Abortion Hotline Threatened in Pakistan

At 24 years old, Gulalai Ismail works with other young women in Pakistan to increase their self-identification as agents of social change and their collective capacity to transform their country's view and treatment of women as second class citizens. Ismail founded Aware Girls while getting her Master's in Biotechnology at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. Her ultimate goal is "to promote sexual and reproductive health rights of young people, not only at community level but also at a policy level." Earlier this week, I read Rachel Shields' article in The Independent about Aware Girls' abortion hotline, Sahailee (the Urdu word for a female friend), coming under fire from conservative clerics and extremists, so I reached out to Ismail to find out more about the situation.

Why did Aware Girls establish an abortion hotline in Pakistan?

Each year about 890,000 women have abortions in Pakistan, and every day 10 women die because they had an unsafe abortion. A majority of women do not have access to reproductive health services, and it is very important to give women information about how to obtain a safe abortion. Sahailee was started to provide information to women about the use of Misoprostol for inducing a safe abortion until the twelfth week of pregnancy, and for preventing post-partum hemorrhaging. The hotline is working to save the lives of thousands of women in Pakistan who die unnecessarily each year.

What kind of opposition have you faced so far?

There have been violent statements made by some political and religious leaders to the media against Aware Girls in general, and against the hotline in particular. We have also received threats of reprisals for providing this service. It is very common for initiatives in Pakistan that empower women to face this type of opposition because it breaks the fiber of patriarchy.

Are local authorities, such as the police, helping to keep Aware Girls' workers safe and Sahailee open?

Since abortion is legal in Pakistan only if the life of women is in danger, we are receiving no support from local authorities. As a result of abortion being illegal, there is a lack of abortion services in Pakistan, and women undergo back street abortions where unsafe procedures threaten their lives and health. Aware Girls is not trying to argue for or against the legitimacy of abortion; for us, the most important thing is to prevent the loss of women who die because of having unsafe abortions. So, despite the risk involved, it is very important to us to reach women who need this information.

What can Change.org readers do to support your work?

Knowing that we are working in solidarity with women around the globe gives us the strength to run the hotline. Emails can be sent to us at aware_girls@yahoo.com or via the Aware Girls' page on Facebook, and we are also looking for individuals and Organizations to support Sahailee financially. Also, we encourage people to give the number of the hotline to women and partner organization in Pakistan: 009 031 5917 0408.

Photo credit: Steve Evans