By Sadia Mustafa Mughal
At the opening of the first parliament in 1994, President Mandela declared, “Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression.’’
Our societal makeup has always hindered women from their rights. Societal makeup entails all those components that are the social construct of the society since long ago. Those constructs pertaining to women includes certain conservative ethos that are adhered to women and come under this umbrella term- Patriarchy.
Pakistan is the second worst country in the world in terms of gender parity, ranking 145 out of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday. A woman is raped in Pakistan every two hours, according to a recent survey, highlighting the unsafe conditions for women in the country where cases of honour killing are also rampant. Our entrenched conservative ethos play a significant role in fostering such behaviors in men of our country. Wearing full clothes is one such label that is often used as an excuse in response to this bestial action. Our former pm Imran Khan also has also advocated for such notions when he gave statement on the Lahore motorway gang rape case where he blamed women clothing for such barbaric and heinous actions of men. Do clothing of women is the genuine cause for which such a heart-wrenching penalty is being inflicted upon women? If so is the case, why the child rape is aggravating? We solemnly need to look into this malice and horrendous act of male aggrandisement.
Apart from this, women need a safer environment to live, work, survive and grow. Our patriarchal and sexiest views prevalent to women is causing lack of progress, which is detrimental for both the women sector and for the country as a whole. Having hovered around 10 percent for over 20 years, female labor force participation (FLFP) in urban Pakistan is among the lowest in the world. Situation in rural areas is even worse. According to the World Bank collection of development indicators, women in Pakistan make up 49pc of the population. If half of the total population is comprised of women, then safety of women should be ensured so that they can contribute in the development of the country. It reminds me of Malala Yousafzai, who says, “We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.”
A severe kind of behavioral metamorphosis is required to demolish such relentless nuances of male hegemony and ingrained patriarchal ethos. A boy should be taught to behave the way he is supposed to behave at the very beginning of his life, so that we should not be blaming women clothing in the future. Implementation of laws should be ensured if ,a nation, we want the violence against women not to reach at the epidemic proportions any further.
Comments are closed.