Like all the other parts of the country, Peshawar is no exception in lack of facilities for womenfolk. But being a Peshawarite why should I speak of other cities of the country when my priority should be my own city. Because if I start comparing Peshawar with other cities of the country in terms of facilities for women it would not top the small list; but at the same time I would not say that it would be at the bottom.
Without any doubt, the respect given to women in Pakhtun culture is above any other area of the country. Once I witness an accident where a man and his wife fell from the motorcycle. The Pakhtuns standing nearby soon rushed to the spot and helped the man to stand up while some did something that I had never seen. They stood around the women fell on the road with their backs towards the woman. They did not see her and also did not allowed others to see her until her husband came and picked her up. At the same time the people stopped a car, asked the couple to sit in it and go to hospital and they would take care of the motorcycle and they did so.
However, at the highest level the steps taken to stop the minority who is involved in violence against women are not enough. According to the official website of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in whole province there are only four Darul Amans. They are in Swat, Mardan, Abbottabad and D.I.Khan and they are run by Social Welfare Department.
Peshawar is among the cities of Pakistan where the violence against women is on the rise. Everyday, we read news stories about women being killed, raped, faced domestic violence and suicides but the government does nothing concrete to stop such illegal actions against women.
Even the incidents of acid throwing have been reported in recent times. The non-government organizations (NGOs) spend millions of rupees in bringing awareness among people mostly parliamentarians and journalists. But they do so by sitting inside air conditioned or centrally heated rooms of local hotels.
The singing of female singers and even male singers were banned in Nishtar Hall during the MMA government but even at that time there were no facilities or protection was provided to the womenfolk of the province. And during the tenure of this government the female singers were even killed and Ayman Udas and Ghazala Javed are just two examples of it.
The harassment of the women working in different organizations is reported at different levels yet goes unnoticed. Despite of the fact the bill against harassment at the workplace has been passed there is no implementation to it. Even the women parliamentarians were hardly seen speaking about the difficulties being faced by the womenfolk and they also remains shy to raise such cases of harassment against women being reported by the media.
There is only one women police station in Peshawar and hardly any women cops are seen in markets where the number of women buyers is at the highest.
Besides protection to women the other facilities are also hardly available to them. Even once MNA Bushra Gohar had stated that women of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP) lacked sufficient educational facilities, which added to low literacy rates among women of the province.
Still the female students were seen standing on the roads in harsh weather of Peshawar waiting for the public transport which had very limited space for them. Soon after coming into power, the ANP led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in 2008 had announced to start separate bus service for women in Peshawar. The idea was also coined by the government of Mutahida Majlis-e-Aml (MMA) but the dream was never realized. Still there are only limited seats available for female commuters in public transport and they are also at times occupied by the male passengers.
The working women also feel difficulties to reach their offices due to lack of public transport and separate bus service for women in Peshawar is need of the hour. At the General Bus Stand there is no separate place for women where they could sit and wait for their buses or vans and reach their destinations. They have to stand with their infants and elderly relatives under the open sky when a male is not accompanying them.
The separate counters allocated for women in banks and other such areas are often seen occupied by male customers while the women were seen waiting for their turns.
I request the government to start thinking of providing the facilities to women in Peshawar.
