LLF audience enlightened about The Grammar of Gender

LAHORE: Dr Tahira Kazmi, a gynae feminist writer, has advocated talking about sexual and reproductive health of women openly to address their medical problems effectively.

Speaking at a book launch session of Dr Tahira Kazmi’s fourth book titled “The Grammar of Gender: Women’s Reproductive Health and Feminist Literature” moderated by Tasneem Ahmar during ongoing 10th Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) at Alhamra here on Saturday, Dr Tahira Kazmi said that Pakistan’s maternal mortality rate (MMR) has been alarming, as only Afghanistan was behind Pakistan with a higher rate of MMR in the region. “The women feel ashamed to talk about periods due to societal pressures, whereas life starts with periods. We use an Urdu word “sharamgah” for vagina, which means a place of shame. We tend to call our place of birth a place of shame, which is not right,” she explained. The Unicef head has termed periods a basic human right.

While Islamic Fiqh talks about women’s bodies, Dr Tahira Kazmi, who is a gynaecologist, said that Muslims in Indian subcontinent are reluctant to talk about women’s bodily issues, because as being culturally Indian identifying spiritual roots with Arabs, we have confused both. “We accepted their taboos, but stopped talking about good things in two cultures,” she added. Dr Tahira Kazmi said that the concept of wedding night has great significance in our region, but there’s hardly any conjugal training of the spouses. “There is a false concept of rupturing of hymen as a sign of virginity, which is dehumanizing for women,” she said, while questioning why men are not supposed to prove their virginity. She said that the sexual relationship between spouses entails medical complications for the women.

Dr Tahira Kazmi said that the women faced a lot of problems during floods, as they suffered enormously due to their menstruation and pregnancy-related issues. “They didn’t have money to buy sanitary pads or even spare old clothes to use during their periods,” she said, adding that women were forced to use tree leaves.

She further said that the women in rural areas were disproportionately affected due to lack of proper knowledge or awareness about their own bodies. “Anyone who talks about women’s bodies is made controversial as an arm of Western agenda,” she added. “The people tried to make me controversial as well because I started to talk about women’s issues of periods, deliveries and pregnancies. I write short stories on women’s real issues. I don’t even exaggerate,” she added. While concluding the session, Tasneem Ahmar said that there was a need to talk about women’s sexual and reproductive health in tandem. “We tend to remove sexual health from the debate, which is not helping to improve women’s health,” she added.