Bullied not broken! on November 27, 2017I recently was part of a project that aims at equipping women with power in police organisations, with the backing of male champions. This project gave me another opportunity to “work” and “breathe” in a government outfit, visit police stations and directly interact with the police personnel from different cadre and regions and activate everyday […]
Rethinking our approach as a nation on November 27, 2017Gender inequality refuses to go away in education, health and all economic sectors. The economic indicators of Pakistan in the first half of FY17 suggested that pressures are mounting on both fiscal consolidation and external balances. Pakistan adopted a revised methodology to measure poverty and a new poverty line in 2016 that resulted in 29.5 […]
Contraception! on November 22, 2017The World Health Organisation affirms that promotion of Family Planning (FP)is indispensable, for the well-being and autonomy of women, while supporting the health and development of communities. Currently, 214 million women of reproductive age in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy are not using a modern contraceptive method. Patriarchal arrangement,(vain) bargain and discrimination, function […]
Struggles of soldier women on November 19, 2017Is it more risky to be an unarmed woman battling different forms of injustices and inequalities or to be a warrior woman? An official one at the front lines who not only has to fight the enemies of her country but also the sexism within the command? Women are not completely protected from violence in […]
Just Joking! on November 15, 2017Life may be rejoiced through charity, welfare, random acts of kindness, forgiveness, integrity and engaging in acts which inspire those around us. Among many ways of celebrating our existence on this earth, one of the easiest and inexpensive ways is to use humour to dilute, if not eliminate the ironies of life itself. One of […]
Missing — women in national security on November 13, 2017The words of distinguished feminist international relations theorist, Ann Tickner, in 1998, “International relations is a man’s world, a world of power and conflict in which warfare is a privileged activity”; is convincing even today. Majority of experts in Pakistan do not look at warfare issues with the gender lens. A small number of highly […]
Violence against women on November 6, 2017Equality of all human beings before law, within constitutions, for accessing health and education, for having choices in their personal matters like marriage, birth spacing, sense of dressing, choice of careers etc., for being able to sustain themselves and in remaining safe from being trafficked, smuggled and becoming another statistics in a terrorist attack appear […]
Needed — law against dowry on October 30, 2017Dowry-related violence that was defined by the UN in 2009 as “any act of violence or harassment associated with the giving or receiving of dowry at any time before, during or after the marriage,” gets, regularly confused with and eventually covered in domestic violence. It is indeed, unquestionably different from the former in that the […]
Beware of ‘benevolent’ sexism on October 26, 2017Even today, as per the researches, women are paid 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man, are less likely to get promoted blamelessly in the workplace and are pushed to achieve perfect prettiness to fit in a saleable setting. A singular factor cannot be responsible for this unfairness but sexism is undoubtedly, one […]
Sexual harassment at workplaces on October 23, 2017Emotional abuse and humiliation are forms of workplace bullying and harassment and are found in nearly all countries. No site including cyberspace is immune from the unwanted aggressive behaviour; observed or perceived power imbalance. These distress signals often seen as the ‘feminist concerns’ are undeniable in Pakistan as well. Direct and indirect bullying with verbal, […]