By Dr. Riffat Sardar
Every year we celebrate the International Women’s Day (March ) to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. On this day we also a call attention to take action for accelerating women’s equality.
It has been well over a century that this day is celebrate as it was in 1911 that the first International Women Day (IWD) gathering took place supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs as much to a Pukhtoon women as it belongs to a Sindhi woman or for that matter to a women in Africa or America, and it is celebrated all over the world. it is celebrated with a spirit of solidarity across oceans as the issues of women especially discrimination against women and violence against women is prevalent in one form or the other, with more or lesser degree, all over the world.
KP has made some progress since the past couple of years where women status is concerned. The KP Domestic Violence Act, the Reproductive Health Care Act and the Home Based Workers Act are passed. The girls’ enrolment in schools has gone up, the reproductive health of women has improved as the maternal mortality declined, there are not less than 26 women members representing women in the provincial assembly, women have been given position in high decision making posts such as the the first ever AIG women police officer is in place and a women Secretary is also heading the Social Welfare Department of the Provincial Govt, and a billion rupees was allocated by the Govt to women specific programmes in the 2021-22 budget.
But this is not to say that all is well for women in KP. There are still cases of rape, honour killings, and domestic violence against women. There are still many girls who are not in schools, and there are still girls who leave schools because of child marriage. As more and more women are coming out to work, there are reports of more women facing workplace harassment.
Since a few years in Pakistan, the International Women Day has been sabotaged and undermined by groups such that it has turned into a tug of war between the so-called liberals and the so-called conservatives and the real spirit and purpose for which the International Women Day used to be observed is lost in these squabbles. Those who started with the slogan “mera jism meri marzi” did so because of concern for the exploitation of women in the economic arena. However this real genuine concern disappeared in thin air, as the slogan was turned by the antagonists to mean sexual freedom. Then came Azadi march, and now it is Aurat march, more to the likes of Aurat Foundation. The women of KP and Pakistan got their Azadi in 1947 when Pakistan came into being. All freedoms whether for women or men, are equally guaranteed in our Constitution. What the women of KP and for that matter the women of Pakistan should be marching against corruption, nepotism, money laundering, tax evasion and non-merit based recruitment. The rights of women are usurped by a system which promotes corruption and money laundering, because these promote inequality , poverty and injustice in society. Pakistan lives in a comity of nations in the international system. The International Women Day should raise voice against the corrupt international financial infrastructure which allows elites to escape tax and launder the ill-gotten wealth to tax havens. This has been vividly demonstrated by the Panama leaks, the Pandora Papers and recently the Swiss secrets. If the money drain is not plugged at the receiving end, then human rights including women rights will continue to be denied, as regimes will be forced to cut on health, education and social protection budgets of the poor to pay off the loans that the elite laundered and squandered. The wealth that is looted from Pakistan and stored in banks abroad is the root cause, which manifests itself in the form of poverty, deprivation, marginalization, exploitation, discrimination, and violence. This is the real issue, and this is what the Pakistani women and women of KP have to raise their voice against: reform of the corrupt international financial infrastructure, which makes the rich nations richer and the poor nations poorer.
Comments are closed.