Women in Pakistan still face deep-rooted bias in academic institutions: Report

Islamabad, Dec 12 Pakistan’s academic culture continues to police and punish women who refuse to comply with the societal expectations of submissiveness. The recent case involving the Vice Chancellor of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Sciences and Technology (FUUAST), Zabta Khan Shinwari, has laid bare a troubling but persistent truth, a report said on Friday.

It added that the Pakistani Federal Ombudsperson’s ruling that his comments constituted workplace harassment is not just a judgment on one man’s behaviour, but reflects a broader, deeply entrenched bias that looms over women throughout their careers.

“When Dr Shinwari attributed women’s assertiveness to 'hormonal issues' for those over 35, he wasn’t merely making a crude remark. He was echoing a centuries-old tactic used to silence women by medicalising their behaviour. Reducing a woman’s professional conduct to her biology is an old and familiar strategy: one that allows institutions to dismiss her arguments without engaging with their substance,” a report in European Times detailed.

“The lecturer who filed the complaint did not just face disparagement; she faced the weight of an academic power structure that normalises such remarks. When the head of an institution publicly characterises professional women as hormonally unstable, he is not speaking in isolation. He is reinforcing a worldview that students absorb, colleagues internalise, and junior faculty learn to navigate in silence,” it stressed.

According to the report, Pakistan’s academic environment amplifies biases even more sharply, where ageism and sexism intertwine to create an expectation that women must not only excel in their roles but simultaneously offer emotional support to colleagues.

“A woman who does not provide warmth is labelled difficult. A woman who asserts professional boundaries is viewed as abrasive. A woman who prioritises expertise over caregiving is marked as a threat. In this cultural equation, intelligence alone is never enough; it must be wrapped in palatability to be accepted,” it stated.

The report stated that remarks made by the Vice Chancellor were not isolated but mirror a mindset that has long influenced Pakistan’s professional spaces.

“When a senior academic dismisses a woman’s professional behaviour as hormonal instability, he broadcasts a lesson to every young person on campus: that men’s authority is intellectual, while women’s behaviour is biological. Such messaging travels silently but powerfully, shaping how future generations treat their female peers, subordinates and leaders,” it noted.

--IANS

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