We should wake up to reality and allow women to march side by side on the road to progress
KECH, BALOCHISTAN: Despite Pakistan being a democratic state, women face gender discrimination here. Some misguided elements close to the power corridors are helping vested interests perpetuate the subjugation of women in the Pakistani society.
The Constitution of Pakistan recognises equality between men and women. Article 25 states that “there shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex.” The All Pakistan Ulema Council has opposed honour killing. Regardless of laws prohibiting domestic abuse, child marriage, forced marriage and rape, these social ills persists.
Furthermore, in rape cases DNA as evidence is not considered as proof. In fact, women who report sexual assaults are humiliated and ridiculed by the police.
The Child Marriage Restraint Act has made it illegal for minor girls to be married off. But despite this we see this happening frequently and in many areas. Vani is a centuries-old custom under which child marriage takes place.
This is still practised in many areas, including Punjab. According to a report, 21 per cent of girls under the age of 18 and three per cent under 16 are married off.
According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), children of 6-15 years of age are supposed to attend school. Unfortunately, there are around 7.261 million children out of school of which 58% are females. Girls who attend school fall victim to, and are vulnerable, to heinous crimes such as acid attacks.
Women constitute a large proportion of Pakistan’s population. So if we keep our women under subjugation we will only be harming our march to progress.
We should bear in mind that women’s emancipation is necessary for the progress of nations and communities. If we continue to keep our women uneducated and thereby making them backward-looking we will be committing a grave error.
We should wake up to reality and allow women to march side by side on the road to progress and development.
Ayesha Bashir
Published in The Express Tribune, July 21st, 2019.
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