Inequality between the sexes retards not only the advancement of women but the progress of civilisation itself.
ISLAMABAD: While visiting various villages, cities and towns in Sindh, one can witness the detrimental effects of both poverty and inequality. Neither the present rulers, who are on their last legs nor the past ones did anything to develop the quality of people’s lives. Millions of women throughout Sindh live in conditions where they are deprived of their basic human rights.
Abuses against women are relentless, systematic and widely tolerated, if not explicitly condoned. Countless women and girls are forced to marry men they do not want to marry. Husbands and other male family members obstruct or dictate women’s access to reproductive healthcare. As a result, each year, thousands die because of pregnancy-related complications and childbirth. Many of these lives could be saved if they had access to basic healthcare services and if they were not hindered by family and society at large in gaining such access.
Indeed, the realisation of women’s rights is a global struggle based on universal human rights and the rule of law. It requires all of us to unite in solidarity to end traditions, practices and laws that harm women. It is a basic right for everyone, man and woman, to be fully and completely human and equal. Ultimately, the struggle for women’s human rights must be about making women’s lives matter and about giving them the same freedom that men have. In practice, this means taking concrete steps to stop discrimination and violence against women.
Inequality between the sexes retards not only the advancement of women but the progress of civilisation itself. The persistent denial of equality to women is an affront to human dignity and promotes destructive attitudes and habits in both men and women that pass from the family to the workplace and to political life.
Hashim Abro
Published in The Express Tribune, March 3rd, 2013.
