The South Asian region is the only area in the world where men outnumber women. The sex ratio is 105.7 men to 100 women. In Pakistan, women are not only subjected to financial discrimination, but they are also victims of inhuman customs and laws such as Karo Kari, Hudood ordinance, Qisas, marriage to the Quran and half witnesses according to the state law (whereby in court a female witness is only worth half a male witness).
In the rural areas, women are like slaves subject to drudgery. They have just to obey their fathers, brothers and husbands. They do not have the right to decide about themselves. Marriage is also a sort of trade between different families both in the rural and urban areas. Women sold and forcibly marriage for the family benefit is common in rural.
Out-dated customs are still practised. In the tribal areas, women are used to settle family feuds. Swara, Pushto custom calls for a girl to be given away in marriage to an aggrieved family as part of settlement for murder perpetrated by one of her relatives.
Marriage to the Holy Quran is also common in Sindh. Under this custom a woman has to live without a husband throughout her life. But this custom is only applied among the class of landlords. They use this only to keep the land of their sisters and daughters.
These unchecked atrocities - honour killings, prohibition of education, high rate of the instance of rape continue unabated in the country.
A woman's right to liberty is restricted in the name of modesty, protection and prevention of immoral activity.
In the rural areas 90 percent of women work in the fields. They work for the whole day with their male family members, but they still have to face their wrath. Male family members keep a strict eye on the female family members in the name of "honour". But one must understand the meaning of honour because in our society honour does not have the meaning in its true sense. Here it really means possession of women as a form of property. Not only are the restrictions of women's liberty maintained in the name of this honour (ghairat) but they also can be put to death if they lose their "honour".
Exploitation of women continues in different modes. It has been seen in general that women work with greater dedication and meticulously than men. For example in Pakistan, women are 28 percent of the total workforce yet they generate 40 percent of production. At the same time, the women workers are paid less than the males.
Women are exploited more in the unorganised sector. The women workers of garment factories are subjected to illegal confinement: long working hours and non-payment of wages. In many factories, women are not allowed to form unions, overtime is seldom paid.
Labour laws do not apply in many factories. Women are not paid salaries equal to men working in the same positions and the criterion for selection and evaluation process differs.
Harassment, especially, of sexual nature, is rampant. And the authorities find it more convenient to ignore.
At various work places women suffer sex-based discrimination, extreme degradation, humiliation and sexual harassment. The unwritten contract system, wage discrimination and ill treatment by the employers have become a routine matter.
The police also do not treat crime and rape victims properly, mostly FIRs have traditional statements recorded by police which in most cases lack ground realities. More importantly the behaviour of the police, which is supposed to play a pivotal role in prevention and investigation of cases of violence, needs to be rectified.
Violence against women is a violation of basic human rights and an obstacle to the achievement of the objectives of equality, development and peace.
Though women the world over contribute a great deal to the economic and social growth they are undervalued; their worth is unrecognised and they continue to remain subservient to men. It is not that their work is not visible; it is just that it has not been acknowledged.
This gross injustice has its roots in the in-built gender bias and practices of an archaic social order.
This is a universal truth that if women were become a social, political and economic force, society would change rapidly.
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