Any real change in seeing women at leadership positions only comes from a societal and cultural level
LAHORE: At the recently held national conference on ‘Women’s Political Emancipation: The Future of Pakistan’, organised by Aurat Foundation and Oxfam with support of the Australian government, the importance of inclusion of women in the country’s democratic process was championed. This comes as a respite for many in a country where women are rarely encouraged to hold leadership or decision-making positions.
Currently, there are only 60 reserved seats for women in the 342-seat National Assembly and only nine women were elected to the house on general seats. But this is bound to change. MNA Naeema Kishwar, a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms, said at the conference that legislation is expected to be passed in a special session, ensuring that political parties allocate five per cent of their general seat tickets for women.
Women’s meaningful participation at both the voter and candidate level only means there will be a better response to community needs. This is because women often approach and solve problems from a different angle than their male counterparts and together complement each other, providing an alternative perspective on problems.
However, we cannot ignore the fact that any real change in seeing women at leadership positions only comes from a societal and cultural level. In our patriarchal society, internalised misogyny highly affects the mindsets of the public voting for their representatives and even men permitting their women get out of the house to vote. Women are presumed to be incapable of taking important decisions and are ruled out on the basis of their emotionality. Such mindsets are only strengthened, time and again, when our male leaders reinforce such prejudices by calling their female parliamentarians names, such as ‘tractors’, belittling their efforts and achievements to their physical presence.
Unless and until this is changed through awareness of women’s rights and equality, among women first and then men, no legislation will bring fortified results. No matter how tirelessly women work in their constituencies to prove themselves as eligible.
Uzma Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, May 29th, 2017.
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