We are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity

In the words of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, “We are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have to live.” we hear not merely the lament of a leader, but the thunder of one who sought to awaken a slumbering nation. Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, looked upon the plight of women in his time and declared it intolerable, unjust, and contrary to the very essence of human dignity. His words rise like a clarion call across the ages, demanding that society break the chains of custom that imprison half its people.

The origin of this quote lies in Jinnah’s vision of a modern and just society. As he led his people toward independence, he understood that freedom could not be true freedom if it was granted only to men. A nation that silences its women within the four walls of the home is not free, but crippled. He denounced such customs as evil, for they were not divine commandments, nor the decrees of law, but the inventions of culture twisted by patriarchy. By calling them a “crime against humanity,” he elevated the issue beyond religion or tradition—he declared it a universal violation of justice.

History has shown the truth of his words. Consider the story of Malala Yousafzai, born decades after Jinnah spoke, yet still forced to face the same chains of custom. For daring to go to school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, she was attacked, silenced with bullets, because some believed education for girls was rebellion against tradition. But her survival and her voice became a living testament to Jinnah’s warning: that until women are free from evil customs, the whole of humanity suffers. Malala’s courage is the echo of Jinnah’s vision, the cry of a people yearning for light against darkness.

The deeper meaning of Jinnah’s words is this: that customs are not sacred merely because they are old. Age does not sanctify injustice. Many societies have imprisoned women behind veils of false honor, cloaking oppression in the language of tradition. But Jinnah reminds us that there is no sanction—neither in divine law nor true morality—for such degradation. He draws a line between what is eternal truth and what is human invention, declaring that to confine women is not religion, not culture, but cruelty.

And so his words are also heroic, for they proclaim that nations cannot rise on the shoulders of half their citizens while shackling the other half. To bar women from public life, from education, from freedom, is to rob a nation of its strength and its soul. Jinnah knew that progress demands the full participation of both men and women, and that only when women walk freely in the light of opportunity can a nation claim to walk in freedom at all.

The lesson for us, O listener, is fierce but clear. Do not accept customs unexamined. Question whether they serve justice or oppression, whether they honor life or degrade it. If a tradition confines and silences women, it is not sacred—it is a chain. Break it. For to imprison women is to weaken society, to deny children the light of educated mothers, to deny communities the wisdom of half their people. Justice demands courage, and courage begins with truth.

As for practical action: educate daughters with the same vigor as sons. Honor the voices of women in councils, classrooms, and homes. Refuse to repeat customs that degrade, no matter how old or widespread they may be. Defend the dignity of women not with empty words, but with laws, with opportunities, with respect in daily life. And when you see oppression cloaked in the name of tradition, strip off its mask and name it for what it is—an evil custom that must perish.

Thus, Jinnah’s words endure as a sword of truth. They strike at the heart of complacency, reminding us that silence is complicity and that every generation must fight against the prison walls of injustice. Women must not live as captives, for humanity itself is diminished when they do. A nation that frees its women frees itself. And so, O seeker, remember: break the chains of custom, honor the dignity of all, and in doing so, you will walk in the path of justice that Jinnah foresaw.