Gender discrimination-Savior
but considered lesser
Nature has divided human beings into two halves and both are given
responsibilities which suit them, along with assigning the responsibilities,
nature has very clearly stated the rights of both on each other. Gender
discrimination is a practice which we faced when both the genders show the
desire of substituting their duties without giving and due credit to each other.
In such scenario the powerful became aggressor and other the victim of
aggression. Gender discrimination can also be define as the thinking of men
which convince them in their head that women are lesser then them and it’s their
right to either not give them their rights or misuse them. Basically when we
think that women (may be because of their fragile outlook) are not equal to men
and are not capable of doing anything good then gender discrimination comes into
play.
Discrimination always remained hot topic and since industrial revolution the
human race improved his intellect level. Customs acceptable previously were
challenged and new frontiers were drawn. Fresh manifesto for the betterment of
mankind was formulated. Sympathetic and intellectual heads got together to
review the changes which could directly impact human`s life and act accordingly.
When everyone thought that human race is enjoying its deserving prestige then
there came new issue, this time term used was GENDER DISCRIMINATION. In brief
this issue dealt with the fact that people living on green planet got into habit
of giving preference on the basis of sex. Feminine half felt that they were not
given the equal importance. In every field and culture they complained. To
address this issue and find out its appropriate solution humans are still
struggling even in developed countries like America or Britain. Humans learn
almost everything from its environment; chip in his brain is programmed by the
culture, society and religion. When he becomes a powerful he always decides
according to that programming. E.g. People living in west can have different
opinion and solution for a certain problem then the ones living in east. But one
thing is unanimously accepted that Men do take advantage of the powers blessed
to them by nature.
A few days ago I was watching a program on GEO TV which was showing a
documentary about gender discrimination. They broadcasted a research conducted
in United States of America and result was really shocking when you consider the
amount of development in the country. In that documentary it was revealed that
females working in American media receive almost half the salary for the same
amount of work as compared to men. There were some fields where men were clearly
preferred and if female candidate turned up for an interview she was refused by
saying that they are not recruiting new candidates at this moment.
As I mentioned earlier culture, society and religion plays an important role to
overcome or expand it. It depends on people which doctrine they are following
and how realistic and logical that doctrine is. Let`s take an example of our own
society, it is widely accepted that men can do almost everything even the ones
which are not acceptable in our society but on other hand women are even not
allowed to take part in decisions which involves fate of their lives. Women are
not allowed to work in men dominated environment because the families fears that
their daughters or sister may get victim of bullying and to some extent their
apprehensions are justified. We have seen in our offices that girls do get black
mailed or forced to do undesired things.
Fragile, weak and powerless depiction of women in media is encouraging vulchars
among the men dominated society to hunt down this vulnerable creature. Since the
evolution of life on planet green female were considered to be a tool or toy
which gives pleasure to men and different myths have dignified such role of
women. One has to hold media responsible for most of the disorders. Even in
movies the role of heroin is to satisfy the hero and fulfill his needs. There
are too few movies which showed women as a main character which inflict any
change. One thing which always thrilled me that even in such hi fi age there is
no notable resolution against such portrayal of women. Women themselves are not
seemed to be offended by the way they are being portrayed in media.
“No other issue is as contentious and well-debated in the politics of
contemporary societies as the question of gender and politics. Women activists
all over the world have begun to question political inequality among the sexes.
They have raised fundamental questions about the essence of male-dominated
democratic system in which women find themselves formally or informally excluded
from political power. In recent decades, they have focused on the vital issues
of empowerment, rights, social and political equality and discrimination in its
all forms. The feminist movement even in a male dominated, socially conservative
society like Pakistan has brought into sharp focus more or less the same issues
about the social status of the women and their inadequate representation in the
political power and participation in politics.”
(Rasul Bakhsh Rais, 2007)
Nature has blessed both men and women with different sort of qualities. Some of
them are only blessed to women, some to men and some can be found in both. In
present scenario I do hold women to be blamed for some extent. The concept of
being independent and able to do whatever she wants in her life, in the process
it hijacked the respect of women and women seems like compromising on it. This
concept of being liberal has cost women to great deal.
An article was printed in San fransisco chronicle which beleaguered the problem
of gender discrimination around the world. Starting from American wall-marts and
stating how women were discriminated in that society. Then a story about
Egyptian journalist was disclosed in which those journalist were dressed in
western outfits and according to newspaper they were molested by large number of
group where ever they want. This thinking shows us that it is not the problem of
only third world countries but it seems more developed societies are found to be
more aggressive towards feminines.
Right to take part in key decisions, women were always ignored and were never
given a chance to be able to say something about the important issues. Below is
the graph of a women who are in parliaments of some of most liberal considered
countries of Europe and one will be shocked to see the statistics.
As you can see on average only 16% of parliaments constitute on women. When one
consider the proportion of men and women in above countries then it will be
realized that number of women are under par. One can consider that if women are
treated in such a way on these developed societies then what will be condition
in less developed societies. Answer is not hard; most of women living in less
developed countries are simply in miserable state.
Worldwide, a comprehensive 1989 survey of women concluded that in most countries
women were "poor, pregnant, and powerless." In many countries, women are still
regarded as the property of men, are denied access to birth control information,
are not allowed to vote, and are prohibited from working with men. In
patriarchal societies, being born female can be fatal, as male children are
greatly preferred. In many countries, young girls (and some boys) are sold by
their families into the prostitution trade. During the 1990s, the problem of
trafficking in women and girls for forced labor, domestic servitude, or sexual
exploitation had affected an estimated one to two million women and girls. The
economic collapse in Asia (1997-98) exacerbated such trends.
Only in recent times in most developed countries of world have recognized the
right of women to vote, own property and marry whom they want to choose before
this women were considered to be the property of their men and they had a right
to do anything to them. Such practices can still be witnessed in third world
countries where women are still trying to get their deserved rights.
As time progressed people’s way of thinking changed and new responsibility were
thrown towards the women. This was a time when women were depicted in media and
people tried to sell their products by misusing they fragility and beauty of
women. All campaigns in media, regardless of its target audiences involved
women. Women were shown merely a toy of enjoyment.
In Pakistan women does not enjoy same sort of liberty as compared to west. Our
society is just right place to exploit the women emotionally, physically or
forcefully. When she is in her parents home she is bound to accept whatever is
thrown towards her by her family, in fact it is considered to be her purpose of
life to accept her family`s orders even if they are illogical and unjust. She
moves under supervision of her new master when she gets marry and his orders
become script of her life without having a right of expressing her opinion
because her opinions are not considered worthy enough to listen. Often we listen
from Muslim scholars that Islam has provided that respect and lost prestige to
women but it remains limited in discussions , we never tried to give it a
practical face , we accept it but we don`t practice and you know why? Because we
consider women a lesser creature. Let me get it right, I am not criticizing the
very noble and just religion of Islam for encouraging gender discrimination; in
fact I am exposing male dominated culture of our society who believes on
ideology of Islam but still refuses to give the women rights which are directed
by Islam. Women has right to choose a person whom she wants to marry how many
times we have seen forced marriages in our society and I salute to women who
still any how manage to live her life .
Once I read a story published in very renowned magazine of Urdu known
as”AKHBAR-E-JAHAN”. This story very was based on a guy who was supposed to get
married with one of her cousin. Family had a joint family system , when elder
uncle of guy came to know about the marriage he expressed his annoyance and
later family sat down and decided that guy will get married to both cousins at
same time and surprisingly girls did not know about this decision of their
parents. Through out the story I was expecting an anti climax of the story at
some point but ironically both girls agreed on their parent`s decision and got
married to their cousin. It shows you how we deal women in our society.
Let`s come to our working class women, who for some reasons find themselves in a
position where they got to work. The minute a woman has stepped in the office
for an interview our dirty minds start speculations about their character. Most
of time they get refusals but even if they are selected , unethical,
unacceptable, inhuman , uncivilized and unjust expectations start revolving in
our heads. They are forced to do things which they would never want to do. Male
dominated society thinks that it`s their right to exploit the women. It is pity
that we are followers of such a logical and realistic ideology but still find
our self in a state where we Emberace the whole humanity.
Let`s throw some light on our media and showbiz industry and how they deal with
women. Again non-ending sequence of exploitation which compel women to change
their nature. The beautiful and fragile built woman who looks best in an
unstained cover of maidenliness is humiliated so badly in our media and film
industry that one is force to buy the idea of women being the toys of fun. To
some extent women are also responsible for the discrimination. It seemed that
they agree with the new concept of exposing their beauty to persuade viewers to
buy their services or products. Depiction of women in movies has spiced up the
issue. Often dressed in exposing dresses and dancing in front of crowd depicts
their image as tool for men to enjoy.
With the emergence of advertisement industry new trends have been seen. I can`t
recall a single advert being telecasted on our media which does not involve
female even if their involvement is irrelevant. A mind set is forced to develop
which requires the presence of women ostentatiously.
“On asking several Pakistani who are serving in the multi national companies and
media conglomerations, Mrs. Fouzia Malik a sales agent of the NJI insurance
company told me that women themselves are scared of coming out of their homes.
She added that she has been divorced because she had a nature of job in which
she supposed to interact with people, while her husband never wanted this kind
of social mixing. She said, women need to cast away their fears to get an
economic independence, and face the hindrances coming their ways in any shape.
This is the only way to find equality and remove disparity.”(Rubab Salem,
Pakistan times).
No one can doubt on a fact that state of women is only getting worse day by day.
More development brings new ideas to exploit women in every walk of life.
Weather she is home wife, working lady or daughter she is being victimized and
this is the time where we should revert back to our basic ideology and start
giving the women the right of equality and respect they deserve.