JOhn,

Laws matter. When a woman’s testimony is valued as only half that of a man’s, then the woman herself is seen by the law as worth half a man.

We don’t need to tell you that this is not equality.

‘All citizens are equal before the law’

Pakistan’s Constitution states that all citizens are equal before the law, and even that there shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex. Despite this, Article 17 of Pakistan’s Qanun-e-Shahadat Order, 1984 (Law of Evidence) provides that women’s testimony is worth half that of men in certain civil matters.

When women are seen as worth less than men, particularly in the eyes of the law, their ability to seek and get justice and legal remedies when their rights have been violated, are limited. Women’s testimony should be equal to men’s. Especially as Pakistan was ranked the sixth most dangerous country in the world for women by a survey carried out by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Call on President Arif Alvi to turn words into deeds, and value women and their voices. Take action today.

In Solidarity 

Bryna Subherwal

Advocacy Campaign Manager