In Pakistan, gender issues affect several policies, including education, as only 25 percent of children are enrolled in school, a professor from Pakistan said Monday.

Sarah Safdar, a business administration professor at Iqra National University in Pakistan, presented the lecture titled “Oppressions to Opportunities: Status of Women in Pakistan.”

Safdar has worked in education for more than 35 years and has written five books and more than 50 articles on topics such as health, child rights and education.

The event was sponsored by the Education Scholars, the Department of Secondary Education and Foundations, the College of Education and Professional Studies, and the School of Continuing Education.

Safdar said 80 percent of enrolled children in finished primary school, but there was a gap between genders.

“When I talk about women in terms of development, the first thing that comes to mind is education,” Safdar said.

Safdar said she found 100 percent of enrolled girls finished primary school compared to the 85 percent of enrolled boys who finished, even though far less girls attend school than boys in Pakistan.

“The reason for this is that the boys who come from rural and tribal areas give up their education early to help their parents with agriculture and farming, and other trade areas,” Safdar said.

Safdar also presented 2010 data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which found that more males were enrolled in primary and secondary school than females, and more overall both genders tend to drop out as they get older.

Stephen Lucas, the chair of the Secondary Education and Foundations department, said Safdar provided insight into the cultural differences in education that many people do not normally think about.

“People tend to say that our schools are like schools in different countries and students have the same opportunities as we do, and yet here is a country where women don’t have (the) equality of opportunity,” Lucas said.

Safdar gave a 60-year history of Pakistani women and how their opportunities changed from regime to regime.

“It is difficult to bring change in the attitude of a person, but awareness and time can make a big difference,” Safdar said.

She also spoke about how people have strived to progress the rights of women beginning with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, who said “no nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you.”

However, the road to gender equality consisted of many speed bumps such as the Hudood Ordinance of 1979, which encouraged “Islamization” and discrimination toward women under the rule of President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Safdar said.

There were several attempts to repeal the ordinance, but significant change did not occur until 2006 with the Women’s Protection Bill.

“It was interesting to see how they made a little bit of progress at a time and sometimes there was progressive law formulated but it did not translate into things changing,” Lucas said.

Safdar said many inequalities between women and men rooted in the Pakistan society structure of patriarchy.

Sara Boro, a first-year graduate student in the College of Student Affairs, said she was intrigued that many laws emerged to try and empower women and treat them equally, but it took decades for the laws to be enforced.

“I also thought it was interesting that Pakistan revolves around three sets of laws that are legal, cultural and religious, whereas we have a strict separation between religion and the government,” Boro said.

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].