The biases that remain unbroken in Pakistan

A few days ago, Pakistan hosted its fifth annual Aurat March—an event that aims to draw attention to a wide range of issues that disproportionately impact women— to mark International Women’s Day.

The theme for women’s day this year was #BreakTheBias, underscoring the notion that it is no longer enough to acknowledge systematic biases. Rather, what is needed at the moment is an action towards equality. In line with the greater, global narrative, women and allies in Pakistan thus chose to highlight labour rights and equal wages under the Aurat March’s theme of #UjratTahafuzAurSukoon, in parades and protests across all major cities.

Since its inception in 2018, the Pakistani women’s rights movement, under the banner of Aurat March, has come a long way, making incredible strides for women’s right to mobility, bodily autonomy, education, and safety. However, despite the progress that has come, things are still far from perfect in many places across the country, including the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where biases remain unbroken and navigating life is still an uphill battle for most women and girls.

Young Sadia Bibi, who hails from the province, is perhaps a model candidate to represent the stark gender disparity that still plagues much of K-P. She is one of the nine million out-of-school children in Pakistan; one of those 1.7 million girls who get married before the age of 18 and among the six million Pakistani women without access to family planning and reproductive health services and information.

If that is not jarring enough, the girl, still in her teenage years, is also counted among the eight million women in the Islamic Republic who are subjected to some form of gender-based violence every year and the 74 per cent of women who are excluded from the national labour force.

According to the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey (PDHS) Report, a majority of women in the country, like Sadia Bibi, suffer from some kind of health issue stemming from lack of access to a nutritious diet and restricted access to information. Statistics reveal that over 45 per cent of women in the country are anaemic, only 46.5 per cent of women are literate, 10 per cent of women can make independent decisions about their health, 25 per cent of young women are part of the labour force as compared 96 per cent of men in the age group of 25–29 years, while only 39 per cent of women in the country own a mobile phone.

The Report further added that 59 per cent of women with three sons wanted to stop bearing children. In many cases, it is observed that women are still made to repeatedly conceive in pursuits of a male child, often risking the mother as well as the child’s health considering mothers who gave birth before the age of 18 have a 6 per cent higher risk of delivering babies prone to stunted growth.

Shedding light on the country’s issue of internalised misogyny, the survey also revealed that over 42 per cent of women and 40 per cent of men justified wife-beating, in most scenarios.

According to Dr Azra, who campaigns for women’s health issues, despite five years of Aurat March, there still remains a lot to be planned and achieved in terms of women’s access to adequate healthcare. A topic, which she believes, is often sidelined in the greater narrative of women’s rights.

The health practitioner claimed that every year 2.2 million abortions are induced in Pakistan, in addition to over 1.4 million unwanted births in the country. Adding to this, Population Council of Pakistan Senior Director Dr Ali Meer informed this reporter that 1,900 maternal deaths occur annually in K-P, while over 53 per cent of new-born babies die before making it to their first birthday.

“The constitution of Pakistan gives women the right to health and safety, so it is the responsibility of the state that this right is protected and upheld in every province and city,” he commented while speaking to The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2022.