Seven-Day Girl Murder In Pakistan, Son Preference Is Dilemma In Society

Following the terrible occurrence in which a 7-day-old girl was murdered by her father on March 7th, the entire country of Pakistan is in grief. Jannat, the baby, was shot and killed by her callous father in Mianwali. As a first child, Shahzaib desired a boy. He didn’t see the tiny angel’s face after she was born. This heinous crime has sparked widespread concern about the protection of female minors in the country.

In Pakistan, stories like this are all too common. Families wish for sons throughout their pregnancies and are heartbroken when they are stuck with their girls. In some parts of Pakistan, the practice of aborting a pregnancy if it is a girl has become popular. The Population Research Institute, a non-profit research organization, disclosed some alarming statistics: more than 1.2 million sex-selective abortions were estimated to have been conducted in Pakistan between 2000 and 2014. Between January 2017 and April 2018, Edhi Foundation and Chhipa, two humanitarian organizations in Karachi, discovered 345 such new-born babies in the garbage, with 99 percent of them being girls.

According to a study, son preference in Pakistan is the outcome of gender imbalance and women’s lack of social standing. Sons are preferred because they are seen to confer social value on their family, carry the family name, inherit, and can shoulder economic responsibility. People do not want daughters because of the financial burden entailed in daughters’ marriages, particularly in the form of dowry, and the distress and problems that can be caused for parents by their daughters’ in-laws. Son preference was much lower among urban educated and non-agricultural family women than the rest. However, the degree of this transformation is enormous.

The seven days of infanticide are a wake-up call for society. Illiteracy and ignorance can be key contributing causes to most problems, including son preference, in a third-world country like Pakistan. What needs to be altered is Pakistani society’s mentality. The easiest method to address this issue is to inform Pakistani women that they have other options. The first stage in this process is to ensure that women and girls have the same educational opportunities as males. A well-educated woman is a powerful woman, and a powerful woman is one who can make decisions about her life and her body. Furthermore, community-based awareness efforts will aid in changing societal attitudes on gender preference.