The vulnerable gender

Lahore: Nineteen-year-old Nimra quietly embraced death in the eastern city of Lahore last Saturday. She committed suicide by swallowing poisonous pills in the backward Factory Area.

Police said her death was the result of a family dispute owing to which, "Nimra had lost the flare to live."

Twenty-year-old Enna Liaquat chose to die in a similar fashion on the same day. She had earlier been severely reprimanded by her parents, who wanted her to marry in line with their wishes.

The unfortunate girl had preferred to find employment in a bid to reduce the financial misery of her parents ahead of marriage.

The two sensitive girls sought solace in eternity, but yet again exposed the paradoxes of gender inequality in Pakistan.

In Shahdara locality, Razia, a mother of four, was shot dead, again on the same day, by her husband and two brothers under the pretext she was "having an illicit relationship with a paramour."

According to newspapers and television broadcasts, the blood relatives of all three victims had perceived their actions as being synonymous to impugning their family's honour.

Thinking patterns

Their sad deaths are heart-breaking, but provide Pakistani society food for thought to change its thinking patterns, otherwise many more women could be browbeaten into "forced obedience" or face treading the path chosen by Nimra and Enna. They may even have to face the wrath of their dear ones as Razia did.

Thousands of Pakistani women have fallen prey to the stone-age concept of "chaining" a woman at home - from birth to death.

The tales of the aforementioned three women illustrate the vulnerability of females in a culture that turns a blind eye to such practices. They defied the prevalent customs of a society where multiple forms of violence against women continue to gain roots unabated.

In Pakistan, the story of a woman's deprivation starts even before she lands on the planet, because the girl-child is not a particularly "wanted" child. Their visibly pain-studded lives are nothing less than journeys of subordination.

The media may have spread awareness about women's rights, but it has failed in stemming the ever-soaring incidents of rapes, suicides, domestic abuse, mutilation, burning, beatings, ritual honour-killings, custodial abuse and even acid attacks causing facial disfigurement.

What is more ironic is the fact that while funerals of so many women are taking place every day, society finds itself short of tears.

And we are only talking about the reported incidents. The actual number may be a lot higher.

Although the media serves as the only source for collection of data on reported crime against women and incidents of suicide, various non-government organisations (NGOs) believe the majority of subjects are under the age of 30 and "domestic problems" are being cited as the most common reasons behind the young deaths.

Alia Aftab, a local NGO worker said: "Lack of education is leading to all these things. If women are educated, they can take all these pressures more boldly. Increasing practical literacy, gaining access to employment opportunities and changes in the perception of women's status are the solutions to these problems.

Impossible

"For this, you need to stand out. Women here will have to catch the media attention but without being literate, gaining a public voice both within and outside the political process is virtually impossible."

Aftab added: "Women in Pakistan are facing problems due to the fanatic social approach of a male-dominated society that deprives them of the chances to progress. Conservative approaches of many a religious cleric and their followers at home has erected barriers for them because of their gender."

"According to the United Nations Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2007, the enrolment of girls in Pakistani primary schools is 29 per cent lower than that of boys.

Misbah Ikram, a highly-placed woman banker said: "Ours is a strange society. It has a double face. While women like Benazir Bhutto can assume the office of a Prime Minister twice in this country after graduating from Oxford, there are tens of thousands who are subjected to one form of violence or the other, primarily because illiteracy has made them coward.

"They cannot fight for their rights. But allow me to say that this is not just the case in Pakistan. Statistics reveal that there are currently only 12 women, as of 2007, who have been elected heads of State among a total of 200 such positions in the world.

"Women own only 23 per cent of companies in the European Union and according to the International Labour Organisation, some 60 per cent of the 550 million low-paid workers in the world happen to be women."