Gender Sensitivity Training Session 2: What is privilege?

 What’s in a word?  

A word – once a meaningless combination of letters – webs meaning around itself by attaching to experiences, feelings and images. It starts to take up more space in our consciousness and we finally start to see manifestations of it, as if we suddenly discover new realities by learning new words.  

Students listening intently

Day 2 of the gender sensitivity training was an exercise in just this – we aimed to inspire our students to think critically of their surroundings by introducing them to words they hadn’t heard before. Privilege was one of these words; at first it was approached with trepidation (hard to spell and enunciate) but soon the class began to sketch out a meaning for it.  It was defined as some benefits that only limited number of people enjoyed. Many examples were given to understand this new word, one student said:

“Imran Khan (the country’s Prime Minister) has the privilege of not experiencing power outages, he doesn’t know how hot and sweaty it can be when there is no electricity”    

The conversation quickly turned towards the privileges male students enjoyed and that were usually denied to female students. Mobility and access to education remained the most discussed. Male students could play outside, go to the market on their own, come to school without any qualms, and visit Lahore on Eids while their female counterparts couldn’t do any of those.   Similarly students noted that it was generally hard for girls to get an education in the area because parents seldom prioritize their daughter’s education. Parents are generally supportive of educating their sons; do not think of getting them married early and even have plans to educate them after school.  

Through these examples the class established that the boys in the class did enjoy many privileges that the girls didn’t and that basis for this disparity was the unequal status of prescribed to men and women by society.

When asked to raise hands if allowed to play outside

What to do about inequality of opportunities? Empathize!

Empathy was another word discussed in the session – it was defined as letting go of one’s privilege to feel someone else’s misfortune and misery and doing whatever in one’s capacity to alleviate the apparent difference in privilege. Students vowed to exercise empathy as a way of living, especially to fight against gender inequality.

Ali Raza delivering his view point

Ali Raza identified an important thread here:

“It is the society, our neighbors and extended relatives who do not let us practice empathy. Do not let us make way for our sisters and other women in our household. We want to see them getting an education like us but we are stopped by the thoughts of “log kya kahaingay” (what will people say).  If we start believing in our own selves (Khud) we can change this”.  

Ali Raza’s thoughts provided the perfect note to conclude things for the day. Everyone from instructors to members of the administration felt a sense of optimism after Ali’s remarks; if more boys from the community could think like him we could make the village a lot more safe and welcoming for young girls and women.