Chapter eleven:
DiscussionThe complex intersections of issues of gender, race, domestic violence and protection in the UK and in Pakistan lie at the core of this study. These issues pose considerable challenges for service providers and governments responsible for providing protection for women, and ultimately for the women seeking safety and justice. It is not the role of this research to generate specific recommendations; instead this Chapter provides an overview of the intersecting themes which underpin Pakistani women’s experiences. This overview highlights the issues which need to inform service provision in order to enable women to find safety.
The consistency of the concerns raised by the participants is striking, and demonstrates commonality in the anxieties and frustrations of a diverse range of individuals and agencies in dealing with Pakistani women who have experienced domestic violence. Within the thematic headings below, is an examination of such commonalities of perceptions across the two states and ways in which practices in both contexts maintain the discriminatory and persecutory treatment of Pakistani women both in Pakistan and the UK.
We start by revisiting the remit of the study. The Chapter reflects on key methodological issues and reiterates the trans-national context for this study. It summarises the ways in which representations and pre-conceptions of Pakistani women influence the decisions that are made about them. In doing so the Chapter highlights issues that are specific to Pakistan and common to both states, and identifies conceptual problems with internal flight. It draws attention to some of the issues that are specific to children and also provides an overview of key issues regarding service provision. The Chapter also reflects on the treatment of evidence and the problematic meanings of ‘safety and ‘return’ in a context in which asylum and domestic violence issues intersect. Finally, the Chapter highlights potential areas for future research.
11.1 Clarifying our remit
In the UK, the study was principally concerned with examining the ways in which the Border and Immigration Agency, the immigration judiciary and other relevant service providers address the legal, welfare and other support needs of Pakistani women as asylum seekers. This drew our attention to the interplay between racialisation and racism as structural defects within the ‘system’, and which impact on Pakistani women’s access to safety and justice regarding domestic violence. In Pakistan, the study’s focus was to examine the nature and extent of domestic violence and of service provision to protect women across all sectors, and to document the reality of women’s experiences of attempts to gain safety. It also focused its examination on the reality of women’s attempts to relocate intra-country, with particular reference to the barriers presented by the internal flight concept. The nature of gendered relations is an underpinning feature of much of this examination and the discussion on the UK context.
11.2 Some methodological reflections
The study needed to maintain a trans-national focus in order to generate a more informed understanding of Pakistani women’s experiences of domestic violence and access to protection. In turn, this presented the research team with numerous challenges, notably the need to pay due attention to the risks of over-homogenisation, of over-culturalisation, and to the various uses and meanings of the terminology associated with the themes reflected in the report. A range of research approaches, tools and analytical frameworks were used in response to the different national contexts of Pakistan and the UK.
There are considerable challenges involved in researching, interpreting and reading material generated from two different contexts. It was important that the research paid due attention to difference, as well as commonality, in the responses of the participants. As a means of avoiding stereotyping, the cultural and regional diversity of Pakistan underpinned the research design and acted as a constant check on over-homogenisation. Paradoxically, attending to differences also drew attention to cultural and regional commonalities.
Given the partial and conflicting character of quantitative information about domestic violence in Pakistan, the lack of documentation of domestic violence services and the complex immigration and asylum system in the UK, this study aimed to generate more indicative information to amplify available knowledge bases. Obviously such a detailed study had to be selective, focusing on some indicative geographical areas in both the UK and Pakistan. There is still a place for a more comprehensive national-specific evaluation of service provision, around domestic violence provision in Pakistan, and asylum support to Pakistani women in the UK, to be undertaken.
The task of conducting research into sensitive and distressing issues that generate powerful and challenging accounts can elicit emotive responses, however efforts have been made to maintain an appropriate standard of critical commentary.
11.3 Connecting trans-national audiences
The task of targeting diverse audiences, in both Pakistan and the UK, is a challenge for any transnational study. In highlighting the issues relating to domestic violence, across several regions in Pakistan, the research revealed the structural, political and cultural interconnectedness of practice between Pakistan and the UK. This approach also drew attention to ‘disconnections’; for example, how the UK’s asylum system is perceived in Pakistan and how the concept of ‘refugee protection’ itself, as a form of ‘asylum’ against domestic violence, is an unfamiliar concept to many women and service providers in Pakistan. Furthermore, it highlighted the need to address specific conceptualisations of women, cultures and of the nature of domestic violence itself which, in combination, created the conditions for violence against women to take place.
11.4 A trans-national focus on gender, culture, racism and domestic violence
The study enabled us to put violence against Pakistani women into a wider context. By drawing on current international discourses on ‘gender’, ‘culture’, and racism the team were able to interpret the materials in the context of recent research and debates. It enabled the researchers to highlight forms and manifestations of violence which were perceived to significantly affect particular women (for example, honour killings and their prevalence within South Asian, and specifically Pakistani women. It also enabled us to examine the consequences of domestic violence to the women who experienced it, to children and to wider society, in both the Pakistani and UK contexts.
The initial aim of this discussion was to highlight the need to shift from ‘culturalist’ notions of violence, to examine the interplay between gender and race, and understand both why and how violence against Pakistani women takes place. The material demonstrated the ways in which cultural, racial and political frameworks in Pakistan and the UK intersected to create conditions in which women could be subjected to violence. At a central juncture in these intersections were some fundamental inadequacies and injustices within the UK immigration and asylum system. Within Pakistan, the research also highlighted the way in which religious and cultural norms were bolstered by a corrupt political system. These norms were central to the way in which institutions, systems and states conceptualised domestic violence. Furthermore, heightened debates about Islamophobia, racism and the ‘war on terror’ seemed to have intensified community concerns regarding a new wave of racism. These fears seemed to have contributed to a decrease in the reporting of incidents of domestic violence amongst Muslim women. This indicated an urgent need for both Muslim community groups, and service providers, to refocus on the issue of domestic violence.
Pakistan’s history, since its emergence as a new nation state, has demonstrated volatility and instability. The most recent upheavals within Pakistani society have illustrated the way in which the influence of Islamic leaders directly impacts on women’s status and ensures that meaningful change does not happen quickly, if at all. In the UK, change has taken place, but this change has often been of a regressive nature, particularly in the field of immigration and asylum. This is apparent in recent legislation to ‘secure’ the UK borders, in which the issue of immigration and asylum was inextricably, and lamentably, linked with fears of terrorism (the UK Borders Act 2007).
11.5 Representations of Pakistani women
The need to deconstruct understandings of domestic violence and build a strong conceptual framework recognising the diversity of women’s experiences emerged as a critical issue in the research. The prevailing perception in the UK asylum system is that the ‘typical’ Pakistani asylum-seeking woman is an economic migrant. For this study it was important to develop an understanding of what lay beneath such viewpoints, particularly as they fixed Pakistani women’s identities within a singular framework of opportunistic migration.
Within the west a woman who seeks asylum is often perceived through negative discourses. These discourses construct her as an ‘immigrant woman’, defined by her connection to practices such as arranged marriage and gender subordination, which are perceived as somehow ‘backward’(Gedalof, 2007). Gedalof demonstrates how this discourse is a continuum of the gendered and ethnicised coding which keeps ‘immigrant women’ firmly sited as homogenised symbols of unchanging cultural traditions. Gedalof’s analysis is pertinent to this study as within this construction, Pakistani women never cease to be victims as a result, and any claim a woman might make to a particular experience of victimisation remains obscured.
It is easy to see how, through this classification and stereotyping of Pakistani women, the actuality and specificity of male and familial violence is lost. The claim of victimization by a Pakistani woman becomes less credible when seated within such constructions and the focus can more ‘plausibly’ shift to the suggestion that the desire or need for economic gain is central to that claim. Gedalof’s analysis highlights a specific experience of domestic violence that is structured by a ‘minoritised’ woman’s minority status as an immigrant or asylum seeker (see also Chantler, 2007). In highlighting this difference she exposes the fact that in domestic violence discourse, there has been a tendency to privilege ‘gendered’ experiences of domestic violence over ‘race’ or cultural identification.
Within Pakistan, our material drew attention to society’s perception of the role of women as principally wives, mothers, carers or dependents, which hindered women’s potential for progression to independence. Significantly, within the UK’s asylum system similar conceptualisations of Pakistani women exposed flawed approaches to decision making. These included difficulties in grasping complexities within women’s circumstances, for example, whilst some women attempted, and sometimes succeeded, in living as ‘lone’ women, they did this at the risk of experiencing ‘legitimised’ harassment, potential harm and also risked serious consequences for their ‘reputation’ and their family.
‘Other’ women who are similarly presented in problematic terms include ‘abandoned women’ and non-Muslim Pakistani women (for example Christian women) and Ahmadiye women191. Abandoned women often find themselves in ‘limbo’ in Pakistan, for example, Pakistani nationals who arrived into the UK with spouse visas and who are subsequently ‘sent back’ because of marriage breakdown. Throughout the study, it became clear that most of these women have experienced spousal and/or familial violence and were subjected to accusations of committing acts of ‘dishonour’. The difference lies in their inability to register an asylum claim should they wish to, as it remains unclear how, if at all, a woman can lodge a claim at a British High Commission in Pakistan. These women do not fit into existing models of asylum and do not fit into prevailing conceptualisations around gender, violence and national responsibilities for service provision.
In the context of current post 9/11/ and 7/7 political tensions, Pakistani women have sought to negotiate a complex, and at times ambivalent, identity which navigates their sense of self as Pakistanis, Muslims, immigrants and as asylum-seekers. The increasing adoption of Islamic head dress reflects this attempt to negotiate these complexities. Whether women are independently aligning themselves to a ‘movement’ by manifesting outward physical signs of affiliation, or whether they are acquiescing to coercive religious elements in assuming prescribed roles, these developments require continual examination to provide an understanding of the context and meaning behind change. Yet for UK
191 Whilst the Ahmadiye are a minoritised group their beliefs are consistent with Islam, supporting the view that their ‘otherness’ is in fact mired in historical and communal conflict within Pakistan
decision-makers and service providers, this presents a challenge which is all too easily bypassed in favour of more easily available interpretations and understandings.
11.6 Pakistani women and ‘membership of a particular social group’(PSG)
Legal discourse on this ambiguous Refugee Convention ground has gained momentum since the inclusion of Pakistani women within the definition of a PSG in the landmark case of Shah and Islam. However, as indicated in the preceding paragraphs, decision-making in Pakistani women’s asylum cases since then has been dominated by attempts to narrow its application, partly attributable to cultural ambivalence and misplaced perceptions.. Furthermore, in the context of Pakistani women’s claims, it cannot now be considered separately from, and indeed appears to be inextricably linked to, the key concept of ‘internal flight’.
However, it should be noted that positive developments have emerged in connection with its applicability to girls and women from other nations who experience many other forms of domestic violence, including those perceived to be ‘country-specific’, such as female genital mutilation.
11.7 Pakistan: specific issues
There remain serious and specific difficulties with the regime within Pakistan.
The Constitution of Pakistan (which at the time of writing, November 2007, had been suspended following the declaration of emergency rule by President Musharraf) and the various conventions and declarations signed by the government of Pakistan demonstrate a theoretical commitment to equality and protection for all Pakistani citizens. However, government rhetoric on women’s rights can be contrasted with its failure to implement domestic violence legislation and appropriately punish perpetrators of violent crimes.
By putting in place a credible political and judicial framework a foundation could be laid for a significant change in Pakistani society’s perception of women. This foundation should include the introduction of appropriate punishments, the creation and implementation of legislation to protect women rights, and the repeal of legislation which discriminates against or persecutes women. Moreover, the government needs to take further steps to introduce the Domestic Violence Bill to demonstrate some form of meaningful commitment to improving women’s lives. The fact that the Bill has been pending since 2003 is a clear indicator of the Pakistani government’s lack of will in this matter.
Furthermore, there is a need for the government to demonstrate a commitment to improving service provision. Whilst there have been some developments, notably in the creation of additional crisis centres, these will not meet the considerable demand from both the rural and urban areas. The existing poor provision by state-run Dar ul Amans prompts the need for a thorough review of both systems and resourcing.
Meanwhile, the Hudood Ordinances continue to present considerable risk to women and to Pakistani society, engendering further abuse by enabling perpetrators to commit crimes without fear of reprisal or punishment. The parallel judicial system, with dual religious and state laws, creates both confusion and injustice within Pakistani society and demands urgent review.
11.8 Pakistan and the UK: commonalities and differences
Throughout the study we have focused on different, yet linked, elements of systems and practice within the two countries. The need to maintain a critical trans-national perspective throughout the study was reinforced by the fact that certain themes, which appeared to be Pakistani-specific, (for example, corruption and neglect on the part of Pakistani state agencies and service providers), emerged as themes relevant to a critique of the UK because of their influence on women’s experiences of seeking protection against domestic violence in the UK.
Earlier chapters drew attention to structural commonalities within the different national contexts. In both contexts there were laws, political structures, cultural norms and socio-economic barriers, which maintained women’s subjugation. Criticism of Pakistan can appear to reflect or feed into a homogenised common view of the country as ’corrupted by its practices’. Yet much of the material within the context of Pakistan presented a more complex picture, demonstrating both corruption and a lack of access to justice, whilst also revealing resistance and campaigning on the part of organisations and individuals and an overarching oppressive regime which clearly did impact on women’s lives in harmful ways. At the same time, within the UK context, women increasingly experienced poor quality representation and support from services, and when cases failed as a result, often ‘disappeared’ into an informal and exploitative socio-economic sector.
There are further disconcerting commonalities in both countries in terms of the poor treatment of women. The lack of a welfare system in Pakistan has exposed women to destitution and yet, within the UK, the ‘no recourse to public funds’ rule it is recognised that a lack of access to public funds prevents many women from leaving violent relationships. Also, The lack of effective regulation of the NGO sector in Pakistan has contributed to the provision of chaotic, under-resourced services which struggle to meet demand; conversely, in the UK, regulations, bureaucracy and the audit culture have hampered many service providers from responding effectively to women’s needs, usually when they most critically need support, for example the inability to provide bed spaces due to the ‘no recourse to public funds’ rule. In a further example, the connections between men, families, other informal networks, and state agents in Pakistan effectively coerce many women to remain in violent circumstances; in the UK, the intersection between an abuser’s tactics (for example the threat to use immigration laws to ‘deport a woman following violence) and state laws to remove people in breach of marriage visas, demonstrates a similar process of ‘collusion’ in the abuse of women..
11.9 Internal flight
The controversy surrounding the concept of internal flight stems from the lack of uniform and principled application of it by decision-makers. Despite this confusion and lack of consistency, it is increasingly used to deny Pakistani women asylum when they cannot produce ‘enough’ or ‘appropriate’ evidence to negate it. There appears to be considerable resistance among decision-makers to accept testimonies, even when evidence of the danger of internal flight is compelling. The prevailing view which emerged from the research was that decision-makers were unwilling to engage with the specific nature of harm presented by internal flight and with the concept of ‘undue hardship’ in a Pakistani context. Whilst decision-makers appear willing to attach some importance to the impact of internal flight on children, there is insufficient consideration of potential harm to the mother. Tactical opportunities for legal practitioners (where there are children) are useful; however, the shift in emphasis towards protection for children is ultimately dangerous in its compromise of Pakistani women’s entitlements to protection.
11.10 Children
This study was primarily focused on adult women, not on children, a distinction which was not always possible in either of the UK and Pakistan contexts. The complex matter of the relationship between the interests of women and children came to the fore during the study. We identified a range of circumstances in which women were regarded as not fully adult, mothers were themselves treated like children, and where children were somehow deemed to be women. For this study, the overarching feature of these complex intersections is the nature of (predominantly) male power and control, manifested through domestic violence, to regulate women and (usually female) children. This in turn has highlighted the complex interplay between domestic violence and women’s action/inaction where children’s needs are also to be considered. This is further complicated by the needs and rights of children, which exist separately rather than in isolation from, women in domestic violence situations.
This raised two key issues: the role of children when they are present when domestic violence takes place (for example, as ‘tools’ for negotiating safety) and the effects on them, not only of what they witness, but also of the process of accessing safety which they subsequently experience. The central challenge for both women’s rights and children’s rights advocates is to continue to find appropriate ways of recognising the ‘indivisible and interconnected character of rights’ (Gready and Ensor, 2005) whilst meeting the particular needs of women and children.
State provision in Pakistan and the UK for protecting children in these situations presented a complex picture. Whilst within the UK provision for child protection is considerably more favourable and ‘children’s rights’ orientated, there are some key features of the UK approach to the protection of migrant or asylum seeking children which draw a less favourable picture. The UK, in line with other member states, has entered reservations to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child with regard to protecting their rights to legislate on immigration and asylum control, enabling the UK government to limit its international responsibilities to non-British children and to refuse, detain and remove them from its territories.
11.11 Impact of domestic violence and the asylum system on Pakistani women
In both UK and Pakistani contexts, a Pakistani women’s complex relationship to her family and culture, combined with the highly stressful process of attempting to find safety, contribute to a high incidence of mental health distress, self-harm and attempted suicide. The isolation of the women is compounded by the psychological harm they have experienced as a result of violence and these also contribute to poor mental health. In many situations women ‘disappear’, often in order to escape familial threats, or, within the UK, to escape the threat of detention and removal following an unsuccessful asylum claim. This has a direct consequence on their ability to access services, to find shelter, welfare and support, compounding the risk of ill-health. Often, in order to avoid the attention of authorities, including services which they perceive to be agents of the UK state, the potential for their exploitation, for example in drugs and sex industries, heightens their vulnerability. This parallels the experiences of many British women and girls who in the process of escaping familial violence, and to avoid destitution, often find themselves submerged in further abusive situations.
11.12 Service provision in the UK: service ‘breakdown’
In the UK, services offering forms of support following domestic violence are largely rooted in the charitable or voluntary sectors, but also include statutory provision. Domestic violence support services were consistently perceived to be poorly resourced, thin on the ground, over-subscribed, unsympathetic, culturally unaware or culturally inappropriate. These were also described as being at their most inadequate at ‘crisis point’. The disjointed working relationships between women specific and nonspecific voluntary organisations, social services and health professionals has led to ‘service breakdown’ when women’s needs have been at their most critical. A common perception is that they are often unwilling to intervene; whether that is due to complacency or to avoid being culturally insensitive, service providers can unwittingly reinforce negative cultural perceptions of Pakistani women by simply failing to respond to women’s needs. However the prevailing perception is that the system of asylum and immigration control, which is linked and indeed ‘regulates’ service provision to women asylum-seekers and women with insecure immigration status, heightens women’s vulnerability to harm.
11.13 Cultural practices and racism within service provision
Previous studies (see Batsleer et al., 2002, and Chantler et al., 2001) described the ways in which ‘minoritised’ women who are subjected to domestic violence were often treated inappropriately, or not at all, by service providers in the UK. Whilst those studies explored these issues in the context of informing policy and practice in domestic violence services, they highlighted concerns, also raised in this study, relating to the quality of service provision which mirror the underlying allegations of racism permeating the UK’s asylum decision-making processes and systems. For a woman who might be considering protection from a violent family situation, her fear of racism from service providers and the immigration and asylum system is more likely to limit her disclosure of violence, and consequently, as already alluded to above, perpetuate it.
11.14 Barriers to access: service provision in the UK and Pakistan
There were barriers to accessing service provision in the UK which alienated women and prevented them from accessing support, and as a result increased their risk of harm. Legal services were highlighted as increasingly under pressure as a result of continual reductions in the level of legal aid resourcing. In addition the immigration and asylum system and the regulation of the sector as a whole, came under criticism for a general lack of knowledge, understanding and expertise in domestic violence cases. Inconsistent police practice across the UK was also described as a critical barrier to women’s access to support and safety. Some perceived this to be indicative of the police’s inability to create uniform practices to tackling violence. References to the cultural framework of Pakistani women’s negative experiences of police involvement in Pakistan is also indicative of the parallels with some police practice in the UK, which has led many women to not approach the UK police. The provision and quality of interpretation services also came under scrutiny. Fundamental flaws in the nature, quality and delivery of this vital service were described, which could contribute to the ill-treatment that women experience. The issue of reliance on children as interpreters has previously been summarised, yet the ethical difficulties this raised needed to be addressed in all contexts. The need to attend to training and awareness issues within legal services, the police, and critically, interpretation services remained a pressing issue.
11.15 No recourse to public funds
Specific rules of immigration and asylum control came under scrutiny, notably the rule on ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) and the system of accommodation and support administered by the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA). For women with insecure immigration status, who seek support against domestic violence, the NRPF rule now represents a serious barrier to accessing both services and justice within the immigration and asylum systems. National campaigns, such as the Southall Black Sisters campaign to abolish the rule are beginning to gain momentum to address these discriminatory provisions.
11.16 The asylum support system
The practice, which was adopted by the asylum support system, of dispersing asylum seekers throughout the UK presented further legal and support issues. The dispersal system was regarded with suspicion and frustration by practitioners not only because it interrupted necessary care and support, but also because it created inconsistency and a lack of quality within legal representation in women’s asylum cases. Furthermore, NASS has provided contradictory responses to women’s refuges about whether they will provide resources to enable women asylum seekers to move to safer spaces (following domestic violence from partners whilst in the UK or whilst in the asylum system). This has led to much confusion about its stated policy, a problem compounded by further inconsistencies in practice across different regions.
11.17 Barriers for service providers
There are clearly practical barriers which are experienced by service providers and which impact on their ability to deliver services to asylum-seekers. For example, insufficient resources, and lack of reliable and suitable interpreters means that service providers are compromised in the level of support they can deliver. Undoubtedly these barriers impact on the delivery of services to the whole spectrum of asylum-seekers, not just Pakistani women. Furthermore, these obstacles may be indicative of the inherently discriminatory and inappropriate practices of some services providers identified during the study.
11.18 Improving services in the UK: identifying ways forward
Whilst concerns exist about how structural barriers reinforce oppressive practices at service provision level, and their consequent role in sustaining the distress that many women experience, n the UK, there are developments. Discourse and discussion are ongoing across many sectors on appropriate ways of devising holistic care and integrated practice for and with black and minority ethnic individuals and communities to improve their access to health and social care services and other welfare and support. These discussions reflect on and address the current need to respond to the heterogeneity of women and their individualised characteristics in changing and migrating populations,
11.19 Service provision in Pakistan
The lack of access to appropriate provision in the UK can be compared in some respects to the inadequacy of provision in Pakistan. However, the particularly severe lack of provision in Pakistan creates extreme difficulties for women who are fleeing domestic violence. This inadequacy of service provision can be seen at all levels, from a lack of legislative protection and provision, to over-subscribed women’s shelters which are limited in number and in resources, and to the lack of rehabilitation or aftercare. There is no system of re-housing women who have left their family homes; this fact alone plays a major role in the decisions many women make to return to violent relationships. This is exacerbated for many women by their weak socio-economic position, lack of education and employment opportunities. In addition, the attitudes towards ‘lone’ women that pervade society in Pakistan often result in their isolation and ostracism, exposing them to further harm.
11.20 Shelters in Pakistan
This study found that the majority of shelters in Pakistan are under resourced and offer little or no childcare provision. Policies within shelters which exclude boys over the age of five create severe and traumatic dilemmas for women, and provide disincentives for women to access shelters. They are usually overcrowded, provide sub-standard facilities, rarely have a key worker system, offer poor working conditions, no casework supervision, and no training or worker accountability. The workers also often appear to run shelters with very little input from trustees. Life for a woman after leaving a shelter often means returning to a violent situation, remarriage or returning to her family if they are willing or able to allow her back. In the absence of any of these ‘options’, women are often open to sexual exploitation to support their children and overcome the risk of destitution. Two crucial issues prevent women from living independently; firstly the need for re-housing and secondly the need for financial assistance. Unlike the UK, in Pakistan there is no provision for re-housing or financial assistance after leaving a shelter apart from the Bait-ul-Mal ( a zakat fund ) collected by the government and distributed at its discretion, if at all. No woman interviewed for this study had been provided with funds from this source. Once a woman leaves a shelter there is no mechanism for protecting her within the framework for women’s services. There is also little tracking of what happens to women after they leave the shelter and workers often rely on newspapers to discover reports of honour killings of women previously in their ‘care’.
Women’s service providers in Pakistan often attempted to provide ‘holistic’ services, such as legal advice, counseling, arranging remarriages, identifying employment and facilitating reconciliations. Yet despite this willingness, issues of poor working conditions, a lack of management, monitoring and accountability, low wages and under-resourcing all impact on their ability to adequately, provide any of these. Often, shelters were not able to provide the specialist skilled workers to address the particular needs of some women, for example, women with burns or women who had been subjected to gang rape.
The absence of provision for young women and girls reinforces the contention that girls are often perceived as ‘adult women’. The lack of attention to the specific needs of girls who have experienced domestic violence highlights a pressing need to address the rights of individuals, who are in fact children, in these circumstances.
Using men as trustees of some shelters, and as employees, appears to be a common and acceptable practice. The support of the male counterparts to engage in culturally sensitive and religiously contentious issues is a key element in raising awareness of issues both within political parties and within wider society. However, this particular development within service provision in Pakistan is highly indicative of the nature and extent of risk to women, including women workers, and presents a fundamental ideological and political difference in practice between women’s service providers in the UK and Pakistan.
11.21 Building an infrastructure for service provision in Pakistan
Given the poor state of service provision for women in Pakistan, a thorough review and evaluation of existing services and of future need in each of the regions, including both rural and urban areas, is urgently required to begin the process of building effective support. Certainly the role of international NGOs is critical, given their access to resources, and their responsibilities to facilitate development within services. Furthermore, their responsibilities to distribute resources present considerable opportunities for long-term investment in developing partnerships which, in turn, can effect change within Pakistani services and potentially women’s lives.
11.22 Training
There was a great need within the services we consulted in the UK for ‘cultural awareness’ training, or training on domestic violence issues, and equally a willingness to engage with such training if it were provided. Appropriate training is an essential tool which can enable service providers to avoid critical errors in gathering information and enable appropriate intervention. Significantly, service providers’ often misplaced concerns over cultural awareness, or gender-specific cultural norms about acceptable behaviour, could work to close down women’s access to services. However, appropriate training, whilst vital, does not represent an adequate response to attend to the many complex themes highlighted in this report. ‘Cultural’ shifts in behaviour and in attitudes are equally, if not more critical, to laying the foundations for protecting women from abuse.
Similarly in Pakistan, calls for training on cultural awareness, on domestic violence and human rights issues are an integral stage in developing better provision, attitudes and change in ‘culture’. Again, such training remains a useful but limited aspect of the ways in which the wider issues require attention.
11.23 Evidence: credibility, protection and internal flight
The research highlighted some fundamental problems in the treatment and interpretation of evidence in Pakistani women’s asylum cases. Such evidential and case work issues affect asylum seekers from many diverse backgrounds, not just Pakistani women. The difficulties associated with determining ‘credibility’ and the problematic ways in which the asylum system tackles concepts of ‘objectivity’ and ‘subjectivity’ impact on all those who seek asylum in the UK.
Yet there remain specific concerns for this study regarding evidence in Pakistani women’s cases. The formulation in refugee law which led to the recognition of Pakistani women as ‘members of a particular social group’ is undermined by misplaced and inaccurate perceptions of the nature of protection and the viability of internal flight in Pakistan. The depth of detail which emerged from interviews conducted in the UK and Pakistan is indicative of the over-simplification of protection issues, and indeed, is indicative of the structural and ‘cultural’ influences on decision-makers which have prevented detailed scrutiny of concepts of protection and internal flight in the context of Pakistan.
From the viewpoint of the Home Office the detail is located in its COIS country reports. Yet criticism of the reports which emerged during this study, notably that they lacked detail and ‘objectivity’, is supported not only by previous studies, but also by the Home Office’s subsequent creation of the APCI. Described as an ‘independent’ body, the APCI is attempting to raise the standard of the reports. However, it has a relatively narrow remit, and our critique/analysis of its assessment of the 2006 Pakistan country report demonstrates a flawed approach to its own scrutiny of the COIS reports. The APCI failed to address the lack of depth, detail and reliable sources in the 2006 COIS report concerning Pakistani women’s particular position in society, the familial, class, religious and societal structures which lead to women’s ill-treatment and the considerable lack of attention to the complexities of internal flight.
Considered alongside credibility issues, it appears that other processes are in operation which influence decision-making. Pakistani women’s accounts in this report were often, though not always, found to be credible and yet the views of many participants suggested that their credibility is effectively immaterial to the outcome of their cases. Misplaced judgements about women’s class, religion, and other circumstances, misunderstandings about the nature of internal flight, and doubts about the ‘credibility’ of expert evidence all seemed to influence decision-makers. Conclusions were often drawn on the basis of these misconceptions that Pakistan women, as asylum seekers, were rarely ‘genuine’ in the sense of needing protection outside of Pakistan. This response supported the participants’ view that there is an existent ‘culture of disbelief’ which still permeates decision-making in the UK asylum system.
11.24 Safe to return?
In Pakistan, women are required to travel vast geographical distances and to overcome considerable practical, cultural and psychological barriers to try and seek safety. Conversely, the vastness of geographical possibilities within the country are frequently cited in UK asylum contexts as indicators of the ‘safety’ of relocation. The tensions presented by these opposing positions suggest a need to explicate what ‘safety’ in the context of this study means. Notions and concepts of safety, commonly associated with the provision of and access to physical, material, structural, social and psychological support are heavily circumscribed in Pakistan. This study demonstrated the limited and temporary circumstances in which women reach a ‘place’ which can be deemed ‘safe’.
Similarly, tensions abound when considering ‘to where’ in Pakistan a woman should ‘return’, since this study demonstrates that it does not, and cannot, refer to the place, house, family or situation from which many Pakistani women have fled. Whilst a woman’s ‘return’ might take her to a new ‘place’ within Pakistan, her safety is not assured since, for example, she is likely to lack support networks, be isolated, and be unable to retain anonymity. In a UK context, return is more commonly associated with an involuntary process of removal to a ‘safe’ airport in the country of origin, beyond which the UK state absolves itself from any further responsibility. For the purposes of this study, this is indicative of further structural parallels between the UK and Pakistan and again, misconceptions concerning the nature of ‘return’ and dangers to women.
11.25 Areas for further research
In the course of this study, we have identified a number of key areas which merit further research. These are:
1Further quantitative and qualitative evaluation in both the UK and Pakistan across a wider geographical remit, involving a thorough cataloguing of the barriers to, and gaps in, legal and other support services that have been identified in this study.
2Examination of the relationship between the interests of children and those of women in cases in which domestic violence and asylum issues intersect, in a national and trans-national context. Specifically with regard to children, the impact of these issues on their physical and mental health, their well-being, education and their perceptions of how systems and services operate to protect them. Additionally, the nature and extent of provision in shelters for children, the interface between shelters and other services providing for children both in the UK and Pakistan and the particular challenges for children in these contexts.
3Further study of developments in the definition of ‘membership of a particular social group’ in relation to evolving and emerging concepts and definitions of violence. This should include an exploration of how, keeping in mind the importance of the Convention ground, it nonetheless gives rise to conceptual challenges imposed by tensions between notions of particularity and generality as applied to Pakistani women.
4A detailed investigation into the long-term physical, and psychological effects for Pakistani women and children of seeking refuge and protection against domestic violence.
5Research to devise and develop services in the UK and in Pakistan in ways which offer positive interventions for Pakistani women who experience domestic violence, specifically services offering mental health support. In Pakistan, this applies specifically to the development of shelter and crisis centre provision, not only in the context of building on the physical infrastructure of these support services, but also ways in which ‘holistic’ services are best utilised.
6An examination of the impact of new and emerging legislation in the UK on immigration control and on domestic violence in Pakistan.
7A consideration of the findings of the Independent Asylum Commission’s report, due for publication in 2008.
8Beyond Pakistani women, research to identify and establish appropriate links and experiences of other women nationals who seek refugee protection against domestic violence.

11.26 A cautionary note: Pakistan, emergency rule and the significance of this study
As this report goes to press, President Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule, suspension of the judiciary, and corresponding unrest in Pakistan, continue. The outcome of widespread arrests of the political opposition, popular and middle class resistance and mobilisation, along with the pressure exerted by the international community, remains unclear - including the calls for Musharraf to commit to holding elections, to remove his army uniform and to stand down as President. It is indeed a volatile and uncertain situation.
However, for the purposes of this study, we end on the following cautionary note. It may appear to some that the position of women in relation to domestic violence pales into insignificance in relation to current events in Pakistan. Moreover, it may seem to some readers that changes in leadership and senior administrators could render the analyses generated in this study less relevant, or even obsolete. While we would like to hope that such change is possible, this study suggests that the complexity of the relationships between domestic violence and cultural and political structures in Pakistan, including the parallel legal and administrative systems, mean that much more than a cosmetic change of personnel, or even legal reform, is needed to alter this situation. Rather, changes that will make a significant impact on domestic violence rates, and service provision, will need to be structural and systemic. It is anticipated, therefore, that the analyses presented in this report will remain of substantial relevance until such time as the structural, legal, and systemic shortfalls and problems identified here in both the UK and Pakistan are addressed.