Feminism Beyond Elite Slogans
Summaya Ghaffar
Islamabad: In just four years, more than 7,500 women have lost their lives to sustain the evils of toxic masculinity, violence, and male ego. How many more women will be sacrificed to satisfy wounded pride remains an unsettling question.
Women are not born to serve masculine egos or to surrender their lives to decisions made by others. This is where our society truly needs feminism, not as an imported ideology, but as a demand for the freedom to make choices and to be treated with the dignity every human being deserves.
The recent acid attack on Dr Mahnoor in Balochistan is yet another reminder of how we are raising our men. An acid attack is not merely a physical assault; it is an attempt to destroy a person’s future, alter her perception of herself, and make every glance in the mirror a painful reminder of the price she paid for choosing to live life on her own terms.
Similarly, the tragic kidnapping and gang rape of 17-year-old Isha is another devastating indictment of a society that continues to fail its women.
Our family structures, traditions, cultural norms, and, above all, ego, greed, and lust often combine to suppress a significant portion of humanity.
Gender-based violence, child rape, underage marriages, teenage pregnancies, denial of economic opportunities, restrictions on education, cyber harassment, misuse of personal data, AI-generated fake content, acid attacks, and marital rape are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of deeper social problems that continue to thrive around us.
Social media has provided ordinary citizens with a powerful platform to raise their voices and pressure institutions into action.
The public outcry following the rape and murder of Zainab in Kasur demonstrated the strength of collective digital activism, ultimately contributing to the pursuit of justice. Yet social media remains a double-edged sword.
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Women who challenge stereotypes often become targets of character assassination and online abuse. The circulation of doctored images of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto remains a notable example.
Today, cybercrime has evolved further through data breaches and AI-generated videos, images, and audio clips that threaten women’s privacy and safety, creating new barriers to their participation in public life.
Women are often dismissed as emotional, irrational, uninformed, or prone to gossip. Society frequently attributes these stereotypes to biology, hormones, or mood swings.
However, the real question is not why women behave in certain ways, but why they were raised that way.
For generations, many girls have been taught that marriage is their ultimate destiny and that their primary responsibility lies within the home. They are often excluded from discussions about politics, economics, and national affairs. Their curiosity about the world is discouraged, and their ambitions are mocked.
They are denied opportunities to learn self-defense because they are told they will always have protectors. They are burdened with carrying the family’s honor while simultaneously living under the constant fear of bringing shame upon it.
Under this mindset, marriage is portrayed as a lifelong commitment with no possibility of return, no matter how harmful the circumstances. Consequently, countless women trapped in unsuccessful marriages spend their lives enduring emotional and psychological suffering.
For many women, the realities discussed above lead either to death or to a life burdened with pain and limited opportunities.
This is why feminism, for ordinary women, is not a fashion statement or a political slogan, it is a necessity.
Certainly, some may use feminism for political purposes, and some Western interpretations may not resonate with every culture. We have witnessed instances where public figures have portrayed the veil solely as a symbol of oppression.
However, the issue is not the veil itself; the issue is coercion. A woman who chooses to wear a veil should be respected, just as a woman who chooses not to should be respected.
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A woman who chooses to be a housewife and caretaker should be respected, just as a woman who chooses to become a CEO should be respected.
Feminism is not about becoming Westernized or adopting a particular style of clothing. At its core, it is about recognizing women as human beings with the right to think, decide, and shape their own lives. The freedom to choose a career, a family life, or any other path should belong to the individual woman herself.
There is nothing wrong with choosing domestic life. What is wrong is denying women the knowledge, exposure, and opportunities necessary to make informed choices. When options are hidden, choices become illusions.
Ironically, society often labels women as overly emotional, yet some of the most brutal crimes, acid attacks, rape, and violence, are overwhelmingly committed by men. The issue is not emotion itself; it is how emotions are nurtured, managed, and directed. The problem lies in the social conditioning that teaches entitlement, dominance, and control rather than empathy and respect.
The recent international recognition of Pakistan’s judiciary for its historic rulings in cases such as Noor Mukadam and Sana Yousaf represents an important step forward. However, legal victories alone cannot transform society. What is needed is a broader social change.
Our parenting practices must become more inclusive. We must raise children not according to rigid gender expectations but according to universal values of dignity, responsibility, and mutual respect. We need to teach our children that every individual has personal boundaries that deserve recognition and protection.
A simple principle should guide us: “Your freedom ends where another person’s freedom begins.”
While this idea appears straightforward on paper, transforming it into a social norm requires decades of consistent effort. It requires changes in education, parenting, public discourse, and cultural attitudes. Above all, it requires a collective commitment to recognizing women as equal human beings, capable of making their own decisions and deserving respect for the choices they make.
For many women, that is what feminism has always meant—not privilege, not superiority, and not imitation of the West, but the simple right to live as free and respected human beings.
The writer is an MPhil scholar in International Relations at Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi.
The article is the writer’s opinion, it may or may not adhere to the organization’s editorial policy.
