Jawaria Waheed

Women form half of every community and they have a greater role to play at communal and societal level. Women play a very vital role in human progress, have a significant place in the society and are capable of sharing all the responsibilities of life. Man and woman have been rightly compared to the wheels of the same carriage. Both have some due responsibilities and rights towards each other which needs to be fulfilled in order to guarantee a progressive society.

Unfair cultural orientation has given rise to male dominated society which inherently declares male superiority and cultivates ground for gender based discrimination as a result of which women become a victim of subjugation, domestic violence and ill-treatment from men in public and private spheres. One major reason why our society needs a push to assure women rights is the patriarchal mindset which prevails by and large.

However, women's place in society demands an equal emphasis on its rights as well as the duties which is a due responsibility on them. Unfortunately, the self-suited definitions of so called advocates of women rights have completely ignored the pivotal role and due responsibility of a women which she has to play in the society and has instead presented women as a victim and someone inferior to men.

The society and social behaviors it complains as women has a deep connection with her role as a mother. Home being the basic nursery and mother being the nurturer has the key role to shape the personality of her son at the very early age. Unfortunately, in the struggle to seek justice for her as women, a woman has neglected her role as a mother which needs attention. Therefore, there is a need to revisit our parameters of justice in order to develop a progressive society which requires due and equal share of men and women.

An important reason why this imbalance of societal roles and non deliverance of duties has escalated is because the movements to seek and demand rights for women somehow lost its track during the process. Instead of pursuing a struggle for ensuring rights, it has brought women face to face with men framing a conflict between the two entities.

Women organizations and movements have proliferated across the world on an unprecedented scale with varying intensities over the course of history. The quick history of these movements is categorized in four waves of feminism which begun from the agenda of ensuring basic women right's in First Wave of Feminism to women liberation movement in the Second Wave and the later Third and Fourth Wave of Feminism has altogether reached a new definition of women empowerment which adrift from the basic fundamental idea that sprung these movements centuries back.

With the onset of a new millennium, the catastrophic event of 9/11 propelled Islam at the global stage and gave a new terrible dimension to the feminist ideas by decoding and misinterpreting the Islamic teachings and practices pertaining women. Journalists, politicians, religious scholars and civilians alike began to decode and debate Islamic concepts and practices, perhaps in an attempt to justify what had happened. This gave way to many misconceptions and stereotypes regarding the religion.

One of the awful false notions that sprung up, the idea of the 'victimized Muslim woman' is perhaps the most common. Practices like 'veil' and 'burqa' became part of regular political jargon claiming that Muslim women are subjugated and are victimized by these fundamentalist Islamic practices and should be rescued from their entrapment. This extreme and baseless narrative gained currency in an elite class in Pakistan and other Muslim countries which later became a stronghold of neo-imperialists ideas which alienated this group from their religious and cultural values and resorted towards a western culture in the eastern societies. This hybrid model has become a challenge and a pertinent issue of these times which needs attention before it splits the society apart.

However, to make matters worse, understanding and tolerance for feminism in Pakistan and other Muslim countries remains low, limited to a narrow continuum between eastern and western ideologies. Feminism is generally regarded as unnecessary; a construct of the West which deserves no importance in the Islamic structure.

This rejection based on ignorance has led to another extreme narrative which prevails and has developed an anti-feminist approach in society. As a response towards the secular and liberal mode of feminism, this anti-feminism has been on fore fronts presenting a rigid rebuttal to the basic notion of these struggles and has based their narratives on the self suited interpretations of religious teaching. They have framed the feminist ideology as a challenge to Islamic values and teachings.

Feminism in the 21st Century is a mix of many different feminist beliefs and the lack of a coherent definition of the term the multiple models of interpretations exist in society. From the influence of the first movement that took root in 1840 to present times, the end goal of the women's movement has strayed from its basic idea of women rights to women liberation, from seeking justice against the discriminatory practices to women oriented society and from notions of respecting women to advocating lesbians gay rights. The journey from" us with them" to "us vs. them" mentality seems irrational and a latent function of feminism since the organizers of the movement did not intend for some women to turn against the opposite gender as a hostile competitor.

In such a prevailing situation, it is pressing need of the hour to address the thin line between today's self-suited definition of feminism which is premised on framing men as villains and the basic idea of women rights which encourages and empowers women in its societal and private roles. It is indeed important to focus on redefining the concept of women empowerment in terms of encouraging an environment of cooperation model with their men and not as competitors. Therefore, some multi-level remedial recommendations are suggested in this regard which addresses the very root causes of this rising challenge:

" There is an urgent need to reshape the narratives on women empowerment at global level. The current series of narratives have presented a rather vague direction which needs an earnest refocus and global acknowledgement.

" The solution lies in redirecting our definition of women empowerment in the light of Islamic teachings and here comes the importance of the role of Madrassas who have, so far, clearly lacked in presenting a true and a moderate Islamic vision of empowerment. Majority of the people, also due to a high illiteracy rate, resort to religious seminaries which are accessible and does not require much resource. The opinionated and singled out concept of women rights presented through an unrevised curriculum of Madrassas needs to be updated in line with the demands of the contemporary era.

" Role of Media is also an important step which needs careful attention. Media is a key tool to shape public perception and through well planned and well grounded planning, role of media should be revised to create an environment of converging the extreme narratives that only induces chaos when presented in isolation.

" The tiers of society are the individuals and the groups of individuals which forms the general mass. This narrative conflict has to be dealt at societal level with equal importance. In this regard, role of NGOs solely working for the restoration and empowerment of women must be kept under strict government check to ensure that their policies and working maintains the promulgation of national policy and are not, in any way, serving as a means to further deteriorate the situation.

" Most important is the role of a family unit in whole of this process. The perception, character and narrative take its basic schooling inside a family and a mother is the first nursery of a child which shapes his whole personality.

Therefore, the impact of redefining women rights, its advocacy through media, revised role of Madrassas, streamlined redirection of NGOs needs to be connected well at the individual level through an effective role of a mother which has the potential to nurture the right concepts in the basic learning of a child in his early ages which will impact the way the child grows up.