CHITRAL, Dec 13: Activists from civil society organizations here on Friday blamed gender-based violence for the rising incidences of suicide among women in Chitral.
They aired their concerns over the trend at a roundtable “Siasi Bethak” organized by the Awaaz Forum of South Asian partnership (SAP) here. The speakers said that women in Chitral were subjected to worst type of domestic violence and their genuine rights were denied to them which threatened the social fabrics.
They said women of Chitral also remained backward in every walk of life as they were never provided with an opportunity to express themselves and fully utilize their potentials. They claimed that 40 to 50 young women committed suicide in Chitral every year. The speakers also called for educating and sensitizing various segments of society about this menace.
The civil society members also said that early marriage of girls against their will was another worst type of violence against them which often forced them to end their lives. They also expressed their apprehensions that some people in Chitral also usually gave their daughters in marriage to people to people coming from other parts of the country without the girls’ consent and even verifying the credentials of the families.
This often ended up in the girls committing suicide. They also cited the murder of Tahira Bibi of Chitral in Lahore last week after being married off to a an old man there four weeks ago.–Zahiruddin