Be it a wedding, a dinner party or even a game of cricket at the park, Pakistanis almost always tend to sit down and discuss politics at the end of the day. Unfortunately though, a vast majority of these Pakistanis, particularly the middle class, blindly follow the Khaleeji (Gulf) Islamic interpretations of today. However, in any other situation, Khaleeji people are the first to be criticised by these very Pakistanis, be it their ‘excessive wealth and luxury’, as observed by hundreds and thousands of Pakistanis in the Gulf, their ‘bedouin mindsets’ and, most specifically, their ‘poor treatment of women,’ mainly in Saudi Arabia.
To a non-Pakistani, with no knowledge of the country, listening in to one of these conversations, Pakistanis may seem like harbingers of women emancipation, providing them with freedoms that are paralleled around various parts of the world today, such as freedom to dress, equality and education. They would imagine that Pakistan is far superior in this regard, compared to the current state of women in the Gulf. After all, on a fundamental level, most people know that education is critical to human progress and development, but more often than, not women are ostracised in parts of the developing world when it comes to gaining an education. And Pakistanis, rather than looking inwards, are quick to jump on this Western bandwagon of poor education standards for Khaleeji women, due to the clichés of repressive policies and stigmas, such as societal compulsions of wearing the abaya, mandatory mahram travel partners and no driving laws, in Saudi Arabia.
However, this notion — since it is merely a notion — is a far cry from reality. Upon assessing the Gulf nations, statistics and figures reveal a completely different story. The percentage of tertiary female students in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar, heavily outweighs the males, at 51.8, 70 and 60 percent. In fact, Qatari women dwarf Qatari men on a two to one ratio at universities. Literacy rates for females in all three countries are over 85 percent as well, with more literate Emirati women than Emirati men.
Furthermore, almost half the government-funded overseas scholarships provided to Saudi students are given to women, and today, more women even have PhDs in Saudi Arabia than men. To add to this, the Princess Nora bint Abdul Rahman University, built for 5.3 billion dollars, is the largest university for women in the world. It consists of over 55,000 students, and offers degrees in various fields ranging from design to medicine.
When compared to Pakistan, these figures and statistics are monumental, as less than five percent of Pakistani women are university graduates, and less than 50 percent of Pakistani women are even literate. There is no doubt that Pakistan has a much larger population, severe political instability and significant amounts of poverty as compared to the abovementioned countries combined, but it has also had several more years than most Gulf states to implement educational policies and reforms that not only enable its men to succeed but also its women.
On the other hand, contemporary society has played a key role in nurturing and providing Khaleeji women with a system that enables them to accomplish more in their professional lives upon graduation, such as helping them create targets and keeping them focused on achieving their goals. Alongside this, government of each country is nationalising jobs to provide more women with work, releasing business loans for medium-to-small-size businesses for women, and specifically training their female job seekers to meet various employment needs and requirements.
Yet, in Pakistan, rather than implementing such policies and championing this cause, our institutions have somehow allowed educational reform to fall upon the shoulders of an 18-year-old girl, who we seem to have somewhat of a particular distaste for anyway. Additionally, a vast majority of our society deems it necessary to push its women into marriage after they qualify to become engineers, teachers and, most specifically, doctors. Hence, there is a prominent disregard for women entering the workforce in Pakistan, unlike the Gulf, where this has changed substantially in recent years.
Based on the aforementioned circumstances, one must ask, is it understandable then that Pakistan does not, by any means, have a good image when it comes to education for women? Especially when some of the most ‘repressive states’ in the world are providing significant educational opportunities and progression to their younger generation of men and women?
Therefore, I believe it is imperative that we start giving credit where credit is due, and criticise those who deserve criticism, even if it is our very selves. As much as we want to blame and condemn the Gulf States for their policies (leaving aside their politicised Islamic ideologies), they are deserving of appreciation, especially regarding their achievements in women’s education. If anything, Pakistan can learn a lesson or two from the Khaleeji book, and hope that it too can one day implement, emulate and surpass the policies and strategies that are providing a once highly illiterate region with significant prosperity and progress.
The writer is the research coordinator for the South Asia Study Group at the University of Sydney. He can be reached on Twitter @Zushanhashmi