OPINION: Pak women in distress

As rightly said by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an American writer, activist and a leader of the women's rights movement in the US during the mid-to-late-19th century: "Social science affirms that a woman's place in society marks the level of civilization"

Stanton's saying goes well with Pakistan's civilization where the status of women today is deteriorating and decreasing living standards drastically. Women in Pakistan are not subjected to domestic violence but are also deprived of access to outside resources like education and employment, thus have minimal support from government or non-governmental organizations too.

Women in Pakistan are facing miserable socio-economic, cultural and religious obstacles that have reduced their status in society. With a population of nearly 227 million people (49.2 per cent female), 64 per cent of the population of Pakistan is below the age of 30, making it one of the largest young populations in the world.

Violence against women and girls - including rape, murder, acid attacks, domestic violence and forced marriage - is widespread throughout Pakistan. Human rights defenders estimate that roughly 1,000 women are killed in so-called honour killings every year. From the available data, the figure on widespread violence against women is put at 34 per cent of ever-married women who have experienced spousal physical, sexual or emotional violence and 56 per cent of ever-married women who have reported experiencing physical or sexual violence neither sought help to stop the violence nor told anyone.

Honour killing has been a practice in Pakistan for many years and, despite legal reforms, it remains a common practice in Pakistan today. Both international and Pakistani activist groups are pushing for an end to the practice, but nothing has happened because of the lack of general public condemnation and awareness.

Pakistan has an appendage shocking record. Other than Sindh, where the legal age for marriage is 18 years, in the rest of the country, girls as young as 16 are officially allowed to marry. In Nepal, the legal age is 20 years, whereas in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, it is 18. Afghanistan is the only other country in the region that allows 16-year-olds to marry.

According to the Women Development Department report of Sindh of 2022-23, 2,777 cases of domestic violence against women and marriage of young girls have been reported in Sindh during one year. Maximum cases of 886 were reported from Hyderabad and 459 from Benair Abad.

Surprisingly, Pakistan is silent over the double standard of China on women's rights. In one breath China expresses concern over the effects of the recent policies introduced by the Taliban government on women's rights in Afghanistan. On the other hand, the Muslim Uyghur community in China is left naked, handcuffed and humiliated in front of humanoid dogs and other animals for practicing Muslim beliefs. A few are punished until they die and the perpetrators are told not to allow them to die too soon but to let them suffer as much as they can. The Muslim world and free people around the world want to ask China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang if China is not committing genocide against the Uyghur Muslim community, AFP has reported.

Child marriage is a serious problem in Pakistan, with 18 per cent of girls marrying before age 18 and 4 per cent marrying before 15. Women from religious minority communities remain particularly vulnerable to forced marriage. The government has done little to stop such marriages.

Pakistani girls became the victim of the upheaval in Afghanistan during the early 2000s, when the Taliban and many of its fighters sought refuge within the borders of Pakistan. They enforced strict codes of conduct in the areas they controlled, restricting the freedom of women. One of the restrictions has been to ban girls from attending school. This action worsens the already lacking education system in Pakistan, with over 5.5 million primary school-aged children out of school of which 63 per cent are girls.

Pakistan has a total of 1.5 lakh-odd primary education facilities, 1.31 lakh or 88 per cent of which are public, while the remaining 18,700 (12 per cent) are private. Around 18.75 million children are enrolled in these schools - 61pc in public and the remainder in the private sector. Some 5 million children are out of school at the primary level.

Under Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan, the State is responsible for providing free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of five to 16 years. But Pakistan is the lowest performing country in the Southeast Asia region in this category. Pakistan's budget allocation towards primary education is actually being used for the designated purposes.

(R C Ganjoo is a senior journalist and columnist having more than 30 years experience of covering issues concerning national security, particularly Kashmir. He has worked with several prominent media groups and his articles have been published in many national and international publications.)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of OneIndia and OneIndia does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.