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“Black holes are places where ordinary gravity has become so extreme that it overwhelms all other forces in the Universe. Once inside, nothing can escape a black hole's gravity — not even light.”
The situation Pakistan finds itself in currently could be rendered akin to being sucked into a supermassive black hole. And I’m not just being dramatic here. The fact that we face a myriad of problems on a multitude of fronts is hardly open to argument: a brutal tribal insurgency, endemic corruption and economic instability all compound the gravitational forces that are pulling us closer and closer to the event horizon —the dreaded point of no return.
With issues of such existential proportions playing out in the foreground it is only natural that problems with apparently less severe implications on our nationhood –such as human rights issues –are dismissed as mere background noise. However, such issues have the potential to manifest into problems with nation-wide implications, provided the requisite space to do so. As such, due to a combination of many factors adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) issues have been ignored for too long; and compounded by the fact that Pakistan is currently housing the largest youth cohort (ages 10 – 24) in its history (estimated at 54.2 million), have wrought a situation with severe implications.
Contrary to common belief ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand when faced with apparent danger. According to experts at the San Diego Zoo when faced with an unavoidable threat an ostrich, "...flops to the ground and remains still, with its head and neck flat on the ground in front of it." The point here is not to discuss the unique behavior patterns of ostriches, but to establish that there is an element of pragmatism inherent in the way these over-sized birds deal with danger.
Sadly, however, we Pakistani’s have a decidedly different and less practical way of addressing the many problems our nation is currently suffering from. Rather than tackle a particular issue head on and delve into its context, we prefer to run around in circles, indulging in unproductive debates around the merits of an issue, never realizing that this approach serves to only aggravate the problem at hand. This tendency is apparent in the prevalence of conspiracy theories throughout Pakistan regarding the causes of religious extremism that have, to a great extent, prevented society at large from recognizing terrorism as domestic problem with primarily localized solutions.
This tendency is also responsible for the ignorant way in which our society and government have responded to the burgeoning sexual health problems of the population which have been brought into focus by a "population explosion" that has added to the strain on our already out-stretched state structures. This sexual health crisis—after years of being ignored on a social and institutional level—has attained critical mass, so to speak. It has severely impacted the lives of a majority of the population—especially women, children and adolescents—and cannot be ignored any longer, especially in light of international recognition of the link between promotion sexual health and reduction of poverty in developing countries.
In terms of exposure to sexual health risks, the state of affairs of women in Pakistan is by far the worst and is caused by the pervasion of discriminatory gender norms that perpetuate gender inequality in society. Gender Inequity, which is defined by the Sloan Work and Family Research Network, of Boston College, as a, "A social order in which women and men share the same opportunities and the same constraints on full participation in both the economic and the domestic realm", is reflected in Pakistan by the fact that only 33% of women (10 years and older) have completed primary education and the total number of employed women is nearly four times less than that of men. Discriminatory gender norms —which restrict mobility, societal representation, and access to health and education services for women—have the combined effect of objectifying women (as means of reproduction, housework and sexual gratification) and institutionalizing gender inequity in Pakistan.
