Life style of married women in Balochistan Life Cycle Motivational Factors

Marriage is an important social association of society. Different ethnicity of marriage is practised in Balochistan province. The marriages are mostly arranged and take place within the tribal and ancestry margins. The mate is selected by the parents. However, in a few cases the marriage is arranged by the partners themselves. Generally there are two types of bride price in the Balochistan province i.e vulvar and dowry. The vulvar is the payment in cash or kind by the grooms family to the brides family. This custom is common among Pashtoons and Brahuis. The amount of vulvar depends upon the economic status of (bride and grooms) family. It normally ranges from 50 thousand to 2 lakh Rupees among Pashtoons. Among Brahui, the amount of vulvar is comparatively low , ranging from 40 to 80 thousand Rupees. Sarai is rarely practised. As for polygamy, it is to some extent practised, particularly in the rural areas of the district. The influential persons either marry for pleasure or for the sake of male offspring. However, one can mention that the trend towards polygamy is declining, because urbanisation and education have changed the attitude of the people towards polygamy. Dowry is paid to the daughters in marriage by the brides family. This custom is common among Punjabis, Urdu speaking and Hazara (among Hazara dowry is not compulsary). It often leads to a negative attitude towards daughters. Sometimes a small dowry spoils the family relations. Many tribes have given up the vulvar system. For example, among Kasi, Bazai, Mashwani Syeds, vulvar is not taken. The marriage expenses are jointly borne by the grooms and brides parents. Similarly vulvar is not anymore practised in the Hazara community. Rather, the brides parent give dowry in the form of domestic articles and the parents of bridegroom bear the expenses of the engagement and marriage ceremonies. As a whole, tribal affiliation, intra-family relationship and religious ties influence the political behaviour of people.

Attitude
The role of women within the family is significant. They perform many activities such as cooking, washing, managing the home, raising children etc. However, at community level their role is very limited. Cultural and social norms restrict womens mobility outside the

home. In the urban area of the Balochistan, it can be observed that women are playing an important role in the social sectors. NGOs also involve women in different social and economic activities. Some political parties have a separate womens wing that organizes women for political activities.

Belief
Religion plays a crucial role in all spheres of life. The vast majority of population in the Balochistan is Muslim. Small minorities of Christians, Hindus, Parsis and Bahais are also present in the province. Religious authorities control many aspects of social life and several political parties are organized along religious lines. The mosque is a centre for communal life where collective problems are discussed. Religious schools are respected by the community. Most of the disputes are normally resolved by them. At family level, religion also plays a paramount role. Religious practices such as prayers, fasting and reading of Holy Koran are strictly followed. Hajj is mostly performed by those who can afford it. In spite of religious differences between Sunni and Shia, they have cordial relations. Both perform their religious obligations peacefully. Relations with nonMuslims are also amicable in the district.

Behaviour and status of women

The role of women among the major ethnic groups of province is very limited. Women are bound to live within the traditional social and cultural values. The practice of Purdah is appreciated. Besides, the number of male children and social and economic status of the husband determine the position of women in the society. The status of women as compared to men is very low. Their social and economic interaction is negligible. Generally womens rights in matters of property and inheritance are not recognized. The role of women is, however, changing in Quetta city. The number of working women in the social sector, NGOs and in banking is increasing significantly. The peoples attitude towards female education is becoming highly favourable. The government has institutionalized gender development. Donor agencies now focus on gender equity. A

large number of women is taking part in social welfare activities. Women are involved in politics and are members of various committees to mainstream womens development. Women choose mainly the education and health sector for employment, due to the conducive working environment. Few women work in the government, the conditions are discouraging due to the lack of promotions and an environment, dominated by males. Education among females is spreading very rapidly and more and more girls, even from very traditional households, are stepping in for employment. Women perform all the activities in the house while men perform all outside activities.

Most baloch women know how to embroider, but some are most skilled than others or take more interest in such work. They donot use charts or diagrams but instead create extremely complex designs from memory, often with assistance and suggestions from family members or neighbours. Many women set aside a few hours after completing their daily household tasks for embroiderywork in afternoons, either alone or in groups. Straight needles and commercial thread produced in Pakistan are most commonly used, though hooked needle are required for the patterns. Making clothing fulfills important family needs, but it provides much enjoyment and recreation for women, who take great pride in their handi work and consider it essence for balouch married women. Money earned from such transaction remain part of women own budget and is used for house hold expenses or for her children.

Practices
Gender relations in Pakistan rest on two basic perceptions: Those 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 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
Purdah norms are followed in many communities of the province. It is practiced in various ways, depending on family tradition, region, class, and rural or urban residence. 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.

Child marriage/ (Vani) Although the Child Marriages Restraint Act makes it illegal for girls under the age of 16 to be married, instances of child marriages can be found. Vani is a child marrioage custom followed in tribal areas and the Punjab province. The young girls are forcibly married off in order to resolve the feuds between different clans; the Vani can be avoided if the clan of the girl agrees to pay money, called Deet, to other clans. Swara, Pait likkhi and Addo Baddo are similar tribal and rural customs that often promote marriage of girls in their early teenage years.

Watta satta
Watta satta is a tribal custom in which brides are traded between two clans. In order for you to marry off your son, you must also have a daughter to marry off in return. If there is no sister to exchange in return for a son's spouse, a cousin, or a distant relative can also do. Even though Islamic law requires that both partners explicitly consent to marriage, women are often forced into marriages arranged by their fathers or tribal leaders.

Honor killings
A majority of the victims of honor killings are women and the punishments meted out often tend to be lenient.The practice of summary killing of a person suspected of an illicit liaison is known as karo kari in Balochistan. In December 2004, the Government passed a bill that made karo kari punishable under the same penal provisions as murder.Many cases of honor killings have been reported against women who marry against their family's wishes, who seek divorce or who have been raped.

Marriage to Quran
In some parts of balochistan, the practice of marrying a woman to Quran is prevalent among landlords, although this practice is alien to Islam and has no religious basis. The practice is often used by men to keep and grab the land of their sisters and daughters.

Life style of married women in Punjab

Promoting the education of women was a first step in moving beyond the married life constraints. No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you; we are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have to live. Married women, especially in Punjab 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 for married 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. Among wealthier Punjabis, urban or rural residence is less important than family tradition in influencing whether married 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. The Status of Women and the Women's Movement Four important challenges confronted women in Punjab in the early 1990s: increasing practical literacy, gaining access to employment opportunities at all levels in the economy, promoting change in the perception of women's roles and status, and gaining a public voice both within and outside of the political process. There have been various attempts at social and legal reform aimed at improving Muslim women's lives in the subcontinent during the twentieth century. Muslim reformers in the nineteenth century struggled to introduce female education, to ease some of the restrictions on women's activities, to limit polygyny, and to ensure women's rights under Islamic law.