Gender sensitivity: Speakers advocate equal rights for women

Panellists acknowledge importance of women’s rights.

The rights accorded to women in Pakistan, or lack thereof, has been a contentious topic.   

In a bid to impartially chart issues, a seminar on women rights and gender justice was organised at Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU) on Thursday.

“Women are important segments of our society and major contributors to our economy,” Dr Manzoor Ahmed said while explaining the significance of women rights.

He observed that the dilemma of our society remains that every one of us dreams of a tolerant public space, where rights are accorded top people who can exercise them, but no one is ready to work for it.

He further added that women empowerment is imperative if we want to prepare our women for leadership roles in the future. Facts and figures evincing women empowerment from the last two years were cited by him in validation of his argument.

Nazoora Ali hailed the positive developments which have occurred with regards to women rights in the recent past.

She delved into an indepth discussion of various clauses of the constitution related to human rights, highlighting the struggle of women from around the world who are held back by the predominant system.

These problems and the protests registered by women across the board indicate that no religion, culture or value system denies the provision of healthcare or education to women. She concluded by asserting that every person in their individual capacity and sphere of influence needs to exercise their agency to bring about the betterment of society.

Other areas of concern such as violence against women, female education, right of information, child marriages, child labour, war crimes against women and economic injustice were also brought to the fore in the discussion.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2014.