Gendered Divisions Analysis On....... Pakistan: A Qualitative Study

Gendered Divisions Analysis

On Pakistan: A Qualitative Study

Pakistan’s founding father, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, proclaimed in a speech given at a meeting of the Muslim University Union, in Aligarh, on March 10, 1944, the following: “No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you; we are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have to live.”

 Six decades have gone by since the independence of The Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and despite the Quid-e-Azam’s words of empowerment and the initial achievements made towards diminishing gender inequalities, true equality -social, political and legal- between gender remains a mere dream for the majority of Pakistani Women. The road towards emancipation has proven to be long and hard for this developing nation. The progressive efforts advanced by both the Muslim Family Ordinance of 1961 and the later Constitution of 1973 (which were respectively meant to ensure women’s rights in divorce, inheritance, and polygamy, and prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex), were curtailed by the installation of the Ziad Regime in 1979 and the subsequent passing of the Shariat Bill. Many activists argued that this law “would undermine the principles of justice, democracy, and fundamental rights of citizens, and…would become identified solely with the conservative interpretation supported by Zia’s government.” .”(US Library)

An example of the degradation of women’s status during this period is found in the 1979 Enforcement of Hudood Ordinances, which failed to discriminate between adultery (zina) and rape (zina-bil-jabr). “A man could be convicted of zina only if he were actually observed committing the crime by other men, but a woman could be convicted simply because she became pregnant.”(US Library)  As many scholars have acknowledged, the discrimination faced by Pakistani women has no sanction in the Islamic scriptures, but rather is embedded in this historically patriarchal society’s customs, values and norms, and in the conservative reading of the Holy Quran.

As stated in the attached article on page 7, “Societal and religious misconceptions about women were used to reinforce the suppression of women’s rights.” (Ali) There was not one particular religion mentioned in the study, however it is clear that religion is a major factor in the oppression of women.  The article continues to say that religion says that the “woman is made for the man, that she doesn’t have the choice to say no.”  This is in part due the conservative outlook that is ever prevalent in Pakistan.

Gender inequality is a global phenomenon, also deeply rooted in many Asian societies, resulting in discrimination of women and and is linked to gender-based violence.  Women and young girls are expected to be subservient to their male counterparts. “Young girls may experience differential access to food and medical care during childhood and later dating violence or economically coerced sex during adolescence eventually followed by by intimate partner violence, marital rape, and dowry abuse at marital age.” (Ali) 

There is also a large burden on women to be the perfect wife.  Women are expected to chores, care for children, and sacrifice her dreams for the benefit of her husband, and the benefits of her family.  It was also noted that many women must ask their husbands for permission before they participate in any activity. This is disheartening to read and to learn.  The worst of it all, is that many of these women are not aware that they are being oppressed. They don’t the freedoms the women in the west have, therefore they don’t have anything to compare themselves to.

In the end, there was one major theme that stood out to me, and that was the ‘Reiteration of gender roles’.  This included the perceptions of traditional gender roles and how it preserved the subordination of women. This is shown clearly through the research in the article, and it is also seen in the media.  It is my hope that one day, these women have the rights that they deserve.

Works Cited

1)    US Library of Congress report "Pakistan - A Country Study". Retrieved from http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/pktoc.html

2)    Ali, Tazeen S. et al. “Gender Roles and Their Influence on Life Prospects for Women in Urban Karachi, Pakistan: A Qualitative Study .” Global Health Action 4 (2011): 10.3402/gha.v4i0.7448. PMC. Web. 9 Feb. 2016. Retrived from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3208374/

3)    Peterson, V. Spike, Anne Sisson Runyan, and V. Spike Peterson. Global Gender Issues In The New Millennium. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2010. Print.