Editorial

Little to celebrate

International Women’s Day has passed in Pakistan, causing barely a ripple on the face of a culture and society

Editorial March 08, 2017

The impact the 18th Amendment and the devolution of ministries have on the overall cause of women’s rights seems substantial. Provincial assemblies seem to be getting it right but laws pertaining to women in the National Assembly need a push. On this special day, The Express Tribune takes a look at the most prominent achievement in terms of Pakistani women in the last four years reclaiming their rights: the passage of new progressive legislation for women, as well as the many important laws that are waiting to be passed, and those which stakeholders seem to have given up hope on.

Once again International Women’s Day has passed in Pakistan, causing barely a ripple on the face of a culture and society where women remain at the bottom of virtually every social indicator that may be named. The president and the PM both offered platitudinous statements to the effect that women have an important role in society, ‘made excellent achievements’ and expressed hopes that the government, civil society and ‘women themselves’ would continue to strive for an end to gender discrimination. The president ended his statement by saying that he hoped that in coming years Pakistani women will continue to ‘bring good name for the country.’ There is a weighty irony to the fact that IWD has been recognised by social media organisations such as Google and Facebook, with the latter using a quote by Nobel Laureate Malala Yousufzai — ‘Do not wait for someone else to speak for you. It’s you who can change the world.’ Malala Yousufzai would be a dead woman walking were she ever to return to her homeland, with no shortage of volunteers to finish the job the Taliban started. An unknown number of women are killed in ‘honour killings’ every year with no uptick as yet in the rate of prosecution of their known murderers. Sexual harassment of women in the workplace is anecdotally reported as endemic, there is no empirical research that would give an accurate figure. Women find themselves struggling against the tide of patriarchy that exists even in the classroom.

It is true that there have been some legislative advances that are pro-women, but they are invariably achieved against furious opposition, an opposition often led by religious parties and activists. Even where legislation reaches the statute books it is widely flouted or ignored, in part because the mostly-male police have minimal investment in pushing to implement it. There was little to celebrate on International Women’s Day in Pakistan, we can but hope for better next year.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2017.

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