Daily Times

Sir: Being a woman in this society seems an uphill task. I guess it might be an uphill task in many societies but for reasons that are in no way near the ones we face here. Is honour a privilege earned or a stigma that one should curse? It is the way you look at it. Honour taken away from a woman by one man is honour taken away from, not the woman apparently, but her family. The family, in so many words, has been raped, not the woman. This distortion is one such social norm that builds the foundations of our society.
Another is violence, violence against women. Apart from the above-mentioned violence, we also face an evil by the name of domestic violence. There are so many perturbing reports in the news these days concerning violent men and they way they deal with the women of their homes and families. We read and hear of murderous in laws killing their daughters in law, husbands hurting their wives because of financial trouble and sons creating trouble for their mothers. When will we learn to grow as a society that cares for its women and understands that they are the very foundation upon which nations are built? It seems like this is nowhere near happening anytime soon.
SABA HANIF
Lahore