Pakistani woman risks all in fight for her rights
When she describes the horror of her captivity her voice is barely a whisper, but it gains strength when she talks of the fight she has been waging: going to Pakistan’s courts, holding protests, rejecting the rulings of the traditional Jirga council, taking on the powerful landlord and politician who she says are protecting her attackers.
Malala Yousefzai, the Pakistani teenage Nobel Peace Prize winner who was shot by the Taliban, invited Kainat to the Nobel award ceremony, and her fund has given Kainat financial help.
In Pakistan, women are often too fearful to report sexual violence, yet the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan recorded 423 rapes and 304 gang rapes last year.
The groups trying to advance women’s rights in Pakistan’s deeply traditional patriarchal society suffered a painful blow last month when the national parliament refused to pass laws banning child marriage.
The parliament buckled to the dictates of the Islamic Ideology Council, a religiously right-wing advisory group with no legal authority.