‘Pakistani women have internalised patriarchy and misogyny’

Patriarchy, gender inequality and misogyny are not confined to men only as women have also internalised an immense amount of patriarchy and misogyny.

Mental health practitioner Dr Ayesha Mian said this on Thursday as she spoke to a panel discussion titled ‘Reclaiming The World: Challenges of Today’s Woman’ at the Fifth Women’s Conference held under the auspices of thec.

“It is also about how mothers are raising their sons and daughters,” she said, adding that when her husband would carry a diaper bag of her firstborn, there was resentment in the family. She said that such tiny resentments came from homes where our mothers and grandmothers inculcated such concepts in our minds.

“It is all not men’s fault,” she said, adding that there were both toxic femininity and toxic masculinity and the issue was very much layered. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she said the entire world took a hit and even the gender movement went back 10 years. She said there had been a 45 per cent increase in mental health anxiety issues for women after the pandemic.

Screenplay writer Bee Gul said that showing abuse of women on television as acceptable was problematic. She stressed that currently there was a change in the television industry as the audience had been exposed to the global content, which was also changing our content.

"The kind of female characters we see these days on television and in movies, we don't used to see it earlier," she said. Trade union activist Zehra Khan said that in a patriarchal society, not only women but men faced problems. She said that the feudal system in the country had given women the status of servant or slave and the capitalist society had made the women a commodity.

She said that wage slavery could be seen especially in the fashion industry. She pointed out the issue of minimum wage in Pakistan. In a medicine company in the SITE area, she said that women were getting Rs12,500 per month although the minimum wage in Sindh was Rs32,000, which in itself was extremely low.

If we went deeper, she said, we could see women working for Rs400 wage per day. She also mentioned the issue of equal wages saying that even if the same work was performed by men, they were paid more.

During the inaugural ceremony of the conference, ACP President Muhammad Ahmed Shah said the girls seated here today could not have imagined reaching this far. Fifty or sixty years ago when Zehra Nigah came to recite poetry, he said it was inconceivable for a woman to leave her house, recite poetry, or not wear a veil.

Fifty to fifty-five years ago, Zubeida Mustafa initiated efforts for women's rights through education and Muneeza Shamsi had been working on literature from around the world since forty to fifty years, he said.

He mentioned that society still predominantly favoured men, but at this time, nobody could have imagined a woman writing about entrepreneurship. Women faced many difficulties in obtaining their rights, but today it was heartening to see their success, Shah remarked.

He mentioned that at the University of Karachi, more than 80 per cent of the students were girls, and same was the situation in our medical colleges. He said Sadiqa Salahuddin adorned thousands of girls in rural Sindh with education. “We want to connect more young girls and let them know the enormous struggle behind the freedom they have achieved,” he said.

In her speech, Zehra Nigah said there were revolutions of all kinds happening in the world but the truth remained the truth and false remained false. In the end, she recited poems on Gaza and women, which were appreciated by the audience.

Shah presented an award to educationist Zubeida Mustafa for her services. She said that this was not just her award but the award of all women. “When I started working, very few women were working in institutions, but you are the women who stood behind us like a wall and supported us. I have many sisters like you who are still facing difficulties today, trying to pull them out. We can make women conscious and educated in society and pull them out of difficulties,” she said.