PAKISTAN: Sharmila Seeks Empowerment of Women

Pakistan People's Party Women Wing Sindh Information Secretary Sharmila Farooqui on Wednesday called for raising socio-economic empowerment of women by ensuring pro-women legislation, pro-women taxation system, more political participation and lucrative education facilities.

Remedial measures are required for enhancing the contribution of women in socio-economic and other spheres of life besides eliminating all kinds of discrimination against them so as to provide them equal opportunity in all sectors of life, she said in a statement.

Farooqui said: “Gender equality and women's empowerment are human rights that lie at the heart of development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.” “Six out of 10 of world's poorest people are women and girls, less than 16 percent of the world's parliamentarians are women, two thirds of all children shut outside the school gates are girls and, both in times of armed conflict and behind closed doors at home, women are still systematically subjected to violence,” she said.

“We must understand that the biggest problem that women face today is that their work is not recognized at all. Women have always contributed to the society and the economy in the form of a helping hand in agriculture and food production in the developing countries and in the form of part time and temporary workers in developed countries,” she said.

Farooqui said in nearly every country, women worked longer hours than men, but were usually paid less and were more likely to live in poverty. “In subsistence economies, women spend much of the day performing tasks to maintain the household, such as carrying water and collecting fuel wood. In many countries women are also responsible for agricultural production and selling. Often they take on paid work or entrepreneurial enterprises as well,” she said.

She said promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women, especially in developing countries, is ever more important in light of the current mega trends and challenges the world is facing. Empowering women translates into greater prosperity for families, communities and economies ultimately leading to sustainable development, she added.