If there is one thing that is common to India and Pakistan, apart from cultural similarities, it is the scourge of abuse against women. “How are the cries of Nirbhaya any different from the cries of Zainab? How are the tears of domestic abuse survivors failed by the laws in India different from those awaiting justice in Pakistan?” asked Salman Sufi, a public policy and gender reforms specialist from Pakistan.
“Patriarchal mindsets crawl out of our political spectrum and social spaces have misogyny raising its ugly head whenever a women talks about her rights,” said Mr. Sufi, who was honoured with the Mother Teresa Memorial Award 2018 in the city over the weekend for his work in the area of women’s empowerment. Mr. Sufi has been instrumental in enacting Pakistan’s first comprehensive anti-violence legislation for women and establishing South Asia’s first Violence Against Women Centre. It was time to wage a war on misogyny, patriarchy and “those redundant systems that fail to provide justice”, he said.
The Mother Teresa Memorial Awards, instituted in 2004 by the Harmony Foundation, are the only honour in Mother Teresa’s name endorsed by the Missionaries of Charity, the congregation she established.
Deepika Singh Rajawat, an advocate at the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, famous for representing the Kathua rape case, also won the award. Talking about the challenges in taking up the case, she said, “I faced opposition from every corner possible, from the lawyers I was working with to people at home but something within me kept me working for that child.”
Dr. Nashwa Al-Ruwaini, Arab entrepreneur and television presenter, was also honoured on the occasion. She talked about equal opportunities for women. “Throughout my career as a television presenter and in charity I have come across women suffering for basic rights. It’s our moral obligation as a society to provide them with those so they can be strong, independent and healthy leaders,” she said.
Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, a Nigerian chartered accountant known for drawing global attention to the abduction of nearly 300 girls by Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group in West Africa, was among the award winners. “Just like India, Nigeria is also a country with diverse religions and ethnicity, so much so that if something happened in one part of the country the other would not bother. But here I am in a different nation and events like these are testimony to the work we do miles away,” she said.
A total of 17 people, some of whom are survivors of abuse themselves, were honoured on the occasion. Among the other awardees were Nadia Murad, a Yazidi sex abuse survivor and human rights activist, and Dr. Denis Mukwege, who provides medical, legal and psychological support to survivors of rape.
