THATTA, Aug 9: Women play a vital role in the society and if they are alienated then it can not progress.

The chief of the Awami Tehrik, Rasool Bux Palijo, said this while addressing a seminar on ‘Ensuring women’s participation in the political process’, which was held at the Taluka Council Hall on Thursday.

Elaborating on his opening remarks, Mr Palijo said that women were slaves and victims of superstitious customs of the Third World countries even at this juncture when the rest of the civilized world had advanced into the space age.

He said that in our part of the world, we never bothered to detect and overcome the root cause of social ailments which have ruthlessly trapped the society in social injustices, Karo-Kari (honour killings), imposition of feudal-dominated Panchayats and Jirga verdicts giving a bad name to our country abroad.

Criticizing the clerics in Pakistan, Mr Palijo said they had never uttered even a word on the marriages solemnized against the will and wishes of the girls who were often made scapegoats in our society, and by doing so they were rendering no service to Islam.

He said Pakistan had suffered a lot under the influence of India, where women were degraded under Hindu customs to accept the male as her idol.

He said that in Balochistan the women were not allowed to eat beef on the pretext that she would commit sins.

He said that in fact we were Muslims by name alone, but did not follow the preachings of Islam, especially those concerning women.

The event was organized by the Takhleeq Foundation and also addressed by PPP leader Imtiaz Qureshi and Nazir Qureshi.