by admin | Oct 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
Researches and practices show that men can play a significant role in ending violence against women. So, we focus on men’s role in preventing violence. Men can influence the results by changing their behaviour and convincing others to stop violence against women too.
Men are not born violent. Some become violent because of destructive beliefs and expectations about what it means to be a man. Many cultural norms are contributing in violence against women. The social system of patriarchy is the most prominent reason which causes violence against women. Gender biasedness and discrimination of that social system is made by sexist minds who wanted to exploit women and put male interests and values at the centre of social life. Working with men and boys can offer new models of masculinity and manhood, which reject gender violence and build respect for women and girls.
Because patriarchy is related to men so, we have to consider working with them to resolve cultural issues and change their mind. So, Gender violence needs to be approached as a men’s issue. Overwhelmingly men hurt women so, working with men and boys can end violence against women.
Not every man supports the patriarchal mindset. Most men respect women and do not believe in violence against women. Educating these men can mobilize them to support the change by choosing not to commit violence and challenge those men who do.
Involving men and make them recognize their responsibilities to reduce gender-based violence and ensure the safety of women and girls. Engaging men make them feel that Women, children, and men are all hurt because of violence. so, their participation can make life safer for everyone.
Peer pressure is very prevalent in our society we can use it to end violence against women. People listen to their peers or they care about opinions of others. So, we can mobilize men and boys to talk to each other about respect for women and girls, and share information about violence prevention with other men in their families, workplaces, and communities.
Our men engagement campaign convinced many men who hold a good position in the society. These decision-makers and opinion leaders are providing their political, financial, and moral support in ending violence. we are hopeful that more common men and influencers will join our campaign to reduce the violence from the society.
by admin | Oct 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
Practitioners, policy advocates, and researchers have come to an agreement that we must engage men and boys across the individual, community, institutional, and societal levels to end violence against women (VAG). So, it is important to work across different sectors to effect change at different levels of the social ecology.
To bring change at the individual level we must start from the adolescents because in this age boys develop attitudes, gender relations and gender identities. Starting male engagement program at school level and reaching out to young boys at home and playgrounds too is necessary to form their positive attitudes towards opposite gender. We must teach young boys to adopt positive masculinities through well-tested, evidence-based group-work methodologies to form more equitable gender relations.
We must highlight the positive role of men in front of boys for instance caregivers. we must persuade them to be caregiver withing their families and then communities because men’s involvement with their families is an important component of supporting their social reintegration in post-conflict situations. Youth must be taught that social justice is crucial to have a better life so boys and girls have to struggle together to have one.
We are running unique and most effective men engagement program which focuses on fatherhood concept. We have observed that most abusers don’t listen to anyone regarding their behaviour but when it comes to the education of their children they do listen. When we tell them that their violent behaviour can affect the healthy development of their children and they can imitate them now and in future too, this affects more than anything and they start trying to change their violent behaviour for their children.
by admin | Oct 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
To tackle the violence against women and girls, we must ensure community-level prevention and response mechanisms. Evidence shows that the traditions, beliefs, norms and practices that operate within communities are major barriers to women’s access to justice, protection and freedom from violence. Social norms and practices can make it difficult for women to formally report violence and seek justice so, it is crucial to confront these barriers.
Engaging at the community level is essential to improving support to survivors of violence, who tend to turn to the community rather than to formal services. community-level support and referral networks are therefore needed alongside interventions to improve the provision of specialist Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) services.
Organizations with initiatives to engage men and boys in preventing violence against women focus on group education, community outreach, mobilization and mass media campaigns to reduce the violence against women and girls. We can use the “gender transformative” approach which challenges rigid gender roles and question the influence of social-cultural, community, and institutional factors as well as individual beliefs and attitudes.
To end the VAW at the community level we have to confront the dominant and harmful norms of masculinity that are viral. Peer pressure is one of the reasons that gender-based violence (GBV) takes place. We must give support to those who are dealing with peer pressure and condemn those who are promoting harmful ideas. If the whole community starts opposing VAW we can use peer pressure to end violence too by social influences and promoting positive norms of masculinity.
Organizing men to undertake action by discussing positive masculinities is effective to make them change their attitudes and behaviors. We must focus on increasing the role of men in responding to the VAW it will encourage other men to do the same and discourage those who are involved in VAW.
We must involve the community and religious leaders to address the harmful traditional practices and ask them to promote reforms and bring change in the community. We can attain a positive change by giving a religious point of view and positive social norms without challenging the patriarchal basis of their authority.
by admin | Oct 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
Individual and community level strategies for change must be complemented by initiatives directed at reforming the institutions that shape people’s lives and affect women’s and girls’ vulnerability to violence and their ability to access needed services.
Women’s movements throughout the world continue to exert pressure for policy change, but programming with men on Gender Based Violence (GBV) prevention has rarely focused on advocating for policy development on such violence. Mobilizing men on issues of GBV and gender equality can make them actively involved in policy advocacy and campaigning.
We must identify and nurture internal champions to facilitate Institutional reforms. initiatives and mainstream gender training can provide the necessary leadership to initiate and sustain institutional reforms. We need to invest sufficient time and resources to train and then mentor the people who can further influence others to bring policies that can reduce the Violence against women and girls. Reforming the policies and ‘cultures’ of male-dominated institutions is an important priority for male engagement programming to end VAWG.
Arranging workshops on women’s rights, gender equality, and institutional responsibilities can be proved effective to bring institutional reforms. We can persuade them to stop Violence Against Women and Girls (WAWG) by sensitizing them about gender socialization, harmful norms of masculinity and best practices. It will motivate them to commit to change institutional culture and practices concerning VAWG.
Another promising and relatively neglected area of work with men on ending VAWG is to address the role that men can play to create a more conducive public environment for efforts to end VAWG. The principle of men holding other men accountable for their patriarchal behavior should be extended to holding male authority figures accountable for their public discourse.
by admin | Oct 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
In recent years, significant progress has been made in Pakistan concerning legislative and policy action on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). But the real problem to be tackled is inadequate funding and implementation of such laws and policies. Men dominate all the institutions, development of policies and laws, implementation and enforcement of laws and the provision of justice all are in control of men. From workplaces to schools to law enforcement and justice systems, these institutions not only tend to be led by men but are often infused with the very patriarchal norms and ‘cultures’ that underpin VAWG So, it is critical to target the men to improve the situation and end the violence.
Justice remains in inaccessible and unresponsive to women and girls because of many reasons. The government, law enforcement agencies and justice officials can play their roles to end the violence.
Male engagement at the societal level is vital for gender equality and social justice. We have to take sustainable actions to challenge inequitable norms and practices of masculinity. Designing and developing interventions requires a movement-building perspective that can contribute fetch change in a community or society. This requires attention to fostering links between organizations and investing in movement-building opportunities, focused only on working with men on positive masculinities and those working on women’s empowerment.
The challenge of ending VAWG is the challenge of changing unequal relations of political, economic, and social power. Supporting the efforts of social movements, which are campaigning for gender justice as part of their social justice work, and targeting male engagement work within such social movements to enlist their support as allies is an important direction for male engagement programming to take.
by admin | Oct 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
Hum Network Limited took the initiative to recognize and honor the contribution and achievements of iconic women from Pakistan and around the world.
Hum Network honored “Omer Aftab” also, The only male champion of change amongst 11 distinguished women. Omer Aftab received the 1st “Lux Hum Women Leadership Award” for his contributions toward social reforms and women empowerment.
by admin | Oct 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
The survival of the fittest can be a perfect phrase that can describe our world today.
The coronavirus pandemic has hit the world so hard that it is impossible for most of us to comprehend its magnitude. No matter how many problems have existed before, we have never experienced the world to come together, and fight for a single cause as one enormous family.
It is comforting to see the empathy for every country and nation, but also very disheartening to see how unprepared we were for a pandemic crisis like this. This novel coronavirus pandemic has forced us to ponder on how we all used to take our lives for granted. How ill-informed we were about our capacities and strengths.
The definition of a superpower – a country that could dominate and exert influence on a global scale through its means of economic, military, technological, and cultural strength has entirely changed to a nation that can save its people’s lives with the best of health facilities.
Now the next question is, how to survive the economic crisis? At this moment, no expert can analyze and share an accurate picture of the abyss we will fell into.
It is anticipated that millions of employees will be laid off, and the world economy will be shaken to its core. But what you and I can do about this?
The foremost step is to accept the current state of affairs. To overcome anxiety, we must accept that our lives are going to be changed for a while and we should focus on areas that we can control. Focus on your strengths and abilities and remember the last time, when things got bad, and how you got through them.
We all have a role to play, to do what we do best. We must understand that this pandemic will leave us with other serious problems which might take some time to get back to normal. However, we must remember that working hard and taking care of our mental health is the key to survival.
These are the three ways you can overcome anxiety about this pandemic and your financial stress:
Take care of your body
Some exercises can really heal you from inside. Take deep breaths, stretch, or meditate. In these times, nervous eating is the most common habit so try to avoid that. Eat healthy, well-balanced meals on time. Regular exercise and 7-8 hours’ sleep can truly reduce your stress levels.
Make time to unwind
This is true that a person who follows one hobby can sustain good mental health. Do something creative, which makes you feel productive in these days of quarantine? For some, it can be cooking or painting, or playing music, or even getting closer to God.
Organize Work From Home
For many of us, working from home is a new routine. Therefore, understanding that this is the only option can make you understand that things will be different for some time but not necessarily unproductive. Get up early in the morning and dress up so you can follow a schedule. Make a to-do list and follow it one by one. By the end of your working hours, it will give you a sense of accomplishment and you would feel less stressed about your job or business. Stay connected with your co-workers. Listen to their issues, help each other follow a work from home routine. Be concerned, be supportive.
Connect With Others
Fear and anxiety are natural and normal emotions to experience. The fear over the coronavirus has taken us all down, but it should not consume our lives completely.
The anxiety we all feel is the fear of the unknown. We, humans, are programmed to schedule, plan, and control our lives. When this is taken from us, especially collectively, we feel scared and the fear of what will happen next increases our stress and anxiety.
We all react differently when we are challenged with anxiety. Some people start overacting by hoarding of food, unwanted items to take control of their situation. While some are glued to all mediums of information.
In these tough times, for the sake of our mental health, we should only stick to the facts, and not follow and believe everything that we hear and read. Only check trusted sources for information and updates. There is no need to watch the news all day. Talk to people who you trust. Social distancing doesn’t mean you disconnect with the world. Talk to your trusted people about your fear, anxiety, and concerns. Tell them how you are feeling.
Coronavirus came like an unpleasant surprise. Rather than creating a panic, we must learn from others and adopt the best practices. We all must exercise crisis management and mold our routines accordingly.
We are in deep rapture, and so in deep opportunity. It is up to us how we deal with these times and become a source of hope for ourselves and our loved ones. We must learn to accept and adopt one thing at a time.
by admin | Oct 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
Because of the coronavirus outbreak, Pakistan faced two-months nationwide lockdown. Lockdown exacerbates widespread stress across the society which led to many problems especially for women and girls because it aggravated domestic violence both physical and mental and brought more misery to their lives.
Pandemic stress and social isolation intensified gender-based violence because victims of domestic abuse were trapped with their abusers at home. Frustrated Domestic violence perpetrators spending the whole day at home worsened the situation for women and girls.
During the crisis, women take on additional physical, psychological and time burdens as caretakers. On the top of that imagine the stress and pain of women who got confined in a toxic violent situation for almost two months behind the closed doors especially in the small houses of one room where they even do not have chance to stay away from the abuser.
For those women who are sole earners for their families facing a high level of depression and anxiety because of unemployment or not getting salaries and wages. These women facing family pressure and domestic violence for not earning and getting money home.
In Pakistan, we can only guess that to what extent domestic violence is aggravated by the COVID 19 and lockdown. It is hard to measure because it is happening behind closed doors and it has a long history of under-reporting.
Financial constraints and stress deepen domestic abuse while no services were available in the whole country to support the victims. Only one helpline of the Ministry of Human Rights 1099 was available from 10 am to 10 pm to assist women.
In these difficult times, the government cannot focus on all issues, so we as a society have to come together to solve this kind of issues. We need to understand that this is a testing time for everyone, and frustration levels are high, but none of this can excuse causing harm to another person. Family, friends and neighbours should start supporting the victims of domestic violence. So, break the silence to end domestic violence and pledge today never to commit, excuse and remain silent about violence against women.
by admin | Oct 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
Recently 8-year-old domestic worker Zohra was tortured to death by her employer. Exposing another case of exploitation of domestic worker, Police arrested three women on charges of forcing a housemaid into prostitution, torturing her and shaving her head. Cases of brutality against domestic workers highlighted in every few months. Remember the cases we see in the mainstream media is only a tip of an iceberg, thousands of cases go unreported in our society.
Millions of women and girls are working as domestic helpers in Pakistan. Most of the domestic workers are making sacrifices to support their families. Instead of giving them respect, they deserve they are among the most exploited and abused workers. In domestic workers lower and middle age girls are most vulnerable who face physical and mental torture, sexual abuse, rape and even death.
If we talk about the employer or abuser it could be a male or female, adult or a child, from a middle-class family or high-class family, influential or a common man. What do these people have in common? cruelty and sick mentality.
Let’s dig out the core reasons for this brutality. First of all, people, who have enough money to afford a housekeeper they tend to get underage or adult girls from the villages because they think they can buy anything with money. They consider and deal with them as their slaves. Feudal mindset and patriarchy are the most common reason of violence but in this case psychology and mental health of the abuser also counts. The cruel actions of employers portray the sadistic tendencies and ill mental health. It has become common practice that people let their frustration and anger out to the nearest weaker person. We have seen many cases where one family member is beating the domestic worker brutally and other family members are watching or even recording it in mobile which shows the overall mental state of the society.
In society today, mental illness and violence are often seen as inextricably linked, creating a harsh stigma for people which have dire consequences. Violence has serious implications for society and people who are involve in it needs to be studied. We need to understand the factors contributing to violence so that we can appropriately develop a risk management plan. Addressing the factors and finding solutions can eliminate violence from the society.
The culture of sending children as domestic helpers in other cities become one of the most significant reasons for abuse because the victims have no contact with their families. Many face illegal confinement and torture for months and years until they escape dead or alive. The families of the victims are also culprit because most of the time they know that their children are facing violence and they never take action to get them out. Many of them remain silent because of fear because they get threats by the influential owner. Others remain quiet because they are getting paid and after knowing about the violence, they get hush money to remain silent. In many cases, the victim is physically and sexually abused by the employer but remain silent sometimes in fear and sometimes she also gets some benefits in exchange for it.
Most cases are not reported but if reported, most of the time culprit do not get punishment. Most of the time they work out an agreement with the victims’ families or they use loopholes of law to get free. Legal proceeding and affording high lawyer fee end up costing a lot to the poor families which is also a reason that they do not register the case or withdraw it.
We as a society are responsible for these kinds of incidence too. We do not take action and remain silent when we see any kind of violence in society. We do not condemn the people around us involved in violence and cruelty. We protest for a few weeks, now even for a few hours on social media making the trend #1 on twitter and questioning humanity and saying how can someone be so ruthless and cruel. But suddenly the hype dies down and we get back to our lives waiting for another incident to become a hero on social media through demanding justice for another victim.
by admin | Oct 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
Your introduction, who are you and what do you do?
Well, my name is Omer Aftab, you can call me a social entrepreneur and a human right activist.
I started White Ribbon Pakistan more than a decade ago with an idea to create awareness about the deeply penetrated issue of violence against women and girls in our society. I can fairly say that White Ribbon brought the concept of working on the mindset and behavioural change of the perpetrator (mostly men in our country) rather than preaching to the victims who are already suppressed.
How has the pandemic contributed to domestic violence? Are there more cases than before?
No doubt, the world has seen an exponential rise in the curve of domestic violence during the pandemic. In Pakistan domestic violence both physical and mental has aggravated since the pandemic began.
In Pakistan, it is hard to measure that to what extent domestic violence is aggravated by the pandemic and lockdown because it is happening behind closed doors and it has a long history of under-reporting.
Due to the lockdown, the world has experienced a serious problem of providing access/relief to the victims. Various strategies have been adopted to bring legal access and support to the victims. Even in Pakistan, the Government has widely promoted its helpline so victims can get legal aid across Pakistan.
White Ribbon feels that mental health is a serious issue which causes the increase in domestic violence, we foresee that in the coming months the situation might get more serious due to increase in unemployment, financial burden, and frustration of adjusting to the new normal.
Are there any stats you know?
We do not have any official data regarding the last quarter, but we have witnessed and referred many cases where mental health and marital issues are on the top.
How do you think we can help victims in this situation?
The objective of the White Ribbon is to engage men in the dialogue from all walks of life and create an enabling environment, where not only women are standing at the front line to guard the victims. If we put this into action, it means that we encourage society to create a support system where any form of violence is unacceptable by whosoever.
COVID 19 is new to all of us, even the perpetrators. At this time, we can engage the stakeholders, Police, medicolegal, lawyers and organisations who are working to protect the victims to be more vigilant and quicker in action. We can’t stress enough on the fact that an individual’s support system is the biggest protection, and first to call for protection.
Encouraging women to stand up against any form of violence and asking men to endorse this ideology is the key step to support our women who stuck at home.
What is the solution according you in this situation?
To solve these kinds of issues, family, friends and neighbours of the victim should take action and support the victims of domestic violence. This is a testing time for everyone, and frustration levels are high, but none of this can excuse causing harm to another person. So, break the silence to end domestic violence and pledge today never to commit, excuse and remain silent about violence against women.
We focus on men’s role in preventing violence because Men can play a significant role in ending violence against women. Men can influence the results by changing their behaviour and convincing others to stop violence against women too. We need to curb the destructive beliefs, patriarchal mindset and expectations about what it means to be a man, the ultimate cause of violence against women. Working with men and boys can offer alternative models of masculinity and manhood, which reject gender violence and build respect for women and girls.
