The plight of women in Pakistan

Shivani Vyas, Staff Writer

Domestic violence, lack of education and childhood marriage: these scenarios seem extreme to American women but represent a way of life for those in Pakistan.

As early as 10, women are pressured to think about their future: marriage. Since in Pakistan fairness is considered beautiful, parents force their kids to stay inside so they don’t get tan. They use various cosmetics specifically made to make their skin fairer. They teach them to prioritize house skills such as cooking or cleaning before education. However, these are just the surface level situations. As they get older, they face far worse.

As an immigrant from Pakistan, Madiha Amir and her family witnessed many crimes against women. They have seen women being domestically abused and forced into marriage. Their own Aunt went through this.

She was only 17 when she got married to a middle class man while she was an upper class woman. At first it was all fine, but then he started to beat her because she birthed a daughter. Then he left both of them and her aunt needed to work in order to support herself and her child.

“My aunt started working in a salon and he hit her for working. My aunt never wanted a divorce because she didn’t want to get labeled because then no one would marry a divorce women’s daughter,” says Amir.

Amir’s aunt’s story was a very common lifestyle for women in Pakistan. Even their neighbor at the time used to get domestically abused. He wouldn’t let her work because he thought she was disrespecting him as a “man”. She used to sew clothes to afford her kids education and run the house.

“Her screams were so loud that when he hit her, we could hear it and the walls were made out of concrete. Whenever she came over to get the clothes to sew, we could see all the scars and bruises underneath her hijab,” says Hafsa Amir, a sophomore in high school and Madiha’s twin sister.

It wasn’t only the married women who were forced to obey men’s commands. A young girl who studied in a University did an innocent and a common thing of having a crush. When her family found out, they pulled her out of the University and arranged her marriage to a person twice her age.

“She ran away but then she got caught and the next thing you know, she got married,” says Faryal Amir, a junior in high school, Madiha’s older sister.

These entire situations seem so unfair and extreme; however, to women in Pakistan it seems so normal that some do not even question it. Others insult people who do not agree with them. A 19 year old came one-day home from her University and found out that today was her engagement to a person she has never seen before.

“When I told her that this should be her own choice, she said you sound American. She said that her father payed for her education and university so this is her way of paying him back by marrying whoever he chooses,” says Hafsa Amir.

“They don’t think of education as their right but they consider it as a privilege so they feel like they need to pay them back by obeying their parents’ wishes,” added Amir.

However, education is not the only right they have to fight for, human beings have a right to choose what they wear and how they wear it. Yet this basic right isn’t given to women in Pakistan. They have to wear whatever her husband or any male relative wants them to wear.

“Women are not binned to wear Hijabs but I their husband wants them to wear then Burkha they are forced to wear it. For some women, Burkha is a symbol for class,” says Faryal Amir.

But times are changing, and so is Pakistan. More women are now getting educated and joining work places that were dominated mostly by men. “More women are trying to be educational because Pakistan needed both women and men to work and be educated in order to fight poverty,” says Amir.

“The good thing is that now women are going more in the work fields. I see more female teachers than male. Working women are increasing,” says Amir.

Pakistan is getting better, but it is far from perfect yet. But as days are passing by, times are changing and slowly so will people’s beliefs about women. Women are now starting to realize their situation. They are fighting for their rights; not only in Pakistan but in the whole wide world. And as for men, they are starting to see a Woman’s potential and instead of suppressing it, some men are supporting it and even encouraging it. One step at a time and the world will be a better place.