Last Friday, The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) announced to discard its “unofficial policy” of binding women to take their husband’s name on their computerised national identity card (CNIC) after marriage.
“After marriage, women will be allowed to choose whether to retain their father’s name on their identity cards or to write their husband’s name instead,” chairperson of NADRA Tariq Malik announced while addressing the 14th Annual Rural Women Conference.
According to the chairman, NADRA reviewed it’s policies to encourage women to register in national database. However, women on social media seem to be asking the question, what change has been introduced through this policy?
Bold and outspoken Singer Mesha Shafi commented on twitter that she didn’t face any problems for not changing her name on the ID card after marriage. However, a user disagreed with her saying she was “pressured to write her ex-husband’s name on her ID card.”
At present, there are 55 million men and 45 million women registered in Pakistan. This data indicates that there are 10 million more men than women in Pakistan, which is not true. Many women, who show up for registration, are intimidated by questions related to their marital status and do not ever return to NADRA.
NADRA Chairman Tariq Malik admits that it was an “unannounced” policy of NADRA that when a woman came to change her name after a divorce, she was asked for a divorce certificate and other confirmation documents.
The current policy of NADRA is to discourage social discrimination against women in all cases. Women’s registration has increased by 40% in the last 100 days, with 80% of women coming from rural areas. In view the of cultural sensitivities, NADRA has also set up all-female registration centres in cities like Mardan and Peshawar.
The recent change of polices is a campaign launched by NADRA against men who do not allow women to register so that they cannot claim their share in the inheritance. On the top of that, women can now also find out about secret marriages (if any) of their spouses through NADRA’s 8009 family verification service.
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