Gender equality is a myth in Pakistan

“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.” (Muhammad Ali Jinnah)

Nature depicts balance and equality. Male and female who are socially assigned as man and woman. They are equal in all aspects of life; some people misunderstand equality with sameness. Here, by equality we mean the equal right to enjoy the blessings of nature, equal rights to attain their goals and equality in all the other aspects of life. India and Pakistan are en-capsuled in the shells of theocracy (the only reason to mention is that their religious doctrines and rules have given women a dominating part in society but what they are delivering is, suppression only). If one would look around to see the Islamist perspective of gender equality, one would go through many verses of Holy Quran and many moderate clerics who highlight the brightest side of religion and talk about women rights. Following are some demonstrations of such woman friendly sermons: Adam and Eve, when arrived on earth both share the equal part of blessings, even in Quran, when Almighty Allah (God) addresses the population, He starts his with “O People”; here he speaks without any gender discrimination. Contrary to that in India, woman is being worshiped by the flocks as they considered her “Mata” (God). The country in which to worship women is a religious ritual, unfortunately it is the same country which has the highest rape rate. These two nations (India and Pakistan) are most religiously obsessed nations and their religion taught them to respect woman but on the other hand they have got the highest rate in sexual assualtion, molestation and rape.

Osho, one of the most prominent philosophers of the twentieth century, builds the edifice of his philosophy on the premise that the whole existence is love in essence and that love is a feminine attribute. But unfortunately Pakistan is badly suffering from the curse of gender inequality. Yes, even in this era of technology and development, gender equality is still a myth in Pakistan. Women being the 49% of total population are still living in deprived and deplorable condition.

There are following reasons behind this critical situation: preference of religious rules over humanity, wrong interpretation of religion by the orthodox clerics, lack of education, flaws in education system which lead to more ambiguities and poor societal psychology. These reasons become the root cause behind the deprived condition of woman in Pakistan because of which women are living as disadvantaged and denied creature, status of health and education of women is also not so satisfactory along this, they are suffering from less employment chances, harassment at work, acid attacks and heinous customs, etc.

Government of Pakistan has taken admirable steps for the betterment and empowerment of women as: Cyber crime act 2018, Protection of women against domestic violence, Act against honour killing, Woman protection against harassment at work Act 2010, initiated law against acid attacks, 10 percent recruitment quota in competitive examination and recently promised to double the educational budget.

Actually there are some prerequisites which are mandatory to bring gender equality. Government has to take strong initiatives to build better education system and make the gender based awareness, as a part of it. The administration should focus on the economic or financial equality of women, a woman who wants to compete man, she has to be as strong economically as a man is. Last but not the least, the most important solution is, to bring the equality with the help of rule of law. It is also known as “Gender Mainstreaming”, the term is first coined in the fourth world conference on women in Beijing, held in 1995. According to it, the country has to make the gender equality a part of legislation and constitution, only this way a desired result can be acquired by the most legitimate means.

For more development and prosperity, government should take following steps: initiation of democratic and political awareness in women, they have to take strict actions against heinous crimes, more budget allocation for women and acceptance of amnesty international’s recommendations.

Approximately fifty percent of population of Pakistan is women and as per the theory of Karl Marx we cannot bring prosperity and development in country without economic involvement, economic independence and equality of both genders.