Women’s role vital in progress of society: MWL holds seminar to mark International Women Day

Central leader of Minhaj Women League (MWL) Mrs. Razia Naveed has said that Pakistan was not created for a few families but for the millions of the poor. She said that feudal lords, industrialists, capitalists and incompetent politicians had been playing with the destiny of the nation for last 65 years. She said that public awareness campaign jointly launched by MQI and PAT had become a movement for revolution. She said that the hundreds of thousands of women and the poor were ready to play their role to bring about revolution under the leadership of Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri. She said that Dr Qadri did not demand anything from the plunderers, thieves and the landlords, adding that his strength lay in the sobbing of the poor, widows, destitute, and less privileged sections of society. She said that we would have to heed Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri’s call of revolution. She said that the nation would have to choose between peace and terrorism.

MWL leader expressed these views while addressing a seminar organized under the banner of MWL in connection with the International Women Day in the central secretariat. She said that Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri’s message of peace was for Islam and Pakistan and it was through implementation on this message that durable peace could be established in the country. She said that PAT was striving to arrange a caravan of 10 million ‘Namazis’ and the women would be a major chunk of this. She said that women of Pakistan were aware of their rights and determined to get their usurped rights restored.

Mrs. Razia Naveed said that those making hue and cry about women rights should know that Islam conferred equal rights on women 1400 years ago. She said that the women were members of Parliament during early years of Islam, while the modern world gave them right to vote in 1929. She said that describing ‘women emancipation’ without any social, moral and cultural check as rights was not correct. She said that the exploitation of women continued in various forms despite passage of 66 years since inception of Pakistan because we turned our back on our real traditions. She said that a certain mindset had kept women deprived of their due rights. She said that real enemy of women was the current exploitative and corrupt electoral system.

Mrs. Razia Naveed said that Islam gave honorable status to women in every relation, whether she is a daughter, sister, wife and mother so that she could play a constructive role in the development of a society. She said that a woman should stand shoulder to shoulder to men in educational, economic and social fields of life as an incarnation of piety and modesty. She said that a society could not progress without the contribution of women.

In her speech at the occasion, Mrs. Ayesha Shabbir said that veil was not a hurdle in progression of women in career and social hierarchy; rather it was a source of confidence and security. She said that the women were confronted with a number of problems, adding that veil was a protector of women’s chastity and respect. She said that it was unabashed to unwittingly make woman a part of publicity campaign in a crude manner.

Mrs. Nabila Mazhar said in her views in the seminar that Islam conferred equal rights on women like that of men. She said that women were considered inferior in society, which was gross injustice to her capabilities. She said that the rights conferred on women by Islam were appreciable and unique, adding that they could carve out a respectable niche for themselves by using these rights. She said that a lot depended on women as to what kind of role they wanted to play in society, maintaining that they could contribute to beauty of canvas of universe or darken it. The choice, she said, was theirs.

Ms. Shakira Chaudhry, speaking in the seminar, said that there was a tendency among a certain group of women to appear modern and in their craze to look so; their actions had at times been found to be out of sync with moral values and traditions. She said that a woman could go up the ladder of progress without violating the principles prescribed by Islam. She said that no religion prescribed as comprehensive and elaborate set of women rights as Islam. She said that women needed to be sensitized to the confines imposed by Islam in her endeavors to make a mark in life.