Reema Ayub – Where Psychology Meets Corporate

I have sat in too many living rooms where proud fathers delivered lectures about honour while their daughters stared at the floor, their questions trapped behind tight lips. In Pakistan, India and Bangladesh—whether at home or in immigrant communities abroad—one rule seems carved in stone: forbid pork and forbid any conversation about sex. The first injunction belongs to faith; the second is a cultural add‑on, yet it is enforced with even greater zeal. Islam does not outlaw knowledge. If there is a ḥadīth that bans sex education, I have never seen it—and I have searched. What I have seen are girls who reach adulthood without knowing what virginity means, how manipulation works or how predators cloak themselves in the language of temporary love. When those girls lose what society calls their “honour,” they are neither consoled nor questioned with compassion; they are simply condemned. A familiar pattern unfolds. A young man flatters a girl—beautiful, unique, destined to be his. She beli...

The year is 2025, but looking back to the early 2000s, I often wonder—has anything really changed? Back then, I wore a burka, watched Shaktiman, and used Facebook to make new friends. Now, while technological advancements have reshaped the world, the underlying cultural and societal patterns seem frozen in time, particularly in the subcontinent. Women are still judged by the standards of religion and morality, but the focus has slightly shifted. Let me take you on a journey through this perspective, strictly tied to the cultural context of the subcontinent, while living in Pakistan. 1. Middle-Class Women and the Judgment of Morality: In Pakistan’s middle class, wearing an abaya (burka) earns women immense respect. However, the same is not true for lower-class or upper-class women, who seem to have outgrown or ignored this pressure. Lower-class women are too occupied with survival, while upper-class women focus on ambition and influence. Middle-class women, on the other hand, juggle soc...