PESHAWAR: As the world celebrates Happy Father’s Day, a disturbing trend has come to light in our society, where instances of disobedience towards fathers and even cases of patricide are increasing.

Activists insist this phenomenon can be attributed to various factors, including the growing trend of “unruly youth” taking advantage of their elderly and ailing parents, especially fathers, who are often the heads of households in traditionally patriarchal society, leading to family breakdowns.

One of the main reasons behind the family break ups is quoted “unruly youth” who take advantage of old and sick parents, especially father as father served as head in our typical patricidal society.

Happy Father’s Day is observed with the theme ‘My dad, My world’ here on Saturday.

Families are breaking down, insist activists

Most young people took to social media sharing good wishes, messages and quotes regarding the significance of Happy Father’s Day.

“A father is someone you look up to, no matter how tall you grow,” a young student posted a quotation on his Facebook account.

Youth are mostly seen busy with social media activities and never follow instructions and there are examples where children run away from home due to harsh attitude of parents, guardians and fathers are the main stakeholders to protect and educate children but unfortunately, fathers in most cases failed to play their assigned role and earn disobedience, disrespect from their children.

“Our religion stresses giving respect to parents more than other religions do.

If a father is aware of the rights of children, and trains and educates them rightly, he will get a positive response from the children when they grow up.

Polygamy and family breakups also have a negative impact and fathers have a bad time in old age,” said local cleric Maulana Abdullah Qasmi.

Imran Takkar, a child rights activist, said fathers could educate their children about what was right and what was wrong from the very beginning and could make sure their children were fairly treated in a patriarchal society like ours, fathers played a very crucial role in bringing them up and their personality building.

“It is the collective responsibility of parents, teachers and religious scholars to make sure that fathers are respected, especially when they’re old and sick.

Youth are trained to give due respect to their dads for their status in the societal hierarchy,” he said.

Mr Takkar said fathers could transform respectful and equitable behaviour in the family by ensuring equal and respectful treatment of all family members and that they set a positive example for children.

“Fathers deserve respect and care. It is obligatory for youth to extend their love, regard and service to their fathers,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2024