All posts by Zubeida Mustafa

Polluted?

Politics

By Rifaat Hamid Ghani

POLLUTED , pollutant, polluter. . . One size could well fit all when it comes to our political discourse and participation.

Take the party that holds central if not truly federal government: the PTI. The brand new party turned full-grown after 22 years of admittedly rather invisible struggle, which its voters looked to be a breath of fresh air—a purifying change from the recognizably polluted parties of yore. We can exonerate its leader from election rigging, but, depending on political inclination, not from availing its benefits.

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TEACHING IN TONGUES

Book Reviews, Children and Youth, Education, General

Reviewed By Faisal Bari

Reforming School Education in Pakistan and the Language Dilemma
By Zubeida Mustafa
ISBN: 978-9692102346
330pp.

We have a broken system of education in our country; not many will dispute that. An estimated 22 million youngsters are out of school, even though Article 25A of Pakistan’s Constitution states that the state should provide every child between the ages of five and 16 “free and compulsory” education. We don’t even have universal enrolment at the primary level. Only six to eight percent of enrolled children reach university level.

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Child marriages

Children and Youth, Education, Law & Order, Social Issues, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

OUR society seems to have been obsessed for long with the idea of matrimony. Mercifully, the growing trend towards female education has to an extent weakened this obsession — but not in communities still deprived of the benefits of education and enlightenment.

In these underprivileged classes, which constitute the majority, it is a common practice for mothers to start planning their child’s marriage soon after birth. They informally decide who will be whose life partner. Termed ‘baat pukki karna’, the arrangement is irrevocable. The girl’s mother even starts collecting her daughter’s jahez. Obscurantist parents even consider it a sin if the child is not married before puberty.

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