Faisalabad: January 24, 2012. (PCP) Association of women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) in collaboration with Girl Guide Association Faisalabad organized a Training Workshop titled “Gender Based Discrimination and Violence” held at Govt. College for Women D-Type Colony in Faisalabad on January 17, 2012. This activity was joined by 30 girl guides from different classes of the college. The main objective of this activity was to aware and educate the girls about the gender concepts, gender based discrimination and violence in the family, community and by the state. Nazia Sardar (Chairperson-AWAM), Shazia George (Coordinator-AWAM) and Amna Babar (Incharge-GGAF) were among the facilitators. Nazia Sardar said, “The men are the main perpetrators of violence against women in the world though all are not violent. Gender-based violence is one of the greatest blocks to the development of any country. Pakistan is among those countries where majority of the cases are not reported due to the element of honour, even filing of such cases are discouraged by the police and traditional leaders considering it a personal or family matter. Violence against women occurs in different forms, but some of its most malicious forms include; physical violence, sexual violence, psychological violence and economic violence whereas harmful traditional practices include; honour killing, forced marriages, dowry related violence, trafficking and acid attacks.” Shazia George said, “Gender and sex are different from each other as sex is the biological difference and cannot be changed, whereas gender is socially constructed and can be changed as the time progresses. Women are badly influenced by this discriminatory distribution of the gender roles, as men are considered the bread winners in our society, and women are limited to household chores so they are restricted to bound within the four walls.” “Ending gender-based violence requires a cohesive combination of effective laws, social policies and fundamental transformation of the beliefs and practices of institutions and individuals,” she added. Amna Babar said, “Women are among the most marginalized group of our society, therefore women’s empowerment educationally, economically and politically can take them out of the worse situation. The government must take admirable steps for the empowerment of women by making policies and laws in support of women’s rights.”