‘Even with failings, progressive laws better than regressive ones’

To fight patriarchy women must come together for each other to show solidarity, because going through the legal system can be exhaustive, but given that patriarchy is not a weak institution, it will not let women win that easily.

This was stated by lawyer Sara Malkani during a discussion titled ‘Women’s Activism in Pakistan: New Directions’ at the ThinkFest held at the Institute of Business Administration’s (IBA) City Campus on Saturday. The session was moderated by the IBA’s Faiza Mushtaq.

Discussing the approaches to activism by older feminists and the younger ones, the panellists said the response is different because the older generation witnessed first-hand the turbulent times for women during the era of military dictator Ziaul Haq.

Ayesha Khan of the Collective for Social Science Research said Zia’s regime triggered the women’s movement because elite women had not experienced their freedom being curtailed with regards to public spaces as well as with the laws being passed.

Commenting on the relationship between the state and citizens, Sara referred to Asma Jahangir’s words about how democracy is more about the survival of women.

“We also need to see that women activists who stood their ground during Zia’s rule are now holding important positions in public offices, which speaks about the movements.”

Sara also pointed out that the problems that are present in the law were not addressed by the activists earlier because they were struggling to replace the laws on paper first, and due to their efforts there are now laws against domestic violence and harassment.

Ayesha said the state is also patriarchal, but when the state passed laws like the Hudood Ordinance, it opened new horizons for violence: “Progressive laws, despite their shortcomings, are still better than regressive laws.”

Sara felt that now women activists are also challenging the patriarchy within the structures by questioning the existing frameworks.

Addressing the idea that the feminist movement was led by privileged women, Ayesha said that while the Women’s Action Forum did comprise such women, there was a lot of focus on bringing women from other groups to politics, and that worked out because not all women who participated in politics were from privileged classes.

When two young women asked about the status of education of women as to how despite claims, girls are unable to pursue education, Ayesha claimed that while the Constitution guarantees equality for all genders, it doesn’t envision it.

Addressing the current situation with regards to censorship as well as the fear of state, Sara said that in order to survive, one would need to understand the deep state. “Women’s activism has always been in the shape of non-violent movements.”