| Population |
| 144
millions 2002,Population growth rate 2.06% (2002
est.) |
| Ethnic
Groups |
In
general percentages of population similar to
linguistic groups: Punjabis:66percent,
Sindhis:13
percent, Pakhtuns:9
percent, Baloch:
3 percent, muhajirs: 8 percent, and other ethnic
groups: 1 percent. |
| Language |
Urdu
official language, but English in general use
in government,military, business, and higher
education. Punjabi
48%, Sindhi
12%, Siraiki
10%, Pashtu
8%, Urdu (official) 8%, Balochi
3%, Hindko 2%, Brahui 1%, English official and
lingua franca Urdu of Pakistani and most government
ministries), and other Dardack languages 8%
. |
| Religion |
About
97 percent of Pakistanis are Muslim,
77 percent of whom are Sunnis
and 20 percent Shia;
remaining 3 percent of population divided equally
among Christians,
Hindus,
and other religions. |
Education
and Literacy
| Primary
schools: |
150,963
|
| Middle
schools: |
14,595 |
| High
schools: |
9,808 |
| Arts
& science colleges: |
798 |
| Professional
colleges: |
161 |
| Universities: |
35
(10 in Private sector) |
Health
and Welfare
Substandard housing, inadequate sanitation and water
supply, and widespread malnutrition contribute to
spread of disease and to high infant, childhood, and
maternal mortality. Leading causes of death gastroenteritis,
respiratory
infections, congenital abnormalities,
tuberculosis, malaria,
and typhoid
fever
Traditional Kinship Patterns
Pakistani social life revolves around family
and kin. Even among members of the most Westernized
elite, family retains its overarching significance.
The family is the basis of social organization, providing
its members with both identity and protection. Rarely
does an individual live apart from relatives; even
male urban migrants usually live with relatives or
friends of kin. Children live with their parents until
marriage, and sons often stay with their parents after
marriage, forming a joint
family.
The household is the primary kinship
unit. In its ideal, or extended, form, it includes
a married couple, their sons, their sons' wives and
children, and unmarried offspring. Sons establish
separate households upon their father's death. Whether
or not an extended household endures depends on the
preferences of the individuals involved. Quarrels
and divisiveness, particularly among the women (mother-in-law
and daughters-in-law), can lead to the premature dissolution
of a joint household.
Descent is reckoned patrilineally, so only those related
through male ancestors are considered relatives.
The biradari, or group of male kin
(the patrilineage), plays a significant role in social
relations. Its members neither hold movable property
in common nor share earnings, but the honor or shame
of individual members affects the general standing
of the biradari within the community. A common proverb
expresses this view: "One does not share the
bread, but one shares the shame."
In theory, members of a biradari are coresidents of
a single village. In some areas, however, land fragmentation
and generations of out-migration have led to the dispersal
of many members of the biradari among various villages,
regions, and cities. Patrilineal kin continue to maintain
ties with their natal village and enjoy the legal
right of first refusal in any biradari land sale.
Members of a biradari celebrate the major life events
together. Patrilineal kin are expected to contribute
food and to help with guests in the ceremonies accompanying
birth, marriage, death, and major religious holidays.
The biradari has traditionally served as a combined
mutual aid society and welfare agency, arranging loans
to members, assisting in finding employment, and contributing
to the dowries of poorer families.
There is considerable pressure for patrilineal kin
to maintain good relations with one another. Biradari
members who quarrel will try to resolve their differences
before major social occasions so that the patrilineage
can present a united front to the village. People
with sons and daughters of marriageable age keenly
feel the necessity to maintain good relations because
a person whose family is at odds with his or her biradari
is considered a poor marriage prospect.
Although descent is reckoned patrilineally, women
maintain relations with their natal families throughout
life. The degree of involvement with maternal kin
varies among ethnic groups and among regions of the
country. The tie between brother and sister is typically
strong and affectionate; a woman looks to her brothers
for support in case of divorce or widowhood early
in her marriage. In those regions where families maintain
considerable contact with maternal kin, children,
even though they are members of their father's patrilineage,
are indulged by their mothers kin. Just as a family's
relations with its biradari are considered in evaluating
a potential spouse, so in these regions may the mother's
kin be assessed.
Marriage is a means of allying two
extended families; romantic attachments have little
role to play. The husband and wife are primarily representatives
of their respective families in a contractual arrangement,
which is typically negotiated between two male heads
of household. It is fundamentally the parents' responsibility
to arrange marriages for their children, but older
siblings may be actively involved if the parents die
early or if they have been particularly successful
in business or politics. The terms are worked out
in detail and are noted, by law, at the local marriage
registry.
Marriage
is a process of acquiring new relatives or reinforcing
the ties one has with others. To participate
fully in society, a person must be married and
have children, preferably sons, because social
ties are defined by giving away daughters in
marriage and receiving daughters-in-law. |
 |
Marriage with one's father's brother's child is preferred,
in part because property exchanged at marriage then
stays within the patrilineage. The relationship between
in-laws extends beyond the couple and well past the
marriage event. Families related by marriage exchange
gifts on important occasions in each others lives.
If a marriage is successful, it will be followed by
others between the two families. The links thus formed
persist and are reinforced through the generations.
The pattern of continued intermarriage coupled with
the occasional marriage of nonrelatives creates a
convoluted web of interlocking ties of descent and
marriage.
A woman's life is difficult during the early years
of marriage. A young bride has very little status
in her husband s household; she is subservient to
her mother-in-law and must negotiate relations with
her sisters-in-law. Her situation is made easier if
she has married a cousin and her mother-in-law is
also her aunt. The proper performance of all the elaborate
marriage ceremonies and the accompanying exchange
of gifts also serve to enhance the new bride's status.
Likewise, a rich dowry serves as a trousseau; the
household goods, clothing, jewelry, and furniture
included remain the property of the bride after she
has married.
Marriage also involves a dower, called haq mehr established
under Islamic law, the sharia
. Although some families set a symbolic haq mehr of
Rs32. in accordance with the traditions of the Prophet
Muhammad, others may demand hundreds of thousands
of rupees.
A wife gains status and power as she bears sons. Sons
will bring wives for her to supervise and provide
for her in her old age. Daughters are a liability,
to be given away in an expensive marriage with their
virginity intact. Therefore, mothers favor their sons.
In later life, the relationship between a mother and
her son remains intimate, in all likelihood with the
mother retaining far more influence over her son than
his wife has.
Men, Women, and the Division of Space
Gender relations in Pakistan rest on two basic perceptions:
that women are subordinate to men, and that a man's
honor resides in the actions of the women of his family.
Thus, as in other orthodox Muslim
societies, women are responsible for maintaining the
family honor. To ensure that they do not dishonor
their families, society limits women's mobility, places
restrictions on their behavior and activities, and
permits them only limited contact with the opposite
sex.
Space
is allocated to and used differently by men
and women. For their protection and respectability,
women have traditionally been expected to live
under the constraints of purdah (purdah
is Persian for curtain), most obvious in veiling.
By separating women from the activities of men,
both physically and symbolically, purdah creates
differentiated male and female spheres. |
 |
Most
women spend the major part of their lives physically
within their homes and courtyards and go out only
for serious and approved reasons. Outside the home,
social life generally revolves around the activities
of men. In most parts of the country, except perhaps
in Islamabad,
Karachi,
and wealthier parts of a few other cities, people
consider a woman--and her family--to be shameless
if no restrictions are placed on her mobility.
Purdah
is practiced in various ways, depending on family
tradition, region, class, and rural or urban residence,
but nowhere do unrelated men and women mix freely.
The most extreme restraints are found in parts of
the North-West
Frontier Province and Balochistan,
where women almost never leave their homes except
when they marry and almost never meet unrelated men.
They may not be allowed contact with male cousins
on their mother's side, for these men are not classed
as relatives in a strongly patrilineal society. Similarly,
they have only very formal relations with those men
they are allowed to meet, such as the father-in-law,
paternal uncles, and brothers-in-law.
Poor rural women, especially in Punjab
and Sindh,
where gender relations are generally somewhat more
relaxed, have greater mobility because they are responsible
for transplanting rice seedlings, weeding crops, raising
chickens and selling eggs, and stuffing wool or cotton
into comforters (razais). When a family becomes more
prosperous and begins to aspire to higher status,
it commonly requires stricter purdah among its women
as a first social change.
Poor urban women in close-knit communities, such as
the old cities of Lahore
and Rawalpindi,
generally wear either a burqa (fitted body veil) or
a chador (loosely draped cotton cloth used as a head
covering and body veil) when they leave their homes.
In these localities, multistory dwellings (havelis)
were constructed to accommodate large extended families.
Many havelis have now been sectioned off into smaller
living units to economize. It is common for one nuclear
family (with an average of seven members) to live
in one or two rooms on each small floor. In less densely
populated areas, where people generally do not know
their neighbors, there are fewer restrictions on women's
mobility.
The shared understanding that women should remain
within their homes so neighbors do not gossip about
their respectability has important implications for
their productive activities. As with public life in
general, work appears to be the domain of men. Rural
women work for consumption or for exchange at the
subsistence level. Others, both rural and urban, do
piecework for very low wages in their homes. Their
earnings are generally recorded as part of the family
income that is credited to men. Census data and other
accounts of economic activity in urban areas support
such conclusions. For example, the 1981 census reported
that 5.6 percent of all women were employed, as opposed
to 72.4 percent of men; less than 4 percent of all
urban women were engaged in some form of salaried
work. By 1988 this figure had increased significantly,
but still only 10.2 percent of women were reported
as participating in the labor force.
Among
wealthier Pakistanis, urban or rural residence
is less important than family tradition in influencing
whether women observe strict purdah and the
type of veil they wear. In some areas, women
simply observe "eye purdah": they
tend not to mix with men, but when they do,
they avert their eyes when interacting with
them. |
 |
Bazaars in wealthier areas of Punjabi
cities differ from those in poorer areas by having
a greater proportion of unveiled women. In cities
throughout the North-West
Frontier Province, Balochistan,
and the interior of Sindh,
bazaars are markedly devoid of women, and when a woman
does venture forth, she always wears some sort of
veil.
The traditional division of space between the sexes
is perpetuated in the broadcast media. Women's subservience
is consistently shown on television
and in films. And, although popular television dramas
raise controversial issues such as women working,
seeking divorce, or even having a say in family politics,
the programs often suggest that the woman who strays
from traditional norms faces insurmountable problems
and becomes alienated from her family.
read
more.............
Civil
Society in Pakistan
|
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