According to the women activist Rafia Malik, “Domestic violence is not just physical abuse or hitting a woman badly. Emotional abuse and Psychological abuse is also a domestic violence faced by women in Balochistan” said Rafia Maik Most of the women don’t know that this kind of behavior of their partner in which they get torture emotionally and psychologically is also an abuse and it is lie in the jurisdiction of domestic violence. She said it is human nature when we want to take control of anyone we get help from different types of abuse. In Balochistan, women suffer more because of patriarchal and tribal norms in which they made domestic violence normal. Normalizing the act of slapping your partner or if someone takes his partner out of the house forcibly supports the culprit in our society.
Exertion of power, lack of education, drug addiction, and childhood traumas made any person horrible and when they have someone in their control they abuse them with their unacceptable behaviors. We never witnessed any example which is set by our law in which they take serious action against the culprit of domestic violence which is also a reason for spreading domestic violence in society.
Rubina Zehri Manager Shaheed Benazir Bhutto women crisis center Women Development Department (WDD) Balochistan provides data which shows that the actual number of reported cases of violence against women is 59 from January 2022 to November 2022 in Quetta. The actual number of domestic violence cases are 39 in Quetta. The different types of domestic violence cases reported in 2022 which are further divided into different categories. The first type is Economic violence in this regard 14 cases are reported, in which 10 cases get legal services and remaining 4 cases get counseling services. The second type of domestic violence is physical violence, 19 cases of physical violence are reported in which 5 cases get legally treated, 3 cases get counseling services, and 11 cases get shelter services. Psychological and Emotional violence is another kind of domestic violence and in this regard, 6 cases were reported. 4 cases get counseling services and 2 cases are dealt with legally. Forth kind of domestic violence is sexual violence and no cases were reported in this regard.
According to the data shared by Aurat Foundation, the actual number of violence against women cases report from all over Balochistan are 95 in 2022, 128 cases in 2021, and 118 cases in 2020. Allaudin Khilji the regional Head of Aurat Foundation quotes that in 118 cases of violence against women in 2020, 12 were directly reported as domestic violence, 33 are murder and 51 cases are reported as honor killing but most of the cases of murder and honor killing is lie under jurisdictions of domestic violence. In 2021, 28 cases of Domestic Violence were directly reported and most of them were reported from Quetta city which is the capital of the province, 29 murders and 49 cases of honor killings were reported from all over Balochistan. The statistics of 2022 shows that the actual number of domestic violence cases are 11 but the murder figure increases to 48, and the honor killing status is 28. The actual number of murder and honor killing cases are 84 in 2020 in which 66 are females, 78 cases of murder and honor killing are reported in 2021 in which several females killed are 57, and 76 cases of murder and honor killing reported in 2022 in which 66 are females. Domestic violence against women increases day by day but the question is how much it is reported. Domestic violence law is passed in 2014 but their rules of business and implementation process is very slow. Balochistan Commission on the Status of Women has been formed and their chairperson has just been appointed but there is no proper office for them, Designating the protection officer in every department is being in the process. But we took this thing as positive thing, at least some progress has been happened and slowly and gradually things got better.
Ex Minister / Senator and current SOS Village regional head Roshan Khursheed Bharucha said that in Balochistan domestic violence against women is less than other provinces because the traditional norms of Balochistan never allows young women to do household work as maid. Women of Balochistan treated more respectfully and nowadays after emergence of women in police stations domestic violence decreases. I notice that if any case proceeds in a court it will be successfully provides justice to the victims. The court sends us victims of domestic violence and we provide them shelter in SOS village. When any victim comes directly towards us the very first step we take to counsel the culprit and victim both because it is necessary, sometimes bad relationships between partners make bad impact on children psychologically. The court refer us to 3 children four years ago because their father do domestic violence on their mother and he killed her. After the killing of the children’s mother case has been proceeded to the court and their father gets punished by the court and goes to jail. He died in the jail due to the disease of TB and the children are with us now until they get educated. Currently, 6 women and some child victims of domestic violence live over here with us. They all are directly referred by magistrates or by a court.