A national challenge

By Saad Hafiz

Excerpt;

….. Pakistan is being left behind as more developing countries make an effort to capitalize on the full human potential of their female population to drive economic development and social transformation. Muslim countries such as Bangladesh and Malaysia have made significant progress in implementing gender equality in five critical areas: economic participation, economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment, and health and well-being. If Pakistan is to make economic and social progress in the near future it needs to educate its women from primary to the highest levels, open up economic opportunities to women, introduce social infrastructure and services to unburden women of the domestic and child care burdens and enforce laws to protect women’s rights. Hopefully, the education and empowerment of women in Pakistan will also result in a more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful society.

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In Israel, women’s rights come under siege

By Ruth Marcus

Women are forced to board public buses from the back and stay there. Billboards with images of women are defaced. Public streets are cordoned off during religious holidays so that women cannot enter.

Anna effect? Burney to launch anti-graft movement in Pakistan

Islamabad, Aug 22: Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney said today (Aug 22) he would launch a campaign against corruption and terrorism in his country after Eid-ul-Fitr, mirroring an anti-graft drive by Anna Hazare in India that has gained thousands of followers.

Pakistan is confronting a “dire and painful period in its history, with rampant and continuously growing corruption and terrorism destroying every fabric of our nation and any prospects of a decent future for our children and grandchildren”, Burney said in a statement.

Burney made no reference to Hazare, whose movement has captured the public imagination in India, but said his movement would get underway after the Islamic festival of Eid-ul-Fitr that will be celebrated at the end of this month.

“It is now up to civil society to take steps to rid the country of this evil before it is too late, and the Ansar Burney Trust will kick-start a massive anti-corruption campaign and anti-terrorism movement following Eid as a first step towards saving our country,” he said.

Burney said his proposed movement is aimed at bringing “the nation together and making a stand that corruption will no longer be tolerated”. ….

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