Stop the discouragement!

“No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you; we are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have to live” — Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Jinnah had a vision for Pakistan. He envisioned a country where the men and women would be on an equal footing, working side by side without any discrimination. His dream still remains a pipedream, since the parochial mindset reigns supreme in Pakistan. A substratum of inequality remains because society still believes that women are biologically made to raise a family and do the household chores and men are supposed to earn for the family. Society refuses to believe that these beliefs are just stereotypes that have been enforced upon us and can be done away with.

Despite the changing trends, our society has not yet evolved to a point where it is considered normal for women to work. They are discouraged from being economically productive. A working woman would generally be looked down upon, as there is a certain stigma attached to her.

The biggest stereotype in this case is that if a woman has gone out to work, she must be needy as otherwise there was no reason for her to set foot outside her home. Why must a woman work only when she (or her family) is in a financial crunch? Why cannot she work because she ‘wants’ to work? Many in Pakistan believe that unless there is an absolute need (read financial crisis), a woman must stay inside the chaar-deevari (four walls) of her home.

First of all, not every woman who opts to work is in need of money. Some are from financially sound backgrounds and just want to make good use of their education. What use is a good education if it is left to stagnate and not put to any use? Is she meant to study and then rot in the house till she is married off, and then only to look after her family? Is being a woman sufficient to determine the absence of any worthy ambition? Does being a woman mean to live a meaningless life, without any hope of fulfillment? Why deprive society from benefitting from the other half of the populace?

For a moment assume that the woman who has ventured out to work is actually needy and is working to make ends meet. Why is it considered wrong to work to help out her family? In many cases, if a woman is working, her relatives or family ‘friends’ would snigger at her and the family. They would also pass snide remarks such as, how shameless the parents are to live on their daughter’s earnings and maybe this is why they would not be too keen on getting her married too soon. If the parents can take the earnings of their son without any hesitation, why do people look down upon them if the daughter brings in an income? It is not as if the daughter is bringing that money by any illicit means. When her earnings are as much from hard work as a son’s, then why these double standards? In the words of Jane Addams, a pioneer social worker in the US, “Old-fashioned ways, which no longer apply to changed conditions, are a snare in which the feet of women have always become readily entangled.”

People usually think that everyone works only for an income. If a woman from a well-off family decides to work, her own relatives would question why she needs to work when she is not in any need of an extra income. What they do not understand is that one does not only work for an income, but also for improving the faculties of mind and intellectual growth. Working is not synonymous with money; it is also necessary for mental stimulation and experience.

Many men try to exploit working women at the workplace, thinking that they are in need of an income, and can be used for their own lewd and nefarious designs. Such men deliberately remain oblivious to work ethics and a woman’s proficiency in her given field of training, and are the ones who would never allow their own mothers, daughters, wives, or sisters to work because they know they may be targeted the same way they themselves target working women. The only way to deal with such lecherous men is to get rid of the existing male chauvinistic mindset. If women are given a fair chance, they would contribute to mankind’s progress in no small measure. We can see from a number of examples around the world that women have contributed to progress whenever they have been given the opportunity.

“Despite 4,000 years of contribution, we do not know about most pioneering women in technology — like Empress Shi Dun, who invented paper, Penthesilea, who invented the battle axe, and Catherine Green, who invented the cotton gin (though Eli Whitney holds the patent).
Florence Nightingale, the famous nurse, was also a brilliant mathematician, and her contribution as the inventor of the pie chart that businesses, technologists, researchers and governments throughout the world use today, is virtually unknown” — ‘Talibanism in Technology’, Deepa Kandaswamy.

Marie Curie, a Polish chemist, was a pioneer in the early field of radiology and a two-time Nobel laureate. She was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize. Her elder daughter, Iréne, was a joint recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935, along with her husband Frédéric Joliot. These women proved that being a woman does not mean she is lesser than a man; in fact, if a woman tries she can achieve anything, or even more, than what a man can achieve.

Why talk of foreign women only when there have been high achievers in our country, the likes of Asma Jehangir — the high profile social worker, human rights activist and famous lawyer, Benazir Bhutto — the first female Prime Minister of any Muslim country, Maliha Lodhi — the first woman in Asia to edit a national daily newspaper, who is the current high commissioner of Pakistan to the United Kingdom, and a former ambassador to the US. In 1994, Time Magazine cited Dr. Lodhi as one of 100 global pacesetters and leaders who would define the 21st century, and the only person from Pakistan in the list (Dr. Lodhi’s information courtesy Wikipedia). These are only three women from a list of numerous other Pakistani women who have made a mark in the world.

If Pakistani society accepts the equal role of women in all walks of life, it would prove to be beneficial for the country as women would be able to make an effective contribution to the economic and social growth of Pakistan. We must realise that discrimination (be it gender discrimination or discrimination against the poor, etc.) would only have a negative effect on the development of any nation. For Pakistan to make a mark in the world, we must adopt Jinnah’s vision — a vision that would take us to the heights of glory.

Comments

Anonymous said…
good article, mehmi. raises some very pertinent questions.
mehmal said…
Thanx Ayesha :-)

Being a working woman, I know what hazards we have to face. Some people in my own family still believe that why do I need to work when we are so well-off? They just can't understand that one doesn't work solely for money *sigh*

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