By Ahtsham Ahmed
Michelle Obama, one of the most proactive first ladies of the US and a true symbol of women empowerment in the western world remarks, “No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens.” Viewing her words in the context of Pakistan, the country has a long history of stifling women and their potential in most cynical forms. From education to work, from politics to social and physical security, and from leadership to sports, the nation has collectively failed women at every level and domain which has proven to be consequential in the prevalent failure of the country across various fronts. Even more unfortunate is the fact that even the most educated lot, instead of taking a stand, often takes pride in this heinous subjugation and deprivation. It is high time we took due cognizance of the factors contributing greatly to the sufferings of women and acted towards their eradication as it may be our last shot at catching up with the world in social and economic development.
Expanding from its origins in the two-nation theory, religion has always assumed a central place in the political, social, economic, and constitutional discourse since the very creation of the country. The women empowerment debate has been no exception. In fact, from a table gossip among a group of teenagers to consequential discussions on the issue among the lawmakers, the religious context is always prevalent. However, instead of providing some respite, the cherry-picked, narrow interpretation of the religion on the issue has provided the society with many justifications for the subjugation of women. The issue is sensitized by dragging it into the past by painting a normative picture with statements like ‘Islam has granted all the rights to the women fourteen centuries ago. However, the actual implementation of these rights is actually granted to women is far from reality.
Very often, it is the same religio-misogynistic lot that deprives women of their basic rights vis-à-vis a narrow interpretation of Islam on issues like inheritance, early marriage, forced conversion, love marriage, shared parenting, and many more. Far from conducting a constructive debate, the brandishing of men as a gender sometimes becomes so blatant that women are ‘proven’ inferior in their creation. Under these incumbent realities, the responsibility falls upon the state and the Islamic scholars not only to conduct a constructive debate on the issue but to suggest legislative measures in order to realize and reinvigorate the rights granted to women in Islam by keeping in view the demands of the modern society. Making stringent laws along with the reinforcement of the conduits that enforce these laws is a must.
Another factor contributing to the sufferings of women is the utopia that intermittently surrounds us with the sporadic success of a few women in different walks of life. Undoubtedly, the success of women must be celebrated but the contentment that this celebration brings with regard to the status of women is an evasive one. If we dissect these stories to their core, more often than not, the women achieving these feats did not have to take the tedious path that an average Pakistani woman has to take on a daily basis. Moreover, the statistics published by international bodies also dismiss the improvement in the status of women as a mere conjecture. Pakistan ranked third to the last in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap 2020 (GGR) out of 153 countries. For comparison, India is ranked at 112 and Bangladesh at 50. Furthermore, a mere 5pc of senior and leadership roles are held by women.
If we look at the inclusion of women in the parliamentary arena that is often dubbed as the corridor of change, the condition is still far from encouraging. The win percentage of women on the general electable seats for NA in 2018 elections was merely 4pc. Many of those winning had blood ties from the known political families or individuals. The same percentage for India in the 2019 elections was 11pc with a far greater number of women contesting the elections. The worst scenario in the electoral inclusion can be witnessed in the nomination of candidates on the reserved seats for women in the NA where relationship or ties to a strong male political figure or family is ostensibly the criterion. Most of the women elected on these reserved seats in the 2018 General Elections reflect this unfortunate reality. This mockery in the name of women representations stifles any hope of the initiatives to alleviate the sufferings of the women from the top level with a trickledown effect as these ‘selected’ women representatives are bound to serve the political agendas of their parties that hold a very little, if any, the importance for the women empowerment.
It has also been evidently proven that mere legislation in the name of women empowerment is not effective. In fact, without strengthening the conduits to implement the letter of these legislations in spirit, such legislations can prove to be counterproductive by opening new avenues for harassment of the women at the altar of misogyny. For instance, Sindh has taken a lead in legislation as far as the protection and empowerment of women is concerned but the ground realities in the province are worse than elsewhere. Unfortunately, not only in Sindh but all over the country, the conduits implementing these legislations are incapacitated both in intent and resources to break the status quo that drives the misogyny in the country. From police stations to the prosecution to the judiciary, the fear of misogynistic treatment often causes the victims to stay silent. Consequently, the victims suffer to eternity, the aggressors fearlessly commit the act again with impunity and the status quo prevails.
There is an incumbent quota system to ensure the inclusion of women in these realms but it seems to be inadequate to deliver its purposes. The share of women in the total police force in Pakistan is less than 1pc which is far less than India’s 5.3pc and the no women officer got to the position of DIG till 2020. Moreover, Pakistan remains to be the only country in South Asia not to have appointed a women judge in its Supreme Court despite there being no constitutional restraint in doing so. The inclusion of women in the lower judiciary is also very little. There is a dire need to act towards the increment of women’s inclusion in police and judiciary along with transforming the existing mechanism to a women-friendly one if we are to act seriously towards the eradication of gender bias against women.
The feminist movement for the rights of women in Pakistan has come to the limelight in the past few years. However, this limelight has been for more bad reasons than the good ones raising concerns regarding both its intent and capacity to deliver any change. A rightly guided, proactive, and all-inclusive feminist movement is absolutely necessary for the betterment of women in Pakistan. Unfortunately, the incumbent feminist movement in Pakistan is neither.
The scope of this movement is mainly limited to an annual ‘Aurat March’ that, instead of being utilized an opportunity to educate and co-opt all the segments and genders in the movement, is mainly spent in instigating the opposite gender through slogans that are provocative and least representatives of the issues faced by the most of women. It is due to the fact that the movement is spearheaded by the class of women who wrongly convict that the fight against misogyny has to be necessarily a fight against men as a gender. It is due to these blatant slogans and instigation that the movement is often accused to be high-jacked by a segment of women that is not representative of all the women thereby raising concerns regarding its credibility.
The women leading the initiative should learn from the success of the feminist movements in the west where the earlier phases of the movements were also characterized by the discrimination within the movement and fight against men as a gender. The success was only achieved when the movement was made all-inclusive not only for women but also for men by co-opting them by educating them on the real issues of women. It also falls upon the media to educate the people regarding the issues of women, their importance, and resolution. However, the events like ‘Marvi Sirmid and Khalil ur Rehman Qamar spat’ last year and the establishment of the two blocs in the favor of both betrays that media has not only failed to act responsibly for conducting a constructive debate but has caused the existent fissures between the genders to grow, causing irreversible damage to the whole effort. Pakistan has very well-established academia in gender studies across its higher education institutes. These erudite professionals can be far more effective in raising awareness than the populist anarchists that are found on the rosters of prime time talk shows on the eve of the Aurat March.
In a fight for women’s empowerment, due cognizance must be given to the fact that a women dominant society will be no dangerous than a male dominant. Therefore all efforts must be directed towards achieving the ultimate goal to ensure a change that ends all the inter-gender and intra-gender bias and promotes equality on all fronts. Special attention is however required to address the issues of women as most of the time, they are the ones that are at the receiving end. In all such efforts, it must also be kept in mind that like all the other social issues, there is no ‘one fit for all solution and copy-pasting solutions might not only prove to be dysfunctional but may also worsen the situation. The world is taking a lead in the emancipation of women and adopting an inclusive approach and is witnessing fruition across all the realms. The onus is now on us to catch up before it is too late.
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The writer is a postgraduate student based in Edinburgh with a keen interest in the socio-political issues of Pakistan. He can be contacted at iamahtsham@gmail.com.
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