Women's Struggle in Pakistan: A Critical Analysis of Women's Protection Bill 2006

Abstract

Women played an important role in Pakistan Movement and have been struggling for
equal rights since 1947. However, the question of women's rights remained unresolved
since then. Ayub regime took some measures to uplift women's status in Pakistan by
introducing Family Laws. But Zia tried to threaten women's status by introducing
gender discriminatory laws under Hudood Ordinances under his Islamization project.
These ordinances remained unchallenged until Musharraf came into power. Musharraf
under his project “Enlighten Moderation” tried to liberalize Pakistani society in order to
get international legitimacy. Women's rights were on the main agenda of his regime.
His first effort following extreme opposition from the religious parties and groups
across the country was introduction of “Protection of Women's Protection Act 2006.”
This study discusses women's struggle in Pakistan concerning the Women's Protection
Act 2006 and argues that Musharraf was not basically a liberal person with regard to
women's rights, rather he wanted to find justifications for his enlighten moderation
project and the women's rights cause was just used as a way to extend his rule by
avoiding the opposition from liberal segments of the Pakistani society.