This article examines whether the concept of modesty is specific to only women, or the men also need to demonstrate the same in a society like ours. Before I discuss it in detail, let’s express our solidarity with all the mothers and sisters who have been suffering for the last several months because of a lack of drinking water, electricity, and supply of unhealthy flour in various parts of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Let’s also pay tribute to all those women who were victims of oppression in society. Those women who were killed were subjected to torture and sexual brutality. The women were denied basic human rights, i.e., access to education, health, and justice. The ones who were forced to commit suicide under the ironic treatment of society. The women are still forced to live their lives under miserable conditions.
It should be kept in mind that women are more women are affected by social, economic, political, and social problems, e.g., increasing inflation, unemployment, poverty, and natural disasters. They are women who have carried for centuries the burden of child-rearing, treating family members with disabilities, and the elderly for centuries.
These hard-working women are subjected to domestic violence, deaths during maternity, honor killing, forced and early marriage, and sexual abuse, taunts, harassment at work and public places, deprivation of inherited property. They also face lustful stares and horrible attitudes toward men in their daily life.
Women who work at home are neither paid nor appreciated. Similarly, the women who leave their homes to support their families and children face mental disorders and various kinds of abuse.
Israruddin Israr
Despite being half of the population, women are deprived of participation in education, health, employment, politics, and decision-making processes. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2022 Gender Discrimination Report, Pakistani society ranks 156th in terms of gender inequality.
The countries lagging behind Pakistan are Afghanistan, Somalia, and Iraq, which have been at war for a long time. Other Islamic countries such as Iran, and Saudi Arabia, are ahead of us. According to experts, if this state of gender inequality continues, our society would not be able to the ranks of developed societies for the next two hundred years.
If we want to change the status quo and occupy a respectable position in the comity of the nation, we need to bring about policy-level changes followed by implementation. Positive and sound policymaking is the need of the hour to come out of this dire situation so that women can live in a safe, healthy, dignified, civilized, and humane environment and contribute to the development of their families and society.
Men need to be taught their responsibility is not only to respect the women at home but also to respect those on the road, on the bus, at the workplace, at school, college, seminary or university, hospitals, etc.
It is very important to highlight the role of women in the development of society and pay tribute to them, besides identifying the issues that women are concerned about. Women, who constitute half of the population, face innumerable problems, but the biggest problem is the negative attitudes of society toward women. Due to this women are suffering from mental disorders every moment.
It is high time to change our attitudes toward women. We have to treat every woman in a society with respect and dignity. Not just in words but in practice, we start treating our mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives with dignity and respect.
It’s high time to train men at home to promote humane attitudes toward women. They have to be taught their responsibility is not only to respect the women at home but also to respect those on the road, on the bus, at the workplace, at school, college, seminary or university, hospitals, etc. Men need to be taught to treat women in public places with complete dignity and respect; avoid glaring at them; keep their eyes down; and give women space. Similarly, they need to be taught not to make their clothes, walk, and talk about a topic of conversation.
Similarly, men need to be taught to avoid inappropriate comments, friend requests, and anti-women posts on mobile and social media. Moreover, men need to learn to avoid following women in the streets and markets. Another important thing in teaching these values to men is to: consider every woman in society a human being and by accepting their human dignity allowing them to live a safe, peaceful, happy, and prosperous life in society.
Thus, there is also a need to teach modesty men who do not miss any opportunity to trample social and moral values and disrespect women.
The writer is a Gilgit-based human rights activist and columnist. Currently, he is associated with HRCP as regional coordinator Gilgit-Baltitsan. He can be reached at israrhrcpglt@gmail.com
