Women’s empowerment
August 09 2006: ADMINISTERING a well-deserved rap on the knuckles to Pakistan, civil society groups attending a UN meeting in New York last month accused the country of “opposing the empowerment of girls in birth control and marital relations”. This charge is substantiated by the UN’s gender empowerment measure which puts Pakistan just nine (out of a list of 80 countries) notches above the country where women are the least empowered. While gender inequality is a recurrent feature in several areas of social life, family planning is among the worst affected as the strong patriarchal set-up does not allow women a say even in matters such as reproductive rights. The result is there for all to see: a fast-growing population and a total fertility rate of 4.3 – that is, the average number of children a woman bears.
It is unfortunate that the state does not recognise the precarious situation of Pakistani women. It has invested very little in their education and even less in their healthcare. They have no say in their marriage and are at the receiving end of medieval traditions, especially in the rural areas where customs such as karo-kari and swara have reduced them to the level of chattel. It is true that given our deeply conservative values, it might be difficult at the moment to break cultural rules and give women all the rights of those living in the more emancipated parts of the world. But surely, a start can be made in that direction by doing more to change the fundamental nature of things. Removing biases, providing education facilities and improved healthcare and encouraging a healthy debate on reproductive rights are just some of the issues that need to be addressed in order to create an atmosphere where women can freely exercise their right of choice.
Source: Dawn
Date:8/9/2006
” 
” 
” 
” 
” 
