NOTWITHSTANDING what might be going on in other countries, Pakistan has a real problem regarding violence against women. In the past few months alone, we have seen some horrendous incidents: ‘honour’ killings, marriage-of-choice killings, rapes, domestic violence, spousal violence and killings, abduction, rape and killing of minors, and violence against employees and staff. There is no dearth of reports from national and international bodies documenting the extent and severity of these issues.

A couple of points stand out in these reports. One, we do not have good data on violence against women. Incidents are underreported, and there are no national registries or data sets of any sort. Most reported data comes from newspaper reporting, police case registrations, hotline reports, and so on.

Two, though many reasons — poor laws and weak implementation, few protections, pathetic institutional arrangements, low reporting and conviction rates, delays, social and societal taboos, etc — are cited in these reports, a primary one is the impact of patriarchy: the control of men over society. Patriarchy shapes not only laws, norms, and expectations in this society; it also shapes responses: what she was wearing, why she was out at that time, why she was driving, and so on.

Patriarchy is hard to spot, fight, and neutralise because it is embedded in almost every norm, rule, and law. Most societies have, historically and even today, used education to address society’s main issues. What it means to be educated has varied across societies and times, and one element (other than the ability to carry out tasks) has been the larger socialisation of the individual within society and the shaping of their values and norms. I want to pose the question: should we not be shaping our education to take on the issue of patriarchy and its impacts directly?

Recently, my daughter started school as a fifth-grader in a public school in London. On the very first day, after introductions and other formalities, her teacher spent a couple of hours talking about the autism spectrum and notions of inclusion, expected behaviour, and what was not expected or what would not be tolerated. This came before any conversation about the English or math curriculum. This term, the heroes the class will be introduced to include Frida Kahlo, Mahatma Gandhi, Simone Biles, and a couple of human rights defenders from across the globe.

We must address the most urgent social and cultural issues of our society through education.

Every day when I walk her back from school and ask her about her day, she tells me about the book they have been reading in class, the documentary they saw, the discussions they had, etc. I have to ask specifically about her math, English and history lessons. They are there, and she is learning the subjects she is supposed to, but the school and her education are much more than that. This has been true every school day. It is about what she needs as a human being and a citizen; it is about values and the kind of society that needs to be there. Specific skills are just a small part of the ‘education’ she is getting.

I went to some of the best schools in Lahore in the day. But when I landed in England for undergraduate studies, one of the first things I noticed, comparing my own educational experiences with those of my undergraduate peers from England, was that almost each one of my peers had been exposed to things I had not. All of them had good exposure to and knowledge of a major European language other than English. All of them had studied music for many years in their schools, and many could play one instrument fairly well or had a good understanding of it. Many of them had had singing lessons: some were good choir singers. So, language, music and singing. Their exposure to art was also more advanced than mine. The schools I attended focused much more on doing well in academic subjects and preparing for school-leaving examinations.

Though schools, especially high-fee private schools, have changed a lot, including in Pakistan over the years, even the best of them today remain narrowly focused on subject understanding and examination performance. They do not give any importance to preparing citizens and human beings. Nor is there a demand for this from parents.

In fact, the trend, at least in public schools, is the opposite. With clear evidence that most children in schools are not learning enough (77 per cent are ‘learning poor’), the focus has shifted to foundational learning to ensure students grasp the basics of language and math. But the danger is that this approach narrows the scope of education even more. We focus on only essential learning objectives and try to drill them into students. We teach these and test only these. We test only these, so we teach only these. Foundational learning is the flavour right now, and it is hard even to raise concerns about what this might mean for broader educational objectives.

Education has always been about creating citizens and human beings who can take us forward. We must address the most pressing social and cultural issues of our society through education. If we do not, what is the point of education, and how else can we plan for a better society? Violence against women, in all its forms, and the grip of patriarchy on our society is exactly the kind of embedded issue that cannot be tackled through law alone and has to be challenged through education and with a sense of purpose. The sheer brutality of what we keep seeing should wake us up to the urgency with which this needs to be addressed.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives and an associate professor of economics at Lums.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2026