Women rights neglected in ex-Fata

Najibullah Khan

PESHAWAR: After the merger of FATA through a constitutional amendment in 2018 with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province majority of the women in newly merged region are still deprived from basic rights. Women are treated as mere objects, who do not have freedom to live freely as per their choice. Women of this region still live under slavery, bound by family traditions.

Women are deprived from education, discrimination against women far worse in the region, sometimes women have to suffer immensely at the cost of their life. Even after its merger with KPK, the conditions are still the same,The provision of standard education for girls is absent from a majority of the schools in newly merged FATA. Literacy rates of the region are the lowest throughout the country. The literacy rate of girls is 7.8 percent in the region which is below average.

Most of the parents do not consider a girl’s education as important as a boy’s in the region which have made the future of so many girls darker. Although poverty is a vital cause in hindering their future, most of the parents do not invest on their daughters’ education because after all they have to end up marrying someone of their parents’ choice.

A 13 years old Saba from frontier region Peshawar completed her primary school, and wants to continue her secondary education but her parents are not allowing her to continue her education. Likewise hundreds and thousands of other girls who wants to study but left their education because of their parents.

Furthermore, women health is a traditionally neglected issue in ex-FATA. If a woman falls ill, the male family members consider it shameful to admit her at a hospital in city. In fact, most tribal elders do not show their female patients to male doctors. The number of female doctors very few, and for any medical check-up in emergency there are just a few nurses or lady health workers available. The conditions in hospitals where women patients are treated is terrible. There is a dire need to strengthen the health system in the region by providing basic health services to women who are dependent on men to survive.

The concept of dowry has been widely condemned and criticized in the mainstream society of Pakistan with laws made against the practice. Despite that dowry is still considered legal in ex-FATA.

Women are denied access to their share in the property. Laws had been extended to the former tribal belt after it was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in May 2018, the local traditions and a lack of administrative structures hindered their implementation.

The awful status of women’s rights in the region can only get better if it is brought in parallel with the other provinces of Pakistan. It is high time for the people of the region, especially its women, are included in the mainstream society of Pakistan, giving them equal rights and sources of equal development.