Women's ignorance of their rights is a tragedy for all

Yesterday, while watching TV, I came across shocking news on a news channel. A man was murdered by his wife, leaving his two kids as orphans and they were being interviewed by the media personnel “very empathetically”. Those little twinkling eyes that weren’t even aware of the meaning of death had come across this devastating event which turned their whole life upside down in just a few moments.

“Papa sey zada love tha mujh ko”. “Papa Hamaey sab cheezain dilate thay”.

While poor Papa is perhaps already not resting in peace after a brutal murder, his and his family’s leftover dignity was being destroyed by the incessant covering of his picture by the news channel. Even the dead are not spared enough to rest in peace in heaven. Sigh!!

The children spoke bluntly about their mother who apparently killed their father after conspiring with her boyfriend. On being asked from that naïve captivated sobbing wife, she completely rejected being an accomplice to her husband’s murder and instead placed full blame on her boyfriend. On further questioning it was revealed by the wife that as a result of domestic violence perpetuated by her husband on a regular basis, she was involved in an extramarital affair with her boyfriend from the past two years and had been asking for a divorce, only to be refused every time since her husband deemed it ‘Dishonourable’.

When inquired why she didn’t go for khulla instead, she responded by saying that she was not even familiar with the concept of Khulla. How strange! I suddenly realized the root cause of such a blatant act and a brutal incident: “Lack of awareness about her rights”. It appears that this simple cause is being highlighted everyday in media by some apparently uncivilized parliamentarian women but actually they just know how to climb up the walls and cause destruction in government vicinities in order to get the attention of the world.

The problem is not only with the women sitting in parliament and crying on top of their lungs about women rights and education, but, the problem is our mindset conditioned by the society. We as a society shall never face any positive change in our mindset unless we intervene and resolve to highlight such domestic issues concerned with illiteracy and work towards rationally solving them. It’s a cycle which will never break without the intervention of “Maseeha” in the form of the enlightened side of our own selves. “Bari muskhil sey hota hey chaman mey deedawar paida”.

Alas! The sobbing woman who was standing with her boyfriend did not know that there exist laws in her society which gave her all the rights to getting out of an unhappy marriage. Her unawareness of her rights and hence the weak position in the marriage caused her boyfriend to fight for her rights out of his love for her in all possible ways which could have been otherwise avoided with the help of basic education about the rights and the wrongs. This unawareness caused the murder of a man which left his two kids orphans.

This situation poses another serious question, what about the care taking and the upbringing of those two children in order to make them civilized and educated citizens whilst dealing with this long lasting scar of a ruined family reputation?

What if they turn to crime as a refuge from grief and join the list of the ever growing illiterate criminals? So now what? I think most convenient way is to just sit comfortably on couches and wait for that ‘Maseeha/Deedawar aka superman’, who will come one day and bring the long awaited change.

Such an irony, Isn’t it?