Constitution as well as under international human rights instruments ratified by it. As such, I would also urge you to reject the endorsement of any alternative legal system which does not guarantee equality to all.
I thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely
On 22 January 2010, Shazia Masih, a 12-year-old Pakistani girl employed as a domestic servant, was taken to the hospital in an unconscious state where she died shortly thereafter. 