Today ‘women empowerment’ is the buzz word; however for
majority of the men, it is hard to digest. Women empowerment means that women
have access to education, financial security, equal treatment, protection under
law, get acceptance in the work places and society.
The rules of women empowerment are drawn by the United
Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), and
the United Nations Global Compact. All the member nations are to ensure
implementing methods that empower women.
In Pakistan, despite shackles of culture and religion women
have excelled in every field and while the lot of women in the urban areas has
improved over time, issues still exist.Pakistan can boast of outstanding ladies
who have not only worked for women but also sacrificed their lives in the
struggle of women rights. Even though Fatima Jinnah was known as the symbol of
women empowerment during partition and later, history shows how she was pushed
aside.
The female social activists of Pakistan have always stood up
against the laws made to suppress women, especially during Ziaul Haq’s regime,
yet they never stopped struggling. A time came when ladies of Pakistan earned
the fruit of their struggle and Pakistan got the first female Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto. She spoke for women rights and empowerment too but was unable
to fulfill the promises due to political expediency.
Pervez Musharraf made sure of working for women empowerment
. There was no field that did not have an opening for women. Even the male only
Armed Forces were opened to women. Today there are women not only in the Army,
Navy but in the Air Force also; and a female pilot officer also laid down her
life during training. Amendments were made in laws about rape; Hadood law was
amended and quota for women in the Central Superior Services were laid, and
many other steps were taken for bringing women in the main stream.
President Zardari’s appointed women in various high
designations such as Fehmida Mirza the Speaker of the National Assembly,
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and First Female Secretary of Defense Nargis
Sethi among others. The Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace
Bill 2009 was passed and implemented. Laws were made about Acid attacks, wani,
karo Kari and marriage with the Quran.
The present government is also ensuring empowerment women
and Punjab Government has taken the lead and appointed six ladies in the
bureaucracy. The Establishment of National and Provincial Commissions on the
Status of Women; Strengthening and improving the implementation of the National
Policy for Development and Empowerment of Women; Enacting and implementing
pro-women legislation, including the Criminal Law Amendment Act, declaring
honor killing a crime; Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Act; Women in
Distress etc. It also includes women empowerment as the First Pillar of their
key planning document, ‘Vision 2025’, to inculcate leadership among women at
the grassroots levels.
On the other hand women in rural areas are suffering in the
most inhumane ways possible, things like forced marriages, rape, lack of
justice, acid attacks, female genital mutilations, honor killing, marriage with
Quran, Karo Kari, Watta Satta and forced conversions continue to be the norm.
Sidra Humayoun, a social activist spoke to The Nation on the
subject and said “In this age of advancement women are leaving their homes and
are willing to live in Darul Aman but not tolerate domestic violence or
pressures. They want to be treated equally and have access to education. In
2015, 13,000 women came to Darul Aman’s to get protection and shelter. Women
laws are being introduced in Pakistan especially in the Punjab yet the
government needs to ensure the institutions are strong enough to implement
laws, we don’t need more of them.”She further said, “Society needs to empower
women, even religionshave empowered women then where is the issue?”
Recently a 15 year old girl was gang-raped in Lahore, and
allegedly policemen and Adnan Sana Ullah a political party worker were
involved; while it is being investigated, the girl is in a critical condition
and is being made to run from pillar to post to seek redress of her grievance.
Crime statistics of Punjab for 2015 speak of why one can not
only feel insecure but also be ashamed. 2555 rape cases till November were
registered while 538 werewithdrawn. 211 cases of gang rape were registered and
31 withdrawn. No one has any idea how many cases went unreported.According to
the Human Rights Commission Pakistan, there were 62 cases of acid attacks.We
can safely say that the conditions in other provinces are not any better.
Bushra Khaliq, Executive Director of ‘Women in Struggle for
Empowerment’, spoke to The Nation, “Despite of the ways this society has
treated and is treating women, they have excelled in every field. They have
stepped into the political arena, science and technology, and even the Forces.
But it doesn’t mean that they never face difficulties along the way. Being
accepted in the society itself and working along with men is still not
considered acceptable.” She further added, “Families are not very supportive
when women want to work or study. This pushes them in a corner, and makes them
feel as if they belong to lower strata of society due to which people take
advantage of them.”
Apart from Rural and Urban areas of Pakistan, the minorities
in Pakistan face a lot of hurdles in empowering women and most of the work is
usually done on personal or Nongovernmental Organizational level.Religious
extremism is usually quoted as the reason.
Michelle Chaudhry, daughter of Late Squadron Leader Cecil
Chaudhry a hero of the 1965 War, works with The Cecil and Iris Foundation to
promote education and women empowerment amongst minorities. After the Peshawar
Church Attack in 2013, in which around 80 Christians were killed and over a 100
injured including a 9 year old survivor who passed away recently after
struggling for her life for two years. Michelle and that the Foundation set up
a skill development center in Peshawar where 79 church attack survivors have
undergone a three months course on cutting and sewing clothes and other skills
to enable them to earn a respectable living. On graduation after they are given
asewing machine, threads, measuring tape, cloth, and are connected to some
project so they start earning a living. Michelle spoke to The Nation, “These
ladies till last year were crying and were distressed over their conditions but
today they are not only running their own house but living a respectable and
decent life. Our aim was to empower these ladies. Apart from them we want to
empower ladies from the minorities as they don’t get proper education due to
obvious reasons.” She further added, “It is unfortunate that women have to face
the brunt of religious extremism too. When Youhanabad (Lahore) incident
happened, all Christian women who were working in different homes were asked to
leave because of the lynching incident. Due to that they had to suffer
immensely.”
Sanwar Kumar who works with HRCP, spoke to The Nation on
behalf the Hindu community and highlighted the issues faced by the women. “We
gained independence from the Britishers but not from the feudal lords. Our area
(mostly in Sindh) is ruled by feudal’s and we live in constant fear. Our ladies
have to live inside the homes most of the times or they are kidnapped and taken
away, either for sexual pleasures, or for forcefully converting to Islam and
then marriage. Our women hardly gain education due to which they have no idea
about rights and laws.” He further spoke about the representatives of the area,
Those who are elected they are just 5 percent of the lot. The rest 95 percent
has to suffer for being from the lowest cast.”
Amir Mehmood, the spokesperson of the Ahmaddiya community
said, “We make sure of empowering our women but this society does not let them
survive. The minute they come to know about their religious affiliations they
are targeted, due to which they have to leave the job. In our community we let
them be a part of every activity. They are running schools, working as doctors,
recreational activity centers etc.” He told us about success stories of Sitara
Brooj Akbar who achieved a record in IELTS examination and Dr Mansoora Shamim,
a scientist who has worked for six years at CERN in Geneva Switzerland. Dr.
Shamim has published seven papers in international journals and co-authored 676
publications as a member of D0 and ATLAS collaborations.
The women in Pakistan, Muslim or from religious minorities
and playing an important role in nation building; the men in Pakistan need to
realize that until women are not empowered and get their due place in society
irrespective of religion, cast or creed, this nation will not be able to excel
at the required pace and take up its place in the comity of nations.
This article was published in The Nation on 1 Jan 2016
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