Women in Pakistan usually live a very hard life.
KARACHI: Women in Pakistan usually live a very hard life. Many, especially in the rural areas or from low-income backgrounds, do not have proper access to healthcare facilities or medicines. At home, many are overworked because not only do they have to run the household and tend to all matters, they also have to look after the children. In the rural areas, many women also help out with work on the fields and this is like a kind of a double duty for those who do so. Several bills — deemed ‘pro-women’ by members of parliament and the government — have been passed in recent years but their implementation is yet to be seen.
Besides, at the end of the day, the status of women in Pakistani society has not really changed all that much, except perhaps in cities such as Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. We need to ask ourselves how we can progress as a nation if we continue to ignore half the country’s population.
Samara Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, May 28th, 2012.
