My advice to parents is that they must engage their daughters in healthy activities throughout their lives.
ISLAMABAD: Almost on a daily basis, I read/watch stories in newspapers and on television about women doing well in life. Most of them belong to families that are forward-looking and progressive and do not mind them working. But what about those women who want to work but who are not part of a family that tolerates its women working?
For instance, the problem that I face is not financial. I belong to an above-average family and can pretty much afford everything. But because my family is conservative, I have felt psychological pressure ever since school. I won a gold medal in university during my master’s degree but I cannot realise my potential because of a certain kind of thinking surrounding me.
Girls from families such as mine have to face emotional problems because they have to listen to others and do not have a voice of their own. My point is that, in our male-dominant patriarchal society, why must everyone take out their anger and frustration on females — be it the mother, wife, daughter or sister.
Pakistani society really needs to respect and admire women. Either they are mentally tortured — because of how everyone expects them to come up to a certain standard — or they are portrayed as sex symbols. My advice to parents is that they must engage their daughters in healthy activities throughout their lives, even when they are at the point of getting married.
Zareen Zubair
Published in The Express Tribune, April 8th, 2011.
