Author:Fatimah Ahmed
Student of Psycology
Diploma Holder yale University USA
Despite centuries of struggle, the chains of inequality remain unbroken. Silence is still forced upon women, making truth-telling not only daring but dangerous. On the surface, progress appears visible, but the growing number of cases in Pakistan tells another story. As of July 2025, over a 10-day period, at least seven brutal murders and assaults of women were reported across Pakistan. The average ratio of violence is 1:4, with women as the majority of victims of gender-based violence (GBV).
We teach our daughters to be bold, to resist evil, yet we forget to teach our sons to unlearn domination. In a patriarchal society, a bold woman with goals is seen not as an equal but as a ‘threat’. To speak the truth is to risk judgment, rejection, and even death. “Speak up for yourself,” we tell women. But Sana Yousaf’s “No” cost her life, reminding us that empowering women means nothing unless we also educate men.
Violence is not only physical. We often forget to recognize the other side of the picture. While physical wounds are visible, emotional violence is silent, hidden in neglect, in manipulation, and in the constant silencing of women’s voices in our patriarchal society. These scars do not bleed, yet they last longer than any bruise.
In daily life, emotional violence hides in words that belittle, in freedoms stolen, in opportunities denied to the sister yet allowed for the brother in the same house. Today, a woman may escape the strike of a hand, yet still live a life dictated by control, fear, and silence. The persistence of patriarchal values means that even in modern times, many women grow up with invisible restrictions on how they dress, speak, or even dream.
Our religion emphasizes dignity and equality, but it is often misinterpreted in Pakistan through selective teachings and manipulation in the name of religion. Mostly by whom? Men. Our society misuses sacred texts to justify oppression and control.
The wounds inflicted by oppression are invisible, but they are just as lethal.
Instead of teaching our daughters only how to maintain a household, if we focus on their education, women can be freed from economic dependence. Economic inequality continues to trap women in cycles of silence. Financial dependence becomes a weapon of control, where women cannot leave abuse because they cannot survive without a man providing money, and because they have not been given the life skills to become independent.
“Educate a man and you educate an individual. Educate a woman and you educate a generation.”
In our homes, girls are often trained to put others before themselves, to serve and obey, while boys are encouraged to lead. Over time, when these roles are passed from generation to generation, women are made to believe that their worth lies in sacrifice, patience, and silence. Because of this, even women can become complicit in misogyny.
“Patriarchy may change faces, but it hasn’t changed its heart.”
Change begins when silence breaks and understanding blooms. By educating our daughters and sons, by taking into account women’s choices and emotions, by planting seeds of change through awareness, practice, and empathy, we can dismantle the roots of violence, both physical and emotional. To silence a woman is to silence half the wisdom, half the innovation, and half the art the world could have had. Because when a woman thrives, the entire world benefits.
True progress requires not just laws on paper, but enforcement and accountability in practice.
Mary Wollstonecraft once said, “I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves.”
