Daily Times

Sir: True feminism goes deeper than gender equality and addresses issues of the power structure, equal participation in nation building, distribution of resources and human rights. The main goal of feminism and the universal struggle of women have always been attempts to achieve social, economic and political parity, and its guiding principles to redesigning the national character. But the macho man with dominating powers has always presented a negative picture of women. Even after bearing up with a domestic life and all of men’s physical and biological injustices, women have never been against men. Rather, they have just asked to be equal to men in private and social life, but today’s macho man takes on different negative qualities, for instance hyper sexuality, punitive attitudes towards women, social domination and narcissism. Furthermore, in this universe every human being loves to live freely, rather deserves to live freely, even the animals in the forests. So if women ask for freedom, it is always ignored and they suffer the abuses of a male dominated society. Women have never asked for the place of men; she just wants a place where man is already there. Henry Kissinger writes in 1969 that foreign policy begins where domestic policy ends. In our society, the male has the freedom to make himself a better man but woman is not allowed to make herself better in order to show the world that she is capable of being what man is today. She is just living a domestic existence. Women must get what men have today. They must be allowed to create their own free world rather than being dependent on man. Pakistan must concentrate on proving itself a livable nation in which all its citizens are free to pursue their goals and achieve their full potential. Pakistan must commit to the feminist principle of equality for all men and women instead of the patriarchal tendency to concentrate power, jobs, resources and access in the hands of a few mostly rich men. Feminist principles must be part of our national psyche.

FAROOQ RASHEED

Kech