WOMEN’S FIGHT FOR GENDER EQUALITY IN EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

         Gender inequality is a huge barrier to human development. Women have been discriminated based on their gender and social status for many decades, although female representatives attended to protest against anti-women violence since 1990, they have not yet gained gender equity. (United Nations Development Programme, 2016)

          Women from all around the world, in turn, keep showing their opposition against unfair treatment: they protest in the streets and organize marches. The recent march which was organized on International Women’s Day, March 8, took place in Indonesia.

          However, gender inequality is not a problem for the majority of countries these days, except for Pakistan. Pakistan has a big issue with women rights as it has been ranked the second worst country in the world for gender inequality. Despite the fact that gender equality was guaranteed in country's constitution in 1973. Since that historical day Pakistan and Pakistani women have faced the range of reforms which led to the consideration that Pakistan is one of the 5 most dangerous countries for women.

         Gender inequality is an unequal treatment of individuals based on their gender. It is a huge barrier to human development. That's why the rate of technological progress in Pakistan is very low.

          However, the influential women of Pakistan seem to come to terms of such a significant issue. Zavi Fatima, a young news anchor, claims that gender inequality has become a part of their lives.  But in fact, as a result of unequal treatment of women in Pakistan, 50% of the women lack basic education.  Moreover, number of out-of-school children in Pakistan is 2nd highest in the world , and most of them are girls.
          Currently, women are fighting for their own rights, and Malala Yousafzai has been advocating for girls’ educational rights, which makes her the first protestor of Pakistan for women rights in education.

         According to the new research from the World Economic Forum gender inequality is present 145 countries of the world.  Women from all around the world, in turn, keep showing their opposition against unfair treatment: they protest in the streets and organize marches. This shows that women are united and they want to be heard, which means that governments, local and international organizations should take actions.

         Gender inequality is a huge problem for Pakistani women. Pakistan is ranked second following Yemen as the least equal nation.  Despite the fact that women’s capacity became fortunate comparing with the 20th century.

         Virginija Langbakk, director of the Vilnius-based European Institute for Gender Equality, believes that gender inequality harms both men and women. “The unfair division of unpaid time is a loss for men," says Langbakk. "If they were more involved in household activities and spent more time with family, they would have better health and a better relationship with the family.”

         In Pakistan, woman is discriminated since  the day she was born. Boys were always considered more important compared to the girls. To prevent such position initiatives such as the National Plan of Action for Women (1998), National Policy for Empowerment and Development for Women (2002) and Gender Reform Action Plan (2004) have been established.  This shows that government cares about women and their capacity, but these things may not be enough to let men know that they should treat women equally.

         For instance, there are 103 high court judges in Pakistan and only seven of them are women , which means that discrimination against women still takes place in this country. Gender expert in Pakistan, Dr Yasmin Zaidi, claims that discriminatory laws must be removed and legislative gaps filled.  This shows that women and men do not have equal opportunities. However, it will take a lot of time to reclaim Pakistani people.

         As it became an ordinary thing to discriminate women in Pakistan, that will be difficult to bring to men that it is not right that their mothers, sisters or daughters are abiding violence, so it is not known when Gender Inequality will end in South Asia, but it is actually outstanding and worthy to be mentioned that women are brave enough to protest against men who have been discriminating them for many decades.

         Considering everything that was written in the article, government of Pakistan and other South Asian countries should take actions to prevent continuous violence against women. Gender Inequality should produce an impact on every global citizen, because an enormous number of young ambitious girls do not have an opportunity to educate and live without regrets.

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