Every child deserves a safe and happy childhood. Every child has the right to joy, innocence, security, and a life free from fear. No child should ever be deprived of these basic rights.
Areeba Altaf
Is a woman’s life truly so cheap? Must society still find a way to blame a young girl simply because she stepped outside to buy something? Will the question always be why she left her home, rather than why such crimes occur in the first place? Once again, the burden of guilt is placed upon women. Spare them this injustice.
What was the fault of innocent Muntaha Zehra, other than stepping outside to purchase a simple necessity? Can this poisonous mentality bring back a grieving family’s daughter? Such incidents raise serious concerns about child safety in Pakistan and expose the lack of effective systems and services for child protection.
And what of the little girls who have only just begun to dream? Children who know nothing of life’s complexities, its triumphs, or its hardships? They should be protected, nurtured, and allowed to grow with their innocence intact—not exposed to the consequences of a deeply flawed and harmful mindset.
When a daughter is born, her existence is not always celebrated as it should be. In childhood, many become victims of unspeakable acts. As they grow older, they face harassment, judgment, and endless societal scrutiny. A divorced woman often faces another layer of suffering, while at every stage of life, women are confronted with obstacle after obstacle.
By the age of five, many girls have already internalized the belief that their safety is their own burden to carry. They are taught to be careful, vigilant, and self-restricting. Boys, far too often, are not taught with the same urgency that respect, self-control, consent, and accountability are equally their responsibility.
Society teaches daughters how to survive the world, but it should also teach sons how not to make the world unsafe for others.
Many pour resources into educating and protecting girls, which is necessary and right. Yet an essential question remains unanswered: “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao”—but protect daughters from whom? And who is responsible for teaching those who pose the threat?
A girl is sent to school to build her future. A boy is sent to school to build his career. Yet neither is always taught the same lessons about respect, boundaries, accountability, and dignity. The girl graduates knowing how to protect herself. The boy may graduate without ever being asked to examine himself.
The responsibility falls on everyone: fathers who stay silent, mothers who make excuses, teachers who look the other way, and a society that still treats male entitlement as a minor inconvenience rather than a generational failure. People have been so busy building walls around their daughters that they forgot to raise their sons. Until they take that responsibility as seriously as they take the protection of girls, no slogan, no campaign, and no law will ever be enough.
The real education that is missing is not necessarily in the classroom. It begins at home: in the way a father treats a mother, in the way a brother is corrected, and in the values children see practiced around them. That is where it begins, and that is precisely where society has been looking away for far too long.
“Beti ko taleem do, aur beton ko tameez do.” (Educate daughters, and teach sons respect and character.)
A society progresses not only when its daughters are empowered, but also when its sons are taught dignity, empathy, accountability, and self-restraint. Until this mindset is confronted and changed, who knows how many more children, girls, and women—like 18-month-old Aizal, Ayat Noor, Zainab, Kulsoom, Sana, Muntaha, Hina Javed, and Muhammad Wali—will continue to fall victim to the devastating consequences of this toxic mentality.
This mindset must change.
Every child deserves a safe and happy childhood. Every child has the right to joy, innocence, security, and a life free from fear. No child should ever be deprived of these basic rights. Pakistan needs a strong, effective, and accountable child-protection system so that every child in this country can grow up feeling safe and protected.
A society is ultimately judged not only by how it empowers its daughters, but by how well it safeguards its children and protects the safety, dignity, and freedom of its women.
Read: The Language of Love and Music
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Areeba Altaf is a freelance writer based in Larkana Sindh
