The Holy Prophet Hazrat Mohammad (S.A.W.) has said: “The acquisition of knowledge is obligatory for every man and woman.”
The Constitution of Pakistan also guarantees equal opportunities for education without any gender discrimination.
The intellectuals have declared the education of a man as the education of an individual, while the education of a woman as the education of the entire family, which is a clear argument that the education of women is not only the welfare of the family but also the development and welfare of the entire society at the next level.
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had said: “There are two powers in the world, one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is fierce competition and rivalry between the two. There is another power more powerful than both of them and that is women.”
Providing education to women helps in reducing poverty, providing awareness of basic facilities for staying healthy, increasing job opportunities and economic prosperity. In fact, the empowerment of women is the foundation of economically strong countries. When more women work, the economy develops due to the increase in the workforce and consumption also increases.
Women are an important part of society, which Islam has given a high status and status in every form. Islam is the first religion in the world that gave women rights. And one of these rights is the right to education.
Women are an important part of Muslim society, however, from developed to developing societies, women have to struggle for their rights.
In the developed era, the traditional role of women has changed. Along with fulfilling their traditional responsibilities, women are also playing a prominent role in various walks of life. The biggest and most important reason for this is the trend of women getting educated.
The awareness of the importance of women’s education is now emerging even in those conservative societies of the world where parents used to start worrying about collecting money and jewelry from the birth of a girl because they considered it their first duty to arrange for their daughter to marry. Educated women play an important role in promoting national development.
It is important that women get education and play their role in different spheres of life so that the pace of national development is accelerated because women can play their effective role for rapid development.
Ending backwardness is possible only by eliminating gender discrimination and providing equal rights, more than half of the country’s population cannot be kept apart from the stream of development.
Women should also contribute along with men to achieve the goals of national development. The participation of women will not only double the country’s workforce but will also ensure the availability of a large number of committed teachers, bureaucrats, scientists, engineers and experts in various fields.
However, due to some local traditions in the country, some people hesitate to provide education to women.
But there are still such areas in Pakistan where despite the presence of schools at a distance of more than half a kilometer, the enrollment of girls is decreasing. Some parents are afraid of the poor law and order situation in the country and they stop the education of their daughters thinking that it is not important enough to take a risk for it.
Some think that what would happen if every girl learned to read and write, while some discontinue their daughters’ education due to lack of affordability. Apart from this, both social and economic factors seem to be at play, such as family customs and traditions, specific views on women’s safety, early marriages, weak economic conditions, unemployment of educated women, distance from school for girls or lack of separate schools, not considering daughters as equal to sons, and considering daughters as private trusts and considering their educational expenses as useless. Depriving more than half of the country’s population of education is not socially justifiable in any way and is also against the spirit of the Constitution.
Women can only move forward by adorning them with the ornaments of education and empowering them. I believe that there are conflicting views in society regarding women’s education and many such negative perceptions are found due to ignorance. There are also some customs that girls have to leave their education incomplete after reaching a certain age and start their own home. As a result, countless resources used during the higher education of girls, especially in the technical field, are wasted. This kind of thinking is not correct. If Hazrat Khadija (RA) could efficiently carry out business activities spanning several countries and if Hazrat Aisha (RA) had the ability to compile a huge collection of Hadith, then our daughters can also follow in their footsteps by creating a balance between their home life and running a business. All divine religions and progressive societies have declared the right, need and importance of women’s education and training as an integral part of social development. Pakistan has been facing various problems since its inception, the result of which has been a constant inefficiency in the socio-economic development of the country. If we go deeper and examine the real problems in detail, we will come to only one conclusion: the majority of our population is illiterate. Pakistan is the second country after Nigeria where the number of children without access to school is 25 million. While 62 percent of girls between the ages of 7 and 15 have never seen the form of school.
Providing education to girls is an unparalleled transformative power. Apart from providing knowledge to girls, it also makes them feel their full potential and empowers them with confidence to help them achieve their dreams.
Along with removing the barriers to women’s education, there is a need to change the mindset of people, which will provide girls with a good opportunity to continue their studies for a better future because women in Pakistan are facing serious problems like gender discrimination and gender inequality.
Women in particular are victims of physical, mental, psychological, financial, cultural, sexual, emotional violence. In all such societies where boys are given priority over girls in other rights, girls are also facing severe gender discrimination in the right to education and as a result, the pace of social development there is disappointing.
Education is the basic and most effective weapon with the help of which not only all kinds of gender discrimination, gender violence and inequality can be combated, but also permanent relief can be obtained from these problems in the future.
To eliminate gender discrimination and gender inequality, it is very important for women to be economically strong, and this is not possible unless girls are educated and skilled.
It is a very common situation in our society that women are considered as a separate gender even in the matter of education. What kind of education should a woman get and what should she do with that education if she gets it?
Many of our educated people also have very stereotypical views about women’s education. There is also a difference of opinion in our society regarding giving women the right to education. One section says that women do not need education in particular since they cannot play an active role in society, so they do not need to endure the rigors of education. This class, to avoid their rigid ideas, is in favor of women’s modest or elementary education, such as education up to Matriculation or FA. Such women are also not in favor of their daughters’ education. The theory is that what to do after studying is to eventually take care of the house, while the other class is a little more generous. This class is completely in favor of girls’ higher education. Obtaining higher degrees in universities and providing all kinds of educational facilities for their daughters can be seen among the members of this class. But this class is considering this as a useless and extra activity in the context of girls’ education. I have often seen such individuals and families who advise girls to stay at home as soon as they get married after getting higher education. These families are in favor of girls’ higher education for the sake of good relationships.
All these things are still far away in our society for women to start taking their rights and freedom for granted, but the kind of restrictions mentioned first, that why should a woman be educated, she has to build a house, such attitudes should be strongly condemned. Women themselves should also realize that they can fulfill the important responsibility of building a house with education or perhaps they can fulfill it better with education.
Women’s education is more necessary in male-dominated societies. Women should have the right to live with respect and their participation should be recognized not only in the household but also in all walks of life. For this, not only education, training but also skill teaching institutions should be established. In this way, she will become an active part of society and thus, along with the stability of the economy, her vision will support a positive role in making decisions for her and her generations’ future.
The all-round qualities of a woman also include foresight, her decisions are always in view of the future of the next generation. On the contrary, in Pakistan, a relatively small number of women are seen working in cities and a large number in villages, villages, but despite this hard work and dedication, her status remains that of the third and fourth class gender. Although she has the ability to speak, her job is considered to be only to listen and she is ignored in small and big decisions of life, although this is a violation of equal rights and a question mark for society. It is also necessary to keep women’s rights in mind while making laws and to uproot the atrocities related to them through legislation, under which women are deprived of the right to vote, are made slaves, are killed on charges of prostitution, and despite being true to Islam, cannot even choose their life partner. Today, women are insecure in offices with regard to government, semi-government and private jobs, one of the main reasons for which is their small number. If their number is on the basis of equality or slightly less, then the process of dominating them can end automatically. It is necessary that every mother, sister and daughter should be equipped with the jewels of education and a process of exposing women to basic education should be started, while those women whose educational path was interrupted after passing middle school should be prepared for matriculation. In addition to basic educational facilities, counseling should be provided on information technology, an important need of the modern era, as well as self-grooming and public health. Violence against women and massacres in the name of religion, honor, customs and rule should end. Educated and skilled women are the future of Pakistan.
