Pakistan is a country with 48.76% of women population according to the recent census in the country, it is also considered one of the worst countries for gender equality, the world economic forum’s global gender gap report for 2017 ranked Pakistan 143rd out of 144 countries in the gender inequality index.

It’s a traditional practice in Pakistan to invest less in education of females than of males because parents expect better employment reward for boys. Even if women studies, they are not allowed to do job in their field of study by their parents or by their husbands after marriage.

Every year in Pakistan, thousands of women become doctors, but very few of them practice because they have to perform their duties as a housewife after marriage.

In rural areas of Pakistan, women are treated just like slaves, they get food and clothes and that’s it, they can’t make decisions about their life, about whom they can marry, similarly in urban areas women face a lot of difficulties if they work, like sexual harassment, not getting equal pay, it is almost impossible for a woman to survive on her own in Pakistan without any male support

If we look into this problem of gender injustice in Pakistan, we will find out that it’s because of the extreme religious point of views, Pakistan has approximately 97% of Muslim population and it is largely considered in Islam that it is men’s duty to provide food and shelter for women, women can only work if it is really necessary to survive, that also in a working environment where her modesty is not compromised, a women cannot go out without a male family member, a lot of ulemas and muftis have given fatwas that a women can’t work or study in a place where she is interacting with other men. According to advocate Faiz Syed (an Islamic scholar), no women can work without any financial problem, if there is no financial issues then women must stay home.

These traditional religious practices might be good 14 centuries ago but now in today’s world, it is considered as harassment, to stop a woman from doing work or going out alone is harassment, it is her basic human right to work as whatever and wherever she wants.

Are we Pakistanis really competing in today’s world by following useless traditions of centuries ago? I think it’s time that we speak up against the religious atrocities being done by extreme religious views holders and give people their basic human rights.