Socio-Cultural Causes Underlying Women’s Social Discrimination in A Traditional Pakhtun’sSocietyat District Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

This study uncovers the various socio-cultural basis of women’s social discrimination in a
traditional Pakhtun’s society at District Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)Pakistan. The
KP province is considered of patriarchal nature where women’s rights are disparate in
different domains of life, including in the social domain. The key focus of the study is 1) “to
know the role of patriarchy in women’s discrimination in social domain of life”, 2) to
analyze the illiteracy as cause of women’s social discrimination”, and 3) to asses cultural
stereotypes as factor underlying women’s social discrimination”. Data for the study comes
from union council Babini, district Mardan. Using stratified random sampling technique,
data were collected from 94 (female 47 and male 47)respondents. An extensive interview
schedule was used for data collection. Findings of the study suggest that patriarchy,
illiteracy and cultural stereotypes were the major causes of women’s social discrimination.