I would not dare cite much statistics here in favour of my ideology, which is Marxist feminism, except World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report. Their index showed that Pakistan is the second worst country for women, only after Yemen, out of 145 countries where the survey was conducted. Now that is something to debate about with our happily indifferent non-feminist crowd.
In order to avoid ‘shaming’ my highly esteemed ideological rival and legions who share such apathy towards the brutally marginalised gender of society, I wouldn’t like to mention here more stats but share something that comes straight from my heart.
While I read the piece, memories came rushing towards my mind of past events that had turned me into a radical who would go to any length for speaking in favour of the ‘second sex’ and to stand should-to-shoulder with them for waging a war against patriarchy.
I wish and hope the author does not have to face what women go through as a routine when they walk on streets, wait for a public bus at a stop or when they want to just be themselves and wear anything they want to.
We desperately need feminism in this country because we have myriad cases of heinous crimes like acid attacks, honour killings, infanticide, molestation, rape against women – and certainly not against ‘boys’ or men.
Let’s take the recent example: what happened to the female supporters during a party’s foundation day event in Islamabad did not and will never happen to the men because the latter are always the culprits against the former.
More recent: the shameless stabbing of a girl by a young ‘boy’ – who belonged to gender the author has a lot of sympathies with – because her sister, the victim, had brought disgrace to family by just standing on her residence’s main door.
But, wait, no! We still do not need feminism – which actually means gender equality. See, the poor guy did not have a pistol and instead had to use a cheap knife to finish off his sister. Lastly, imagine – at least try to – the oppression women must have been through in the developing countries where even ‘boys’ are subject to sheer exploitation. What the vulnerable ‘fairer sex’ would have to suffer there?
Published in The Express Tribune, May 9th, 2016.
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