They say we’ve empowered women, but forgot to evolve the systems around them.
We celebrate strong women, until their strength demands that families evolve, marriages become partnerships, and society outgrows its hierarchies. Strength is beautiful, we say. But strength that expects change from others? That’s when we start getting uncomfortable.
It’s a pattern that extends far beyond gender. In fact, it reminds me a lot of how we’re reacting to Pakistan’s growing tax enforcement.
For a long time, Pakistan’s tax administration was fragmented, slow, and often toothless. But that’s no longer the full picture. Today, it’s becoming the fastest-evolving institution in the country, smarter, more digital, more capable of seeing across silos.
And so I ask myself, not as a bureaucrat, but as a taxpayer, am I ready?
Am I ready to respond to a system that quietly cross-checks my income, spending, and declarations?
Am I ready to accept that a notice isn’t harassment, it’s how a serious system works?
Am I ready to treat tax not as a burden, but as a shared responsibility in a social contract?
But the burden of change doesn’t lie with citizens alone.
Is the bureaucracy ready?
Are we, as administrators, willing to let go of outdated procedures that breed opacity?
Are we ready to treat taxpayers not as suspects, but as stakeholders?
Are we open to criticism, transparency, and evolving not just how we enforce, but how we engage?
And beyond all of us, is the political and power structure ready?
Are our policymakers ready to stop treating exemptions as bargaining chips?
Are power lobbies ready for a system that can’t be bent with a phone call?
Because here’s the truth: a strong system, like an empowered woman, requires everything around it to grow. You can’t ask one part to modernize while the rest clings to the past.
And the pushback, it’s familiar:
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“She’s too aggressive.” “The tax system is too harsh.”
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“She’s disrupting tradition.” “This enforcement is bad for investment.”
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“She must have an agenda.” “This must be IMF-driven.”
We’ve heard it all before. The real fear isn’t in the woman, or the tax system. It’s in the shift in control.
So maybe the real question isn’t whether women; or tax systems; are ready to lead with strength.
Maybe the question is whether we are ready to live honestly with the strength we say we want.
Because strength doesn’t just appear.
It asks something of us.
And in the end, all of us, citizens, administrators, and power brokers, have to decide whether we’re willing to rise to that ask.
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