Shahwaar Mughal

She was never asked to shrink; she was just made used to it over a period of time.

The lives of Pakistani women in one way or another revolve around the same striking dynamics, forcing them to lower their voice, suppress their dreams, and obey not just their family men but the general men around them. Society rules over the desires and, more importantly, the thought process of women in Pakistan. The societal policies around women's bodies, interests, voices, and ambitions. The stark reality of Pakistani society is hidden underneath how men can do unjust practices against women and evade not just societal norms but also the state law. The reason behind men being leveraged against women is so deeply rooted in the patriarchal system. There are numerous cases of harassment against women being reported every single day in Pakistan, yet no one takes accountability. More than 2000 cases of domestic violence were reported in Pakistan in 2025, and not only this, 28% of the women aged between 15 and 49 have faced physical violence somewhere in their lives. Along with this, 6% women have faced sexual violence in their lives, but the reporting rate of these crimes is far lower. The question here arises is whether our justice system is actually sleeping, or if such people have other hidden holes that are saving them?

Pakistani Society and Its Obsession with Performative Femininity

The women in Pakistan have been considered as objects and not just those who can be moulded and shaped as per the preferences of people around them. A French philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir, in her “The Second Sex,” expressed that “one is not born, but one is made”, and this really fits well within the dynamics of women shaped by the societal framework of Pakistan. The basic fabric of femininity for women here revolves around the intensity of being obedient.

Women in Pakistan are positioned to be modest as per the societal norms, making them indistinguishable from others and then insisting on their being grateful for that.

Women here are considered a social product assembled through ignorance, obedience, repetition, and rewards over the years. Oppression here has been internalized for so many decades that our women have lost their expression, and not just that, their silence now has become their unspoken choice. This silence has cost us nothing but harm, ranking Pakistan 145 out of 146 countries on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index.

Women in Pakistan, for years, have been cornered by a male-dominating society where they have been shut off from any violence and harm in the name of honour, just to protect their good girl identity crafted by the society.

Also Read: Being a Woman in South Asia: A Battle on Every Front

On top of this suppression, there is another kind of hate persistent in our society, which is visible in the form of victim-blaming. This scenario became painfully visible in the 2020 motorway rape case, when a mother of two was being raped in front of her children. When it was high time for society to support the victim, they instead positioned themselves with the perpetrators, questioning the presence of women at that time of night on a secluded roadside. This injustice against women continues to shape the lives and decisions of women around Pakistan to this date.

       Another day, another victim of tyranny, yet another story drowned in pain and silence.

Another scenario of this kind can be seen where Gulaan Bharo from Sindh was allegedly beaten by her own husband for years, and when she demanded justice and the dignity she deserved, she was silenced. The reason was simple: she dared to demand justice for herself and to put her case before the court. The irony of the system doesn't end here; there's more to it. When she was in court, her father asked her to return home in the name of honour, and she agreed despite her wish to go to Darul-Aman. Her words, “I know, I will be killed”, are going to echo now for years. While we also see a substantial amount of normative legal frameworks for gender-based violence in Pakistan, there is still a dire need for the application of these frameworks, primarily on the grassroots level.

Also Read: Feminism: Building Bridges not Barriers

Panopticon Prison: A Pakistani Society

Foucault, a French philosopher, has laid out the concept of the Panopticon, a prison deliberately structured to constantly observe the inmates. This framework profoundly explained the mechanism of social control, in which individuals regulate and police their behaviours, making it seem like constant surveillance. This same phenomenon depicts the dynamics of women in Pakistan with eerie precision, in which they are constantly observed by the men around them. The women here are conditioned to be monitored by society, hence controlling their expression, perspective, choice and desires. The result of this has been an unending cycle of oppression and generations of women who are fed the pill of self-censoring. Above all, these dynamics are not just because women in Pakistan lack diverse opinions or ideas, but because the cost of being visible here is catastrophically extreme.

Thus, the gender disparity and injustice is so persistent in the societal architecture of our country that women despite being vocal of their rights are being marginalized for years. This trap persists, affecting not just physical or psychological health but also deep-rooted economic repercussions. But on the other hand, this trap is profitable for those who profit from women’s compliance. These dynamics clearly underscore that when a society instils in its daughters the expectation of invisibility, it is not protecting them; rather, it is poisoning a slow generational erasure of will, thought, and expression in the name of societal or cultural norms.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of The Himalayan Research Institute Pakistan (THRIP)

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Shahwar is an MPhil-IR scholar at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML). Her core interests lie in the Indo-Pacific region, East Asia, US-China competition, security issues, and policy analysis.