Division suggested that domestic violence occurs in
approximately 80 percent of the country’s house-
holds (ADB 2000). An Asian Development Bank
(ADB) report states: “During 1998, 282 burn cases
of women were reported in Punjab. Of these, 65
percent died of their injuries. Data collected from
two hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad over a
period of three years since 1994 reveal 739 cases of
burn victims” (ADB 2000, xi). Such stove burning
more often happens not as a result of a woman’s
negligence in the kitchen but because of attempted
murder either by the husband or by the husband’s
family. (The Indian movie Firegraphically shows
an example of stove burning inflicted on a woman
by a husband.) In Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and
Pakistan, demand for a huge dowry (ranging from
money, gold ornaments, television, car, refrigerator,
or furniture to land) by either the groom or the
groom’s family can cause enormous psychological
pressure on the prospective bride and her family. In
an effort to reduce the number of brides killed
because of dowry, an anti-dowry law was enacted
by the Jatiyo Sangsad (parliament) of Bangladesh
in 1980. However, as Anam reports, “The Home
Minister disclosed in Parliament on 22 November
[1993] that there were 21,622 [women] reported
suicides since January 1992. Most of these are
cases of dowry deaths, domestic violence, etc.,
whereby women are murdered in a planned way
and their husbands or relatives report that they
have committed suicide. In other cases, their lives
are made so unbearable that they are forced to
commit suicide” (1993, 1). An ADB report on
Nepal states that in the SAATHI and Asia Founda-
tion survey (1997), “knowledge of violence related
to dowry was reported by 38 percent of respon-
dents in Banke, a western Terai district with a pre-
dominantly Muslim population” (ADB 1999, 20).
To regulate, restrict, and eventually eliminate the
custom of dowry, a number of laws have been passed
in South Asia. These include the Dowry Prohibition
Act of 1980 in Bangladesh (Akanda and Shamim
1985), and the Dowry and Bridal Gifts
(Restriction) Rules of 1976 in Pakistan (Ali and
Naz 1998). Although these laws have been in effect
for over 20 years, customs and social norms and,
most of all, the ineffectiveness of the governments
in South Asia allow dowry killing to continue.
The patrilineal and patrilocal as well as the patri-
archal nature of the social system gives males
responsibility for protecting the welfare of women
and children. In rural areas, where more than 70
percent of Bangladeshi women live, women’s lives
are restricted by the social institution called sha-
maj, which dictates the lives of rural people, espe-124 domestic violence
cially women, in numerous ways. For example, in
the case of domestic conflicts, a local rural commu-
nity court called the salish(composed entirely of
male members) plays a key role in arbitrating con-
flict. The woman must be represented by an adult
male, who is considered the woman’s guardian
(World Bank 1990). Moreover, in rural and urban
areas, a gender-based division of labor, as well as
socially prescribed reproductive roles, ensures that
women’s labor is taken for granted and unremuner-
ated in many households. As a result, many women
are economically dependent and are especially vul-
nerable to abusive/violent relationship, desertion,
divorce, or widowhood.
In Pakistan, the constitution of 1973 guarantees
two fundamental rights in Article 25: all citizens are
equal under law, and there shall be no discrimina-
tion based on sex (Mumtaz and Shaheed 1991).
The existence of contradictions between these legal
doctrines and women’s actual status reveals the
marginalized situation of women and children in
Pakistani society, and ultimately perpetuates
domestic violence. An ADB report states: “The offi-
cial figure for the murder of women during 1998
was 1,974; the majority of them were victims of
their own relatives – husbands, brothers, fathers,
and in-laws” (2000, 19). A number of laws on mar-
riage, divorce, maintenance, and child custody,
which were enacted during the British colonial rule
under the Shariat Application Act of 1937, meant
that Muslims would be guided by their personal
law or Sharì≠a (Mumtaz and Shaheed 1991). These
laws have been amended and modified since then,
but the fundamental constitutional principle of
Pakistan as an Islamic state has solidified the role of
patriarchy, namely, the existence of male supre-
macy in sociopolitical, legal, and economic institu-
tions. This principle jeopardizes a woman’s safety
not only in the public domain, but also in her own
home. For example, the Family Laws Ordinance of
1961 made the registration of marriage mandatory,
but the right of irrevocable divorce remained with
the husband. The husband had the authority to del-
egate his wife the right to divorce him in the nika-
nama(marriage registry), but this right is rarely
awarded. A 1998 mini-survey conducted in three
areas of Peshwar found that during the last 20
years, “in the Spin Jummat (University Town area),
not a single nikanama contained a delegation of the
right of divorce. Likewise, the Sunehri Masjid
NikahRegistrar said that his registrar also did not
have any case with a talaq (divorce)... It was only
in the Nauthia area that the Nikahregistrar re-
ported two marriage contracts... [which con-
tained] delegation of the right of divorce to the