Women’s progress a case of two steps forward, one step backward

As Pakistan ranked 143 out of 144 countries in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report, 2016, it was perhaps wise to hold a session dedicated to exploring the state of Pakistan’s women as the country celebrates 70 years of its existence.

Titled ‘Where are the women’, the talk was held at the T2F as part of its ‘70 years on’ series. Moderated by digital rights activist and founder of Bolo Bhi, Farieha Aziz, the panel included researcher and activist, Nazish Brohi, alongside Marxist-feminist activist and poet, Amar Sindhu.

Providing a set of statistics, Nazish started off the discussion by highlighting the fact that while numbers indeed painted a bleak picture, there were other figures that indicate towards a decrease in fertility and maternal mortality rates as well as an increase in the ages women are getting married in.

She added that there has been an increased participation of the female labour force, whereas more women are visiting markets alone today as compared to previous decades. “But while the number of university going women rose, only 25 percent joined the workforce,” Nazish observed. 

However, she said that all is not black and white as the sharp increase in ‘honour’ crimes and incidents of violence against women indicate that there is a long way to go. If post-colonial times are taken as the first wave of modernisation, the researcher felt that the country seems to be going through a second one right now.

“Take for example the practice of Suttee…we see that when it was banned by the Colonisers, it became a mandatory custom and a surge was witnessed in areas where it wasn’t even observed before the ban. The state is now breaching no-go areas and is no longer isolated. With a law against domestic violence in place, the ‘sanctity of the family’ laws are now being infringed upon,” she said.

Nazish pointed out that earlier the relationship between the state and the women was mediated through men, but the situation is completely different now.

However, she stressed that these changes are not being picked up by the society because the mass media, such as television dramas, continue to portray women in stereotypical gender roles.     

“Family as a structure played an important role; hence, it was easier to accommodate regressive practices because marriage was considered as a solution to end feuds between two tribes.

Women are still uncomfortable in revealing their identities and refer to themselves as ‘we’ instead of ‘I’,” Nazish said, calling on this practice to be done away with.

“If you are a part of a community, the state would never intervene, if you are a part of the state seeking justice by heading to courts, then you would be excommunicated by the community; hence, a woman cannot be a part of both,” she said.

However, the existence of laws fractures the status-quo and now a woman of the community is also a part of the state.  

Nazish also explained that it usually felt that in the urban discourse, terms like social justice and human rights were used interchangeably, but that wasn’t the case.

“If a widowed or orphaned woman whose needs are being taken care of by her family demands her rightful share in the property, she won’t get it because it goes against social justice.”

Dying because they’re fighting more

Speaking of the increase in the number of female deaths being reported nowadays, Amar Sindhu said more of them are dying because more of them are fighting.

While Amar agreed with Nazish on various points, she felt that it was more important to look at power structures playing a role in prevalence of violence against women and hampering their progress.

“I feel that women’s progress is paradoxical…we can’t view it horizontally or vertically. The progress has been spiral, so it seems that we haven’t progressed but at the same time we see that women are leaving their mark in various fields in both rural and urban settings,” she stated. 

Referring to women’s rights movements led in the 1980s, she said it was the state that was being held accountable but later the state grew weaker and the power shifted to social structures.

Even though laws had been laid out and women had more representation in the parliament then they did before, something was still amiss for Amar.

“Despite there being laws they are still to be implemented. While the problem still remains abstract for women, the concrete entity continues to be a feudal lord, or a husband or a harasser,” she observed.

This has made the fight more difficult now, because earlier fighting to have a law passed was comparatively easier then fighting for its implementation.

According to the activist, our state was going through an identity crisis of its own; hence, there is a need to reflect upon the performance of various institutions including the police and the judiciary.

The bells toll for ADR

Referring to the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Bill, Amar said, if passed, the bill would take all that the Women Action Forum (WAF) achieved over the years several steps back. The system being introduced through the bill runs parallel to the jirga system, the opposition of which was stressed by the organisation.

“We got over 0.1 million signatures when we ran a campaign for abolition of the Jirga system in Sindh, back in 2008. But now it seems as if we are going to be back to square one.” She vehemently criticised the bill and questioned the power structures involved in taking decisions regarding it on behalf of the weaker group comprising farmers and workers.

Amar pointed out that sessions were being conducted to show that ADR would help many in attaining quick justice. “The state doesn’t exist for the powerless, for a villager who is a woman, the husband is the state and the law!” But despite all odds, she said it is still remarkable that women are able to get an FIR registered for a case, no matter how powerful the perpetrator of the crime is.

“Women’s rights organisations need to speak about decentralisation of power down to the local level; this has been ignored by the organisations as well as by political parties because it is extremely challenging,” she said.

Answering a question regarding how patriarchy has been the status-quo, Nazish calmly explained that although women and men are different biologically, having a uterus certainly does not aid a woman in washing clothes or dishes, hence, it was about time to dismantle patriarchy as we know it.