Traditional Beliefs
- Pakistan have negative attitudes and mindset towards women. Statistics show that one in four women would prefer to have more sons than daughters. This marked preference for sons lead to aggression and violence against girls as they grow up.
- According to Dr. Anita Raj, director at the Center on Gender Equity and a health professor at the Division of Global Public Health, Department of Medicine at the University of California, in San Diego, “This figure is closer to one-in-three when you look only at rural women. Such preference is deeply rooted in beliefs that women and girls have less value than men and boys. Thus, not surprisingly, mistreatment and even violence against women and girls is more likely in households where there is ‘son preference,’ as seen in the Umar Zaib case when the husband murdered his own daughter, Zainab, then beat and threatened to kill his wife as she tried to save their daughter."
- Girls are seen as a burden as they require a dowry when they want to marry. Even after marriage, they have to move in with their husband’s family. Hence, parents of married-off girls often regard girls as a financial burden.