KARACHI:
Statistically, Pakistan ranks just above Yemen and Iraq in the 2020 Global Gender Index. However, qualitatively, the country has made significant amount of progress towards gender equality in multiple contexts. With approximately 71% rise in literacy rates in large towns and 44% rise in small towns, it is evident that the awareness and zeal towards education is slowly but surely developing among the female population. Furthermore, increased awareness has empowered women to make their own choices regarding marriages and consequently started to alter the dynamics of gender relations and family structures.
Additionally, the year 2020 saw around 70% rise in khula cases which highlights the fact that women are not ready to live in stifling, compromised marriages and abusive relationships that constrict the space essential for their survival and personhood. Such positive social change in gender relations are paving the way for institutions to create space for women education and an equitable role in workplace where they are provided opportunities that challenge the inherent glass ceiling. Thus, in the fields of STEM and academia, working women and students are mushrooming and becoming agents of change.
The concept of a gender-oriented approach towards development has gained impetus in Pakistan particularly at the backdrop of increased political representation of women in the national and provincial assemblies. Even though such changes have increased insecurity among the wardens of patriarchy who have responded with individual and collective violence, women have learnt to define their own future and take matters into their own hands.
Hadia Mukhtar
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2021.
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