Dawn of Hope: An Empowered Pakistani Woman
By GULRUKH RAEES
There are two powers in
the world; one is the sword and the other is the Pen. There is a great
competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both,
that of the women.
M.A.JINNAH
The
story of Malala Yousafzai is one that is not only inspiring the women of
Pakistan but it also sums up the plight that a Pakistani woman has to suffer
throughout her life. Starting from the love for education, faced by hardships
and hostility, showing up with immense courage and perseverance and ending up
with victory and massive movement of reforms within the nation of
Pakistan—something Pakistan has never seen before.
Women
comprise 50% of Pakistan’s total population. Despite this, on average, Pakistani
woman has been the subject of gender subordination, discrimination and gender
bias since independence. Women have always been facing deprivation sometimes in
the name of culture, society , exploiting her on the basis of her role as home
maker and last but not the least quite often in the name of religion.
In
2012, the World Economic Forum ranked Chad, Pakistan and Yemen as the worst in
their global gender gap report. The situation is worse in rural areas where
several women have suffered due to atrocities, like rape, acid throwing, honour
killing, forced marriages, cultures of karo kari, Vani, Swara domestic violence
and forced prostitution. Hence, the remedy of all these problems lies in the
women empowerment.
In
1988, Benazir Bhutto became the first female prime minister of Pakistan. In her
election campaign she voiced her keen interest in women related social issues.
She also announced to devise such plans that can ensure to eliminate gender
inequalities from our society. However, during her two incomplete terms in
office (1988-1990, 1996-1999) she couldn’t contribute towards any considerable
positive change in women’s status in the country.
It
is only in the last few years that landmark developments in women rights
legislation and empowerment in Pakistan took place. These efforts were
commended by human rights commission not only in Pakistan but also at
international level. In January 2010, the president of Pakistan singed the
protection against harassment of women at workplace bill 2009. In December 2012
two additional bills ‘’criminalising the primitive practices of Vani, Watta
Satta, Swara and marriage to Holy Quran,’’ in addition to ‘’life imprisonment
for acid throwing,’’ were signed by the president. It’s true that legislation
is the first step towards the eradication of a social evil from the society,
yet practical improvement in its true sense can only be seen and felt in the
implementation of these laws. The flawed police and judiciary systems are the
main reasons why we lag behind developed countries as far as women empowerment
is concerned.
Against
this backdrop of religious exploitation, conventional social biases, policy
neglect, lack of interest on the part of our leaders, lack of necessary
exposure and capacity and advocacy skills, women representation and empowerment
needed a boost. The need of the hour is to truly emancipate our women not only
in legislative corridors but also at every level starting from the top to the
bottom. In a country where the women
population is more than half of the total population, government seriously needs
to devise such strategies so as to make this huge bulk of population as
productive contributors in the economic uplift of the country. If we allow half
of our population to be illiterate, confined within the four walls of their
homes and not participating in the progress of our country, then we simply can’t
expect to earn a respectable status in the comity of nations.
The
role of women is pivotal in the struggle of Pakistan towards a prosperous, sovereign
and economically independent country. The government of Pakistan in particular
and society in general need to focus on issues such as: poverty of women;
issues regarding child birth; health, education; violence against women and the
economic, social and political empowerment of the women.
In
order to improve the status of women of Pakistan some suggested measure are;
- · Developing gender sensitive economic growth indicators.
- · Adopting macro and micro economic policies.
- · Ensuring women equal participation in all sectors
- · Identify gender biased rules and regulations and suggest modifications.
- · Mainstreaming women in the productive sector on equality basis.
- · Reviewing the impact of all existing policies regarding women workers.
- · Creating legal and constitutional rights of women.
- · Training women in financial and economic matters.
- · Ensuring equal employment opportunities for women.
- · Increasing women access to quality education.
- · Eliminating the gender gap in access to education by spreading awareness and breaking social taboos attached to women education.
- · Ensure protection to female workers.
The
process of women empowerment has a ripple effect. Empowering women does not
only mean to benefit the underprivileged and downtrodden women who has always
been abused, victimized and suppressed but it also means to benefit the society
in large. These benefits are not restrained to the self of women but it
produces positive outcomes for a particular society, country or a nation.
The
practice of women oppression must be brought to an end. Discrimination against
women must end now. This is the high time to recognize the role of women in
determining the direction of social change. They must be respected and given an
honourable place in the society. Schemes should be adopted to ensure equal
economic opportunities and effective steps must be taken for their
participation at multifarious levels. An approach to gender sensitization needs
to be cultivated in our society so as to assure an inclusive part of women for
nation building.
As
Diane Marie child has rightly
said,
A woman is
the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.
