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Actor Yashma Gill called for a better education system in the country to tackle violence against women driven by prenatal sex determination.

Gill took to Instagram on Tuesday to share her thoughts on a news report about a man in Gujranwala who allegedly assaulted his pregnant wife after an ultrasound report revealed the couple were expecting a daughter.

“To educate all such men out there, a child’s biological sex is determined by the father’s sperm, not the mother,” Gill wrote.

The actor went on to suggest that “basic manners, empathy, humanity and morality” should be a mandatory part of curriculum in schools.

“Because clearly, something is failing us. I don’t know whether it’s our legal system, our society, our upbringing or a combination of all but these horrendous acts continue to happen,” she continued, before pointing out religious teachings, if interpreted correctly, could also help nurture children, so they grow up to be compassionate.

The incident Gill referred to took place on September 27. Gujranwala police have arrested the man accused of assaulting his pregnant wife in the WAPDA Town area. The case has been registered under sections 337 (shajjah) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

According to the FIR, the accused, Tayyab Mannan, had been coercing his wife, who is five months pregnant, to get an abortion because he wasn’t happy about the possibility of having a second daughter, which was indicated in an ultrasound.

The FIR claims that during a fight over the same issue, Mannan beat up his wife so badly that had to be taken to Gujranwala Civil Hospital for treatment.

In a video circulating on social media, the woman revealed details about the incident and how her husband’s anger over having a second daughter turned into violence.

“We need to shape minds from a young age so that cruelty is never normalised, violence is never mistaken for authority, and another human being’s dignity is never considered negotiable,” Gill wrote in her story, that features the video.

Going back to the reported incident, the actor, who is known for being vocal about women’s and animal’s rights, reiterated her outrage.

“A woman being beaten for carrying a daughter? Astaghfirullah,” she said, adding the mother is not responsible for “choosing the sex of that child”.

Gill, who is know for her vocal support for women’s rights, touched upon an important issue that, to this day, plagues women in South Asia. Family pressure to produce male heirs is a deeply entrenched cultural norm. It’s rooted in and driven by patriarchal social structures as well as a false sense of economic security.

This harmful belief devalues the lives of women and in many cases endangers their lives as well. In 2011, several United Nations agencies, including the World Health Organisation, released a joint statement to address this issue, stating ‘son preference’ perpetuates discrimination and violates women’s rights.

Add to this a severe lack of sex education, and you get a society where women not only suffer abuse for something they have absolutely no control over but also wrongly get blamed for it.

Gill is right to call out systemic issues that contribute to prenatal violence against women. “We desperately need to do better. As parents. As schools. As communities. As a society. Period,” she said.

With additional reporting by Iqbal Mirza