This is not to belittle the problems of women in the society. This is to highlight the fact that before engaging in any activity, it is important to be clear about the purpose of that activity. It is also important to evaluate the results achieved against the initial targets. In Pakistan there is a lot of advocacy on women's issues. But most of this advocacy has consisted of sweeping statements and generalizations rather than focusing on specific problems of women belonging to various economic, social and religious groups within the society, who all have very different lives and, thus, very different problems.
Advocacy is good and so is the struggle for women's rights.
But to be productive, the advocacy as well as the struggle has to be focused. They are different, and this difference is based on class, region, ethnic background, religious beliefs, etc. Within the Northern Areas for example, the Ismaili and the Sunni women are very different in terms of the freedom of interaction allowed to them because of differences in the interpretation of Islam by the two communities. In a big city, the problems of the daughter of a civil servant, who sends her abroad to study in a foreign university, is very different from the problems faced by the daughter of a clerk belonging to the low middle income group, who is pushed hard because of economic pressures but still won't allow his daughter to work because of social constraints. Or the poor sweepers who go around to ten different houses to make a living for themselves and their children.