2016 essay contest honorable mention
by Ayesha Zaman
“No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men” – Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
When these words were spoken by the founder of Pakistan in Islamia College for Women in 1940, it sparked hope, pride and dignity for all the women who would later go on to migrate across the subcontinent in joined hopes of achieving freedom. Tragically, their freedom was still a long way off.
Despite making up almost half the population of the world, women from all walks of life struggle to make themselves heard in a society that favors the voices of men. Be it in the fight for rights to equal pay, to raise awareness about rape culture, objectification, or sexism encountered in their daily lives, women are now justly standing up for a cause that affects them all: their right to be treated equally as men, on all social, economic and political grounds. However, in Pakistan, the majority of the female population would agree that being treated merely as a human being would be a triumph to celebrate.
I believe that the biggest challenge that women in Pakistan face today, is lack of education. In 2012, it was revealed by the World Development Report that female participation in the workforce of Pakistan was a meager 28%. This comes as no surprise considering that 39% of the young girls in Pakistan are not enrolled in primary schools at all, compared with 30% of boys. If a girl is fortunate enough to be able to reach University-level education, she is often discouraged to pursue a field that is still widely recognized as being male-dominated. However, this mindset cannot be blatantly labeled as sexist as analysis has shown that the country’s working women are subjected to minimal job security, lower wages, longer working hours and lower productivity. Due to the following of strongly conservative Islamic teachings, family honor and support of mass support of gender segregation, women find themselves more than often, having to unwilling adopt the role of a housewife in her early 20’s. The lack of education not only limits a woman’s independence, but also forms a vicious cycle of women raising daughters who are discouraged to pursue their education and prone to living a life of sexist standards. Women can only stand up for themselves if they receive proper education and awareness that they deserve a better life. They do not deserve to have acid thrown on their faces for wanting to go to school. They do not deserve to be killed for running away from their homes. They certainly do not deserve to live a life filled with fear of men.
The only way to break out of this cycle would be to raise awareness for feminism to thrive in society. The government should take actions to promote free primary education for girls, in cities and villages alike. By taking small steps such as establishing segregated schools for females, and appointing strict measures to ensure the attendance of girls from the area, they can spark more acceptability and normalization of female education. Building with primary and moving forwards to secondary and so on, will ensure that girls are given a chance to explore their opportunities and encourage them to learn further. Soon, women will be able to freely prosper in previously male-dominated fields of work and thus, raising female employee standards as well.
And that is when our country will fully achieve its freedom.