Tales from women at sea

The manner in which hundreds of women and children apparently locked into tiny rooms situated on the lower deck of the migrant boat that sank off the Greek coast, watched it descend — looked on by Greek lifeguards who did nothing — is terrifying. Imagine waiting helplessly as water fills your living space. Unlike the 12 Pakistani men who survived, these unknown women could not have saved themselves even if they were adept swimmers or felt able to try and make a bid to survive in some other way.

The fact that more and more women from different walks of life, including relatively less well off women are now eager to leave Pakistan means we may soon have more women dying in similar situations. One of these victims, a Hazara national hockey player who drowned on her weak boat smuggling illegal migrants abroad some months back, did so in order to earn money to support her young, disabled son. We have spoken very little about her plight and the lack of choices she had. Surely a state which has a true contract with its people would be willing to do more to help those in a similar situation. From the little we have been told, the woman’s green blazer was swept away into the sea along with her.

There are other young women on their own who think of reasons to live abroad. The number has grown, perhaps along with the greater exposure to life outside Pakistan over the Internet and social media. Some complain that in Pakistan, there is extreme difficulty in finding housing for single women. Even those who are relatively well off and educated are refused houses or flats simply because of their gender. Others tell stories of being harassed at work and seeking a situation where they can be freed from all this. For some women, like 60 per cent of migrants, the destination is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But for others, it is places like Germany and other locations where they believe life will be better and free of the restrictions they face at home.

The stories of the people who die on boats too weak to hold them after paying obscene sums of money to agents, who some claim have powerful political connections, are heart-wrenching. The entire issue needs a serious investigation. Some of these persons are not members of badly impoverished families but from middle or lower income groups who are convinced there is no future for them in Pakistan. The number of those making their way overseas illegally or legally grew in 2022.

What is a development that needs inquiry is the increasing addition of women to their ranks. More and more women, notably those aged between 25 and 35, and in many cases still unmarried, have opted to take the same plunge as Shahida Raza, the woman from Quetta who gave up her life in an attempt to create a better future for her child. Other women do the same. Some women who raise children alone are said to have approached agents and asked about the possibility of making it abroad legally or illegally. The despondency among young, educated women is something we need to understand far more deeply and in a far more concentrated fashion.

Let us look at their realities. Apart from the housing problem, many single women find it impossible to visit places within the country on holiday even if they earn the income required to do so. It is unacceptable for women to travel on their own, without family members or in the case of the more elite, a group of friends. There are of course many other hazards. For many, this comes in the form of the daily commute to work with buses and other forms of public transport all leaving them feeling unsafe.

Almost every woman — whatever she wears, wherever she goes — has reported harassment or molestation on public buses and trains. In November 2021, the body of a young woman was found in the bathroom of a tram station in Islamabad. She had been raped and then strangled. For her, her journey ended in tragedy. Other cases are even more horrific. In May 2022, on a train moving south to Karachi, one woman was allegedly gang raped by three men. She was a mother. Her trauma will stay with her for years. Three men were arrested but public anger over the case, notably among women, remains high.

This then adds to the reasons women are joining men in choosing to opt out of Pakistan and its future. Like men, unemployment, low wages, and underemployment are factors. But the courage it takes for a young woman to board a boat for a destination she is unfamiliar with and has not experienced before in most cases simply shows the desperation of these persons. Of course, in some cases their reasons for leaving mirror those of men. But there are additional factors for women who fail to get the jobs they deserve and who struggle to gain promotion wherever they work and in whatever income bracket. We also know that women are far too frequently paid less than men.

This is an issue that needs to be taken up by groups working for women and their rights, including Aurat March. The fact that the march itself was virtually brought to a halt this year is in itself a pointer to the problems which exist and which need to be solved. We need to stop the suffering of people on illegal migrant boats but in particular look out for women who fall into the snares put out by powerful agents with many connections who earn millions at the cost of those who in despair see no way out but to venture onto the high seas.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor. She can be reached at: kamilahyat@hotmail.com