Edification of women through education

“Man for the field and woman for the hearth;
Man for the sword and for the needle she;
Man with the head and woman with the heart;
Man to command and woman to obey;
All else confusion” — Lord Tennyson.

While driving the other night, I stopped at a signal and in my rearview mirror saw that the car behind me had a female driver; the car next to me also had a female driver. I thought to myself, we have come a long way indeed from the days when hardly any female driver was visible on the roads. But my joy was shortlived as the next day, one of my uncles said something to the effect that a girl should just do her bachelors and then get married. I wondered why there is so little stress on women’s education.

Patriarchy and misogynism are two components that have plagued all societies of the world at one time or another. Some societies have succeeded in eradicating these vices, while others are still shackled by them. Ours is one such society and can best be described as a ‘man’s world’, where families are run by men, where men earn more than women, where sons are preferred over daughters, and where men have more options than women in every walk of life, be it socially or professionally. It is in the profound nature of man to control others through the rule of power and domination. The white man tried to control the black man, the theologists tried to control the common man by putting fear in his heart and persecuting anyone who came up with new ideas. Man has tried to control women over the centuries.

Societies that have broken the chains of ignorance and are free of these stereotypical attitudes have done so through education of the masses and raising awareness. Education of females is of utmost importance. Children learn to use and develop their mental prowess at a very young age through various types of education. The process of education for a child does not start when he/she attends school – the formal education of a child begins there, but the basic education is imparted in the lap of the mother. Therefore, it is very important that a woman must be educated in order to raise her children intelligently.

At the beginning of the 20th century, female literacy in every province of British India, and almost every native state, was less than 1 percent (and none of the native states where it was higher fall in today’s Pakistan). Over time, in that sense, progress in female literacy has been substantial, but in comparative international perspective, Pakistan’s (and India’s) record is dismal. According to the Human Development Report (HDR) 2005, Pakistan’s female literacy rate is 35.2 percent and male 61.7 percent, while India’s female literacy rate is 47.8 percent and male 73.4 percent. According to the World Development Report 2001, Pakistan’s female-male sex ratio was amongst the lowest in the world, at 0.93. Looking at the gender gap in education within South Asia, the average female adult literacy rate as a ratio of male literacy rate is 66 percent, in sub-Saharan Africa it is 76 percent, in Pakistan it is 57 percent, in India it is 65 percent, in Sri Lanka 96 percent. Female economic activity rate in Pakistan is 36.7 percent, in India it is 42.5 percent, in Sri Lanka it is 43.5 percent, in OECD it is 51.8 percent, in sub-Saharan Africa it is 62.3 percent, in South Asia it is 44.1 percent, in the Arab states it is 33.3 percent while the average in all developing countries is 56 percent. As a ratio of male economic activity rates, the numbers are: Pakistan: 44 percent, India: 50 percent, Sri Lanka: 56 percent, Arab states: 42 percent, sub-Saharan Africa: 73 percent, South Asia: 52 percent, OECD: 72 percent.

In a patriarchal society like ours, there is hardly any emphasis on the education of women. Here it is believed that the education of boys is more important than that of girls since the men are the ‘protectors’ of a family and provide the family with food, clothing, income, etc., while the women should take care of the household. Not only do the men try to make women feel inferior, but women themselves consider that they are only to do household chores and look after their family, while not deeming it important for themselves to acquire skills at a level where they can be as professionally competent as males are, apart from a few exceptions such as in the field of medicine or teaching.

Society must be made aware of the fact that given a chance, women can do a much better job than men in any given field. Countless examples can be found in even Pakistan that given an equal opportunity, women can certainly outdo men at any given point. Just last month, Aviation cadet Saira Amin became the first woman cadet in the history of the country’s defence forces to win the Sword of Honour at a passing-out parade at the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Academy in Risalpur. It should be noted that the Sword of Honour is awarded on the basis of overall performance in three disciplines – flying, academics and general services training. We now have a female State Bank Governor, Shamshad Akhtar. There are numerous examples found all over the world, such as Marie Curie who was a pioneer in the early field of radioactivity, later becoming the first two-time Nobel laureate and the only person with Nobel Prizes in two different fields of science (physics and chemistry), her eldest daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie also won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, media personality Oprah Winfrey, the likes of Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf in tennis, etc.

Women who do not enter the real world cannot properly understand the mechanism of the outside world, thus making them unable to train and bring up their children accordingly. Generally the responsibility for intellectual growth lies with the father, which should actually have been with the mother. A father might not be able to give his child as much time as a mother can. It would be more beneficial for a child’s upbringing if the mother is properly educated.

Islam has laid great stress on the education of both men and women. According to Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), “It is obligatory for every Muslim, male or female, to acquire knowledge.” The Prophet (PBUH) made it a point of duty for parents to make sure that their daughters were educated properly, and not just their sons. The example of the Prophet’s (PBUH) wife should suffice. Hazrat Ayesha had immense knowledge of the Quran, Ahadith, poetry, literature, Arab history, genealogy, medicine and mathematics. If only one half of a society is enlightened while the other half remains in darkness, it would create a great imbalance and society would remain underdeveloped. The progress and development of a society can only take place with the education and emancipation of women.

Society has an important role to play in the emancipation of women. Parents must bring up their daughters like their sons. A female child must be given equal opportunities in life as the male child, be it education or freedom. Women must not let the status quo continue and should not continue to assume they have no responsibility and just let their mental abilities gather dust till they lack any more ability to flourish. They should not be merely like animals whose only purpose in life is to eat, sleep, bring up children and be part of the harem of the male. Instead, they should have their own identity and unique perspective of life so that they cannot be dictated to. They must realise that they can support themselves and live their lives very well if they have to, therefore, they can avoid economic and social blackmailing in case they shun their husbands and also gain their own self-respect by proving to themselves that they are as good as anyone.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Nice article. Sometimes, I think the short-sighted policy of tilting the playing field to favour women in a fit of political correctness does as much damage to the women's empowerment movement as the supression does. A typical case is that of Aviation Cadet Saira Amin. In reality, it was Fl. Officer Nadir who won the Sword of Honour - even in the final drill, it was handed to him. But on graduation day, the top leadership chose to award it to Amin, since she scored more in acads, but less in everything else. This had an adverse effect on all-round morale
mehmal said…
Hi x-eyed, cool @ finding my blog that way. By the way, which anti-Muslim blog was that? I do not have as much knowledge about Islam as I would've liked, but I am trying my best to gain it and spread the true message instead of the concocted version that many illiterate Mullahs preach.

I'll come and check out your blog soon and participate in the discussion, seems like an interesting topic. And Eid Mubarik to you too :=)

Thanks Mihir! Yes you're right that it is wrong to favour women just on the basis of their gender and not on merit, as it would not do much for their emancipation. In fact, it would be more harmful for the struggle of those women who fought for women's equality because such discrimination would embitter men against women even more than before.

I believe that in the case of Saira Amin, they made it a one-time exception to encourage women and show them that they can outdo men if they want to. But I am not in favour of getting the Sword of Honour without merit, and I hope that such bias would not be repeated again.

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