ISLAMABAD: US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson has made it clear that one of the United States’ primary goals in Pakistan is the empowerment of women. Inaugurating a Susan B. Anthony reading room at Lahore’s Fatima Jinnah Women’s University on Sept.17, she cited both Anthony and Jinnah as role models for Pakistani women.
Unfortunately, however, the road for women’s empowerment is a long one and mired with hurdles.
According to recent meetings between academia and civil society participants in the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Country Gender Profile held recently in Pakistan’s four provinces to assess the women’s rights situation in the country, corruption, illiteracy, and patriarchal feudal systems in rural areas are key factors behind Pakistan’s gender inequality.
While ameliorating these problems sounds like a tall order, local NGOs are already working on these issues with help from local partners and international bodies. Previous governments’ policies, such as the enactment of the Honor Killing Law of 2004 and the Women Protection Bill in 2006, have also led to increased protection of women’s rights in the country.
But this is not enough.
Pakistan is hindered by corruption on both systematic and societal levels.
In the professional realm, for example, when a woman competes for a position in the country’s civil service, she is often held back by corrupt individuals who – whether through bribery or connections – promote their own preferred candidate. Capable women, who are relatively new to politics, are often unable to manipulate the system in this same manner.
In the health care sector, female civil servants who do not accept bribes are often overlooked for promotions; positions further along the “corporate ladder are instead given to men who are considered bribable. This not only affects women, but has an adverse affect on the country’s overall healthcare performance.
Women already face social, cultural, political and institutional discrimination, and corruption often exacerbates their situation. Access to government institutions – such as basic hospitals, health care and schools – is restricted by gender considerations and compounded by corruption.
Illiteracy is a second major factor impoverishing women in the country. Pakistan’s national literacy rate of 50 percent still lags behind most other countries in the region. And since 1951 the number of illiterate women has tripled. Women make up 60 percent of the illiterate population and are therefore disproportionately excluded from higher education and employment opportunities.
The key to increasing female literacy is as basic as adequately constructed schools. According to Dr Zubair Khan, former Minister for Commerce, schools in the North West Frontier Province lack toilet facilities, are close to commercial areas and are not segregated. These factors lead to girls being kept from school once they reach puberty, due to traditional customs in the region that limit women’s visibility in the public sphere.
This leads to the third factor, patriarchal feudal systems in rural areas, which ensure that women are kept behind closed doors. Even if a female is among the rare few to receive an education, she is not allowed to work alongside a man as it would be considered a “modern situation, frowned upon by the rural elite.
Poor women may till the soil, but their education is seen as a threat to the area’s existing system of governance. Working against the feudal mindset and setup, education is perceived as a menace to tradition, encouraging girls to think, work, and marry on their own accord, a practice not allowed in many of Pakistan’s rural areas.
Additional steps to address these factors are necessary.
Pakistan’s new government should strengthen the Ministry of Women Development, which is presently small and ill-equipped, lacking adequate logistic and technical know-how to deal with the many gender problems that the country is facing. The ministry requires increased funding and stronger links with other key ministries to ensure that gender is not constantly sidelined in the development debate within Pakistan.
Paying lip-service to the gender empowerment mantra is not enough, it is time that effective action is taken and the 2004 and 2006 bills affecting women’s rights are implemented in letter and in spirit. All eyes are on the new democratic government to act effectively for gender parity so that all of Pakistan’s citizens can both benefit and participate equally in the future of the country.
Meezan Zahra Khwajais a research associate at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews). Copyright permission is granted for publication.
