Education on Peace and Human Rights Project:
The Project “Education on Peace and Human Rights” has created awareness among women about gender
based discriminations and their legal rights and increased values of peace and religious harmony and their
prevalence in society.
Through this project, not only awareness is multiplied to highlight the discriminatory laws but also the
customs against women’s in society got focused. Muslim and Christian participated in all the activities
and promoted the culture of tolerance, peace and harmony. The project has reduced the gender based
prejudices by bringing Christian Muslim youth together on one platform and giving them training all
together.
The status of women in Pakistan varies considerably across classes, regions, and the rural/urban divide
due to uneven socio-economic development and the impact of tribal, feudal, and capitalist social
formations on women's lives. The women's access to property, education, employment etc. remains
considerably lower compared to men's. The social and cultural context of Pakistani society is
predominantly patriarchal and male dominated. Women have a low percentage of participation in society
outside of the family. Women has inferior role in society, despite all education, prejudice towards women
are high.
Economically women are deprived, Due to social and cultural practices men are considered breadwinners
and women unpaid caregivers. As a result of women’s child rearing and caregiving responsibilities they
are hardly able to pursue a career and do not have an income of their own. Since she has to rely on her
husband, she often ignores her health needs and suffers silently.
Even when a woman enters the waged labor market it is mostly low-paying work and of lower status. Due
to poor health and burdened with caregiving responsibilities, it might be difficult for them to access
healthcare for themselves or their children as they might have mobility issues and also because they can’t
frequently stay away from work as in that case they are faced with loss of job, which pushes them further
into the clutches of poverty.
The current political situation prevailing in the country presents a mixed picture for women’s progress and
development. Politically women were unaware; many of them have obtained their National Identity Cards
and have registered themselves as voters. They have been encouraged to participate as political leaders
in the provincial and national assembly as well.
Religiously women were subservient to men in general, equal participation of women in almost all religious
institutions was low, women often denied the same education in learning and teaching religious
knowledge that is available to men, and now they are ordained or given positions in the most religions,
after awareness programs and trainings they are given the right to get married on their own choice, and
they can choose the profession of their choice. They also participate other activities such as social activities
and decision making in the name of religions and culture.
Role of women has been submission, to serve as a commodity and to sacrifice her for the sake of value
determined by the man, the main reason for this is the lack of awareness and Education about Human
Rights but through this project awareness given and positive results are occurring. The working women
are also the worst victim of discrimination and harassment in Pakistan. The ratio of sexual harassment and
rapes with working women is very high in the country. They are compelled to do sex with their bosses or
with their colleagues, due to the poor implementation of laws the culprits easily escapes from punishment.
On the one hand working women are raped and discriminated at work places and on the other hand they
are being blackmailed by culprits too. Sometimes, when a working lady is raped that time her porn video
is made by hidden cameras. The culprits firstly enjoy sex with them and after that they do blackmail them
that they will show these videos in the masses if they raise their voice against them, therefore poor victims
are compelled to be quiet. The women are given awareness by a competent lady lawyer about their legal
rights and legislation for women rights.to rescue themselves from discrimination and violation of their
rights.
Women’s rights violations on one hand and the failure of the system to protect women’s rights on the
other, the need for human rights education for women’s empowerment has been highlighted during the
training and awareness sessions. Men showed their wiliness that their women must be given the
opportunities to be part of the policy-making bodies, system of political process, and should be active at
the decision-making level.
Pakistan is a multi-religious country where Muslims and religious minorities live side-by-side and work
together in different spheres of life. On the one hand, they work for the betterment of humanity and
harmony; while on the other hand, there have been some clashes, which have resulted due to the religious
intolerance, religious extremism, hatred and biases on the basis of religion in Pakistan. Due to the less
education the conservative thinking against other faiths are rapidly increasing in Pakistan. Though in many
areas Muslims and Christians live together but they had always been in threats of religious conflicts and
quarrels.
Through this project importance of harmonious and tolerant environment has been highlighted through
maximum sharing and involvement of people belonging to different communities and to strengthen the
relationship among the people by removing the conflicts and highlighting the commonalities of different
religions and beliefs. This project will reduce these problems by bringing boys and girls together and giving
those different kinds of trainings and interfaith harmony program so that they can play an important role
in society.
Information, Education and communication (IEC) material on human rights and interfaith harmony has
been circulated to make the community aware about its importance in the society.
