On the 8 of March many cities across my country,Pakistan,will be holding rallies against the plight of women and minorities.If you ask me this is wonderful as the suffering that women,ESPECIALLY poor women face in the country is unacceptable and something we should've dealt with 30 years ago.

However this is not about that.I am making this post(mostly) about demand 14.While 15 is questionable too,it isn't too bad if it doesn't get out of hand and it's an excellent way to help minorities who may not have access to the same resources as the more well off people(Though in Pakistan wealth is divided by class not by gender or race. It's that women just don't inherit their share and this is addressed by the other demands.For Trans folks though this is excellent.). This demand should be based on economic conditions,not gender.

Now on to demand 14. It states:

"Institutional support and affordable credit for women entrepreneurs and cooperative enterprises to support improved livelihoods for women"

Pakistan is a very capitalist country.Not the fun "Personal choice" type of capitalism. The "Modern slavery and Child labour" type of capitalism. If the government were to seriously interfere like this it could kill many small businesses. Small business is an important economic activity for many Men. It employs and occupies a large part of the Urban population. Men are essentially the sole bread winners and in a country with an economy like Pakistan's they have to work grueling and long hours to be able to support themselves and families. Here in Karachi it's not uncommon for shops to be open until 3 in the night and even longer for some. Many men have multiple jobs to support their livelihood.

This policy would give Women entrepreneurs an edge in a rather cutthroat market. This could either end in 2 ways. It could,without hurting men, aid women and lift them from their economic imprisonment while also creating more jobs which is a plus. Or it could be that women entrepreneurs simply out compete male ones and use their extra resources to make a larger profit at expense of business that weren't aided by the government because of the owner's gender. A better alternative would be to support small businesses in general and encourage women through advertisement and programs which train them to compete. Not out right supporting them over others.

This could push men,especially boys into far worse jobs as they many have to find work elsewhere like the notorious brick industry which is infamous for it's use of child labour,mostly boys. Many manufacturing industries in Pakistan are reliant on young boys who are expected to aid,and in grim scenarios,replace their father in feeding the family.Often these industries are fertile grounds for a vile practice called "Bachabazi"(drug abuse) which translates to "Child game" which without the disgusting coyness is pedophilia. The victims of Bachabazi are almost always boys. What they are paid for all this suffering is pitifully low. I intend to discuss Bachabazi with this subreddit at a later date as it is a complex issue so this is it for now.

In the corporate sphere this could lead to many companies not wanting male CEOs(in the relatively far future) in order to get support from the government. This could rob men of promotion and a key(and shitty) feature of Pakistani corporate culture is that often if you leave the company to join another you have to start from scratch. In corporate Pakistan positions are often based on seniority so leaving is not exactly ideal(though this could be changing).

There's also the fact that the Pakistan government is rather incompetent(the current one especially) and corrupt. They have too many times taken a very heavy handed approach which fuck things up more then anything. The best thing the government has ever done for the economy was leave the private sector alone under Nawaz Sharif. I am almost convinced the current parliament will botch this and screw everyone over.

These problems have nothing to do with feminism and are often the fault of Pakistan's economic woes. I doubt the leaders of the March thought about all this while making the charter so I doubt this is out of malicious intent. I'm sure they had nothing but good intentions during the formation of the charter but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Another thing is that the march seems to be pushing the Patriarchy narrative which is something this subreddit has discussed to kingdom come and why it's so bad so I won't bore you with it.

So I would like to know what folks here think.Perhaps my concerns are unfounded and I am over reacting and have grown overly suspicious of feminism.Thoughts?