Staff Reporter
On International Women’s Day, a group of around 100 women clad in burqas and niqabs stood outside the Karachi Press Club demanding their rights. These women were members of the Jamaat-e-Islami Women’s Wing. The political party organised a ‘Women Dignity Walk’ on Sunday to celebrate Women’s Day. “We talk about the rights of women and demand these from the government, leaders and the society,” JI Women’s Wing General Secretary Durdana Siddiqui told media. “The rights Islam gives to women should be implemented in our society and culture,” she said. The women had a list of demands that included inheritance rights, mehr rights (amount decided for a women at the time of nikkah) and assurance of livelihood. According to the organisers, even today there are traditions that are insensitive towards women. “We strongly condemn traditions such as the concept of marriage to the Holy Quran,” the general secretary said. The JI Women’s Wing has several smaller institutions that work under it for the welfare and well-being of women across the country. “We have an institution that trains female prisoners and we have a forum for the rights of female lawyers as well,” JI Women’s Wing South Deputy Shahnaz Kamal said. “There are colleges and schools running under our party that educate women from the ages 18 to 35 in multiple fields,” Kamal said. These institutions also help them open small business inside their homes for their livelihoods. Kamal pointed that the growing rate of violence against women in the country is because people have deviated from the teachings of the Holy Quran. “So many things that our religion teaches us are presented in an incorrect way to the public,” she said.
