Am I born to be hurt? the voice of women living in urban squatter settlement of Karachi, Pakistan: a case study

Background:

Violence Against Women is a serious public health problem present in all social, cultural, economic and religious groups. It is more common in societies where, gender roles are strictly defined. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the incidences of women who are suffering in silence due to cultural norms, misinterpretation of religious beliefs, inferior status, and lack of legal support.

Method:

Eight hours exploratory interview that comprised of 4 sittings with a woman, belonging to low socio-economic country was conducted maintaining the confidentiality and privacy of the client.

Findings:

The case enlightens the concept of fairness, gender discrimination, injustice, human rights and ethics etc. In countries like ours, curse on women start even before her birth, because the girl-child is not a particularly 'wanted' child. Being female in these type of societies means to be punished all the time. Abuse of women is part and parcel of every Pakistani women's life. It is apparent that violence against women can spoil individual's own lives, destroy families' future, smash and ruin communities, which ultimately increases the global burden. Though, every religion promotes equity but men have always placed themselves above equality. Distribution of health is even not equally distributed among genders. However, women needs are far more than the resources they are getting.

Conclusion/ Recommendations:

In a nutshell, it is a very valuable piece of information that can help us to voice out the pain and distress of every other women of our country. This paper is an evidence for the researchers, health professional and policy makers to step forward for women's assistance by advocating their issues, bring changes in policies and law etc. Hence, the field dimension of this paper is to highlight the original experience of learning communities around health equity and rights.