International Women's Day is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. It is a day when women from all over the world come together to continue the nine decades old struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.
International Women's Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war, during the French revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage.
Nature has given hard task to a woman to nurture her family by bringing up her children as well behaved individuals; she is not only a responsible mother but a dutiful wife who helps his partner to be a successful man of the society by comforting and advising the ways of life. In return she only needs some respect and justice, but the question is that even in this 21st century would, is she considered equal?
Nasreen Bibi, 49, B.Com, mother of two daughters, suffering from a trauma of injustice. Nasreen Bibi's husband a 60-year-old principal of a government college had got married with an 18-year-old lady teacher of his college without Nasreen Bibi's permission or even informing her. "I am his second wife as he had no children from his first wife, we were living together happily for many years but then he started to change, first getting angry over petty issues, lately gruesome fights and beating. Even after sometime he left home and stops living with us, it comes into my notice after three days that he had married again. I filed a case against him for financial support that he at least gives us our share, which is our right.
My husband makes me fool that he would give me a monthly handsome amount, I'll give you the home in which you are living but first you have to sign this paper as it is a legal document for property. I signed the paper. Lately it comes into my knowledge that those were papers for removal of case and he had threatened me that he would divorce me if he ever sees me out of my house', the Nasreen Bibi explained her story of injustice.
United Nations has generated intense and widespread support to promote and protect the equal rights of women. But women in Pakistan are suffering beyond their limits. There are cases of domestic violence, unequal treatment of boys and girls, work place harassment, Karo Kari, Sang Chatti, Vani type of cruel some practices and many more other injustices being happened with women here. The Charter of the United Nations, signed in San Francisco in 1945, was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. But would gender be equal in Pakistan?
Over the years, United Nations action for the advancement of women has taken four clear directions: promotion of legal measures; mobilisation of public opinion and international action; training and research, including the compilation of gender desegregated statistics; and direct assistance to disadvantaged groups. Today, a central organising principle of the work of the United Nations is that no enduring solution to society's most threatening social, economic and political problems can be found without the full participation, and the full empowerment of the world's women.
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