Women Day

 

Today, all over the world, people are celebrating the day specified for women. On 8th of the March, global and local institutions, women organizations, media and other departments conduct seminaries to aware people about issues of women. In some counties of the world, women even manage public protests and rallies to say no to subjugation.

However, women in different parts of the world are facing different issues. Their problems are not similar in nature everywhere. In developing countries, gender inequality is more eminent and structural in nature. Similarly, the scenario is different in the case of developed countries where women have legal autonomy and rights but the glass ceiling is hampering them from attaining equal status to men. For instance, a woman can become president of the US constitutionally but till date, no woman has succeeded to achieve this dream. 

In case of Pakistan, women issues are different in nature. No doubt, women are facing myriad of problems in the country like poor health and education facilities, domestic violence, sexual harassment, acid attacks and many others. However, the biggest misfortune of the woman in Pakistan is that they have to behave like mute while choosing their life partner. In other words, parents and family members choose spouse for them. They have to simply surrender themselves before the whim of their caretakers.

In fact, the reality describe in the earlier paragraph is not mere characteristic of the society of Pakistan. In many other states like in India and Bangladesh, women have limited rights to select spouse for them but unfortunately people in Pakistan think that it is an Islamic injection for parents and family members to choose partner for their daughters, sisters etc. The matter of the fact is that it is a total misconception about actual preachings of Islam.

However, in Islam, women have legitimate right to select spouse for herself. In number of cases in earlier history of Islam, women exercised this right and chosen groom for them. For example, Hazrat Khadija (R.A) sent message of marriage to Holy prophet (PBUH). Similarly, Holy Prophet (PBUH) took permission from her beloved daughter, Hazrat Fatima (R.A), before finalizing her engagement with Hazrat Ali (R.A). It shows that the attitude of the people of Pakistan towards women is not according to the Islamic principles from that perspective.

In simple words, women’s issues are different in different societies of the world. In developed countries unseen barriers are actual cause of miseries of women. In countries like Pakistan, misinterpretation of theological beliefs is major reason of subjugation of women. Therefore, people in different part of the world will have to opt different mechanisms to empower women. In developed countries, ordinary people will have to leave their discriminatory stance towards females. On the other hand, clergy will have to play vital role in developing countries like Pakistan for empowerment of women. To sum it up, one can say that there is no single universally accepted definition of women issues in the world. Global institutions, states and policy makers will have to follow more flexible approach for addressing grievances of women. They will have to understand that western methods and measures for gender equality is not the only solution of this problem.