Unveiling the Issues: Pakistani Women's Perspectives on Social, Political and Ideological Issues

208 Pages·5.689 MB·English

by  Nighat Said Khan, Afiya Shehrbano Zia

Pakistani W om en’s PeRspectioes on
SociaJ, Political and Ideological Issaes.
PReseQtaCioQS at Cbe National Con{Te«ence/Assembly o f
D e v e lo p m e n t A c tio is ts -P n o c e s s to Beijing & Beyond-ApRil 1995, LaboRe.
Edited by
Nigtaat Said Kban & Ap'ya SbebRbano Zia
Transcribed and Translated by
NaaReen Amjad & Rabina Saigol
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U n u e i l i n g t I s s u e s
Published by:
ASR Publications
Flats 5 & 6, Third Floor
Sheraz Plaza, Main Gulberg Market
P.O. Box 3154, Gulberg II, Lahore, Pakistan
1995
Ph: 92 - 42 - 877613/5757448 Fax: 92 - 42 - 5711575
© This collection, ASR Publications
ASR is grateful to the Royal Netherlands Embassy, Islamabad and to EZE,
Germany for supporting the cost of printing this publication.
Printed by:
Nabiza Publishers, 9-B, Rattigan Road, Lahore.
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Pl_ *A% 0 ' S ”
CONTENTS
Introduction
Global Systems and the Effects at
SECTION ONE
National Levels
1. The Political Economy of Pakistan -
An Overview Nighat Said Khan 3
2. Global Militarisation Najma Sadeque 17
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3. The New Economic Order Najma Sadeque 25
4. Rural Women and Agriculture Nigar Ahmed 33
5. Environment and Migration Nafisa Shah 40
/
Power
SECTION TWO
6. Human Rights - A Woman's
Perspective Nasreen Azhar 47
7. Militarisation, Masculinity and
Identity in Pakistan - Effects
on Women Saba Gul Khattak 52
8. Defining, Understanding and
Challenging Violence Against Anis Haroon and
Women Afiya S Zia 65
9. Women and Law Shehla Zia 73
Women's Creative Expressions — The
SECTION THREE
Unfinished Agenda
10. Women and the Media -
An Overview AfiyaSZia 83
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11. Reclaiming Women's Voices
in Urdu Literature Samina Rahman 92
12. The Journey of the Sindhi
Woman Poet A tiya Dawood 99
13. Woman and the Process
* of Creativity Salima Hashmi 106
14. Dance and Drama:Expression
of Women's Power and
Resistance Sheema Kirmani 110
State, Women's Movement and
SECTION FOUR
Ideologies
15. Identity, Ideology and
Religion Nighat Said Khan 117
16. Voices of Women From
Religious Minorities Cheryl Mary Ana to 126
17. Domestic Knowledge Systems
and Patriarchy Rubina Saigol 136
18. Some Myths About 'The
Family' Afiya S Zia 154
19. Family and the Women's
Movement Rubina Saigol 160
20. Women's Activism and the Population
Programme in Pakistan Ayesha Khan 167
21. The Women's Movement
in Pakistan An is Haroon 178
22. The Women's Movement
Revisited: Areas of Concern
for the Future Nighat Said Khan 187
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Introduction
Introduction
The essays included in this book unveil new
perspectives on the issues they address. The title was chosen
with the recognition that the women's movement in Pakistan
is moving, or should move into, a new era where it is
raising, offering, developing and refining positions, and
with that strategies fo r activism, through a process o f
reflection on the struggles o f the past years. Each essay is
preoccupied with exploring and exploding common myths;
exposing the masks and form s o f patriarchy; demystifying
jargon a n d theory; highlighting and critiquing the gaps
within the w om en’s movement and offering insights into
issues with a simplicity that makes what are complex issues
a n d concepts, accessible and easy to grasp.
These essays emerge from a ’movement’ process
initiated by the ASR Resource Centre, using the opportunity
o f the upcoming 4th UN World Conference on Women -
1995, to reflect on and understand issues. The idea was to
broaden the approach and the struggle o f the wom en’s
movement, rather than responding sporadically and
strategically as it has tended to do in the past. This process
has attempted to include the voices o f women from all over
Pakistan who are not normally involved in either
governmental positions/ reports fo r international conferences
nor in non-governmental processes or alternative position
papers/ reports. Although these presentations may have been
written by those who have also been involved in dei>eloping
other positions, the purpose here was to provide a space to
introduce and to reflect upon those aspects not determined
by UN, interagency, donor or government agencies. In that
sense Unveiling the Issues is an attempt at a more
representative position o f the entire spectrum o f the wom en’s
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movement in Pakistan. At the same time, it is a collection o f
initial ideas, thoughts, reflections, areas fo r debate and
discussion on diverse issues that should be o f concern to
women a n d the movement. Also these move away from what
are narrowly considered "women’s issues" and affirm that
women consider all issues to be wom en’s issues. The
argum ent is that it is imperative to recognise that the effects,
impact and relationship o f women with the economy,
military, law, health and most other issues, are very
different a n d rarely equal across class, race or gender.
Most o f the essays are transcriptions from
presentations m ade at the National Conference o f
Development Activists held in Lahore in April 1995
organised by the ASR Resource Centre. This Conference
included over 600 activists from all over Pakistan with
participation ranging from com m unity and rural based
organisatiofis, to research and academic institutions. The
presentations were therefore made in urdu and kept lucid,
offering ideas on what have come to be considered, specialist
disciplines, on which only experts or Women In Development
officers are regarded authorities. All o f these were heard with
an attentiveness a n d active response and since most o f these
women live these realities, they agreed with much o f what
was said. To that extent, there was more o f a consensus on
these issues especially the more sensitive issues such as
political economy, the military, identity, religion and
patriarchy than there is in more exclusive NGO circles which
tend to be preoccupied with p’ ublic opinion ’. In other words,
this fo ru m was not on the defensive about its stands nor
concerned about hedging around positions. TI?e discussions
and positions can therefore be considered as more reflective
o f a comprehensit>e totality, especially when taken with other
processes such as the National Report (in which issues were
f
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Introduction
determ ined by the UN and which needed the consensus o f
the Government o f Pakistan); and the positions o f W omen’s
Action Forum a n d other alternative sectoral positions by
other NGOs.
The transcriptions have attempted to remain as
fa ith fu l a n d close to the original points made by the
presenters. Therefore these essays are not ’scholarly' papers
(although the essayist m ay be an academic) but as said
above, each article seeks to link theory to activism in as clear
a n d as comprehensible a form as possible. Other papers that
have been included are those presented elsewhere in this
process o f debate and discussion on the issues prior to the
World Conference a n d are integral contributions to the
entire process. While the transcriptions m ay not be entirely
satisfactory, it is our experience as publishers, that the few
u>omen activists writing in Pakistan rarely get time to
am end or refine their works (and actually g’ et that
com puter print-out’ out!). With the result that ideas never get
to be shared; or become somewhat outdated; or are taken up
a n d rehashed by someone else; or the debate is seized by
m ale journalists, or belatedly submitted to some foreign
journal, or to another (usually) international forum .
We are convinced that this publication is extremely
relevant and what has excited us while preparing it, is that
women in Pakistan are realising the importance and
necessity to understand a n d share the issues thctkthey are
taking stands on. The advantage to this is that a more^
inform ed process o f dialogue, debate and form ulation will, *£■
we believe, confirm the strength o f ’alternative’positions. It is >
more likely that these will be fe d into the movement than
isolated research studies or status o f women reports that are
file d aw ay and rarely accessible.
• • •
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G lobal System s a n d the Effects a t N ational Levels
The book has been divided into fo u r sections. The
first section introduces the key elements that link the
patriarchal forces o f the military, economy and the state in
today’s global economic and political contexts. Nighat Said
K han’s essay spans the political history o f Pakistan
discussing the collusive role o f the military and politics; the
movements o f various subnational and class struggles which
are subsum ed a n d wiped out in mainstream history books;
a n d the ’client’ relationship with the United States o f
America. Najma Sadeque’s essays on global militarisation
a n d the New Economic Order expose the myths o f
international ideologies, disclosing the naked self-interests
and capitalist exploitation that are oppressing the Third
World. Nigar A hm ed’s essay on agriculture contextualises
the effects o f global a n d national policies by highlighting the
discrim ination a n d lack o f recognition o f the contributions
o f rural women in Pakistan. The last article in this section
by Nafisa Shah tentatively raises some areas fo r debate such
as the need to question concepts o f ’sustainable development ’
and the cotitradiction o f global environmental policies in
the fa c e o f capitalism, consumerism and privatisation, as
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well as the neglect o f indigenous economic models. Nafisa
also proposes the need to understand the phenomena o f
migration not from the perspective o f borders arid control
but rather as a necessity resulting from an unequal
distribution o f wealth, and the imperatives o f global
transnational capitalism.
Pow er
The second section o f this book includes essays that
discuss various expressions o f power and their effects on
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women. Nasreen A zb a r’s overview o f wom en’s rights and
hum an rights includes a discussion o f international
standards o f basic rights as codified in certain UN
conventions including CEDAW (Convention fo r the
Elim ination o f All Forms o f Discrimination Against
Women). Nasreen’s own involvement in the hum an rights
a n d w om en’s motsements, leads her to point out the risk o f
always considering w om en’s rights within the broader
spectrum o f hum an rights. She contends that this sometimes
conflicts a n d at others, dilutes wom en’s dem ands and the
specificity o f their rights. Following this, Anis Haroon and
A fiya Zia discuss the brute expression o fp ower through male
violence. Flowever, this essay reveals that power does not
always imply physical violence but that there is a range o f
ifidividual as well as institutional expressions o f violence,
including those form s that emerge from state policies.
Similarly, Saba K hattak’s personal insight irito the effects o f
the Afghan war and the influx o f refugees, discusses long­
term psychological, cultural and ideological implications fo r
Pakistani women,, who have indirectly become victims o f a
conflict situation in neighbouring Afghanistan. Shehla Z ia ’s
conceptual outline o f wom en’s relationship with the law in
Pakistan is a crucial comment on the lack o f success o f the
w om en’s movement in harnrig discriminatory laws repealed,
but also the complete lack o f confidence that women have in
the justice system given its failure to ensure rights fo r
women.
Reclaiming W omen’s Creative Expressions
—
The Unfinished Agenda
W omen’s Studies has always been concerned to
revalue w om en’s work in different media and to reclaim
their contributions to popular culture. Feminist critical work
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has focussed on the marginalisation o f wom en’s self-
representation in media form s and the negation o f their
expressions as well as the privileging o f male experience in
patriarchal society. In Pakistan, critical work on literary or
performing creative arts is still in its genesis and while there
are m any exciting and prolific creative expressions by
women, the process o f producing, consuming, and the
impact o f these have not been looked at in any sustained
way.
The overview by Afiya Zia attempts to contextualise
the areas o f possibilities fo r the wom en’s movement to
deconstruct m edia and to exam ine the ideologies underlying
the representation o f women in its various form s. Some
examples fro m the print media are discussed here, in
particular, a recent article in the newspaper by a
progressive’ male ivriter, Ahm ed Rashid, which exemplifies
the power o f the male gaze and the powerlessness o f the
fem ale spectacle. Sam ina Rahm an shares an exciting
enterprise o f reclaiming the works o f short story women
writers during the decade o f military dictatorship in
Pakistan. S a m in a ’s essay reveals what is perhaps the most
interesting aspect o ff em inist literary criticism - the position
o f the authors and the subversion o f stereotypes in wom en’s
writings if they are read against the grain. This significant
contribution by Sam ina to fem inist urdu literary criticism is
appreciated more when reading the essay which raises
questions on interpretation, the fem inine voice, self­
representation, writers’ relationship with the wom en’s
movement, a n d the ’w e’ and y’ o u ’ both as reader/writer
relationship as well as the self/subject, and within the
movement, as writer/activist division. Atiya Dawood’s
interest is a fem inist retnsioning o f women poets’
contributions in Sindhi literary tradition that has been
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