Feminist Movements in Pakistan

Introduction:

Women in developing countries have played an active role in challenging their

unequal status by taking part in collective actions for change. In Pakistan as well as in
many countries across the globe, feminists’ movements have been vibrant in light of the
startling issues of gender violence as viewed by Samya Burney in her publication Crime
or Custom? : Violence Against Women in Pakistan. The current predicament of women
subjugation in Pakistan has promulgated due to the deep violation of women’s rights to
life, health and society within the civil society. Women activists are implementing
approaches to limit gender violence through advocacy. In Pakistan women face a lot of
gender prejudice due to a male dominated society, tribal systems, religious
interpretations and feudal mindset.

Colonialism and the Education Reform Movement

British colonialism reinforced traditional culture and religious practices. British laws did
not prove to be helpful for women to get their rights in inheritance and religion . On the
other hand, in 1937, Muslim Personal law remained beneficial for women in recognizing
their rights in inheritance.

Educational Reforms.

One of the greatest Muslim leaders Sir Syed Ahmed Khan played a crucial role in
bringing educational reforms for the Muslims of India. In1889 women’s education
training school was opened in Calcutta. The Begum of Bhopal was deeply fascinated by
women’s education in Aligarh. In 1915 she laid foundation of a girls ‘hostel in Aligarh. In
1885, the Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam opened five girls’ elementary schools in Lahore
1n 1922 Sultan Begum of Bengal became the first woman to receive her Master’s
degree in law. The educational reforms movements though were traditional but enabled
women to speak about their rights.

Women Rights

One of the advocate of women’s right Sir Muhammad Shafi and his Daughter Jahan Ara
initiated the first women’s organization. In 1908, another organization Anjuman-e-
Khawateen-e-Islam was established in Lahore to enlighten the masses with regard to
women rights in Islam. In 1915 few women from the elite class joined All India Muslim
Ladies conference. The government of India Act in 1935 liberated six million women,
they were able to participate in both the council of state and February Assembly.
Post Partition Scenario

.In 1951 they women achieved some of their fundamental rights like right to own
agricultural land for which they were fighting since 1948. In 1955 the united front for the
rights of women was designed in the guidance of Jahanara Shahnawaz. Before long
Chief justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Rashid analyzed marriage, divorce,
maintenance and custody of children. In 1956 constitution women got their voting rights
in both general assembly and reserved seats for women. In 1958 this constitution was
abrogated when martial law was imposed by Ayub Khan. However, historically there
were no effective women movements to support the challenges faced by them due to
religious lobbies. Begum Rana Liaqat Ali played an important role in structuring
the welfare and legal reforms for women.

Organizations

In 1948 Women Voluntary Service (WVS) was established by Begum Rana Liaqat that
provided women with primary aid. These organizations helped women militarily and in
various other aspects.

All-Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA) was another voluntary non-political

organization was established by Rana Liaqat for the well-being of Pakistani women. Its
main purpose was to provide women with opportunities like education, economic
participation and on the improvement of their social and cultural values.

Additionally, in 1953 APWA suggested ten reserved seats for women in the National
and Provincial Assemblies. Beside this Begum Liaqat Ali structured many other
organizations for women skills and development that includes; the Karachi Business
and Professional Women’s Club to get professional women on one platform.

Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP), The Pakistan Child Welfare Council
(PCWC), The Pakistan Red Cross, The Pakistan Nurses Federation (PNF), The
Housewives’ Association, Girl Guides Association, and the International Women’s Club
were established that have spread awareness on women’s social and economic issues.

In 1948 Democratic Women’s Association (DWA) was created on the basis of Marxist
principles which was led by Marxist feminist theory. Democratic Women’s Association
focused on equality in work, educational and employment opportunities for women and
transport services for working class women. Some other organizations like the United
Front for Women’s Rights (UFWA) and the Young Women’s Christian Association
(YWCA) have also worked for women rights and liberation and are still vigorously
active.
Ayub Khan (1958-1968)

It was the period of military dictatorship. As a result of APWA the Muslim Family Laws
Ordinance (MFLO) 1961 gave women some rights related to their marriages, custody of
children and right to divorce. In 1965 Fatima Jinnah took part in elections against Ayub
Khan because of absence of feminist struggles. There was an explosion in women
organizations between 1960s and 1970s. These organizations worked very effectively
for the development and prosperity of women.

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (1972-77)

After many remonstrations against Ayub’s dictatorship his period ended in 1968. In the
1970s elections women got the opportunity to cast their vote independently. Nasim Wali
Khan was the first woman who won a seat in the general assembly. The constitution of
1972 and 1973 provided women with their surplus rights than in the past. In the 1973
constitution, women were elected indirectly as members of assembly. In 1975
International Women Year (IWY) was launched and in 1976 a thirteen-member
Women’s Rights Committee was made by Yahya Bakhtiar which consisted of a group of
nine women, their aim was to determine the status of women and to bring further
improvement in their social and economic conditions.

Cold War Imperialism and the Rise of Islamization

1979 was a period of intense feminist activity and a turning point for Pakistan on the
national and global scene. The fall of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and the Iranian
revolution indicated the massive global reconfiguration and affected Pakistan as well.
Pakistan became the frontline state in the Cold War contest between competing
imperialisms in Afghanistan. While the Soviet imperialism was based on a communist
perspective, the competing US one sought an ally in a specific version of Islam to fight
against ‘ungodly’ communism. Many laws were made that included the Qisas and Diyat,
Hudood Ordinance of 1979 and Ordinance and the Law of Evidence of 1984 to protect
women against discrimination.

In 1981 a crowd of women gathered in Shirkat Gah Karachi and formulated the Women
Action Forum (WAF). The WAF became an inspiring initiative for the women’s
movements in Pakistan.

Women’s Issues

WAF kept on focusing on women’s issues and extended their scope with other
associations. Demonstrations were made when women were terminated from their jobs
in the private sectors. Some argued that women were not oppressed on the basis of
gender but they were fraught due to unemployment. Hence WAF played an important
role in challenging women’s discriminations based on gender, sex, religion, class and
ethnicity.

Feminism or Women’s Rights

In Lahore WAF played a significant role in women’s discriminatory issues and became
women’s rights lobby. Some of the famous academic feminists criticized WAF, that it did
not work within the Islamic framework secondly it did not remain successful in including
feminist analysis and principles. However, Sumar was unable to substantiate her
charges with solid evidence. Another analysis was made by Ayesha Jalal that women
are not a uniform social group but are divided by social, cultural and class disparities.
According to her, uneducated women do not enjoy the privilege of raising their voice
against violence and injustice since educated women are the ones who can achieve
social sustenance.

Sindhiani Tehreek

The Sindhiani Tehreek was initiated and remained active in Sindh. Sindhiani Tehreek
formed the women’s wing of the Awami Tehreek, a political party, but took major stands
against patriarchy as well as dictatorship.

Sindhiani considered that all issues are women issues, women cannot be oppressed
on the basis of caste, color, gender, nationality and religion. If so; they must be provided
with justice in a society. They not only raised women’s issues at political level but took
them to personal level and worked hard for reestablishment of democracy.

Role of NGOs

NGOs became prominent nationally as well as globally. NGOs and other donor
organizations started to discuss gender sensitization, gender training and gender
awareness. NGOs played a significant role in equalizing men and women. Some donor
organizations such as USAID organized a program called Gender Equity Program.
NGOs have positively affected political power of women’s movement in the middle class
feminist groups by getting funds established by their own private organizations in which
they provided jobs for women to design several projects. So gender issue was
developed into a profession and business as well. Instead of stressing on women’s right
and patriarchal issues the main focus was on Women in Development (WID), Women
and Development (WAD) and Gender and Development (GAD). A new wave of
feminism emphasized on UN conferences and other feminisms such as Marxist, Liberal
and Socialist or Radical school of thoughts.

However, some other organizations like Simorgh, Shirkat gah emphasized on

political concept of patriarchy and equal political method to feminism. Similarly,
many other non- governmental organizations kept a strong political approach of
patriarchy in society. In the period of 1990s women and women’s group contributed in
feminist theory.

Global War on Terror and the Post-9/11 Reconstruction of Identities

The September 11 attack in 2001 on US Twin Towers has changed the way the world
thinks about right and wrong, justice, death and life. It had significant global impact and
Pakistan has suffered the after-shocks of the incident. Since then Pakistan has become
a frontline state of war on terror. A large number of people who came from the socially
and culturally liberal and westernized section of Pakistan’s elite class supported Pervaiz
Musharaf’s regime installed since October 1999.

In Musharaf era women’s organizations received funds like Aurat Foundation for the
training of newly elected women councilors under the women participation project. More
than 80% of women were trained under this project. Pakistani women got 33% of their
representation in local government while 17.5% in national assembly. General Musharaf
chose Shamshad Akhtar as the first Governor of State Bank of Pakistan but WAF was
against the military reforms. They wanted to reserve 50% seats rather than the mere
33% currently available for women.

Gender Reforms Action Plan was established in 2002-2003 to align policies, structures,
programs and projects to allowing governments to fulfill and implement their promises,
both national and international, on gender equality. A number of major gender equality
goals were achieved under the GRAP. These included the setting up of a Provincial
Gender Mainstreaming Committee in Punjab, amendments in the Rules of Business for
Women Development Departments, the Restructuring of Women Development
Departments, Career Development Centers in Universities, establishment of Gender
Mainstreaming in eight departments of the Punjab Secretariat and electronic and print
media campaigns to create awareness about women’s rights.

Hence NGOs became popular and the induction of Left-leaning women into lucrative
paid work, took the steam out of women’s movement. Since 1990s WAF became
inactive and Anjumane-Mazareen took out peasant struggle in ten districts of Punjab.

The PPP, MQM and ANP were considered more women friendly parties than any other
political party. Patriarchal norms were apparent in these parties although they were
supportive towards women’s rights. Afia Zaya describes that women have been muted
by democracy, and supported by dictatorship. They enjoyed more rights during military
regime as compared to eras of democracy. For example Women Protection Act was
propagated by Prevaiz Musharif and Family Law of Ordnance was conveyed by Ayub
Khan. In 2011 anti- women practice law addressed the forced marriages problems that
remained a weak part of a state. Some efforts were made by PPP led coalitions mainly
in the Parliamentary Women’s Caucus and the National Assembly Standing Committee
on Women which worked carefully and determinedly with women’s groups. They were
successful in convincing the government to pass laws for the protection of women e.g.
Law of Sexual Harassment 2010 was passed which was a keen desire of women at
work place. AASHA (Alliance Against Sexual Harassment), while capitalizing on the
support garnered by women’s groups, played a major role in persuading the
government to approve the legislation.

Similarly, in 2011 the Law of Inheritance was passed to ensure them their inheritance
rights and in 2012 the Domestic Violence Bill was passed to address women’s issues.
Pro-women legislation was passed by speaker Fehmida Mirza and other members of
the National Assembly. With the approval of the 18th amendment in 2010, women’s
issues became a provincial subject and the Ministry of Women’s Development at the
federal level was devolved to the provinces where Women’s Development Departments
are now responsible for addressing their concerns.

Therefore, women’s movements elevated concerns at all provinces to stop anti-women

legislations that were introduced in the name of religion and culture. Improvements in
legislation for rights of women are being continued at the provincial level. The Sindh
Provincial assembly passed the legislation on domestic violence in March 2013.
Similarly, the provincial assembly of Balochistan passed the bill on domestic violence in
February 2014. The Domestic Violence law of the Punjab is a weak document that
takes a welfare-oriented rather than rights-based view of crimes against women. In
2015 the Juvenile Justice System Bill was considered for immediate justice for women.
Additionally, electoral reforms were also made to ensure that women were not
prohibited from casting their vote.

Contemporary Debates and Narratives

After 9/11, racism and xenophobia spread like wildfire in western countries therefore,
feminists had to re-evaluate and clarify their position within the religious domain.
Women activist, Mumtaz shaheen has claimed that Islam is the supreme reality within
which most Pakistani women live their lives. Asma Barlas focused on patriarchal
interpretation of the verses in of the Holy Quran. Similarly, Rifat Hassan put her efforts
to unify Islam and human rights and addressed the issues of religious hegemony and
women subjugation on a single note. Feminist psychotherapist, Durre Ahmad, applies a
postmodern Jungian framework to argue that religion has been disparaged by positivist
thinkers because of its deep connections with the feminine, emotional, and subjective,
as opposed to the ostensibly masculine world of scientific objectivity, rationality, and
neutral values.
Fouzia Gardezi, Afiya Zia, Sadaf ahmed, Amana jamal and Sadia toor, are amongst the
famous writers on women issues with varying perspectives and many debates were
held between religious and secular feminist on secularism however the issue remains
unresolved.

Is There an Autonomous Feminist or Women’s Movement in Pakistan?

Feminist activist, Tahira Abdullah viewed that WAF organization was created in a
conceptualized way and it has functioned according to the feminist principles. However,
a few comparatively autonomous and independent NGOs, for example, the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan, ASR, Shirkat Gah and Simorgh which challenge social,
political and economic structures of inequality and patriarchy, are seen as
‘unacceptable’ by the state and have been subjected to all kinds of retaliation by
governments.

One of the feminists Saba Khattak contends that women’s issues are conceptualized
by a small change for example, in media. Work done by the NGOs will not be
considered as movements until and unless funded movements are movements.
Nasreen Azhar, believes that there is an autonomous women’s movement in the
country in the sense that women activists respond to issues and developments
concerning women’s rights and human rights and also confront challenges. Feminist
artist, Lala Rukh says that debates on patriarchy were weak even in WAF. According to
her WAF was a liberal organization that has kept women’s rights on the national
agenda. Feminist activist and researcher, Afiya Zia concludes that WAF was an
autonomous movement and she does not believe that NGOs can establish autonomous
movements as they depend upon media for their work and donors.

It may be concluded that at the present juncture in history there is an absence of a

cohesive women’s movement with a common understanding of issues, shared
strategies, and a collective vision of the kind of world to be created.

Criticism:

Pakistan has never been able to truly free itself of the stigma of violence against women
due to incidents of harassment, rape and honor-killing. The Feminist movements in
Pakistan have failed to make a lasting impact due to inconsistency and a constant shift
in power and perspectives. The NGO’s collecting funds for the betterment of women
have improved their private assets rather than improving the conditions of oppressed
women. The glaring issues of injustice against women have somehow been
manipulated and utilized as a source of fame and commercial success. The short films
“Saving Face” and “A Girl in the River” documented by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy have
won her critical acclaim and even an academy award but the stark reality of the
dilapidated condition of rural women remains the same. A similar case can be seen in
the phenomena i.e. Malala Yusufzai who is now an ex-patriate who has fled from her
dire circumstances and is living a life of luxury yet her classmates and the women she
so ardently supports continue to face discrimination on a daily basis.

Conclusion:

Feminist movements in Pakistan have contributed to the cause of women by raising a

voice in their defense. However women can only achieve justice and equality in the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan if the orthodox views on the place of women in religion are
revamped in accordance with the demands of the 21 st century as pointed out by Afiya S.
Zia in her book, Faith and Feminism in Pakistan: Religious Agency Or Secular
Autonomy? .The religious leaders must consider the enormity of the fact that women
are harassed, tormented, raped and murdered in lieu of the misinterpretation of Islamic
laws regarding women. The Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) always treated women with
kindness and respect. The only hope for women to achieve equality on social, cultural,
professional and political platforms is a change in religious and social mindsets through
awareness and education throughout the country.

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