According to the 1973 constitution, all Pakistani citizens are equal, with no distinction based on gender alone. The state may, however, make special provisions for the protection of women and children, which show especially in labour legislation. It ensures the full participation of women in all spheres of national life. Women have the right to vote and to hold office, with a quota of seats reserved for women in national and provincial legislative bodies. But constitutional guarantees of equality have been superseded in many instances by discriminatory legislation or have not been enforced in actual practice. Also the force of custom most often prevails over even the most enlightened official laws, making it difficult for women to claim the legal rights they are guaranteed.²⁹

In most social groupings men hold a monopoly of power in the public arena. In the political domain, local level chiefs and tribal authorities are always men, as are the members of local councils of elders or jirgas. It is rare to find examples of parallel women’s groups, from which women leaders may emerge and collective action be planned. Men also set the terms of moral and cultural values. Religious authorities are all men and local cultural codes of honour stem from a male value system which often have components based on the subordination of women. These may include denial of women’s rights in matters of property and inheritance that are recognised in Islam, and exclusion of women from consideration as equals in creating the social order.³⁰ The general characteristics of a tribal society are prevalent in the district as in other parts of the province. The society in the district is patriarchal and male dominated. Decision-making is in the hand of men. Women have no say.

Economic participation of women differs from that of men. Most of the household work is done by women and most of the outdoor work is done by men, whether economic or social. Women are involved in activities like fetching water and wood, looking after animals, collecting fodder, processing milk into butter, sour milk, and cheese and working with wool. They are also responsible for cooking, cleaning, taking care of the children and other dependent members of the family, producing handicraft articles etc.

The women are of low social status and the tradition of polygamy still exists. In tribal society, people prefer to have more male children. This burdens women with multiple childbearing, affecting her and her children’s health. The only positive impact of this is, that as women have more male children, her social authority is recognised by the family. The position of a newly wed woman is often precarious, as she is both young and outsider in the family. Women without children always remain an outsider and the fear of her husband taking a second wife haunts her.

A husband and his nearest relatives under the customary law are entitled to kill a woman and her seducer on account of an illicit connection. No compensation is paid if both the seducer and the woman are killed. If both escape, the woman is divorced and the seducer is fined as sharmana (at the cost of his respect). The woman is then given in the spurdagi of a Wadera (a notable) and disposed of for vulvar payable to the old husband or to his relatives. Maintenance expenses borne by the Wadera in the meantime are deducted from the vulvar money. Due to this riwaj custom, many innocent women and men are shot dead even on suspicion, by their uncompromising husbands and relatives.

Women are treated like an asset and are at the mercy of her husband and relatives. She can be divorced or sold at her husband’s will or declared siahkara. She is not allowed to take share of property in inheritance, except in a few middle class families. Property devolves on men only and the law of Sharia is often not observed. Although the female literacy rate in the district is very low, the trend in urban areas is encouraging. There is also a positive trend of women casting their votes, as in each successive election the indication is that more female votes are cast. Though on the other hand this is again manipulation of women, as the candidates, usually men, use their vote to gain power and then later, when they are in office, forget all about them.

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