Dedicated to a brave man Mirza Ali, a mountaineer, a campaigner to encourage women in outdoor sports and brother of Samina Baig, the first and only Pakistani woman to climb Everest.
We are living in a speedily changing world that appears, more receptive towards diversity and egalitarianism. The prejudiced mental-conditioning, however, is not going away easily and readily. The merciless misogyny has adequately affected the family, society, science laboratories, art, literature, media, army, politics, sports and nearly all public spaces, workplaces, disciplines and industries. Women including Pakistani women are customarily being ridiculed and relegated in a number of ways. Yet, women continue to uproot deeply rooted patriarchy, smash the stereotypes, defy and dispute the limits set by men-friendly interpretation of religion, culture and traditions.
Due to the collective efforts of many sections of the civil society, many technocrats and many political leaders, candid conversations around the manifestations of abuses are generating in social development, politics and media. All this is successfully perturbing a typical mindset a mindset that is sexist, opinionated and selectively liberal. Individuals bearing these traits never fail to expose themselves at different platforms. The new age media instantly and ruthlessly provides an ongoing research and analysis through the reactions and responses received to any chauvinist statement, conduct or attitude. The ongoing public policy advocacy for the equitable rules of business and legislation is showing some transitory gains for women. This includes women-related international commitments and conventions, mandatory quotas, affirmative actions and gender sensitive indicators for measuring progress in all areas of human development.
Examples of loss of control and ownership resulting from harmful cultural practices are legion: they include isolation during menstruation, genital mutilation, forced marriage, child marriage, dowry violence, denial of inheritance, denial of the right to divorce, marital rape and harassment
Research-based evidence denotes that a legislator has a distinct impact on their policy priorities. There is also strong evidence that when competent women have a seat at the table, there is a corollary increase in policy making that unearths the requirements of families, women, and minorities. According to UN Women, 24 per cent of all national parliamentarians were women and only 3 countries have 50 per cent or more women in parliament in single or lower houses as of November 2018; and 11 women are serving as Head of State and 10 are serving as Head of Government, as of January2019. Women have magnificently demonstrated political leadership by working across party lines through parliamentary women’s caucuses – even in the most politically combative environments – and by championing issues of gender equality, such as the elimination of sexual and gender-based violence, parental leave and childcare, pensions, gender-equality laws and electoral reform.
The activism and advocacy geared towards bringing greater visibility, influence and authority of women are not against men (somehow this perception thrives). The role of men can never be disqualified or diminished. We have to work with them – with patience and perseverance. We also have to raise feminist kids so that they could internalize the benefits of having strong and skilled women in society and family. The goal of gender equality, then, would not remain a distant dream for a vast majority of women including minority gender. Men, control most of the resources, are higher in number in all decision making positions and are largely seen and accepted as the social gatekeepers. Logically, men should not have any insecurity and they should have firm belief in the truth that since empowerment is contagious therefore empowered women are not taking away their powers. Since we do not actually live in a logical state, therefore, women have to struggle for taking (back) their rights (from the enterprise- patriarchy).
Imagine- women have to calculate the words and phrases they want to use to communicate their needs and concerns about their own bodies. They cannot (in most of the parts of the globe) opt for a safe abortion or tubal ligation without the consent of their husbands. There are infinite examples of the loss of control and ownership of a woman on her body ranging from harmful cultural practices like isolation during menstruation, genital mutilation, forced and or child “marriage”, dowry violence etc. to the denial of inheritance, denial of the right to divorce, experience of marital rape in the bedroom and harassment in boardrooms and so on and so forth. Even today we come across questions like; whether men would allow/should allow women to work? Or whether men think such and such profession is suitable for women or not? The time has come to respectfully reject the relevance of such “permissions” and truthfully start believing that women and girls are equal human beings like men, and they can be, and they should be trusted. Therefore, the framing of questions has to be renovated. It should no longer be a debate or riddle whether women should work or allowed to work. Correct answers follow objectivity in questions. We as stakeholders, activists, disrupters and duty bearers have to pose the correct questions. For instance; how to increase the number of women in the work force, how to ensure safety of women while commuting to the workplace and at the work places, how to reduce pay gaps and how to demolish structural patriarchy? The shortest answer to these questions may be a suggestion and request: Dear men: be the champions of women emancipation.
The writer is a feminist. She tweets at dr_rakhshinda