HYDERABAD, Sept 3: Khairpur District Nazim Nafisa Shah has said the link between social development and empowerment of women is important as social development changes women’s lives and role, and therefore their position in society.

She was speaking on “Women’s Rights in Pakistan” at a two-day workshop on “Gender Sensitization”, organized by the Institute of Women Development Studies, University of Sindh, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education on Wednesday.

She said in the 1970’s, the world conference on women in Mexico expressed concern that women only received the residues of development and hence declared the decade as the decade of women.

Ms Shah said in our country the code of honour and the value of the family private space were all cultural constructs which provided a context and sometimes an excuse for the low status of women.

She said the story of women in Pakistan was at the same time the story of the Pakistani nation, its history and its progress.

She said in Pakistan traditions run alongside modernity and created realities that seem to be stuck in a time warp. She added that the 5000-year-old bullock-cart even now competed with locomotives, the village well survived alongside piped water and the manual floor mill against the mechanical one.

She said customary practices still defined the lifestyle of a vast section of the population.

Ms Shah said problems emerged when tradition and culture were used as reasons for women subordination.

She said the patriarchal honour system defined women’s role as that of child bearers and a women was essentially a cultural minor, with her body symbolizing a collective family honour. She said women’s role as an object of transfer in marriage maintained kinship patterns.

Speaking on the occasion, the federal secretary for women development, social welfare and special education, Syed Tariq Ali Bukhari, said a gender sensitization training programme was started in the country by the ministry two years back.

He said the objective of the programme was to create awareness among the people about adverse effects of gender discrimination.

He hoped that the workshop would provide an opportunity to the participants to deliberate over the issue at length and work out an action plan for gender development.

He said during the current financial year, eight workshops would be organized by the ministry in collaboration with different institutes.

The director, Institute of Women Development Studies, Sindh University, Prof Parveen Shah, said women in Pakistan by and large did not enjoy equal rights.

Vice-Chancellor Mazharul Haq Siddiqui in his inaugural speech urged women parliamentarians to play their due role to improve the quality of life of women of remote areas.