Flaws in social construction of the nation are the core challenge for Pakistan
In Pakistan, plenty of daily news items highlight events based on corruption, sectarian divides, radicalism, genocide, sexual abuse, ethnic conflicts, terrorism, militancy, etc. The citizens may not like these issues to engulf the serenity of their lives but the question is how. The government is formulating and implementing policies and strategies to mitigate the structural and social flaws. However, the identification of the actual reason still seems to be a far cry. Who is the real culprit to sow seeds of hatred and make us reap a harvest of blood and tears?
Generally, a number of external forces are blamed for crafting and aggravating social problems in Pakistan. On closer look into the realm of international politics, one can easily comprehend that no one can exercise a control in foreign territory without an internal support. There are in fact the loopholes in our own social structure and practices which provide strong roots to the existing fault lines. Unless we realise this reality by following firm policies, we are all ready for a social catastrophe.
Gender construction of the society is the first step to address this issue. Gender is a common terminology usually used to describe gender biases. The terms “gender” and “sex” generally appear synonymous but actually they are not. Sex is the natural biological makeup of human beings while gender is a social construct. Nature does not distinguish us by gender and we all are born gender free human beings. It is society that transforms an individual into a masculine or feminine role. The upbringing of an individual and the social environment decide his or her behaviour.
The social environment has direct and strong physiological impact on one’s personality. It can be easily observed by the difference between the varying actions, personality traits, and mood strings of a person from ancient traditional Rajput family and an individual from a Buddhist community. It is the familial and social organisation around a person that transforms a Rajput into a warrior, who is strongly inclined towards war and violence, and a Buddhist into a non-violent person, a preacher of peace.
Gender, which is the social construction of an individual, plays a crucial role in the development of any nation. If the upbringing of individuals does not take place in a positive way, it can lead the nation towards the path of destruction. It may result in the origin of various fault lines in the form of political and social instability. Flaws in social construction of the nation are the core challenge for Pakistan.
Gender, which is the social construction of an individual, plays a crucial role in the development of any nation. If the upbringing of individuals does not take place in a positive way, it can lead the nation towards the path of destruction
Our society is patriarchal in nature, patriarchy does not mean male dominant society but it is a form of society where masculine members are considered not only the guardians of women but also the guardians of young male members of the society. In Pakistan, unfortunately, patriarchy is considered as the power exercising structure where women are fully dependent on men and are considered their commodity. According to Jone Johnson Lewis, “Gender relations in Pakistan rest on two basic perceptions; that women are subordinate to men, and that a man’s honour resides in the actions of the women of his family.”
Patriarchal structure of the society has provided man with all the authority and rights to suppress women. According to the report of Amnesty International, “In Pakistan 42 percent of women accept violence as part of their fate; 33 percent feel too helpless to stand up to it; 19 percent protested and four percent took action against it”.
So called patriarchy is the main reason that women are lagging in our society. Males are not ready to break the male hegemonic patterns of society. Even in the 21st century political participation of women in Pakistan is very low. Every third woman is victim of domestic violence, and strangely the rate of domestic violence is higher in our urban areas as compared to rural ones. Pakistan is portraying the true picture of “tough men and tender women”.
The Human Rights Watch report estimates that “up to 90 percent of women are victims of domestic violence in the country where in every one out of three households there is violence against women.”
Another fault line in this respect is xenophobia. The term means “fear of strangers”. Pakistani nation has an emotional attachment towards their belongings. To some extent it is a positive sign and creates a strong bond of nationalism while on the other hand it has given birth to racism and extremism. For instance, one might say that the debacle of East Pakistan was the result of insecurities based on xenophobia and less accommodative behaviour of people living in the two regions.
Similarly, rigid social organisation in Pakistan’s tribal areas make them an exclusive society which cannot bear foreign intervention, thus follows their cults religiously, which resulted into anarchic setup and so many evils interwoven with the culture and tradition of tribal groups such as shelter for terrorist, illegal trade of arms, human and drug trafficking, etc. Sectarian schism and zero-tolerant behaviour of people towards other sects is another challenge which has caused loss of hundreds of innocent lives in last two decades.
Shi’a genocide and mushroom growth of madrassah culture is injecting poison of hatred in the vessels of nation. Unfortunately, every one of us is adding oil to this fire directly or indirectly. This problem is not confined to Muslim sectarian groups but now non-Muslim minorities are also the victims of tyranny. Recently, a couple was burnt alive in a brick kiln. That was not the first case, it has happened before for number of times and people were found misusing Article 295-C of Pakistan’s Criminal Code to exploit alleged blasphemy offenders. The conditions of Hindu minority living in Sindh are an eye opening reality, but unfortunately governmental bigwigs stay silent.
Social taboos are rigid values of any culture and are acceptable by the majority of the people of that social organisation and individuals of society normally hesitate to talk about them. These taboos vary from culture to culture; some are moderate and help in strengthening social organisation but some are inhumane in nature. For instance, as fashion label, the trend of Golden Lotus was introduced in China to confine the activities of women inside the boundaries of the house. Similarly women were encouraged to come out of the houses in the name of freedom during industrialisation. Time to time, various tactics were used to suppress them. In Pakistan, women are considered as second gender, there are many taboos to target the women such as honour killings, satti and wani, etc. It is our culture that confined the activities of women with the boundaries of the house, and those who are working or getting education are facing problems and societal pressures. They are not taught about their basic rights and usually people avoid talking about sensitive issues or discuss them with hesitation and hiccups.
In Pakistan, religion always runs high on demand and is the favourite appetite for the nation, and therefore this demand becomes more superficial when an ordinary national wants to seek refuge for his misdeeds beneath the huge canopy of religion. Hence starts exploitation in the name of religion, where it becomes an easy way to hold and easier to discard the religious norms if and when required. There are many other ironies which we witness in our daily lives. Evil practices in the name of culture and tradition, which are accepted by most of us consciously or unconsciously, have penetrated deep in our society and have now almost become a national identity. According to Human Rights Watch, “A man was tried for killing his daughter and a young man as they married against the will of their parents. The sessions (trial court) judge sentenced the father to life imprisonment, and a fine of Rs 20,000. The case came before the Lahore High Court, which reduced the sentence to five years, and the fine to Rs 10,000. In its judgment drastically reducing the defendant’s sentence, the appellate court indicated that his actions were justified because his victims were engaged in immoral behaviour that could not be tolerated in an Islamic state such as Pakistan”.
If we will not take the initiative to counter these ugly practices, their strong and tight-clipped jaws will engulf everything, and the storm created by them will take almost every aspect of social life in its way, and will affect the women the most, which is considered the weak segment of our population.
On the lawmaking front, the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill which was tabled and passed unanimously by the National Assembly back in 2009 disappeared in murkiness before it could become a law
Above mentioned are the few dimensions that are affecting the society directly or indirectly. Gender transformation of the nation is very important. Without it we will not be able to maintain stability in the society. All those nations which have labelled themselves as custodians of human rights and claim themselves racism free sovereigns put a lot of effort to bring about reforms in their public and social sphere. The process of transformation has three dimensions: psychological; changes in understanding of the self, convictional; revision of belief systems, and behavioural; changes in lifestyle.
Unfortunately, we lack all three in practice. Social transformation from individual level to societal level is very important to lead Pakistan on the path of development and prosperity. We should stop manipulating women in the name of Islam. Islam considers a woman to be equal to a man as a human being and as his life partner. Women have been created with a soul of the same nature as that of a man. Collective contribution of male and female has maintained the balance of life on earth. Allah has blessed woman with Jamal (quality of beauty) and man with Jalal (quality of strength). Allah made man Raziq (feeder and guardian) and woman as Khaliq (mother). In Quran Allah says
“…And live with them honourably…” (4:19)
“The believers, men and women, are protecting friends one of another; they …” (9:71)
Although religion gives safety, security, freedom and honour to women, women should not misuse these rights. Freedom should not be misinterpreted as an escape from duties. Women are the supreme pillar of any nation, they should perform their duties full heartedly and they should pay respect towards male portions of the society.
On the lawmaking front, the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill which was tabled and passed unanimously by the National Assembly back in 2009 disappeared in murkiness before it could become a law. In the same year, Pakistan was elected as member of the executive board of the newly created United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN Women).
The presence of laws is not enough for resolution of problems. There is a need to develop accountable and transparent mechanism to address the issues from grass root level to national level. We need to challenge and transform existing flaws in the society, and individual attitudes that started accepting the fault lines as normal unconsciously.
There is also a need to mobilise all the social institutions which are foundational to family, community, and society to act to prevent clashes and conflicts, and to put popular pressure on the public institutions to formulate and implement transparent policies and to bring together diverse local, national, regional, and international efforts working towards ending conflicts.
Being the nationals of Pakistan, we should stop playing hide and seek and try to tear the smokescreens that are justifying ugly cults and evil taboos. Debate and discussion is not enough, there is urgent need for action. This is the time to break our silence and stand united for the country. Only unconditional devotion and effort will change our fate.