In a male dominated society like ours equal economic opportunities for women mostly remains a distant dream. Women in Pakistan are also denied their due rights and privileges.
The belief that women have no rights stems from conservatism, ignorance and prejudice. The Pakistani man should realise that Islam fully acknowledges the rights and privileges of women. By excluding the majority of the country’s population from the mainstream of social and economic development we have deprived the country of the progress it could have achieved had it given women their due place in the society. A large part of the population of women lives below the poverty line. Women in certain parts of Pakistan have restricted or no access to education. This is something that totally negates the saying, ‘you educate a woman, you educate a nation’. The truth is that all women – urban, rural, young, old, rich, poor, lettered and unlettered – are vulnerable to such discrimination.
M Fazal Elahi
Islamabad
