Project control women

If there is one admission that Pakistanis collectively have to make it is that the country has a major women problem

If there is one admission that Pakistanis collectively have to make – as typified by this past week – it is that the country has a major women problem. More specifically, controlling everything of and about women. Whether that is about what they wear, who they meet, what they can do – wherever they may be – or who they choose to spend their lives with, or not.

For anyone looking in from the outside, they may very well see two Pakistans. One, there is a country that is highly conservative which, while placing restrictions on their women, takes their modesty very seriously, mixing it with respect and reverence as long as they operate within narrow norms defined by some segments of society and varying from community to community. The other is a Pakistan that sees women break out of those confines, move and dress relatively freely and push the envelope of society, breaking glass ceilings and offer calm and measured paths out of chaos.

In a week when the nation has been horrified by videos of the Minar-e-Pakistan incident, a court verdict has helped restore some faith that some laws do offer protection to women. The Lahore High Court has directed the police to stop harassing a couple who had legally married of their own free will. The police were alerted based on a complaint filed by members of the girl’s family.

Pakistan’s irony of bipolarity is that we choose to attribute our overbearing, conservative nature towards women to our faith. But without unity or discipline, we selectively implement it, substituting it with our traditional values which treat women as mere objects to be controlled and used – or abused – by the more powerful men. This is why we have so many incidents of men sexually assaulting women walking around in a public park, abusing them in offices, throwing acid at them for refusing their advances, and killing them for failing to make perfectly round flatbread or choosing a life partner.

Unless we tackle this mindset, no amount of laws can ensure that no other disabled 11-year-old or even seven-year-old Zainab is abused in the country.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2021.

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