No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by

"No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men." Thus spoke Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, a man who knew the weight of struggle and the price of freedom. His words ring not merely as an observation, but as a commandment etched into the scroll of history: that no cause, no revolution, no march toward justice can triumph if half of humanity is left behind. For the hands of women have always carried the same burdens, their voices have cried the same cries, their blood has stained the same earth. Without them, every struggle is only half a struggle, every victory only half a victory.

The origin of this wisdom lies in the very movement Jinnah himself led. As he sought to carve a homeland for his people, he saw with his own eyes the courage and sacrifice of women who left behind comfort and security, who stepped into the public square to lend their strength. They were not silent bystanders—they were marchers, organizers, caretakers, and even martyrs. Jinnah understood what the ancients had always whispered: that the destiny of a nation is written by both its sons and its daughters. To exclude women is to walk into battle with one arm bound, to fight a storm with half the sails unfurled.

History offers us countless examples. Consider the long and bitter fight for India’s independence, where women such as Sarojini Naidu, Kasturba Gandhi, and countless unnamed heroines stood beside men in marches, endured prison cells, and faced the blows of colonial rulers. Their courage lent fire to the struggle, their presence gave it legitimacy, their sacrifice gave it strength. Without them, the tide of freedom would have been weaker, the victory delayed, perhaps even denied. It is the eternal truth of Jinnah’s words: without women beside men, no chain can be broken, no nation made free.

Even beyond politics, the same law holds. In the fight for civil rights in America, women like Rosa Parks, Ella Baker, and Coretta Scott King carried the banner of equality alongside their brothers. It was Rosa Parks’ quiet defiance that lit the fire of the Montgomery bus boycott; it was the tireless organizing of women that gave life to marches and movements. If men had stood alone, their voices would have echoed but dimly. It was the combined strength of both that shook the foundations of injustice.

And so, Jinnah’s words are not only historical but prophetic. He saw what many leaders fail to see: that the liberation of any people is bound up with the liberation of women, and that progress made by men alone is fragile, incomplete, and doomed to falter. For women are not ornaments of society—they are its pillars, its keepers of life, its guardians of endurance. To deny them a place in the struggle is to betray the struggle itself.

The lesson for us is clear: if we would build a just world, we must walk side by side. Not ahead, not behind, but together. Men must open the gates of opportunity, and women must stride through them with courage. In families, in workplaces, in nations—where women’s voices are silenced, progress is crippled. But where they are heard, honored, and empowered, the seeds of lasting change are sown.

What practical steps must we take? Give women equal place in decision-making, in leadership, in education, in every sphere where the fate of the people is shaped. Honor their labor not as secondary but as essential. Teach children that strength knows no gender, that courage dwells in the hearts of both mother and father alike. And in every struggle for justice—whether for freedom, equality, or peace—demand that women march in step, for their absence is the shadow of failure.

So let Jinnah’s words be carried forward: no struggle can ever succeed without women side by side with men. This is no passing sentiment, but an eternal law of history. And those who would change the world must heed it, or else be crushed beneath the weight of their own blindness. For victory belongs not to the half, but to the whole.