Denying women in Pakistan the right to make decisions about their own bodies weakens households, burdens the healthcare system and constrains national growth. - Dawn/ANN
ISLAMABAD: Maryam, a 28-year-old university lecturer and researcher, lives with endometriosis — a condition that causes debilitating pain. She has made multiple visits to the doctor, knows the procedure required to fix the pain and has the money for it as well. Yet, her days and nights are spent in agony because a private hospital in Lahore, located in her neighbourhood, refuses to treat her.
Why? Because she does not have a man’s consent — her ‘non-existent’ husband’s. Maryam is unmarried, and so, she continues to suffer.
