Incident Report: Gender-Based Violence in Badin District and its Implications for Sustainable Development Goals

Incident Summary

• Event: Murder of a 25-year-old woman, Fehmida Abro.
• Date: Saturday, August 15, 2015.
• Location: Village Adam Abro, Golarchi taluka, Badin district.
• Alleged Perpetrator: Adam Abro, the 80-year-old grandfather of the victim.
• Circumstances: The victim was beaten and stabbed to death after leaving a forced marriage into which she had been entered against her will. The perpetrator, who later surrendered to police, reportedly acted out of outrage over the victim’s attempt to leave the family-arranged union.

Violation of SDG 5: Gender Equality

This case represents a severe violation of Sustainable Development Goal 5, which aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. The circumstances surrounding the murder directly contravene several key targets.

• Target 5.3 (Eliminate Harmful Practices): The victim was subjected to a forced marriage, a harmful practice explicitly targeted for elimination by the SDGs. Her initial marriage of choice was dissolved by community elders, after which she was compelled to marry a cousin, stripping her of her autonomy and right to choose.
• Target 5.2 (Eliminate Violence Against Women): The murder is the ultimate act of gender-based violence, perpetrated in the private sphere. It serves as a brutal consequence of the victim’s attempt to exercise agency over her own life, a right denied to her by patriarchal community norms.
• Target 5.1 (End Discrimination): The entire sequence of events, from the dissolution of her chosen marriage to the fatal assault, constitutes profound discrimination against the victim based on her gender.

Implications for SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

The incident highlights significant challenges to achieving SDG 16, which promotes peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice for all, and effective, accountable institutions.

• Target 16.1 (Reduce Violence and Death Rates): This homicide is a direct failure to protect a citizen’s right to life and security, contributing to violence-related death rates.
• Target 16.3 (Promote the Rule of Law and Equal Access to Justice): The intervention of “community elders” to dissolve a marriage outside the formal legal system demonstrates a critical weakness in the rule of law. This parallel justice structure denied the victim equal access to legal protection and recourse, ultimately leading to her death.
• Target 16.A (Strengthen National Institutions): The initial delay in registering a First Information Report (FIR) and the ongoing nature of the preliminary investigation point to potential weaknesses in institutional responsiveness required to prevent and prosecute such crimes effectively.

Status of Investigation

1. The primary suspect, the victim’s grandfather, has surrendered to the Tarai police.
2. Authorities suspect the involvement of other family members in the murder.
3. The investigation remains in its preliminary stage.
4. The victim’s body was transported to Taluka Hospital Golarchi and later to Indus Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

The issues discussed in the article, primarily gender-based violence, forced marriage, and failures in the justice system, are directly connected to the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

• SDG 5: Gender Equality – This goal is central to the article, which details a case of extreme violence against a woman for exercising her autonomy. The themes of forced marriage and the devaluation of a woman’s choice are core to the gender inequality challenge that SDG 5 aims to address.
• SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions – This goal is relevant due to the violent crime (murder) and the apparent weaknesses in the justice system. The intervention of “community elders” to dissolve a marriage and the delay in filing a First Information Report (FIR) point to a lack of strong, impartial institutions and a failure to uphold the rule of law.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

Based on the events described, several specific targets under SDG 5 and SDG 16 are identifiable:

SDG 5: Gender Equality

• Target 5.1: End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.
  
  Fehmida Abro was discriminated against when her marriage of choice was dissolved by “community elders” and she was subsequently “forcibly remarried to one of her cousins.” This demonstrates the denial of her right to choose her own partner, a form of gender-based discrimination.
• Target 5.2: Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres.
  
  The article explicitly describes a fatal act of violence against a woman within her own family and village. The victim was “beaten and stabbed” to death by her grandfather, a clear example of violence in the private sphere.
• Target 5.3: Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage.
  
  The article states that Fehmida was “forcibly remarried to one of her cousins,” which directly names “forced marriage,” a harmful practice this target aims to eliminate.

SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

• Target 16.1: Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere.
  
  The murder of Fehmida Abro is a direct instance of a “related death rate” from violence. The act of stabbing her to death is the type of violence this target seeks to reduce.
• Target 16.3: Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all.
  
  The article highlights a breakdown in the rule of law. Firstly, “community elders intervened and dissolved the marriage,” usurping the role of formal legal institutions. Secondly, the fact that the “FIR for the incident had not been registered by evening” suggests a delay or barrier in accessing the formal justice system.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

The article provides specific details that can be seen as qualitative data points for several official SDG indicators:

Indicators for SDG 5

• Implied Indicator for Target 5.2.1: (Proportion of ever-partnered women and girls subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence). The article provides a concrete example of this indicator: a 25-year-old woman was “beaten and stabbed” by a family member, representing the most extreme form of physical violence.
• Implied Indicator for Target 5.3.1: (Proportion of women who were married or in a union before age 18). While the victim’s age at the forced marriage isn’t given, the very occurrence of a “forced marriage” as described in the article serves as a direct, qualitative indicator that this harmful practice persists.

Indicators for SDG 16

• Implied Indicator for Target 16.1.1: (Number of victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population, by sex and age). The article provides a specific data point for this indicator: one female victim of intentional homicide, aged 25.
• Implied Indicator for Target 16.3.1: (Proportion of victims of violence…who reported their victimization to competent authorities). The article implies a failure related to this indicator. The initial conflict (dissolving her chosen marriage) was handled by “community elders,” not competent authorities. Furthermore, the delay in registering the FIR for the murder (“The FIR for the incident had not been registered by evening”) points to a potential failure or delay in the official reporting mechanism.

4. Create a table with three columns titled ‘SDGs, Targets and Indicators” to present the findings from analyzing the article. In this table, list the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), their corresponding targets, and the specific indicators identified in the article.

Source: tribune.com.pk