A man in a high position of power once boasted to me about how he had advertised a job posting for a female director for his organisation. He remorsefully mentioned how despite the advertisement, there weren’t enough women applying. Feigning interest, I asked him whether he had at all tried to make the position accessible for women by addressing mobility and level of commitment required. His silence said it all.

2021 was a trying blur. Much happened during these twelve months, especially for the women of this country. In a horrific event earlier this year in July, a young woman in Islamabad was tortured and beheaded. The following month, news of a woman being assaulted by over four hundred men at a public park surfaced and went viral on social media. These are just two of the numerous accounts of the violence women have been subjected to in 2021. In the oft-quoted Global Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum, Pakistan ranked at 153 out 156 in 2021. This is an alarming indictment further evidenced by the fact that perhaps no month in 2021 went by without women feeling unsafe. The fear of so much as walking on the street outside one’s home at night suddenly seemed to be overwhelming.

Our response should have been simple; our communities should have sympathised with victims of violence, and they should have called on the state to strengthen its safety protocols for women. Instead, each conversation around the gender-based violence in 2021 concluded with, “Magar uss nay bhi tou kuch keeya hoga” (But she, too, must have done something.) This question is concerningly at the centre of the response by the state as well as the media.

When the state bans women’s unaccompanied access to public spaces like parks (as in the case of the Minar-i-Pakistan incident) instead of tightening the security of the public spaces, when it rejects a domestic violence law on pretext of religion, when law enforcement agencies investigate more into a woman’s character than into to her complaint and when state officials comment on what one should wear to “prevent rape” – they are being reminded of the abandonment they already feel, they are being taught that it was their fault, that they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Unfortunately, and due to this reason, this year once again suggested a lack of will by the state to support gender equality.

Whatever little will culminated into timely action throughout the year often seemed to arise out of the fear of being chastised on social media. Complaints were dealt with based on what went viral on social media, ultimately convincing those without social media access that justice in Pakistan, especially for women, was limited.

2021 also saw a rapid increase in the registration of cybercrime complaints and defamation suits against women with very little clarity on what the scope of application of these laws was. Cases like these were frequently sensationalised in the media, with many asking victims intimate or leading questions likely to prejudice the outcomes of their cases. Media ethics were requested to be reinforced as per the PEMRA Code of Conduct, especially in the case of women and reporting ethics.

But, in some ways, we almost got there. In late 2021, Pakistan was moments short of appointing its first female judge to an otherwise all male Supreme Court. Early this year in January, the Lahore High Court passed a landmark judgment that was to set the precedent for many to come. An invasive investigative practice, especially for rape victims; the two-finger test, was finally abolished. Female lawyers had rallied to petition the court for answers, and they got them. The judge’s bold decision, for several reasons, but most importantly for rejecting a woman’s character as a mitigating factor justifying the two-finger test, is a substantive victory. Similarly, in early 2021, the Supreme Court of Pakistan granted leave to consider which categories of working women would be covered under the Pakistani harassment law. This is an important debate, particularly in 2021 where most of Pakistan’s workforce is in the informal sector. Moreover, the flicker of a desire to protect women’s property rights was introduced when the Enforcement of Women’s Property Rights Act 2021 was enacted, allowing ombudspersons appointed under the harassment law to adjudicate women’s claims for the protection of their property. Of course, much is to be seen and is expected of the state following these baby steps. In some ways, 2021 was worse off but also a step in the right direction.

The harrowing events in 2021 are not novel. Pakistan has always experienced these problems to the same degree and scale; perhaps it is just that today, there is a conversation around what we are doing wrong. Cases of gender inequality always existed, but they are more evident because reporting around them has increased. The state is being corrected for what it did with impunity before. And this is the minimum degree of accountability citizens need to maintain to continue advocating for gender quality.

The victories of 2021 are only to the credit of the women of Pakistan. Each year, women march for equality despite criminal allegations, malicious personal attacks and threats to their being. That is what has empowered them and has built the kind of community Pakistan needs. The victories for women in 2021 are not because they have been empowered by the state or its legislature; they are because the women of Pakistan have valiantly fought for them. Ending December 2021, we know the rot is still deep, but at least the women of this country are scratching the surface.

The writer is a lawyer. She tweets at @noorejazch