NOW more than ever, women’s bodies represent the front lines for many an ideological battle. In parts of South Asia, women are being forcibly converted to depress religious minority demographics.

In India, the ‘medical wing’ of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is advocating ‘procedures’ by which prospective mothers can supposedly have fair-skinned babies, a literal whitewashing of indigenous identities at the altar of Brahmanical supremacy.

In Pakistan, the drive to mainstream Fata — while generally positive — may legitimise inhumane tribal practices against women in the bargain through the riwaj act.

For many, the battle for survival begins in utero against sex-selective ‘treatments’ and abortions, and against possible abandonment once born — decisions mothers rarely make without coercion.

And so the circle is complete; a woman’s reproductive rights exercised by someone else while she is punished for giving birth to more of her kind.

Most will be denied healthcare and education, and be subjected to various forms of gender-based violence and its associated stigma — all of which essentially amount to power grabs.

Weeding out the pernicious roots of patriarchy requires state intervention, but it also requires that our societies shed their prevarications.

Yes, economic conditions play a significant role, but these issues intersect across all classes.

While advertisements promoting women’s empowerment may have some positive effect on social attitudes, expecting capitalist entities alone to solve an issue that is fundamentally about inequality is absurd.

And although NGOs serve an important function, an overreliance on foreign aid depoliticises and fractures women’s movements.

Educational and medical organisations must do more to inform women of their rights and the attendant risks of elective procedures.

Most importantly, the view that this is a niche struggle — the burden to be borne exclusively by women — will continue to provoke hostility unless it is adopted by society at large. Increasing female participation across all spheres will bring change, but for women to fully reclaim ownership of their bodies, men must start behaving like allies, and not perpetrators and abettors.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2017