Safeguarding women's rights

Two horrific and heart-wrenching incidents that happened recently trembled the hearts of every Pakistani. A 5-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped, and brutally murdered. While the nation was mourning over her tragic death. Another horrific incident took place late night on Lahore Motorway road, a woman and her kids were mercilessly beaten, she was gang-raped and all the money she had was robed. About 11 of such cases were reported in 24 hours that day. For over years Pakistan has seen an increase in child abuse and murder, rape, assault, harassment, and violence against women. Already in the very first months of 2020, the Sahil organization reported a staggering 200 percent increase in these crimes. From January to June 2020 about 3,148 cases of violence against women, 1,868 cases of rape, 928 cases of child abuse have been reported by SSDO, yet a ginormous number of cases are not reported majorly because women have lost faith in the police and justice system, they fear they would be victimized by the police and humiliated in the society. Women who go through these incidents remain traumatized, depressed, and even attempt suicide.

Child marriage is also a serious problem in Pakistan, According to the information gathered by Human rights watch 2019, 21% of Pakistani girls are forced into marriage at a very young age and 3 percent at an even younger age. Another brutal act committed by families and relatives of the victim in Pakistan are the honor killings of women, majority of honor killings go unreported and unpunished, but according to an estimate, every year 1000 women are killed for perceived damage to families. for such families, their daughters are better off dead than living with the shame they have committed. But this unjust treatment towards women is not limited to Pakistan, women in nearly all Islamic countries face a similar fate. In Islamic countries including Pakistan, a male-dominant tribal system based on paganism has failed to lose its dominance despite the modern transformation of states. Families hold taboos against women and use them under religious pretext which in reality has no basis in freedom espousing Islam. Under these pretexts, they do not allow women to go out, beat them if they look out or take any step on their own, confine them to houses, forbid them from education, and isolate them completely from socio-economic life. It is the same misogynist mentality that forces women to cover head to toe even in their homes and snatches away all the basic rights they naturally are born with. Even in the most developed countries, women are raped, sexually assaulted, subjected to severe domestic violence by their male partners, and face inequality and discrimination in workplaces. So in short women all around the world are living under constant oppression, psychological pressure, inequality discrimination, and injustice.

To curb these issues of disgrace and disrespect towards women and to safeguard women's rights, we can take some social and legal actions. 

Women should be given priority in politics, business, science fields, and in every place and post they are. The security and safety of all women must be ensured by strict laws, a police system on which women do not trust must be reformed and supervised by the most trusted authorities so that the police do not become the perpetrators or help the culprits with impunity. Criminals who fulfill their prison terms should be constantly watched over and their movement across the city should be restricted. An Economical system in which people are having adequate resources should be put into practice so the young can get married easily. 

However, the most important thing should be preventing these incidents from happening in the first place. The corrupt mentality that lies behind even in the most developed, developing and undeveloped countries is the flawed education system across the world that teaches women have half the brain to that of men, that considers women no higher than an animal and look upon them as weak and helpless creatures who need to be dominated. This education system also encourages people to be selfish, keeps them away from God, and consequently from fear of Him. This lack of fear of God and one's thinking he will not be held accountable for his deeds results in all kinds of corruption cruelty and fulfillment of one's desires by hook or crook. A person who believes in God and fears him would know everyone has the right to life as granted by God, he lives within the limits set by God and struggles for a just and peaceful society. If a society is raised with the teachings from the Quran where women are given all their rights, where they are esteemed, respected, taken care of and are brought up like flowers, no one would dare to harm women, and everyone would protect them with all their might under every circumstance.