On taxing deprived women

Dr Rakhshinda Parveen’s latest book offers a view of an unexplored area of gender inequality.

ISLAMABAD: Advocating a fair taxation system for socially disadvantaged women, a civil society activist and writer asks the state to provide relief to them.

Speaking at the launching of her latest book on taxation and women at the South Asia Free Media Association’s (SAFMA) Media Centre here on Monday, Dr Rakhshinda Parveen highlighted some of the agonies of women and asked the government to provide the much-needed relief in the taxation system to single and disabled women.

“The genesis of poverty, injustice, stigma, and gender-based violence are not deliberated here but they may ooze while I take readers along on my journey of weaving a dream,” writes Dr Parveen in the book’s introduction. The 146-page book ‘A Tax Break for Economic Freedom? The case of Divorced Mothers, Divorced, Disabled and Never Married Pakistani Women -- a Civic Entrepreneur’s Perspective’ was published in July 2010.

She said that the purpose of her work was to inspire policy-makers to adopt a rational taxation system for divorced, disabled and unmarried women. She said that the empowerment of women would strengthen Pakistan’s economy and reduce poverty.

“In our complicated taxation system, widows are exempted from taxation but disabled and divorced women are not included in the category of vulnerable women,” she observed.

“Although parliamentarians gave positive responses when I interviewed them, no practical steps have been taken so far,” said Parveen, revealing that she started her campaign for the rights of disabled and divorced women after the earthquake of October 8, 2005.

Dr Parveen said that she had a “dream of a society where divorced, disabled, and unmarried women (above 40 years), who face a number of emotional traumas and are stigmatised both subtly and openly, can at least get some support from the state.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2011.