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Women’s Day

March 8 has rolled around once more. Sadly, International Women’s day finds the women of Pakistan no better off than they were before. Despite the contents of its manifesto and the many promises made by leaders, the PPP has been able, in real terms, to do little to improve their plight. Discriminatory laws remain on the statute books and while legislation, including a bill introducing penalties for harassment at the workplace has been introduced, implementation remains poor. Similar problems with the enforcement of laws are a key reason behind the continued rise in cases of violence against women – with surveys by internal human rights watchdog bodies in the past indicating 70 or 80 percent of Pakistani women suffer violence in some form, be it emotional, physical or sexual in nature. Growing social frustrations and economic pressures add to their suffering, triggering an increase in crimes directed at women. The destruction of schools for girls by militants meanwhile continues in the north.
Despite the odds stacked up against them, we can still find the spirit of March 8, marked first in the US and then in nations around the world since the early 1900s, among the women of Pakistan. More and more have risen up to confront those who have wronged them. Girls have refused to be forced into marriages, a growing number each year bravely report rape, women who have faced domestic violence have spoken out about their suffering and awareness of their rights has grown quite dramatically over the past few decades, even among rural women. This is the first step along the road to greater equality that women everywhere seek, and which is indeed the key to the future prosperity of Pakistan and all its people.

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