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Desi News Corp - Desi News - March 2009 - Index

10 Desi News March 2009
NARI MAVALWALLA/DESI NEWS
A
young girl says her
family took her back to
Pakistan ostensibly to
attend a family wedding. On
getting there, she discovered that
it was her own wedding they had
organized. They took away her
passport and threatened her with
dire consequences if she refused
to obey.
A man routinely burned his
wife by throwing scalding water
on her, but she was afraid to
leave him because she didn’t
know whom to turn to for help.
Another woman tried to
leave her abusive husband and
he threw acid on their daughter’s
face.
Would their stories have had
different endings had they had a
better knowledge of their rights
under family law?
On a video created for YWCA,
women recount their experiences
UNDERSTANDING
YOUR RIGHTS
at family courts. “Helpless”,
“isolated”, “daunted, not knowing
what the procedures were...” are
some of the words they use.
Would these women have been in
a happier place had they had a better
understanding of their rights under
family law?
Definitely, say those
involved in Family
Law Education for
Women (FLEW), who initiated a
public education campaign
called All Women, One Family
Law, to ensure that Ontario
women know their legal rights
under Ontario family law. FLEW
is a public legal education
project funded by the Ontario
government to develop materials
that will inform women’s
decisions about family law
issues.
“Many women know nothing
about their basic legal
rights. Often, women begin
• LEFT: Zahra Dhanani of METRAC