Rida Tahir is a UK qualified Barrister-at-law and an Advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan. She is a lecturer for the University of London and University of Hertfordshire law programmes in Pakistan. Rida specialises in human rights litigation with particular focus on the rights of women and children. Recently, she was invited by the UN Women to a consultative meeting, which was presented to the office of the Honorable Prime Minister of Pakistan and resulted in the National Gender Policy Framework.
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Lahore High Court Strikes Down the Discriminatory Gender-Based Age Difference in the Definition of ‘Child’ in the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929
About 18.3% of girls and 4.7% of boys in Pakistan are married before the age of 18. Child marriage is a human rights violation which affects both genders. However, it affects girls disproportionately. In fact, 54% of girls in Pakistan ...
Supreme Court of Pakistan Holds that the Courts Cannot Pass a Decree of Khula Without a Woman’s Consent
Khula is not a favourable method of divorce for women because they are compelled to return their dower. Under the Muslim Law, dower is the sum of money or property which the bride receives from the groom in consideration of ...
Supreme Court of Pakistan Holds that ‘Harassment’ at the Workplace Includes (Non-Sexual) Discrimination on Basis of Gender
About 93 per cent of working women in Pakistan acknowledge facing workplace harassment. In 2023, Pakistan ranked 142 out of 146 countries in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report. Women’s access to employment ...
لاہور ہائی کورٹ نے برطانوی نوآبادیاتی دور کے غداری کے قانون کو کالعدم قرار دے دیا
30 مارچ 2023 کو لاہور ہائی کورٹ کے جسٹس شاہد کریم نے ہارون فاروق بمقابلہ فیڈریشن آف پاکستان کیس کا تاریخی فیصلہ سنایا۔ اس فیصلے میں کہا گیا کہ پاکستان پینل کوڈ 1860 (پی پی سی) کی دفعہ 124-A میں مقرر کردہ غداری کا قانون غیر آئینی ...
Lahore High Court Strikes Down Pakistan’s Colonial-era Sedition Law
On March 30 2023, Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court (LHC) delivered a landmark judgment in Haroon Farooq v Federation of Pakistan. This judgement held that the sedition law laid down in Section 124-A of the Pakistan Penal ...
کیا پاکستان میں خواتین اپنے انسانی حقوق کے لیے مارچ کر سکتی ہیں؟
پاکستان میں سندھ ہائی کورٹ کے ایک حالیہ فیصلے نے ثابت کیا ہے کہ خواتین کے حقوق کے علمبرداروں کی طرف سے عام طور پر استعمال کی جانے والے نعرے قابل اعتراض نہیں ہے اور خواتین قانون اور آئین کے تحت فراہم کردہ آزادیوں کی حقدار ہیں۔ اس کے ...
Can Women March for their Human Rights in Pakistan?
A recent decision of the Sindh High Court (SHC) in Pakistan has established that the catchcry commonly used by women’s rights advocates is not objectionable and women are entitled to the freedoms provided under the law and ...
Pakistan’s Federal Shariat Court Affirms that the ‘Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act 2016’ Aligns with Islamic Injunctions
Image description: A group of women and children in Sindh, Pakistan gather in an outdoor shelter
It has been estimated that domestic abuse takes place in approximately 80 percent of households in Pakistan. Against this backdrop, the ...
Supreme Court of Pakistan rules that a mother’s remarriage cannot become a reason to disqualify her right to the custody of her children
Image Description: Supreme Court of Pakistan
On October 05, 2022, Justice Ayesha A. Malik of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) delivered the landmark judgment in Raja Muhammad Owais v. Nazia Jabeen. This judgment held that a ...
Haseen Ullah v Naheed Begum: Supreme Court of Pakistan Confirms that a Husband is Obligated to Provide ‘Maintenance’ to His Wife
Image Description: A photograph of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. There is a flag of Pakistan, made up of a green field with a white vertical stripe, a white crescent and five-pointed star, hoisted on top of this building. This was ...
Mumtaz Bibi v Qasim: Islamabad High Court’s Landmark Judgment on Child Marriage
Image description: Children in a village in Sindh Pakistan.
As per a recent UNICEF report, Pakistan is home to nearly 19 million child brides: one in three girls in Pakistan are married before reaching the age of 18. The Child ...
Muhammad Shahzad Khaliq v. The State: Survivor-Centric Guidelines in Responding to Child Pornography
Image Description - A picture of Judge's Gavel.
In August 2015, a gang running a pedophile and pornography ring assaulted more than 280 children. Although several arrests were made, only the acts of rape were punishable by law at ...
