Faisalabad: March 12, 2011. (By Shazia George) Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) in collaboration with Agency for Sustainable Development Pakistan (ASDP) and Workers’ Party Pakistan (WPP) organized a public forum titled “Empowerment of Women: Stereotypes, Taboos and Legislation” to mark international women’s day at Quaid-e-Azam Hall in Faisalabad on 8th March 2011. This seminar was joined by 160 Muslim and Christian participants from different schools of thought. The speakers of the public forum included; Naseem Anthony (Executive Secretary-AWAM), Amina Zaman (Director-ASDP), Shazia George (Coordinator-AWAM), Nazia Sardar, Zarina Arif, Hanif Ahmad Dogar Advocate, Sajid Iqbal Safdar and Rabia Jaffar. At this juncture, the speakers for the defense of women’s rights called upon the government that: Government must make discriminatory actions against women punishable offenses, and should take affirmative measures to revoke the gender based discriminatory laws, taboos, stereotypes and customary practices such as; honour killing, vani, burying women alive, domestic violence, forced or exchange marriages etc.; New legislation must be created to combat all forms of violence against women especially against domestic violence and acid throwing, whereas more shelter homes and crises centers must be set up for the women victims of violence; Stern action must be taken against elements involved in demolishing girls’ educational institutions, and inciting gender based hatred and violence in the society; Females are a predominant portion of our population, therefore their representation in political process should be increased as per their population in order to create and promote democratic environment and democratic values in the country; Women are always deprived of their genuine rights including provision of basic amenities and job opportunities despite being a major part of our society, therefore, government should create opportunities for women to take part in socio-economic activities, and must take concrete measures to reduce discrimination and harassment at workplaces; Govt. must legally recognize home based workers as part of the labour force and should ratify ILO home work convention 177 for the protection of rights of home based workers.