‘Chitrali women going through depression due to social problems’

CHITRAL: Women in Chitral are going through depression due to a host of social problems, said rights activists on Thursday.

In a series of community sessions participated by women activists in Garam Chashma, Chitral and Drosh towns of Lower Chitral jointly organized by Chitral Press Club and Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, it transpired that forced and early marriages, exclusion from household decisions and denial of share in ancestral property were some other common problems faced by women. The women activists complained that parents subjected their daughters to mental agony when they failed to score high marks in the examinations.

They stressed the need for providing opportunities for women folk to use different platforms of social media and sensitizing them to raise their voices using modern tools. A former member of the district council Sifat Gul and a woman police officer Dilshad Pari urged women to learn to utilize their talents and energies to the full instead of surrendering to circumstances.

The speakers urged educated women to learn some useful skills and said that unemployment was the root of mental depression. They praised the initiative of increasing the voice of women on different platforms of social media and hoped that that would make women resilient to injustices and rough treatment in the male-dominated society.

Chitral Press Club President Zaheeruddin said that efforts were underway to help women unshackle the obnoxious social bonds by raising voices in the media with the assistance of AKRSP. He said that the establishment of the Women Reporting Desk in the Chitral Press Club was a step in this direction.