[sacw] UK ruling on refugee status to Pak women (source missing)

[Harsh Kapoor]

April 22, 1999
FYI (unfortunately this news item sent to me has no source; I am sure other
reports will follow .....)
South Asia Citizens Web
=====================

Outcast women in Lords victory

By Ian Burrell, Home Affairs
Correspondent

The House of Lords ruled yesterday that
Pakistani women have the right to
refugee status in Britain because they
collectively suffer persecution from
Pakistani men. The ground-breaking
ruling by the law lords means that
women who become outcasts in Pakistani
society after being accused of adultery
can seek asylum in Britain.

Two Pakistani women living in London
brought the case after being driven
into exile by false accusations. Syeda
Shah, 43, came to Britain in 1992 with
her child after her husband named her
as an adulteress. Shahanna Islam, 45, a
former Pakistani schoolteacher, fled
after a militant political group began
spreading rumours that she was
unfaithful to her husband.

They argued that Pakistan's Islamic law
classifies adultery as a criminal
offence, known as Zina, punishable by
imprisonment, public flogging or
stoning.

The two women, who were supported by
the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees, argued that they were
legitimate refugees under the
definition contained in the UN
Convention on Refugees of 1951.

They argued that they had a
well-founded fear of persecution as a
member of a particular social group,
namely women, who experience
discrimination and oppression because
they occupy a lower status to men in
Pakistani society.

The law lords accepted their argument
by a majority of four to one.

Hannana Siddiqui, of the women's group
Southall Black Sisters, described the
verdict as "enlightened". She said: "We
have many other women who have suffered
similarly and we hope that they will
now be given the protection of British
asylum law."

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