egalitarianism
/ɪˌɡaləˈtɛːrɪənɪz(ə)m/
noun
the doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.
In a culturally patriarchal society, egalitarianism is something on a higher shelf for us. But should we start considering it to be a possibility? Scandinavian countries have gone the farthest in trying to attain equality in their countries, by creating laws that enforced equality of opportunities, and made equality of outcome desirable. But what about Pakistan? Are we ready for this? Well, not so soon. Pakistan has a journey that it is slowly starting to cover. The subcontinent has had a history for mistreating women, and other marginalized franchises. The society of the subcontinent has always fundamentally been dominated by men and those men have then used their privilege to beat down on women. Establishing stereotypes and enforcing systematic oppression upon women, which is still very much alive. And the situation is even worst for the Trans and LGBTQ community. Transgenders were not even recognised as a gender until last year. Due to the courageous efforts of Trans activists; Trans people can now hold their own identities. For the LGBTQ that luxury doesn’t exist, LGBTQ are still judged and casted out. So there is perhaps a lot that needs to be done before egalitarianism can be desired. People on hierarchy positions have prejudices against people from certain franchises, which causes a beat down on their marginalised status.
The problem with all of this is that people don’t realize their embedded or inherited sexism, and those that do, soon fall into denial, but subconsciously, they are still perpetuating the stereotypes.
Amongst all this, Pakistan has a reputation in harassing women and people of other genders. Pakistan was the sixth most dangerous and fourth worst in terms of economic resources and discrimination as well as the risks women face from cultural, religious and traditional practices, including so-called honor killings. Pakistan ranked fifth on non-sexual violence, including domestic abuse. The unfortunate part of all this is that there is always an asymmetry in victimhood.
9 out of 10 times a victim of rape, sexual harassment, marital rape, domestic abuse, honor killings is a woman.
So there is a fight to be fought, but when are we fighting it. Who are we fighting. Are we ready to confront our own demons. Because only then Egalitarianism could be desired. Read more of our stuff on our website: PTI Lahore general secretary suspended over posters insulting Hindus