Parliamentary privileges

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.

The contest that has opened up between our parliamentarians on their ability to abuse women is deeply disgusting. But really neither their attitudes nor their vocabulary is especially shocking.

We have after all heard members of the assemblies pour scorn on women in the past too. Their victims have included their own colleagues, and a similar attitude towards women runs through much of our essentially patriarchal society. It is often passed off as a harmless joke; women urged patronisingly to laugh along. But of course it does do harm and we can now see evidence of just what damage has been inflicted.

The Shireen Mazari affair and the Marvi Sirmed episode have brought under-currents from the darker realms of our society out into a more open space. The numerous tweets and other messages have also shown us the sort of ideas that prevail. It is clear from Marvi Sirmed’s social media pages that she is under attack in the most obnoxious manner because of her liberal views, and the peculiar notions that are commonly tied into this.

Even her husband has been vilified for ‘permitting’ her to engage in certain behaviours, the assumption of course being that an adult woman needs permission from another quarter to determine how she conducts her life. It is hard to know how widespread these views are, but clearly they seem to be held by a frightening number of people.

There are several strands of thinking that emerge from here. Public space is still seen essentially as the realm of men. Parliament falls within this kingdom. The media, meanwhile, acts as one of the prongs that hold it up. As has now been established beyond little dispute, the channel in question could quite easily have acted to prevent an especially unsavoury scene from unfolding the way it did. Similar choices   have since been made by other channels, hoping to capitalise as much as possible from such ungraceful verbal assaults – in this case, also with the threat of being followed by a physical one.

The media in this country could do so much to change thinking, to usher in new ideas, and to break away from old norms. It has refused to do so; in fact, if anything, sometimes in the search for sensationalism and ugliness which seems to win high viewership and therefore higher rating, it has actively sought out unpleasant behaviours and encouraged hosts to ignite squabbles on air.

For some TV anchors, this is their primary method of winning viewership. The principal purpose of meaningful exchange which should lie behind talk shows has vanished in this culture and, as we have seen, Pemra has been doing nothing to amend this.

The public, verbal attacks on women coincide with crimes committed against them in other places. In a period of less than three months, three young women have been set alight – in the Abottabad area, close to Rawalpindi, and in Lahore – over perceived matters of ‘honour’. In all three cases, the murders were deliberate, preconceived and carried out with intense brutality. Such hatred is hard to comprehend. It seems to arise from within the realms of some horror film involving evil spirits and demons who walk on earth. Those demons, it seems, stand amongst us.

It has become the task of our legislators and also others who influence the public sphere to alter this. How they can do so is open to some discussion. As Senator Farhatullah Babar said in the Senate, it is increasingly obvious that the attacks on women are linked to the recent pronouncements of the Council of Islamic Ideology. Under Maulana Sheerani, its current chairman, this body has sunk to increasing absurdity – and therefore irrelevance.

It is time for lawmakers to consider quite why the CII remains in its current form as a constitutional body sustained by taxpayers money and what can be done to at the very least place it in our present age by bringing on board more scholars and persons genuinely able to offer a learned opinion. We also have the question of our own laws as they stand on paper. It is quite clear that the compoundability available under the law promotes the enacting of honour killings, with family members of the victim able to keep things within their own range of influence, ‘forgive’ the killer and ensure he is able to walk away scot free.

Murder must, of course, be considered a crime against the state and all its people, not against a single family or individual. The carrying out of honour killings affects us all in so many ways.

It is only when these essential measures are taken that we can hope for anything resembling change. Of course, it will take time for this to come about. Political parties can help speed up the process by setting examples and leading the battle. Nearly all of them have been guilty of gender discrimination or of passing derogatory remarks against women at one time or another.

The macho culture that exists more strongly within some simply worsens matters. It is this culture that has permitted remarks such as those made by the sitting defence minister to be able to be made in parliament. The fact that these comments have been strongly hit back at is welcome. Dr Mazari may not have admirers everywhere. But she has done the right thing by speaking out against the language used to describe and belittle her and to turn this into a national political issue.

It is also imperative that we see more women in the public sphere. There are at present far too few. Even at social media forums, many have preferred not to comment for fear of attracting offensive remarks in return. The fear of course goes beyond words alone with some members of the JUI-F suggesting – after the Marvi Sirmed incident – that bad language could be met by bullets.

Such threats essentially amount to a crime. And they should be treated as such by the state and by the leaders of the party. Only if precedents are set will we see change. It is obvious from all that has happened that change is very badly needed. There has to be a conscious effort to bring it about from the political platform, from within the media and also from schools and mosque pulpits.

It is not an insignificant fact that women, TV show hosts and in other capacities, have come to play an increasingly large part in the electronic media. They need to make their own feelings known and rise up against the elements that control them in so many different ways. A change is necessary to prevent a repetition of recent events. It needs to be worked towards at various levels. Leaders within each of these separate fields can play a part in making this possible by determining what to do and how to go about the delicate process of changing the way people think, and consequently act, talk or write.

We need to put more voices out into circulation and make it known that certain patterns of behaviour, no matter how long they have existed, are unacceptable, especially at public forums. This is in many ways essential to society and to creating the change that we quite evidently need.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com