ISLAMABAD: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Saturday took strong exception to a series of videos being circulated on social media platforms in which right-wing clerics had been urging parents to pull their daughters out of school on the grounds that schooling was associated with ‘obscenity’.

In another video, HRCP representatives said, certain clerics had denounced women’s use of mobile phones on similar grounds.

“The language used in these videos was not only derogatory but also abusive and potentially an incitement to violence,” the HRCP representatives said at a press briefing held at the National Press Club.

Speakers took turns to lament that such deep-seated misogyny must be curtailed immediately.

They said with an estimated 12 million girls out of school, widespread cultural restrictions on women’s mobility and an alarmingly high incidence of violence against women and girls, Pakistan could not afford to give any space to derogatory and anti-women rhetoric.

“Given Pakistan’s economic woes, it was ill-advised not to involve women, who made up 50pc of the population of the country and could contribute to the economy,” said HRCP co-chairperson Munizae Jahangir.

She said denying women their right to education was criminal.

Nasreen Azhar was critical and shocked at the mindset in this day and age where there were posts on social media discouraging education of women, which was their constitutional right.

Speakers also maintained that the state must urgently counter such narratives through strong and consistent public service messages that upheld girls’ right to education, which speakers stressed was their constitutionally protected right under Article 25A — as well as women’s digital rights more generally.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2024