Islam believes in gender parity: Gul

Says Islam gives priority to women, society needs to accept this

RAWALPINDI: A three-day seminar on Socio-Economic Empowerment of Dukhtaraan-e-Pakistan: Vission 2020 of Government of Pakistan held at Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU) concluded on Wednesday.

The aim of the programme was to highlight that Islam is a peaceful religion that shuns all forms of extremism. In this day and age of fifth-generation warfare or hybrid warfare, women need to play their part to eradicate extremism from its roots. For this purpose, the socio-economic conditions of women have to improve, the guidelines for which can be drawn from Islam.

Giving her own interpretation Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul said Islam believes in gender parity. Islam gives priority to women and the society also needs to accept it, she said.

“We must stand for our rights because Islam gives us rights too, like men,” she added and urged that women in higher socioeconomic positions should work for the rights of those women who are deprived of their rights.

Minister of Women Development Punjab Ashifa Riaz Fatyana said empowering women will lead the society towards a sustainable and prosperous pathway.

FJWU VC Dr Saima Hamid emphasised that women are the agents of change in the society. She urged that in order to achieve sustainable goals, “we have to spend on women education to increase the GDP.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2020.