By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
FOR long it has been debated by women`s rights activists and economists arguing for social justice that if the value of women`s unpaid labour — read housework — were calculated the GDP of a country would shoot up.
According to studies done by various international groups, it is estimated that in some developing countries the contribution of women`s unpaid labour accounts for nearly a third of GDP.
Continue reading Economic worth of a woman
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
ON March 23, a day for soul-searching, two professional bodies working for women`s health highlighted an issue that is fundamental to our survival and progress, namely, population planning.
They got Sheema Kermani to stage Har aurat anmol, a play that focused on all that is wrong with the reproductive health sector in Pakistan today.
Continue reading Cost of life of a woman
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: News line magazine
At the recent ASR conference in Lahore on the women’s movement in Pakistan, I met a female journalist from a local Urdu language newspaper who was there to cover the opening event. She had not received her salary for two months. She tellingly asked me, “Now that women have such a substantial presence in parliament, do you think the goals of the women’s movement have been met?”
Continue reading One Step Forward
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
THE theme of International Women`s Day observed on Monday was `equal rights, equal opportunities and progress for all`. One may well ask if this ideal can ever be achieved as long as the unequal power relationship between the sexes, which causes women to become victims of domestic violence, continues to exist.
Continue reading Violence in the Home
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
Institutions must not be allowed to die. And if they are institutions whose primary function is to educate, it is all the more important that they be kept alive.
But on the cards is the death of a centre that has educated 12,000 women in feminism and many more who have attended its short-term workshops. Lahore`s ASR [`impact`, in Urdu] will run out of funds in October and its executive director, Nighat Said Khan, says she will pack up if no one comes to bail the institution out.
Continue reading ASR must be kept alive