Peshawar pathfinder

The fallacious assumption that Benazir Bhutto’s installation as the country’s first female prime minister in 1988 would change things around for women is understood better today than it was decades ago. Apart from her and a few other women in leadership roles, Pakistan had seldom seen any female in positions of authority. Additionally, many of these women had come from families with clout. As a culture though, we usually let men wield most of the power. The trend is beginning to change slowly as women from all walks of life are now lining up for key roles in business, politics, law, education and science. A province that we often associated with being the most backward in terms of allowing women to come to the forefront is pioneering a move that some other major provincial cities have yet to take. The Peshawar city police chief has directed a female cop to become the city police station’s first station house officer (SHO). The appointment is remarkable because this is a first in the history of the city’s police station and is an impressive step taken towards the liberation of women in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and towards equalising an imbalance in the public sphere that favoured men.

SHO Rizwana Hameed was not merely appointed because of her gender status — that would only promote the trend of sexism around us. She has credentials to her name with prior experience already serving as SHO at the women police station for three years and having been a member of the police for over 20 years. She has proven her mental and physical toughness and demonstrates that women can also fight on the front lines against militancy. Peshawar has been the epicentre of terrorism for the past decade so this is not an easy undertaking. However, like the male counterparts before her, she deserves a fair chance at heading the position.


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