All-Female Students In Pakistan Must Wear Abaya

Posted by Patrick John on April 20th, 2021

It has been made official by law that every girl or woman who is a student in the district of Haripur must put on a gown or abaya when attending school. The announcement was made by the district education officer, Samina Alaf after receiving complaints from the public about harassment. According to her statement, there has been a surge in the number of women and girls sexual harassment cases, and the move is aimed at protecting the girl child.

The district education officer also added that it is impossible to post police officers on every corner in the district to protect women but abaya will go a long way to reduce the increased harassment cases. Issuing the directive to all learning institutions, Samina gave all concerned parties up to one week to adapt to the new law. All female students will then be required to wear a gown when traveling from school to home or home to school.

In her interview with a national publication, Samina was quoted saying, “As women of the country take part in every walk of life, I urge parents to educate their girls, but seeking guidance from religion is as necessary as education for our society.” She also added that “teachers are revered in eastern societies as the spiritual parents of children, this is why I have decided in light of my responsibility to secure girls from inner and outer dangers.”

The Haripur district education officer was backed up by Zia Bangash, the advisor to KP chief minister during a private interview. According to Bangash, “They are for the security of children and mental satisfaction of their parents so that such incidents do not happen.” He also added that although there is enough security in school, most of them become victims while in between home and school. If you want to get more interesting details about arabian clothing, you may visit this site.

Will Abaya solve the problem?

While the Pakistani government is strict to see women wear gowns, it is not doing enough to protect the girls and women in the country. Cases of harassment among women indeed have skyrocketed, but, the abaya is not doing enough to ensure that the girls are safe. What the government needs to do is put in place more strict measures against suspects and develop a better law to provide better protection. Half of the Pakistani population is made up of women who are not endangered by sexual predators that seem to only get a slap on the wrist for their evil deeds.

Although the KP government earlier on insisted that all women wear gowns for their protection, it, later on, took back its word stating that abaya was optional and not compulsory for Pakistani women. Usually, it takes a lot of noise-making before a suspect is served by the court of law with Zainab Ansari’s case being one of the most prominent cases. The big question however remains, should underage girls also wear the abaya to keep sexual predators away? Can it protect from an ill-minded individual with an evil purpose?