Freidrich Engels, to quote from his seminal work of
the 19th century, Origins of the Family, Private Property
and the State, said that the first class antagonism is
between man and woman and the first class
subjugation is that of women by men.1 One can
actually deduce from this assertion that women
participating equally in decisions affecting our
collective political, social and economic life will
eventually challenge the overall power structures
which oppress the working classes and minority
communities in any society, for there is an inherent
link between oppression of all kinds prevalent in
human society to the subjugation of women.
Pakistan is one of the successor states of British India
formed in 1947. It is a predominantly Muslim society
with huge resource deficits. What is unique about
contemporary Muslim societies is that the richest of
these nations, for instance of the Arab world,
discriminate more against their women than some
resource constrained nations elsewhere. Therefore,
we find that in Muslim societies, it is not poverty
alone, but dominant social norms in the name of
culture and religion employed by powers that be to perpetuate absolute political control over the bodies
and minds of girls and women.
Pakistani women have not only endured an
incremental and significant increase in social
oppression in community and public life at large,
there also came a time when the state of Pakistan,
supposed to be modern and neutral in theory,
deliberately acted against its women citizens by
creating discriminatory instruments of power through
draconian legislation and encouraging social
conservatism through syllabus and public media. The
aftermath of that period in Pakistan’s political history
continues till day.
The oppression experienced by women in Pakistan is
multi-layered, and ranges from stifling legal
frameworks instituted by the state to forcible
following of primordial social norms in the name of
Islamic religious orthodoxy and feudal and tribal
cultures. However, in the face of these adverse
circumstances, women have shown remarkable
adroitness, determination and resilience across the
length and breadth of Pakistan in different shapes
and forms and in different areas of human
endeavour. Through waging civil struggles for the
realisation of their human rights and succeeding
persistently in increasing their participation and space
in the public sphere, women are, in the opinion of
some analysts, latently sowing the seeds for
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transformation and ensuring a better status for
women in society.
This paper, largely exploratory in nature, begins with
briefly describing the socio-cultural, legal and
structural, and economic constraints faced by
Pakistani women. It then acknowledges and records
the resilience and successes achieved by women by
citing examples from the selected domains of
educational attainment, limited but mentionable
changes in social behaviour of men and communities
brought about by their struggle through a couple of
case studies, growing economic activity,
improvement in legislation due to their struggle and
increased political participation.