By Aftab Hassan Khan

INTRODUCTION:By nature Sindhis are a very loving, polite & generous nation. They love their land, home and fields and, in most cases, do not want to leave Sindh.. The roles that women take on in society are very important: they are mothers, sisters and wives. But, too often, being a woman in Sindhi society is a thankless task, and often very dangerous.

In Sindh,patriarchal customs of control over women include institutionalization of extremely restrictive codes of behaviour for women, a practice of rigid gender segregation, specific forms of family and kinship, and a powerful ideology linking family honor to female virtue. Men are entrusted with safeguarding this family honor through their control over female family members -- controlling, specifically, female body, both in terms of sexuality and and its reproductive ability. Thus, when a woman’s behaviour is seen to threaten patriarchal order, it is her body that is punished -- with beating, burnings, sexual abuse, and murder in name of “honor.”

Women in Sindh are particularly handicapped by entrenched feudal system in rural Sindhi society, religious fundamentalists, and government, which is run primarily by members of ruling feudal caste. There are several factors that impede development of women in Sindh, including a very low legal status women hold, as well as lack of political power and will to change gender disparity. The status of women reinforced by most family structures is compounded by a general acceptance of this low status by a majority of women who cannot even imagine concept of equal rights. Thus women continue to perform three distinct duties - reproductive, productive, and community management - and are most often treated quite poorly throughout.

Women contribute substantially to agricultural sector, often as part of family labor, yet diversity and importance of women’s roles in rural development is not yet recognized. In rural areas of Sindh, women normally work a 16-hour work day including household and field duties, as well as fetching drinking water and fuel for cooking. Their subordinate position limits their access to and control over resources and benefits. Women's performance of domestic work, especially care of children within home, both furthers their dependence and subordination within marriage. (since they are men who actually benefit from this work) and also weakens their position within labour market, contributing to their low wages and poor conditions as wage workers.

Family and Community:

Sindh belongs to a part of world where woman's status is disadvantaged by systemic injustice. Human development indicators such as sex ratio, literacy levels, educational attainment and labour force participation are abysmally low while statistics for maternal mortality and morbidity, fertility and crimes against women are extremely high. Sindhi males, customarily, are very suspicious & mistrustful of their sisters and wives especially. It is very normal for a man to prohibit a stranger from talking to his sister or wife, and vise versa. In either scenario, however, it tends to be woman who is then punished for shame. However primitive it may sound – however primitive it is - it is very easy for a Sindhi to declare his sister, daughter or wife as shameful, and thus opt to kill her via practice of Karo Kari, which translates literally as Black Black, and translates figuratively into Honor Killing. There is very an open secret that when ever there is a monetary ,land ,property related or other petty dispute,many unscrupulous persons use their sisters,wives,mothers or even daughters as a tools to have upper hand in settlement of dispute.This beast first kills his daughter,mother,sister or even daughter on pretext of having illicit relation with person with whom he has some dispute,then announce to kill that person to protect his and his family's honor.The alleged guilty person ultimately settle dispute on term and condition of killer to save his skin.The true story of that case happened in my city Sanghar ten years ago when one of advisor,a lawyer by profession, of then Sindh Chief Minister killed widow of his brother and then married her only surviving daughter to his son so as a result easily get hold of his late brother's share in family property.The law does not protect women from this, nor does it persecute male murderers.

It is also a common practice in Sindh to marry one's daughter to inanimate and holy objects, like Quran, or even a tree, for example. The marriage with Quran is called"HAQUE BAKHISH" means" with draw from right to marry".This cruel tradition runs usually in families of agrarian landed aristocracy of Sindh.The main purpose behind this inhuman act is to avoid transfer of land property out of family hands at time of marriage of their daughter or sister.The male members of family force girls to have marriage with "Holy book" and with draw from right to marry.One of our former Prime Minister and at present moment one of leader of opposition party from Sindh who's party is known for it's democratic credentials had forced their sisters to follow this cruel tradition so that they could have save there agricultural land.As well, it is not uncommon to arrange a marriage between a mature woman and a 12 year-old boy, or a young girl and an old man.

Personal jails belonging to and run by Sindhi Wadayraas (Feudal Lords) are common in Sindh. These jails are used to imprison Harees (poor peasants) and their families who are unable to pay their ever-increasing depts to landowners. Imprisoned Harees are not protected by law and practice; and it is understood throughout Sindh that treatment of Harees, outside of these jails and especially inside, is egregious.