Women and Pakistan

Women and Pakistan

“Give me an educated mother, I shall promise you the birth of a

civilized, educated nation.” -Napoleon Bonaparte.

Whether a woman is good, bad or evil has nothing to do with the faith she
professes, the stratum of society she belongs to, her ethnic origin, the
language she speaks, her cultural background, her looks, her qualifications,
her status in society or her profession. The goodness, the meanness or the evil
manifests itself in the society through acts performed by individuals, which
have a direct bearing on the attributes and behavior of other individuals that
eventually reflects in the overall character of a nation.

If Pakistan, a nuclear state, is today on the brink of economic and political

disaster and the society is fast becoming morally bankrupt, it is not on
account of the men folk alone but even women who comprise almost half of
the population, are equally responsible, if not more. Undoubtedly, in the
creation of this country, women, along with the founding fathers have played a
pivotal role not only in political movements but also in sacrificing their lives
and honour on the altar of establishing a free nation state, but subsequent to
that, history began taking bizarre twists and turns. Seventy years of Pakistan’s
existence have not been a smooth transformation from subjugation to liberty
and from acquired liberty to acquired subjugation where at every stage the
role of women has been prominent both consciously and unconsciously.

There is a general tendency in the society to either highly venerate or severely

downplay characteristics, abilities and achievements of women. On the one
hand, they are vilified and depicted as vamps who have nothing better to do
than conspire and cause disorder while on the other her image is worshipped
as a goddess in some religions. This is usually ascribed to our society being
patriarchal where males dominate all spheres of life, In this situation majority
of the women have to really struggle hard to make their way through life as
men are less supportive and more prone to hurling obstacles. What is perhaps
most disturbing is the cultural and more dangerous, religious card that is
used to justify preventing women from a more active participation in society.

In their treatise titled “Gender discrimination and the role of women in

Pakistan” Dr.Syed Shameem Ejaz and Ms. Anjum Ara have rightly pointed out:
“Societies pay a heavy toll when discrimination takes the shape of a rule
merely depending upon mischievous motives. It distorts the social and
religious policies and transforms them into tools to yield what is required
from the people….This has been the practice for centuries and now people see
nothing strange in manipulation of their social and religious rights in the
name of beliefs, rules, policies, and laws. This internalization makes it

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 Women and Pakistan

enormously difficult to make people conscious about the facts and put the
derailed again on the track.”

Interestingly, not just men but even women are easily convinced in forming
hard line notions about various matters, especially when these are related to
religion or cultural norms. In doing so, they sometimes fail to realize their
detrimental effects on their own kind. The common understanding is that
women are the biggest enemies of women, especially in our traditional family
systems where from their childhood, women are treated as unwanted, a
burden, much inferior to their brothers, not entitled to either education, good
food or self-determination, made to recognize that their job is strictly related
to household chores, taking meticulous care of their men folk and above all,
guard their honour with their lives. Even the most innocent of slips is
admonished with great intensity. On the other hand, they see their brothers
being raised as princes even in the poorest of households and trained to view
females as chattels whom they can exploit according to their will. The males
are taught that they are the heads of the families and their only job is to
provide for its members and they need not participate in domestic tasks or
take care of children. Since they are the earning hands, they have every right
to dictate their terms and impose their decisions, particularly on matters
concerning their females.

Undoubtedly, women have had to undergo immense torture even at the hands
of women because of this mindset but despite continued suffering necessary
lessons have yet not been learnt. Rather, over the last few decades, many
things seem to have become unlearnt instead of there being positive changes.
One wonders what happened to those feisty females who were at the forefront
of struggle for independence and later on continued to inspire, motivate and
who dedicated their lives for the emancipation of the young women of this
new-born state. They believed in the famous quote of Nina Shaw: “If you want
to be a woman in power, then empower other women.” They were politicians,
social workers, teachers, sportspersons, artists, musicians, dancers, singers,
actresses, professionals and even housewives who were fully geared to set this
country’s wheels in motion but then just as it was time to take off, there came
a moment when the sands of time began falling backwards. Intense political
upheavals had highly damaging effects on the nation with the rise of
fundamentalism, open ethnic prejudice, wave of intolerance and most of all
severe censorship on freedom to profess ideologies or speak candidly. Some of
these very dynamic women fell into a cultural warp only to lose track from a
progressive path onto a muddy terrain of confused beliefs and ideas.

The seventies and eighties witnessed the conflict between what was, what is
and what should be seeping into every walk of life and instead of there being
improvement, the entire society became hostage to vested interests, political
vacuum, unrest, religious bigotry, economic depression and overall feeling of

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 Women and Pakistan

discontent with an even more treacherous emotion of diminishing sense of

patriotism. Every citizen of this country was affected in multiple ways but the
women, being easy targets were the ones to suffer most. Whether it was the
concept of chadar and chaar diwari or the infamous Hudood Ordinances of
1976, women found themselves in the oddest of positions, especially with
respect to their dress code and familial ties.

At this juncture, it was crucial for women to maintain their sanity and ensure
correct training of their children especially their sons. Instead, the Islamic
revolution in neighbouring Iran in 1979, the Afghan-Russian war, the rise of
Taliban in Afghanistan, the rapid influence of Saudi Arabian Wahhabism along
with Islamization movement in Pakistan led many women of the upper echelon
of society to overnight transform from ultra modern to ultra antiquity putting
the entire country into reverse gear. Shunning progressiveness, they joined
the men in recreating a traditional society based on outmoded thinking in
which men, especially the orthodox emerged as the supreme beings and
women were down-graded to a secondary position with humiliation,
punishment and disrespect for those who dared to rebel against the new but
antediluvian way of life. In this fast growing modern world with accelerated
technological advancements the expectation that the new generation would
conform to ancient style of living under the pretext of Islamic code was quite
ill-founded. Therefore, in a generally homogenous society, massive fissures
between the old and new schools of thought developed that had and still have,
caused a bizarre lopsidedness in everyday life.

Even if for some reason or the other, the women were forced against their will
to adopt a conservative life-style, the least they could do was to raise their
sons to respect women irrespective of who they were, but what transpired was
extremely frightening. The seeds of hate for non-conformism were sown in the
minds of men by their own mothers in a way that any woman, no matter
relative or stranger, with even a slight implication of self-determination had to
be disciplined in the most ruthless fashion. Earlier ignored modernly dressed
women were becoming targets of ‘interest’ for the passersby who would not
refrain from passing rude comments if nothing more. Honour killing on the
most minor of excuses, was going unpunished, girls were being deprived of
education and married off against their will, more and more men were taking
on multiple wives as a matter of religious right at the expense of destroying
their families. Cultural centers, music academies, theatres, clubs were being
closed down and the entertainment industry suffered a rapid decline.

Consequently, many non-Muslim communities comprising Anglo-Indian

Christians, Parsis and Hindus had no choice but to migrate to other countries
taking with them intellect, high moral values and the fascinating sense of a
mixed cultural society of which, tolerance, love and affection were the
hallmarks.

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 Women and Pakistan

Some may have viewed these minorities as remnants of the colonial era but
the fact is that Pakistan’s two most crucial departments, health and
education, were being handled by them. All the leading educational
institutions as well as hospitals, where even Muslims thronged in large
numbers, belonged to them where the teachers and staff devoted their
services without discrimination. As a result, quality education and health
facilities were available to the masses while government schools and hospitals
functioned suitably with lower burden on them. Besides, the well-groomed
presence of these ladies in hotels, corporate offices, the airlines and other
employment concerns, left an extremely progressive image of Pakistan on
foreigners visiting the country. They imbibed values which reflected in even
the illiterate men belonging to the lower stratum of society. Their exodus
caused a huge loss to the cultural fabric of this country converting it into one,
overrun by fundamentalism, intolerance, regression with a dearth of moral
values.

Impurities permeated in honorable professions, honesty became victim to

deceit, integrity got sacrificed at the altar of corruption, rudeness
underscored politeness, upsetting the environmental balance of the country
and changing its law-abiding citizens to becoming defiant-all this
metamorphism occurring despite high-ended moral sermons on the national
media and mosques, openly punishing the so-called ‘moral’ delinquents in
large numbers, persecuting dissenting voices and governments’ extreme
censorship.

The new millennium ushered in an era of modernism in Pakistan with the

promise of a better future for women but terrorism wedged in between,
retarding this journey once again giving victory to the fundamentalists. Today,
crumbling values are conspicuous in all aspects of life and especially in the
media. Many television channels thrive on provocation, heated discussions and
arranging “verbal wrestling championships” between opponents that have on
some occasions extended to abuse and even battery, thus defying all norms of
decency and good behavior. Many a times, anchors seem to be relishing the
ongoing exchange of abusive content, intervening by adding fuel to fire for
further incitement. In their enthusiasm to humiliate the opponents, more
verbal artillery is let loose.

Women are treated with disrespect just because men, especially so-called
religious leaders display signs of aggression in clear view, while talking with
those of the fair sex whose appearance or thinking is not acceptable to them.
So while they may appear to be courteous towards a lady whose eyes are only
visible, they can be quite rude and intolerant with a boldly dressed one or
someone who dares to challenge their viewpoints. Similarly, even some women
have been noted as misbehaving or talking boisterously in the capacity of
moderators or participants which just proves the low quality of mannerism,
residue of the earlier tempestuous decades.

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 Women and Pakistan

Amid all this furore, one cannot help appreciate the efforts of those few
commendable women who, despite the prevailing adverse conditions proved
their mettle and earned accolades for themselves. They withstood the negative
forces, defied all restrictions, remained sturdy with their cause, confronted
strong opposition, crossed all obstacles hurled in their path, swam through
murky waters only to rise above and make the country proud of them. Of
course these were the exceptions and not the rule with credit going to their
parents who most probably extended their full support!

Had the woman of the seventies and eighties shown some resilience instead of
falling prey to proponents of Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi’s Bahishti Zewar that
lays down code of life for women, which entails nothing but total
subordination to men with no hope for equality, things would have been much
disparate. All which was required in that crucial era was the upbringing of her
children, inculcating proper values in both girls and boys, mainly with respect
to treating other women. She could have invoked those qualities that would
have saved an entire generation from falling into the trap of moral and
religious bias. She could have empowered her girls with good education and
boys with broadmindedness, of making them understand the concept of
equality, compassion, tolerance and fortitude, of the contrast between
modernity and immorality, of teaching them lessons of faithfulness, patriotism
and devotion to the country. Indeed the Pakistan we see today would have
been an altogether different country.

Despite all the hardships and social resistance, the Pakistani woman today is
full of enthusiasm to change her way of life. Daughters are less considered
burden and they have proved themselves that in many ways they are far better
than sons in taking care of their parents and families. There has been
observed a gradual shift from undermining the status of girls to providing
them with education and opportunities to improve their lives. Even the
government has increased the quota of women in civil services to a
remarkable extent allowing more and more females to participate in the
state’s affairs. Girls belonging to the less privileged classes can be seen riding
motorcycles and going around their daily chores, working in factories or
learning vocational skills to make ends meet. These are indeed positive
changes although quite delayed but since the wheel has become operational,
the time will not be too far when Pakistan would rank high among progressive
countries of the world.

— Huzaima Bukhari is the writer, lawyer and author and an Adjunct Faculty at
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Published in Daily Times
in October 2019.

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