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Old Wednesday, September 12, 2007
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Omer Omer is offline
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There has been a tremendous change in the situation of women's rights. The whole approach has changed from protection to rights. Earlier, it was that women needed protection. Even the Women's Commission report talked in terms of a division of labour between men and women. The woman was, naturally, given a secondary place in return for a monetary stipend to be protected. There was a different mindset altogether. In the 1980s, a more rights-based approach was taken to the status of women, but it has not gone deep enough. When we talk about how the situation has changed-it has changed in terms of women being more aware of their rights; women taking more opportunities where they have presented themselves; and women asserting themselves in different fields, such as in politics and economics. But as far as the basic unit of the family is concerned, which is where discrimination begins and bogs the woman down her whole life, very little has changed, even on paper.There have been minor breakthroughs though. And these have been primarily because more women are entering the legal profession, and, more importantly, more women have been willing and able to take the risk of litigation. A woman lawyer can interpret laws from a gender perspective, but you still need a real client who wants to go all out, take the legal risk, and not succumb to pressure and compromise along the way. Many of these breakthroughs have come through case law, where women clients have had to suffer. At times, not even supported by their own families, these women have had to go through prolonged periods of uncertainties, and they have been brandished as brash women who are bucking social norms. It has been a difficult process for these women, and they need to be celebrated.
One example of how these changes have taken place was a legal case very early on with regards to a woman who was contesting an election. However, it died down and the question did not reach the height of legal precedent. That is, until female students in medical colleges challenged the law. Other than being supported by their families, what made it easier for these students was that it was not during the military dictatorship of Zia-ul-Haq. Had it been, the case would not have seen the kind of positive response it did from the court. So eventually we did get relief from the Supreme Court and it did uphold Article 25 of the Constitution- "There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex alone"--which was already on paper was then realised. Following this, there were similar cases challenging discrimination, for example the one that changed the common practise where women were forced to change their domicile according to the domicile of the man she married.
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