Winning Essays

Women empowerment has more than one component: authority to be in charge of their own lives, access to opportunities and resources, and more autonomy in making political, social, domestic, and economic decisions. All of these dimensions of female empowerment are interrelated. Therefore, to bring a transformation in the status of females, all have to be changed. Keeping this in mind, it can be said that the biggest hurdle in the way of the progress of women in Pakistan is the lack of resources. The resource of education, the resource of jobs, the resource of political and social awareness, and the most important, yet the most disregarded, the resource of health care.

Rape on motorways. Rape in little girls’ bedrooms. Rape in the light of day and the dark veil of the night. It is this constant fear that creeps along every Pakistani woman and girl’s spine. Every day. Of every week. Of every year. Of every lifetime.

As it strikes 8 on my watch and the darkness further engulfs the silent corners of the alley; I rush towards the congested market as horrifying tales of the unsafe silence of the alley begin to bellow in my ears. Upon entrance however relief does not wash over my heart, waves of fear ebb through my body because it is no longer the vile evil lurking in shadows rather men bathing in the golden light, whose lecherous gaze and smirks make me squirm. I begin to walk faster as I pull my t-shirt further down and tighten my scarf around my neck. Tightened such, that it strangles me. I start to run. My heart rhythmically pounds to the sound of thudding footsteps behind me. My heart races and so do I as we run away from the heinous intentions and catcalls that follow me. I struggle to breathe as societal norms and the fear of reputation force me to stifle my terrified screams while the urge to confront gnaws at my throat.

You call them backwards and primitive but ultimately, do they not echo the truth? When the seats of government and the boards of multinational companies are dominated by the male, do you still claim equality? Surely you would make more than eleven percent of the world’s billionaires if you were truly capable, it is not like the law forbids you to.

As a female teenager living in Pakistan , the biggest challenge I have seen women around me , including myself face is trying to live up to an image which is imported . It is not me and it is not mine. Therefore in trying to own it I have exhausted myself. It is the wave of the so-called ‘modernism’ perpetuated by feminism that has totally ripped me of my self-identity and my values.

My blood boils every time I hear the phrase, “Women belong in the kitchen”. The biggest challenge women face is not being allowed to own themselves. In Pakistan, one of the worst countries in the world for women, they are placed in a kitchen-like world for a false sense of ‘security’ and held accountable for male gaze and male desire once that pseudo-security fails.

Pakistan consists of extremely heterogenous communities that differ in social status, caste, religion and many other factors. This diversity also reflects in the challenges that women and girls face across different families and communities. Nevertheless, women are supressed in one way or another in the highly dominant patriarchal societies of Pakistan. Although all the challenges that females face in the country are extremely important to deal with, I personally think that the lack of access to education as desired by the women and girls in Pakistan is the biggest challenge they face. The reason is that the issue of access to desired education transcends each of the diverse communities and is shared by women of all class, caste and religion in their own ways. This essay will look at how early marriage of girls and prioritizing boys’ education is taking away the right of women and girls to receive the education that they desire.

Our bodies produce, from what is just a cell, a fetus – A fetus we deliver as an infant –we learn to shower love and care upon them, like none other, so that one day they grow into the one who will lead. So what makes you better than us? This question lingers in the minds of thousands of women out there; those who are facing abuse, who are not allowed to talk for themselves, who are treated as lesser beings, who are treated as if they do not possess a brain, those who are silenced from voicing their opinions, and those who are treated as dolls for marriage, those who are discriminated for their race, and many more.

“Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female — whenever she behaves as a human being, she is said to imitate the male.” ― Simone de Beauvoir

Much of the structure of society today has been heavily influenced by rigid gender norms: the suffocating ideology of closing human beings in a proposition of what they should be because of their sex. Women are the ones most negatively impacted by these stereotypes, especially in a patriarchal society such as Pakistan where men dominate areas of moral authority and social privilege. A women's value and esteem is attached to a male or to another human. The highest level of regality she earns is through the titles of a sister, mother, or wife.

Let us not beat around the bush.

The problem facing women in my country today is that they are women. By definition of the word used for women, they are lesser than men. No, they're lesser than a human being.

Don’t go outside your house after the sun starts setting, the spell starts to weaken. When the clock strikes 12, It breaks fully and you become visible to predators. Going outside after that is an invitation to be attacked. The predators are intruders too, so make sure you put your dignity and self-respect inside a safe and lock it before you go to sleep. After night falls, you are not safe. Learn this. These are rules are sacred, and you must follow them. You abide by them and you must be vigilant.

I was sitting with my grandmother one afternoon, not too long ago. Her words weren’t prompted, and her cadence and manner of speaking were almost that of talking about the weather when she told me, laughing slightly, “tumharey paida honey se pehle ham aik baita honey ki dua kar rahey thay”.