Women Empowerment refers to making women powerful to make them capable of deciding for themselves. Women have suffered a lot through the years at the hands of men. In earlier centuries, they were treated as almost non-existent. As if all the rights belonged to men even something as basic as voting.
As the times evolved, women realized their power. There on began the revolution for women empowerment. As they were not allowed to make decisions for them, women empowerment came in like a breath of fresh air. It made them aware of their rights and how they must make their own place in society rather than depending on a man. It recognized the fact that things cannot simply work in someone’s favor because of their gender.
However, we still have a long way to go when we talk about the reasons why we need it. Almost every country no matter how progressive has a history of ill-treating women. In other words, women from all over the world have been rebellious to reach the status they have today.
While the western countries are still making progress, third world countries like Pakistan still lack behind in Women Empowerment. The small size of most pacific parliaments, and the correspondingly low number of ministerial and public official positions available, can present additional barriers for women, especially when combined with unequal access to resources and inherently biased structures ad regulations. Benazir Bhutto will always be symbol of women empowerment in the Muslim world.
Benazir Bhutto, the first and the only female democratically elected as the Prime Minister of Pakistan at the age of 35, not only once but twice, was assassinated on December 27,2007, ten. She has been celebrated as an accomplishment for women in the Muslim World. Her aim was to modernize Pakistan and she once said: “The government I led gave ordinary people peace, security, dignity and opportunity to progress.’’
We have another gold lady named Fatima Jinnah. Fatima Jinnah had psychologically prepared the Muslim women to stand shoulder to shoulder with men during the freedom struggle. Numerous pictures of the period show Miss Fatima Jinnah walking alongside Jinnah, not behind him. The message was louder and clear that both brother and sister are equal and women can also lead. Women in our society process great potential for management and leadership.
Therefore, it is important to empower them because if we do not allow them, then the community and the world will be deprived of great leaders. Empowerment in the case of women is very important for the growth of an economy and the country.
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Contributed by:
Alishba Farooq