International Women's Day is being commemorated all over the world to focus attention on the status of women in the emerging New World where the question of equality of human beings is still being predicated upon caste, color, creed and sex.
To address this and many other related issues a look at the past performance of the world societies, dedicated to the cause of women is necessary. The world has progressed, but women are still being discriminated against in matters of employment and social status.
They still complain of harassment of all kind and inequality when it comes to ask for justice. Many women believing in privacy, suffer in silence and those who know their pains do not help them for obvious reasons. In India, Afghanistan and Pakistan there has been little progress. There are tales of disappointments and remedy in sight.
In Pakistan, the past year saw less employment, less educational facilities and less health care opportunities for women. The official statistics show that more men were given employment than women in the health sector. Women, who were ignored, have better educational qualifications. Less female teachers were appointed as compared to men in primary schools and less number of female medical technicians were appointed as compared to men. There were vacant positions in departments such as provincial agriculture, animal husbandry and social welfare departments. At an average, one female was appointed against 20 men.
Crime against women registered, at an average of 15 percent increase during the last twelve months; rape murder, karo-kari and mismatched marriage cases were registered, disputes were settled and women were used as tools for bargaining on family and tribal disputes.
The women parliamentarians in the outgoing national and provincial assemblies took repeated credit for increase in the representation of women in national politics. This was a misnomer, as neither they were respected or given any place of distinction in the affairs of the government. Women activists have, time and again, exposed women in parliament for their shortcomings and have termed them as showpieces and "tools for deception" used by the government to score some point but in vain.
In their view all crimes committed against women reported in the press remained unattended, culprits were never arrested, never booked, and on the contrary provided police protection from their opponents. Even nazims reported to have committed crimes but were not brought to justice.
The courts and the civil society, both remained helpless against the criminals which ultimately gave the perpetrators of crimes 'moral courage' to continue with their evildoings with complete impunity.
The women division at the federal level is yet to come out with a promised report on the status of women in Pakistan. It was announced that this report would identify the areas where disparity existed. The purpose, as was explained by the minister in charge of women affairs, of this exercise was to find out where inequality forced women to suffer and miss opportunity of equal treatment.
This report is still a dream. In the meantime, a new government is about to be installed. It has mandate from its voters and going by the EC statistics, at an average the ratio of male and female voters remained exactly the same, as was the ratio of registered voters.
It is safe to assume that women have participated in the election along with men on the basis of equality. Does this equality is going to be translated into action? Does it mean that the discriminatory laws of the society that govern men and women separately would be scrapped and there will be a realisation that women are human beings and should be treated as such. I doubt.
This year is not going to be different than many other previous years if women do make a human chain from Karachi to Durand Line and insist on equal rights. They are supporting lawyers in their struggle for the restoration of judiciary, would they support them in their cause? Justice to live as equal partners with self pride.