Pakistani Women in Prison: Give Them Their Rights

Hi Reader Friend,

This piece was an honour and tragedy to write. The staff at Justice Project Pakistan were endlessly helpful in giving me a picture of the plight of women in Pakistani prisons. I hope you find it a reminder that although COVID lockdowns and restrictive measures are challenging, they are light loads in comparison to some of the women in Pakistani prisons.

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Lauren

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She never thought she would have to worry about choosing to feed herself or her own flesh and flesh and blood that stared up at her, hungrily begging for the slice of bread with her eyes. But when Jasmine (name changed for her protection) was convicted of murder, be it just or unjust, she found herself and her 7-year-old daughter serving a sentence in a Pakistani prison.  Her stomach churched for more food, but her daughter’s churned louder. The timing of her sentence was unfortunate. Before COVID, mothers that had children in prison with them, while not given extra food for the mother or child, were at least given extra milk for the child. When the COVID-19 pandemic, even extra milk became unavailable. Jasmine’s undiagnosed mouth pain pulsated as she handed the bread to her daughter; she was in too much pain to chew it anyway.  Her daughter’s asthma was a constant worry for Jasmine, and she hoped her portion of bread would strengthen her breathing in the tightly packed spaces, where COVID was rife. The virus could easily spread in the prison with congested spaces, lack of adequate hygiene facilities, and infrequent wearing of masks. Jasmine was scared of being hungry, frightened that her daughter’s health would deteriorate, and unsure of how the virus would worsen the remainder of their stay.

How a woman is viewed in Pakistan often sways between two extremes: either she is strong-willed and uncompliant, or she is unintelligent and optionless. Both views lead people to disregard women. This view of women extends to their treatment within Pakistan’s criminal justice system, both before and since COVID.

The women that have been imprisoned in Pakistan faced mistreatment long before COVID. Pakistani prisons, much like prisons around the world, were created by and for men. Gender-specific needs that a woman might have – regular contact with family members and/or children, care for the child that is in prison with her, hygiene needs, trauma care for sexual abuse, addiction withdrawal support, non-custodial measures – were not being handled as they should have been under the Bangkok Rules.

In 2010, the UN General Assembly adopted The United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offender, known as ‘the Bangkok Rules’. They provide standards that are expected of prisons to provide for the specific needs of women offenders. It includes 70 Rules that give guidance to authorities of how to reduce the number of women in prison and meet their needs behind bars. While countries are not legally required to stick to these rules, it is assumed that its international standards will be adhered to globally as a means or protecting women in the criminal justice system. In a recent review of Pakistani prisons, it was found that Pakistani Prison Rules, and the treatment of women in Pakistani prisons, do not reflect the minimum requirements of the Bangkok Rules.

It was for this reason that the Plight of Women In Pakistan’s Prisons was submitted by a committee formed by the Prime Minister, Imran Khan, on the 26th of August, 2020. The 1,121 women dispersed between 8 central prisons and 21 district or sub jails, were not being protected, neither before nor during the COVID pandemic. The women make up only 1.5% of the total prison population in Pakistan, but they face unique challenges that have not been addressed, hence the report urging the Prime Minister to make necessary changes to protect women, and the children that accompany them in prison.

I spoke to three members of Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a non-profit organization that legally represents and defends the most vulnerable Pakistani prisoners. JPP have been recognized by international and national as leaders in the field of human rights advocacy and include a team of investigators, advocates, educators, and litigates fiercely fighting for the rights of vulnerable individuals in Pakistani prisons. Muhammad Shoaib, Research specialist at JPP explained how COVID has exasperated and worsened the human rights violations of women in Pakistani prisons. ‘In March, the provincial and higher courts announced that they would protect those in prisons by decongesting the prisons by releasing people on parole to stop the spread of COVID. But in April, the Supreme Court stepped in and specified the categories of people that would be let go – one category being women that had not been sentenced for violence against women or children.’ He went on to tell me that they haven’t seen or heard of any prisoners released since the Supreme Court judgment, leaving the women in prisons suffering in overcrowded conditions, with very little concern of the health and safety associated with COVID-19.

Sana and Zainab, part of the litigation team from JPP, visited women’s central and district prisons following the strictest lockdowns of COVID. Sana described one of the central prisons, Lahore, as a large room housing 75 women, with beds lined up right next to each other, one after another. There were no spare beds for children that accompanied their mothers in prison. Only three bathrooms were available for all the women to clean themselves. The entry point had cleaning products that weren’t required to be used upon entry and no extra supplies were provided to the prisoners to sanitize themselves or their surroundings. The Government did have health and hygiene regulations for prisons to adhere to, but how strict the regulations were implemented varied from prison to prison.

During COVID all family and legal support visits were suspended. In Pakistan, family visits are a prisoner’s lifeline to maintain connection with loved ones, but families also provide extra food, sanitary products, and spending money for phone calls to women in prison. All of it gone and yet to be reinstated.

Kanizan Bibi is one Pakistani woman that has had her death row case delayed, yet again, due to COVID. Kanizan was born in Pakistan but as her birth was not registered, her age is unknown. Her mother died when she was a baby, and to provide for her family when she was a few years older, she started caring for the children of a wealthy, male neighbour. After years of working for the family, the wealthy man’s family – his wife and children – were found murdered. The first suspects for the murder were family members of the wealthy man that had been in a dispute with him over land. But those family members were able to use their money to avoid interaction with law enforcement. Someone had to be held accountable for the murders, and seven days after the murder, Kanizan was arrested. She was accused of being a seductress, tortured into a confession, and has been sitting in prison for over 30 years awaiting the finale of her death penalty.

During those 30 years, she became mute and schizophrenic, which is why her inevitable death has continued to be extended – she is too mentally ill to be executed. Her existence is lonely and hopeless. Her immediate family is dead and her extended family live too far to visit. During COVID, her lawyers, one of whom is Sana from JPP, were unable to visit her as all legal counsel had been suspended due to the pandemic, which further delayed her trial. Kanizan has experienced unjust sentencing, torture, and mental repercussions. And COVID has kept her from being able to access the legal representation she needed to experience either freedom to leave prison or freedom to die.  

Before COVID, mental health support for Kanizan was not a priority. Mental health among female prisoners is largely unaddressed even though many of the women have a history of abuse and higher rates of mental illness, suicide, and self-harm. Often, women with severe mental health issues are separated from the other prisoners, exacerbating their loneliness and worsening their already fragile mental health. It is inhumane to ignore the mental illness of Kanizan in her sentencing and prison stay, but unfortunately, it’s protocol for how things are done.

Many of the women in Pakistani prisons haven’t even been convicted of a crime. Of the 1,121 women in prison in the mid 2020s, 66 percent had not yet been convicted by any offense – they were simply awaiting the conclusion of their trial.  And yet, for these women, there is no alternative to custodial measures in Pakistan. There are also no non-custodial options for sentencing, which puts mothers with low-level offences, who have the responsibility of caring for their children, in a very difficult predicament. They have no option but to serve their sentence in prison and hope that their children manage, either in prison with their mother, or outside, without her.

Children in prisons with mothers are rarely given extra food, education, or adequate healthcare. COVID has exasperated the injustices that mothers and their children experience in Pakistani prisons. There were at least 195 children housed in prisons with their mothers during COVID, all of which had little, if any healthcare or educational support. Sana explained to me that children received vaccines, but were not offered much more in terms of healthcare. One prisoner reported to Human Rights Watch that ‘her child, who had a developmental disability, was not offered any support services or medical care despite the prisoner’s repeated requests during her six years of incarceration.’ Under the Bangkok rules, this should not be the case. Children should be receiving healthcare equivalent to that in the community and should have an environment close to the that of their home environment.

To address and provide solutions to the human rights issues facing women in Pakistani prisons, Pakistan’s Human Rights Ministry has issued its report to the Pakistani Government. It calls for an increase in mental health services, the reduction of Under-Trial Prisoners, non-custodial sentencing, rehabilitation programmes, and humanitarian concerns of death row.

Vicki Prais, human rights consultant that specialises in penal reform, commented on the proposed changes. ‘'The recent findings of a Committee convened by the Pakistan Ministry of Human Rights to examine the plight of women in prison should provide an important catalyst for change.  In particular, the committee's finding that domestic law fails to comply with international human rights standards, the Bangkok Rules, is worrying and leaves women in prison open to potential human rights violations.'

‘The Human Rights Ministry has highlighted the massive scale of mistreatment of women in prison and the need for broad and sustained reform’, said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. ‘While an important step, this report can only bring change if Pakistani authorities follow its recommendations and end widespread abuse.’ As it was Prime Minister Imran Khan that initiated the report, it is hopeful he will actively respond to its recommendations.

Suggestions have been made in the past of how to avoid human right violations against women, but have failed to be implemented within the prisons; let’s hope this time is different.