Islamabad, Nov 11 (IANS) Pakistan remains entrenched in patriarchal and feudal structures, fostering a culture of male dominance where women are confined to domestic roles as housewives, bound within the four walls and conditioned to internalise these restrictions as a part of their identity, a report said on Tuesday.

It added that women viewed as ‘chattels’ (personal property) are expected to be dutiful to their husbands and largely excluded from opportunities for financial autonomy.

“A country where a woman once held the helm of affairs, today, is struggling to ensure women’s rights to walk safely outside their homes. Where gender parity ranks the lowest around the globe, stemming as low as 56.7 per cent, and brutalities such as gunning down a 17 year old teenager for refusing a proposal, reporting of a staggering 32,617 cases of gender based violence in the year 2024 alone, is a searing reflection of the countless lived realities of women and the brutalities they are exposed to every passing day in a system that quietly hushes all their wailing cries,” a report in think tank ‘Geostrata’ detailed.

“The state’s unabashed promotion of religious conservatism and further stifling of women’s voices found its blueprint with the Hudood Ordinance, a series of legislations passed under the Zia regime as part of his ambitious vision of Islamising Pakistan, in 1979, modifying the existing criminal laws, and further shaping them to conform to the rules of Islam, with enforcement of one key legislation, blurring the lines between recognition of rape and adultery,” it added.

According to the report, the persistent violation of women’s rights by the Pakistani authorities highlights the perpetual cycle of patriarchy and subjugation, confining women to the private sphere. It added that Pakistan’s hypocrisy is stark–as the country jumps at the opportunity to voice concerns about minority rights in India, it fails to protect the rights of women who constitute 49.3 per cent of its population.

“A country that sanctioned the gruesome mass rape of 4,00,000 women citizens by its own army in 1971, under Operation Searchlight, with a female literacy rate dwindling at 49%, according to the 2022 World Bank report and women representatives in the Pakistan parliament approximating at 17 per cent in 2024, the daunting reality dawns on us that a bipartisan state with gender parity still remains a distant dream,” the report stressed.

While Pakistan seeks to portray itself as a growing power, it said, the interplay between modernity and the traditional belief system leaves the nation at a crossroads.

–IANS

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