Muslim women in Pakistan certainly share in the collective issues that non-Muslim women deal with. However, they have no frame of reference for the added burden of social discrimination and exclusion, forced conversion, restricted mobility, and targeted violence brought around because of religious intolerance that many non-Muslim women face in varying degrees that may be debilitating when in pursuit of their personal social and economic development mostly in educational institutions and workplaces.

Marium Khokhar, a teacher at City School, shares her experience as a Christian woman studying for her master’s in political science. “I was not allowed to take an exam. The reason given to me was that I was short on attendance. However, I had been balancing my job and studies, which the university knew about and I had submitted the required applications. Two male Muslim students were allowed to sit for the exam despite their attendance shortfall,” she narrates.

The professor in question would often make statements like ‘Christians are only good at sanitation jobs’.

Religious discrimination, as per a 2022 study by the Minority Women’s Forum of the Centre for Law & Justice, predominantly affects less-educated, poverty-stricken minorities in remote areas due to factors like dress, social norms, language, name, and occupation, with law enforcement often slow to intervene against the majority.

The issue with this kind of discrimination is its history and consistency and how it’s so entrenched in people’s minds that non-Muslims are stereotyped into characters that women, in particular, find hard to break due to safety concerns.

The study found women are encouraged by concerned family members to avoid confrontation at all costs. This leads to a never ending-cycle of following the same traditions — marrying early, ignoring education, and putting off employment for ‘fear of getting too much attention’.

As a recent Graduate from the Institute of Business Management, Namarta Lohana explains, “Fear has always been a big part of our lives as Hindus, especially with all the stories about forced conversions. That’s why my family has always been very worried about my leaving the house to study or to get a job, and, as an adult, I find I’m constantly thinking about my safety as well.”

The International Monetary Fund suggests Pakistan could earn over $91.5 billion annually by addressing gender parity. While the state promises to implement Sustainable Development Goal 5 (achieving gender equality and empowering all females) and the State Bank develops loan policies for women, minority issues must be addressed before women can properly take advantage of such policies.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, March 11th, 2024