Dispelling gender disparities

Women have been at a disadvantage in this country for possibly as long as this race has existed, owing to our convoluted cultural norms and laws. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2018 has quantified just how wide this disparity stretches, analysing areas of education, health, economic opportunity and politics. Evidently, when Pakistan has had female figures achieve certain benchmarks such as prime ministers and key entrepreneurs but remains at the bottom of the barrel for gender equality, laws and policies need reevaluation along with reflection on our cultural caveats that oppress women.

Pakistan stands between two war-torn countries in the report: above Yemen and below Syria. President Arif Alvi’s response that he urges the three branches of power to take note is weak and unconvincing. With the power he commands as president of the country, Mr Alvi needs to show more concern by etching out concrete plans on how to mitigate this gap. If the solution is to enforce education or change women’s inheritance rights as he claims, this needs follow-up. Laws need to be revamped to empower women, be they in the areas of criminal proceedings such as in harassment cases, participation in the workplace such as policies pertaining to maternal and paternal leaves, or protecting female wealth, including dowry and laws governing divorce and khula rights.

Once women feel confident and secure in leaving abusive or unfulfilling marriages instead of suffering because of financial dependency on the husband or in-laws, it would be safe to assume that change has begun to take over in the way of gender equality. Women’s empowerment must begin with correcting people who say a woman’s primary role is to tend to the household or that men and women should have different curfews. As far as the Islamic republic is concerned, even examples from religious history exist of female participation in economics.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22nd, 2018.

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