A prolific Pakistani affairs poster suggested i post this topic here to reach a wider audience. The topic is about feminism in subcontinent or more about how it is seen politically. People are free to give positive, negative criticism or feedback. Do they do a good job in promoting rights of female which are afforded to females in religion and culture but not always seen on a ground level.
What are your views, what do you know of the movement in your country? @Jolie
The unmissable irony here is that all three major countries in the subcontinent had produced powerful female Prime Ministers yet these countries never had a Women's Movement. We have female MPs in the parliament yet Women's Rights have never been a high priority political agenda or even a popular mainstream debate. These agonising facts define the sorry state of Feminism and Women's Rights in South Asia.
The vast majority of female Pakistani politicians are a huge disappointment. An utter embarrassment and a collective failure. They themselves are so absorbed in the status quo that there's very little hope that these women will ever openly and independently talk about the rights of a disadvantaged group, in that case women. Frankly speaking, it is not just about speaking up about Women Rights, in fact expecting female politicians to take a forceful stance on any particular policy or issue is asking for too much. Unfortunately, Pakistanis female politicians are not known for (nor they have the ability) for leading debates, stirring debates or inventing debates on the basis of their experience and knowledge. Most of them don't even know why they are in politics and what they are talking about.
But why these female politicians don't talk about Women's Rights mainly boils down to the issue of class. We are still a very class ridden society. We have a very rigid class structure. We still think and act according to the class lines. So in that context, speaking about rights of women also means simultaneously addressing the grievances of working class, acknowledging deep social and economic inequalities and talking about greater human equality with dare I say, socialist strategies. Sadly Pakistani politics is infested with the feudal class, regardless of the gender of the politicians, they would never actively promote a system that intends to break down the discriminatory social and gender hierarchies that enables rich and powerful to control the poor and weak.
People liking the comments feel free to contribute as well. This thread is not just for females to comment and we are open minded towards all opinions and views.
That is an interesting irony considering subcontinental countries have female PMs yet US has not. However, female politicians in the US speak out louder for women’s issues compared to the East. Sometimes i wonder if it’s because the powerful female leaders never rose up the ranks on their own but always rose up through a powerful male relative. All the female PMs were elected because they were related to a powerful male leader. Maybe these females didn’t feel they had much power to support a woman’s movement that they themselves were never part of. I think there are a lot of misconceptions of the women’s movement amongst the public which female politicians do nothing to change. People see it as a western thing, which is anti-family/anti-marriage when in reality local women’s movements exist focusing on local issues whether they be honour killings, acid attacks, dowry murders and rape. Issues very relevant to all subcontinental countries. Probably some part of the blame goes to the women’s movement in these countries for focusing on issues related to a particular class and not being as vocal about issues related to those of lower class and socioeconomic status. Even UK’s Margaret Thatcher, though i disagree with her politics, rose up on her own without support of a male relative. People have given up on politicians and have started their own vigilante movements to protect women. There is this group called gulabi gang which tries to protect women and attacks men/women who are treating females badly. Just shows society no longer trusts politicians and police.
I agree female politicians in subcontinent in general don’t look beyond the status quo and their own position. They don’t initiate debates on important topics or let their fellow politicians know of these issues. They just follow their party line and act as soft image for the party. I hope such politicians do emerge in the future. I wonder if inspiring female politicians exist who are not like the above examples.
Are there inspiring female politicians in Pakistan who have spoken for those of a disadvantaged class? Maybe less well known politicians who have decided to follow their own path. If not trying to break discriminatory hierarchies they can at least try to highlight issues. Unfortunately i don’t think female politicians in any of the other countries are any better. I wonder if a quota system makes it more or less likely that females will speak out about these issues.
The most inspiring Pakistani women i have read about are not politicians. Maybe other non-political leaders can be the way forward for these movements.
It was the exponential rise of progressive Muslim nationalism of the Aligarh variety in 1930s, based on the twin planks of modernity and reform brought the common Muslim woman out of seclusion and into mainstream. It was around this** time that Shaista Ikramullah became the first Muslim woman to earn a PhD and Abida Sultan became the third woman pilot in the entire Islamic world. Both were ardent Muslim Leaguers and later served Pakistan in several official and unofficial capacities.** But more than this it was the Muslim League and its leadership that for the first time asked the common Muslim women to shun “chador” and “char dewari” to become part and parcel of the political struggle. It had all begun with the Muslim League resolution in 1932 promising complete and total political equality to women. La**ter the League became more [ACTIVE
http://cdncache-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png](http://paktribune.com/articles/Feminist-dimension-of-the-Pakistan-Movement-115710.html#) in supporting Muslim women’s liberation. For one thing Mahomed Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, had been an activist for the Suffrage movement in his student days in London. ** He was genuinely distressed to see the state of women in the Muslim community something which he alluded to on several occasions. He famously said:
***“No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you; 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.” ***(taken from the US Library of Congress report “Pakistan - A Country Study”)
In order to reinforce this notion he made sure his sister was always by his side during his campaigns and political engagements. He no doubt realized more than anyone else in the Muslim community how essential women’s [PARTICIPATION
http://cdncache-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png](http://paktribune.com/articles/Feminist-dimension-of-the-Pakistan-Movement-115710.html#) was to his struggle. After all women’s participation meant doubling the number of voters and twice the number of agitators. Anis Haroon writes in his essay that women threw off their dopattas and made flags out of them for the movement. **Thus Jinnah galvanized the Muslim women into a lean mean fighting machine and enlisted the feminists amongst Muslims to work for the cause of Muslim women and to break the shackles of the religio-feudal order that had reinforced Chador and Char devari particularly in the areas of Punjab and NWFP. ** The effect was electric. Muslim women came out in large numbers attending Muslim League meetings, talking against the maulvis and agitating against the Unionist government. In the closing stages of the civil disobedience movement in Punjab more than 500 Muslim League women courted arrest in one day. It was here that the most famous incident of the Pakistan movement saw a young woman, Fatima Sughra, jump the fence of the Lahore secretariat, climb up onto the top, throw away the British Union Jack and hoist the Muslim League flag up instead. In NWFP where Purdah is still unheard of, Muslim League women courted arrest while protesting against Dr Khan Sahab’s ministry without a Purdah.
Brilliant young women poets and writers like Mumtaz Shahnawaz were amongst the agitators. **Mumtaz Shahnawaz, whose mother Jahanara Shahnawaz was a stalwart of the Pakistan movement and the first woman in Asia to preside over a legislative session, has left behind a touching novel on the crucial events of partition called “Heart Divided”. Written from the Muslim League perspective, it tells the story of the struggle for Pakistan and the women’s sacrifices for the nation state. **
Mumtaz Shahnawaz died at the age of 35 in a plane crash months after the creation of Pakistan, en route to New York to represent Pakistan at the UN General Assembly. Before leaving for New York, she had told her mother to work towards making Pakistan a progressive state, the reason why they had toiled and struggled for its creation. Her death was mourned not just by Jinnah but Nehru and Atlee as well who she knew very well.
There was a strong feminist dimension in the Pakistan movement. Women like Shaista Ikramullah, Jahanara Shahnawaz, Mumtaz Shahnawaz and Salma Tassadaque were attracted to it because of the potential it held for women. They got an opportunity to organize and liberate Muslim women the four walls of their homes. Through out the Pakistan movement, the League leadership relied on the women in their ranks to take their message forward to the common people as well as the media. Indeed when the need arose to counter Congress’ propaganda in the United States it was Jahanara Shahnawaz who was dispatched and there she managed to [CONVERT
http://cdncache-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png](http://paktribune.com/articles/Feminist-dimension-of-the-Pakistan-Movement-115710.html#) many to the Muslim League’s point of view. After the creation of Pakistan these women fought and a long and drawn out battle with the religious conservatives for their rights. With Jinnah’s patronage they had formed the Muslim Women’s National guard, during the Pakistan movement, which later became the Pakistan National Guard. It was a civil defence organization for women that protected women during the riots of 1947. After Jinnah’s death, the Women’s National Guard came under scrutiny of the Mullahs and conservatives. The main criticism that was leveled against the organization was that its members went around unveiled and armed. Some how that threatened the patriarchy of the Mullahs, the majority of whom had opposed the creation of Pakistan in the first place.
For three decades however Pakistani women seemed to make progress towards complete equality. The Muslim [FAMILY LAW
http://cdncache-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png](http://paktribune.com/articles/Feminist-dimension-of-the-Pakistan-Movement-115710.html#) Ordinance all but banned polygamy. All constitutions of the republic affirmed complete equality of women. In fact all three constitutions promoted activism and affirmative action to bring about complete equality. All was proceeding as planned, even as Pakistan got more consciously Islamic under Bhutto, till the women’s movement in Pakistan hit a brickwall called Zia-ul-Haq’s military regime. The hudood ordinance and the tampering with the evidence act, halted the progress made from 1947-1977. Overt Islamisation via state patronage of the Jamat-e-Islami brand of Islam laid the foundations of progressive isolation of women in Pakistan. With this, the nationalist discourse in Pakistan took a completely opposite direction from the feminist discourse, which is why even today under the enlightened moderation of General Musharraf the women’s movement is in dissent of the nation state. But that is another story.
