"Women's Problems in the Patriarchal Society: Individual and Collective Efforts towards its Resolves" by Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM)

Faisalabad, Pakistan: May 25, 2010, (PCTV Newsdesk)

AWAM (Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation) organized a public forum titled “Women’s Problems in the Patriarchal Society: Individual and Collective Efforts towards its Resolves” in collaboration with LEHR (Liaison for Enforcement of Human Rights). The purpose of this activity was to analyze the state of women’s rights and facilities provided by the Government in the rural areas. 150 Muslim and Christian participants including peasant workers, home based workers and domestic workers joined the forum, while some of them shared their community problems during the public forum. Naseem Anthony (Executive Secretary-AWAM), Shazia George (Coordinator-AWAM), Nazia Sardar, Zafar Iqbal, Roma Shahid, Riffat Bibi and Bashir Athwal were among the speakers of the public forum held at Sargodha Road in Faisalabad.

Naseem Anthony said, “Women working in home based sector and other informal sectors face social and economic exploitation for not having unity among them, what’s more no labour laws applies on them, because informal sectors  are not considered as labour force in Pakistan.”

Shazia George said, “Women working in informal sectors must agree on same agenda and must unite themselves for building a united voice for the attainment of their rights.”

Nazia Sardar said, “Incidents of domestic violence have become a daily routine, therefore, it is pertinent for the government to ratify UN convention against torture and to implement law against domestic violence in a true sense, for establishing a non-violent and peaceful society.”



Zafar Iqbal said, “In the patriarchal system like Pakistan, it is the vital responsibility of male members being heads of the families to play their role towards women’s empowerment by providing them equal rights in all phases of life.”

Bashir Athwal said, “Women work side by side with men in almost all spheres of life especially in fields, brick kilns, factories etc. but they are paid very low wage as compared to men despite equal labour.” “The difference between the wages of men and women is the consequence of discriminatory attitudes and laws towards women,” he added.

At this juncture, the speakers demanded that: implementation of law on domestic violence should be ensured and ratification of UN convention on torture should be done for the elimination of violence from the society; working women such as; peasant workers, domestic workers and home based workers must be acknowledged as labourers; better infrastructure and other facilities such as; schools, dispensaries, maternal homes etc. must be provided in the rural areas to mainstream the neglected sections for the overall  progress of the country.

Report by:

Shazia George