It is an uneasy irony that as the world marks International Women’s Day, women’s rights are once again being invoked to justify imperial conflicts and geopolitical rivalries. The language of ‘saving women’ has long accompanied wars and interventions, particularly in the Global South. Today, similar narratives are resurfacing around tensions involving Iran, with liberal rhetoric about women’s rights often deployed to sanitise the ambitions of powerful states such as the US Israel. The result is a troubling form of liberal whitewashing, where genuine struggles for women’s freedom are instrumentalised to legitimise Empire rather than to empower women themselves. This year’s International Women’s Day theme – ‘Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls’ – is therefore a timely reminder that women’s rights must be understood not merely as slogans but as part of a broader struggle for social justice. The UN has recently described violence against women as a “global emergency", warning that one in three women worldwide experiences physical or sexual violence during her lifetime. These statistics reflect a crisis that cuts across borders, cultures and economic systems.
Pakistan, unfortunately, is no exception. Gender inequality remains deeply entrenched despite decades of policy commitments and legal reforms. While the country has passed various laws aimed at protecting women, the everyday experiences of many women suggest that these protections often remain confined to paper. Economic participation illustrates this disconnect. Data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics indicates that a significant proportion of highly educated women remain unemployed, with roughly one in four struggling to find work despite their qualifications. This shows the structural barriers that prevent women from entering and remaining in the workforce including social expectations, workplace discrimination, and inadequate childcare or transport infrastructure. The broader labour statistics are even more revealing. Female labour force participation in Pakistan remains among the lowest in the region, hovering around a quarter of working-age women. In contrast, participation rates for men are dramatically higher. Economists have long pointed out that excluding women from economic life weakens national productivity, reduces household incomes and limits broader economic growth.
Yet employment statistics alone cannot capture the full spectrum of challenges women face. Violence, harassment, forced marriages and honour killings remain persistent realities. Many cases go unreported due to social stigma, lack of trust in law enforcement or pressure from families and communities to remain silent. Even when laws exist, enforcement is uneven and victims often encounter bureaucratic or cultural resistance when seeking justice. At the same time, public debates about women’s rights frequently become arenas for ideological battles rather than constructive dialogue. Movements advocating gender equality are often caricatured or dismissed, while the everyday struggles of working-class women receive far less attention than they deserve. This disconnect is part of a larger issue: the conversation about women’s rights often takes place in elite spaces while the most vulnerable women remain marginalised. Remembering the historical roots of International Women’s Day can help restore some clarity. The observance emerged from early-twentieth-century labour movements and socialist organising, particularly the efforts of Clara Zetkin, who proposed an international day dedicated to women workers in 1910. It was never intended to be a ceremonial event marked by platitudes and corporate slogans but rather as a moment of mobilisation – a reminder that women’s liberation is inseparable from broader struggles against exploitation, inequality and war. Essentially, whether in Pakistan or elsewhere, the pursuit of justice for women must be consistent, principled and grounded in solidarity rather than geopolitical expediency.
