Discrimination Against Women in Pakistani Society

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Discrimination against Women in Pakistani Society

International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on eight March every year. The primary purpose of its observance is to honor women’s rights worldwide. This year, I got a chance to witness one of the celebrations organized by The Aga Khan University Working Group for Women (WGW) to celebrate IWD. On the one hand, seeing the contributions of women to our society, I felt privileged to be a woman. On the other hand, I was distressed thinking of the discrimination faced by women in their daily lives. Discrimination against women is one of the types of gender discrimination. Gender discrimination means judging someone primarily on the basis of his or her sex. According to Khan (2012),

Discrimination against women means any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing of nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status on a basis of equality of men and women of human rights and fundamental freedom in the economic, social, cultural, civil, political or any other field.

In this paper, I will throw light on the socio-economic as well as cultural significance of gender discrimination in general, and discrimination against women, in particular. Along with that, prevalence, causes, impacts on the society, and strategies to overcome discrimination against women will be discussed.

To start with, discrimination against women occurs globally, its roots are entrenched in the Asian world particularly. Pakistan is not lagging behind in this regard. Women face discrimination in Pakistan at various levels, such as, at domestic level, at educational level, on political platforms, and at w...

... middle of paper ...

...ths and misinterpretation of religious teachings rather make best use of the available literature and man power for the betterment of our society. Empowering women also is one of the strategies to make them economically sound. Only then we can make our homeland a happy place, to live in and of course a place free from gender discrimination, particularly discrimination against women.

REFERENCES

Ali, T. S., Krantz, G., Gul, R., Asad, N., Johansson, E., & Mogren, I. (2011). Gender roles and their influence on life prospects for women in urban Karachi, Pakistan: a qualitativestudy. Global health action, 4.doi: 10.3402/gha.v4i0.7448

Khan, A. (2012).Gender discrimination in Pakistan and the saarc region. In The Eigh Neighbours, Together we Survive. Retrieved from http://ayeshazeekhan.blogspot.com/2012/01/gender-discrimination-in pakistan-and.html

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