Enhancing Women Access to justice - through Legal Empowerment of grass root community
Jul 17, 2024
Story
Seeking
Action

Advocate Faizaf
Joined Apr 29, 2024

My journey began in 2015 after completing my law degree. I had always been fascinated with protecting women's rights and providing free legal advice. My career started at the Human Rights Cell of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, where I worked as an intern for one year. During this time, I took up pro-bono cases related to women's rights. With my strong analytical skills and background in data management and analytics, I often looked at things through the lens of data. To my surprise, out of the thousands of complaints filed, only one or two were from women.
This discrepancy raised many concerns and questions in my mind. Were women truly receiving all their rights? Were they so protected and safe that there was no violence against them, resulting in no complaints? Or was there a missing link?
I became suspicious, especially since the platform was safe, confidential, and had a speedy redressal mechanism. Yet, the number of complaints from women was alarmingly low. From my perspective and in my surroundings, every second house had a woman who was a victim—some of domestic violence, others denied maintenance rights, embroiled in family disputes, fighting for child custody, or harassed at the workplace. So why were the incoming complaints so few?
Determined to find answers, I conducted in-depth research and spoke to women who came to me through referrals or from the neighborhood. I asked them why they did not file complaints with women's rights protection institutions or the police. Their responses were eye-opening: they did not trust the system, and those who did approach the police or male lawyers often faced harassment. If they filed a case, they would be dragged through the courts, bearing the burden of proof as victims. There was also the power game, where the financially powerful could influence the court. Most sadly, societal pressure and lack of awareness about their rights deterred them.
This realization hit me hard. I understood that while I could not change the system overnight, I could legally empower women and make them more aware of their legal rights and protections. Although I was already encouraging women to access justice and raise their voices on issues like domestic violence, inheritance, property disputes, child custody, maintenance, and gender-based violence (GBV), including harassment and rape, I knew I had to do more.
My journey of empowering women legally and raising awareness about their rights became my mission. It was a challenging path, but one that I was committed to walking, knowing that every step taken brought us closer to justice and equality.
From this point, I realized what I could do and started working on it. I began by building a team of women lawyers who shared my vision. Together, we strategized and created a work plan to start small but effectively reach out to nearby communities. Our goal was to empower grassroots communities and make them more aware of their rights.
I was fortunate to secure some grants, which allowed me to build a network of women lawyers. I provided them with essential training, preparing them to offer training to grassroots communities. We began by focusing on the women of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). To my surprise, many districts in KPK had no women lawyers. In these areas, women were not even allowed to speak to men, making access to justice nearly impossible.
Despite these challenges, we pressed on. We are providing training to grassroots communities, helping women understand their legal rights and how to access justice. Our network of women lawyers is growing, and we continue to expand our reach across Pakistan, driven by our shared vision.