The portrayal of Women in the BISE Curriculum

Women’s Day is celebrated across the globe on the 8th of March every year in Pakistan. This day commemorates the long struggle for women’s rights. As the narrative has started prevailing among the educated factions, the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) has also amended its curriculum in the past years to educate the youth about gender equality. They have added a few more chapters in the syllabus. These chapters change our perspective regarding the female gender. These chapters not only propagate women’s rights But also educate how women should be treated in society.  Here are the details about the chapters and their contents.

Islamiat and Women:

We are proud to be Muslims, and this fact boosts our pride that Islam was the first religion to address the issue of oppression of females. In the textbook of  Islamiat of class 9th, 10th and intermediate, there is a detailed chapter on the teachings of Islam regarding women. There are verses of the Holy Quran and hadith focusing on the topics of women. In the times when women were buried alive and were considered as slaves, Islam arrived as the savior through the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He emphasized the respect of women and introduced the rights of women in Islam. He was the messenger of one true God and taught the people about how to treat women.

Women In Pakistan Studies:

Benazir Bhutto is the daughter of the 9th prime minister of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. She also became the prime minister of Pakistan twice and served the country for almost five years. Moreover, Fatima Jinnah was the Pakistani leader and founder of Pakistan’s Women Association. She helped the immigrant women to settle in Pakistan.

Arfa Kareem is mentioned in the chapter: “Women Protection” in both the SSC and Intermediate levels. She was the world’s youngest software engineer certified by Microsoft.

Malala Yosfzai is the world’s renowned Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Shanaz Leghari is the first Pakistani female Hijabi pilot, for which she had her name in the Guinness book of world records.

Maria Toorpakay Wazir is the professional Squash Champion of Pakistan who was bestowed with the Salam Pakistan Award by the president of Pakistan.

Shahlyla Baloch was the Pakistan women football team’s striker which was known for her hattrick in international matches. She died in a car crash at the age of 20 in October of 2016.

These sections of the book do not specifically address male or female students. but it also teaches them about women their rights. In Pakistan Studies, students are also taught about their constitutional rights. They are taught about the number of women parliamentarians present in the national and provincial assemblies. Efforts of the Government of Punjab to address the violence against women have also been mentioned in the coursebook. The textbook of the intermediate class also contains the topics of toxic masculinity and patriarchy. It is aimed to impart objectivity in the students regarding these issues. Students are also told about the right of women to work and the security provided by the government in their workplaces.

All these topics added to the curriculum help the students to unlearn the stereotypes. These norms have devastating consequences and topics such as mentioned above help our young ones to deal with these norms in a peaceful manner.

Women in Urdu:

Unfortunately in Urdu, there are few female writers. There have been female characters written by men. But these female characters portrayed via men’s perspective, do not have much gravity. Whereas the female characters written by female authors give you a more accurate idea and women find these characters more relatable.  Nevertheless, Hajra Masroor is a famous writer in Urdu literature. She has been covered in the Urdu textbook for the 10th class. She portrayed insecurities of a girl and the failed attempts to hide these insecurities with a fictional cover of gold in an essay ‘Mulamma’. This essay is from her book ‘Sab Afsany Mere’. Another very famous Urdu literature writer Khadeeja Mastoor wrote a story in her book ‘Aangan’, which made it to the SSC boards of Punjab and Intermediate of KPK boards. In this story, the girl is portrayed as a rebel. This is the same story adapted by the famous TV serial Aangan.

Conclusion:

These portrayals of women encourage the students to be brave enough to have an opinion.  This education teaches them ethics and manners and the female heroes make them courageous. This part of the syllabus impacts the nourishment of the young female students making them a part of a progressive society.