Q3- By keeping alternative progressive movements like the Sindhiani Tehreek in mind, do you

think cyberfeminism is the new space for conducting alternative politics, especially feminist
politics. Develop your argument on one example/case study. 

Khawateen Mahaz-e-ha1 and Sindhiani Tehrik

Two Responses to Political Development
in Pakistan*

It is generally agreed that women’s development does not take place in isolation but is part of
the political, social, and economic development of a given society.

The level of interaction between the socio- cultural, economic, and political forces
determines the nature of women’s participation in mainstream activities.

In this context women’s struggles are significant barometers of change, each struggle serving
as a milestone for the next one.

As such these are on- going processes, their nature, and content molded by the general
consciousness of society, its socio-economic structures, and political experienced

In Pakistan, the emergence of the Sindhiani Tehrik (Sindhi Women’s Movement) and
Khawateen Mahaz-e- Amal (Women’s Action Forum) in response to Gen. Zia-ul-Haq’s
policies should be viewed as an example of that process.

The Sindhiani Tehrik,rootedinruralSindh,cameintobeingaspartof the wider political

movement in that province and WAF surfacedasurban women’s resistance to General Zia-
ul- Haq’ssocalled “Islamization”campaign.

Women’s lives in Pakistan are subject to patriarchal controls justified on the basis of culture
(tradition, custom) and religion and exercised through the concept of inat (honor) and the
institution of purdah (seclusion). These in effect curtail women’s mobility, limit their access
to economic assets, social and political power, and defme women’s role in society. The
degree of controls, however, vary depending on women’s physical/geographical location, and
classfincomelevel.

Representing a higher stage in women’s consciousness, and the resultant ability to organize
and mobilize, to plan and act, to be more militant and autonomous, these are distinct in nature
from the earlier women’s struggles for their rights.
The two organizations merit closer examination, not only because they represent courageous
women who challenged military dictatorship but also for providing new models in women’s
organization and for broadening the scope for women’s participation in the development
process.

That both continue to be active even after the lifting of martial law and the setting in motion
of an electorally-based democratic process is an indication of the growing maturity of the
two organizations.

Sindhiani Tehrik is probably the largest women’s organization in the country and has
demonstrated its ability to mobilize several thousand women at a time.12

The beginnings of Sindhiani Tehrik can perhaps be traced to the mid-1970s when the Sindh
Awami Tehrik (later called Pakistan Awami Tehrik) was being formed by left wing
intellectuals and political elements in Sindh. The leadership of the Awami Tehrik,
particularly, Rasul BuxPaleejo and Fail Rahu, felt the need to make women aware of the
issues of the day: the language issue, medium of instruction, auction of land to non-

Sindhis, and the issue of Sindhi nationalism.

They recognized the importance of involving women partly to create an understanding of

their work among women and the necessity of the latter’s participation in political work.
Initially women belonging to the families of the Awami Tehrik members were approached
and mobilized.

During the process the women felt that they needed to broaden the base of their information,
to talk about women’s problems, and identify issues.

Women were invited from all parts of Sindh, including representatives

ofthepeasantryaswellasurbanprofessionals. During this meeting apparently men did all the
cooking and took care of the children.

Other such meetings followed with a cross-section ofSindhiwomeninvitedtoattend.

Theobjectivewasto politicize women and to raise Sindhi women’s consciousness. Heroines of
Sindh were identified and celebrated, like Mai Bakhtawar who had defied the British. Earlier
attempts focused on forming a broad- based organization covering all sections of women but
very soon it was clear that the urbanized middle class and elite women would not be able to
move out to the rural areas nor would they do political work. It was decided to concentrate on
women in small towns and

villages.

The milestone in the rising Sindhi women’s consciousness - not only as women but also as
-
Sindhi nationalists was the Sindhi Women’s Conference organized in April 1982 in
Karachi. The Conference brought together women from all parts and all classes of Sindh.13
It unequivocally slated the feudal and semi- feudal structures of Sindh as responsible for the
oppression and suppression of women. A Sindhi Women’s Association was formed but it
somehow never took off. The women who later formed the Sindhiani Tehrik had also
attended the conference and the impact on them had been strong. It was only a month or so
later that they called the meeting in Rahuki where the future Sindhiani Tehrik was launched
and Shahnaz

Rahu (wife of Fazil Rahu) was made the first convenorPresident of the Organization.
Interestingly, the urbanized Sindhi women who attended the historic conference in Karachi
did not form any organization of their own. Some joined WAF, some entered mainstream
politics, and others remained where they were.

The membership of Sindhiani Tehrik is made up of peasant women, school teachers,

educated housewiveS, professional women, and students. The leadership is mainly comprised
of women belonging to middle-level landowners and the petty-bourgeoisie of Shdh.

Apparently, there are peasant women now inleadership positions too. Initially those in the
vanguard were close relatives of the former Awami Tehrik’s leaders and like those in the
WAFwere in their thirties.

The major objective of the Sindhiani Tehrik has been the politicization of women. The
emphasis has been on interaction between urban (small town) women
andtheirvillagecounterparts. Thereisconstanttravel undertaken by the town-based members to
the rural areas where meetings are held and study circles conducted. Discussions are held on
the ills of feudalism, the roots of oppression, the fundamentals of socialism, and in earlier
years on literature about Russian and Chinese women. Women’s literacy is encouraged.
Islamization and its implications for women, discriminatory legislation, the role of the mulvi,
and the use of religion for subordinating women, have formed part of consciousness-raising
sessions on women’sissues. WhiletheSindhianiTehrikrecognizes men’s oppression of
women, it views this as part of the larger unjust and oppressive system where women’s rights
cannot be isolated from men and society at large.

Besides meetings and discussions, the Sindhiani Tehrik produces pamphlets, leaflets, and
newsletters for disseminatingitspointofview. Interestingly,ithadused religious meetings
(Qwan Mzawani) as occasions to reach out to women and strongly feels that reference to
Islam is essential in consciousness-raising.

While most of Sindhiani’s reported public actions (rallies, demonstrations, protest meetings)
have been in support of political issues, like the Kalabagh Dam and the repatriation of
Biharis from Bangladesh, it has demonstrated for women’s issues too.

The outreach of the Sindhiani Tehrik spreads to three Divisions of Sindh (Thatta, Larkana,
and Badin the strongholds of Awami Tehrik). Of these Larkana and Thatta represent the
poorer areas of western Sindh while Badin is relatively more prosperous. The impact of
Sindhiani Tehrik according to its activists has been quite marked in certain aspects. In Sindh
where the feudal value system is still very strong and women of landed families are forbidden
to step outside their homes, Sindhiani Tehrik‘s activities have brought about avisiblechange.

Women’smobilityhasincreased,even teenage members of the organization go, in two’s and

three’s, from one city to another with ease.
The b q a (the dress worn asveil and covering over clothes) is fast vanishing among the
educated, and the self-confidence of Tehrik’s members has grown
proportionatelywiththeiractivism. Ontheoccasionof Paleejo’s birthday in 1989, Sindhiani
Tehrik marched, carrying Kalashnikovs, marking perhaps a new level of militancy. Earlier
this year (1992)’ a large contingent of Sindhiani Tehrik participated in the 700 kilometer-
long march from Sukkur to Karachi organized by the Sindhi Awami Tehrik to make people
aware of issues confronting Sindh. Sindhiani Tehrik admits that it is difficult to fight “these
social evils so deeply rooted in our society,” but nevertheless tries to “cultivate the minds of
society” to rid it of feudal practices.1

Sindhiani Tehrik has received its share of criticism. The organization and particularly its
activists have been blamed for arousing rebelliousness among women. They have actively
campaigned against early marriages, second marriages, and childhood bonds, all norms that
have been part of Sindh’s social tradition, and have advocated education for women and for
women’s consent in marriage.

Without a doubt the emergence of the two organizations marks an important stage in
women’s consciousness and struggle. Both are political responses, triggered by the negative
measures of a orial regime, whereby women have proved their ability to organize and
mobilize. Both have also demonstrated resiliency and adaptiveness to changing political
circumstances in Pakistan.

Sindhiani Tehrik, on the other hand, is composed of

firstgenerationeducatedwomenofSindh,aswellasthe peasantry, who have strong rural roots.

being the only women’s organization of its kind in the rural areas.

The class background of the Sindhiani Tehrik is unlike thatofWAF. Itdoesnotcome€?

omtheuppermiddle class but the upwardly mobile rural classes. Conventionally, the women
of this class (as also women of the lower middle classes in urban areas) are the most
conservative and cloistered in Pakistan. But the current historical juncture in which Sindh is
positioned, politically, and socially, has enabled the breaking of culturaVsocial constraints on
women.

Locally educated, the Tehrik members’ experience and exposure has been entirely
indigenous. Their organic linkages with rural areas has helped bridge the distance between
rural and semi-urban Sindh (albeit within the districts of their operation).

Without going into the question of the extent of the successes and failures of either
organization it can be stated without any hesitation that their struggles have achieved: a) the
generation of awareness and confidence among women on an unprecedented scale, b) the
self-realization of their potential as a dynamic force, and c) recognition of the women’s
question as integral to any political debate or development in the country. Above all, their
emergence proves yet again that the process of women’s involvement and participation in
political struggles is a continuing one; that women’s movements do not spring up as
disconnected Occurrences but are part of a historical process.
• Inter-sectiionaly ; inter-section of different identity signifiers that accumulatively inform
our public and personal experience as well

• Somethings we might think are just a gender issue, or race issue or class issue - can be
combined

• Ack the different burdens a person can exppericne

• Feminism too isn’t independent isn’t independent of other categories of identity formation
or affiliation - it is cross-cutting with different things as well

• This is why we have to come to the class question in activism - pre-Pakistan movment and
post-pakistan movement has been subjected to a certain kind of class == when you dont
have certain salary, job or people to take care of the household you can be an activist

• But now we’re seeing that women who aren’t asccoaited with doing feminism or being
politically active are acc women who dont belong to the bourg class and are the working
class women - and are putting forth questions that are important for their particular
circumstances

• All readings have mentioned purdah - how certain classes have to follow this - we have t
understand that this is also somewhat manipulated ; death by culture ; somehow it is easy
to pinpoint the insufficiency or lack of advocacy or participation of certain groups - we say
these groups have such a culture which is why they dont do such things ; rather than
looking at their socio-economic backgrounds rather than cultural limitations which limit
their activism == cultural situation informed by socio-economic circumstances

• Even if we are talking about culture - culture is not independent also manifested on the
foundation of patriarchy ; patriarchy and capitalism are working hand in hand to oppress
the people who are already oppressed == because of this currently capitalist infrastructure
and the way the economy functions is also very patriarchal - both are maintaining each
other ; so two identifiers ; being a woman and then from a particular class works against
you =

• We see diff with WAF and other pol orgs and other feminist orgs cause it is an offshoot of
a political party based on socialist/marxist principles

• Which was established to mobilise women politically - to let them know what their rights
are and participate — and for a margianslied minority party it was important for them to
mobilise these people and increase their vote bank, when women had the right to vote that
became very important - and even in pakistan movement women had the right to vote and
became important
• But ST had one == it was more politically organised to meet grievances of women and
other marginalised communities

• Interestinkgy, even in this particular establishment we see relativrs/wives of imp men of

the Pakistani Tehreek — they were given more important roles ; is it something
perpetuated in our mentality cause of patronageee?

• Sindhiani Tehreek tho did manage to wean off from that trend cause women from lower
economic backgrounds were able to lead the way

• The reading also suggests many working class women ; urban women who had jobs in the
city cause their responsibilities were more and maybe cause they weren’t aware of their
rights

• in rural areas there’s more ability to mobilise people

• ST was talking about women’s edu, mobility, access to resources, ability to be politically
active - were also holding on to a certain level of religiousity ; holding Quran Khwaanis

• What’s really fascinating ; these are first generation educated women — women were
actually for the first time getting an education ; they were becoming more socially active in
the public sphere === there was no precedent ; none of their family had been politically
active in this movement or in another movement

• So choosing to be a precedent yourself is very courageous cause you have nothing to fall
back on - this is why ST has been such a success ; these women desired to be part of that
particular public sphere == this is why ST comes off as a group of courageous women ==
really sets them apart

• We also saw in ST cause women were joining formal professions - so those restrictions
also became flexible with each passing day

• Similarly in OFM the purdah was used to facilitate the mobilisation cause many would
wear the burkah would move about without any surviallne to talk to people === so the
instrument of oppression actually became a facilitator of the movement as well

• But still behind every suchssul woman there is another woman - there has to be another
woman who has to take up all the respobsilites in the household for another woman to be
able to go out and do this work - so even tho ur husbnad isn’t working and is a drunk, he’s
also not going to help you with domestic responsibilities - so other women in the house
will have to stay back == so the hierarchcial structure prevails

• South Asian digital diasporas and

cyberfeminist webs: negotiating globalization,
 nation, gender and information technology
design
• Who has the Internet empowered? What has been the process of it, and how relevant is that process for say
Venkatavva, a dark brown third world woman in India? Venkatavva in Adilabad in rural Andhra Pradesh has seen
the advent of roads, cars, telephones and television in the short thirty years of her life, and understands the
advantages as well disadvantages and the illusion of access they give her. In a land of faulty cables and
unpredictable electrical supply, her children drink milk on the days that the bus doesn’t run, because on those days
the milk in the village can’t be taken to the city and isn’t worth money.

Modern technology holds no bogies for her, she has choices that many women in the north don’t have access to. On days the
electricity fails she watches the traditionally performed story-telling enacted in the village square instead of the distant Santa
Barbara on television. As of today the quality and quantity of her available choices are based as much on the failure of
technology, not its success

• So would modern technology be working towards more quality and quantity in choice or less? What, then, is the
process by which a Venkatavva is empowered?.2
• Hardly any of this literature problematizes gender, class, rural–urban differences or any other
issues related to socio-cultural and economically situated identity formations as factors to be
considered in the shaping of design and adoption of IT
• Other bodies of literature related to South Asia and IT do, however, exist. These examine
socio-cultural aspects of online activity, and discursive forma- tions online in relation to
subjectivities that emerge online and in relation to issues such as ‘voice and voicelessness’,
‘marginalized populations’ and ‘subal- tern counterspheres’ addressed by cultural studies,
postcolonial theory and
• My interest in this article is to complicate discussions of South Asia and IT by not only
engaging issues of gender as in women’s access to IT, but also in relation to how
technological spaces are gendered and classed within specific contexts.
• Thus, South Asian nationalist identity formations online as well as processes of economic and
cultural globalization through the spread of multinational corporations (MNCs) are important
factors shaping the access and empowerment of third-world women through technological
spaces.
• This perspective works for ‘Internet elites’, whose ‘mobility in cyberspace furnishes them
with opportunities to work within the world of international finance and business; like the
elites of the First World, they are beginning to live in time, and space poses no barriers for
them ... The time-space compression that cyberspace typifies only works to the advantage of
these elites’.8 Thus, from a perspective unquestioning of a westernized patriar- chal and
urbanized transnationalism that works for the very few culturally and materially privileged
populations of the world, it is possible to see IT and South Asia (especially India) as an
unproblematic success story.
• Implicitly, a divide is created between ‘culture’ and ‘economics’; between ‘applied
technology’ and ‘discourse’. Furthermore—and, perhaps, as a result of the textual analysis
approach—even where gender or geography is engaged, women and rural populations are
hardly ever portrayed in ways that suggest they could be active producers of online spaces
and IT design. Thus, such analyses implicitly rob marginalized populations of agency in
relation to technological contexts.

There is a third body of literature that deals with the problem of women and IT in relation to
developing regions such as South Asia. This literature, less easily lumped together as a category
because of its attempt to negotiate various disciplinary and contextual boundaries, is produced by
scholars, activists and cyberfeminists working in development and other related fields attempting to
place subaltern and indigenous populations onto the global cyberspatial map 13 on their own terms, and
raising critical questions in relation to the challenges posed by IT design and contextual socio-cultural
and economic-based gendering processes in technological environments.

Even within this third category, there appear to be two main approaches to the study of women and
IT. One approach is situated in development specialists’ efforts at empowering women worldwide,
commonly known as the ‘women in development’ approach. 15 The other approach is that by many
media studies and cyberculture feminist scholars, mostly situated in the Western academy (drawing
on theoretical frameworks within cultural studies), that I will call the ‘gender and technology’
approach.

It is my intention to attempt to understand what frames and theoretical lenses are provided by
postcolonial, feminist and diaspora studies scholars in writing about South Asians in the digital
diaspora, and how they might help shape the practical activity of trying to build subaltern
technological counterspaces

I begin by carving a theoretical path leading to connections between available approaches to the
examination of South Asians in cyberspace. The attempt is based on efforts to further the lines of
inquiry and discussion that would lead to the design and building of projects that theoretically and
practi- cally connect specific community needs and technologically mediated environ- ments (such as
the internet) in order to make technological design work for marginalized populations of the world.

Can South Asian digital diasporas be empowering spaces for women, and can they provide access for
the various socio-culturally and materially underprivi- leged populations of the developing world?
Information communication tech- nologies (ICTs), nationalisms, and religious diasporas are
inextricably linked within processes of globalization.

The world becoming smaller is enabled through a variety of technologies, and the clashing of various
cultural, religious, and political discourses and extremisms has material consequences.

The pro- cesses of production and cultural activities surrounding these processes are both products of
an economic globalization and transnationalization that rests on the need for self-contained identity
formations (consumer demographics) and a performance of multicultural difference.

‘[i]t is essential to realize that ... concepts of belonging are currently being mobilized in the service of
larger political and economic demands associated with globalization’. 19

A virtual community can be defined as a social space ‘in which people still meet face-to-face, but
under new definitions of both “meet” and “face” ... virtual communities [are] passage points for
collections of common beliefs and prac- tices that unite people who were physically separated

In the case of a diasporic individual for whom home is no longer a concrete geographical place,
cyberspace presents itself as an ideal site for the recovery of ‘community’ and connection with other
diasporics with similar backgrounds. For men and women in the diaspora, ‘home’ already exists
within the ‘two-dimensionality of memory and nostalgia’; 21 therefore, it has been suggested that
cyberspace may provide a way for these disembodied minds to make contact with apparently similar
beings
There has been much discussion of the imagining of community in the available literature that
examines virtual community formations.22 Imagining, as these explanations imply, happens on an
individual level, where there is an attempt ‘to connect the individual (often personal) experience with
macro-socio- logical features, often by translating one directly into the other’

This is related to the imagining of any kind of community online, based in common interests, hobbies,
collaboration on projects, professional interests, and so on. For instance, on any listserv (an internet-
based open discussion forum), we imagine our readers/audience when posting within an online
community based on what the listserv frequently asked questions and information sheets describe; we
imagine co-members of the community, a kind of affective/intellectual ‘communion’. This imagining
does not necessarily connect directly to our various real life communities, or to other imagined ones
online.

‘[m]uch as Benedict Ander- son’s creoles of early modernity were crucial to the imagined
communities of ethnolinguistic nations that are modernity’s signature, so, too, may be the “virtual”
communities for the emerging Information Age’

Mitra, in turn, makes a connection between imagining and imaging, indicating ways in which an
electronic community ‘can textually produce itself, thus imagine itself—as well as present itself to the
outside world, and thus produce an image

He further suggests that there exist opportunities for various peoples in the diaspora to form
communities via the internet across place-based geographic boundaries that are based on the
constructs of ‘commonality and fellowship’ while connect- ing to the ‘conditions of existence of
diasporic individuals’.28

Rai attempts to interrogate the diasporic publics and counterpublics in the context of Hindu religious
fundamentalist activities. He too uses Anderson’s concept of imagined community while arguing that
cyberspatial networks ‘provide a space for South Asian Hindus to construct and contest identities that
are doubly marked by the nightmare of all the dead generations—what we diasporics remember as
India— and by the always deferred promises of this new land of opportunity—what is imagined as
America’.31

While researchers such as Mitra use the concept of imagined community implicitly in an effort to
examine possibilities for the emergence of diasporic/ subaltern counterspheres and seem not to
question whether the internet has the potential to enable a variety of liberatory and counter-hegemonic
coalitions, Lal writes explicitly against the celebration of the notion of imagined communities online.

Such a global economic climate suggests that, contrary to being a panacea to the world’s problems,
‘cyberspace represents a more ominous phase of Western colonialism, the homogenization of
knowledge and, in tandem, the elimination of local knowledge systems’. 34 The use of information
technologies, thus, is situated in a larger socio-cultural ethos that in itself denies the possibility of
access and voice to certain populations of the world.

South Asian women in the diaspora face a double bind in relation to Western feminism and resistance
to colonial discourses sometimes implicit in liberal feminist attempts to ‘save’ the ‘oppressed’ third-
world woman

Gayathri Spivak discusses this problem in relation to the practice of sati within colonial India:
‘[f]aced with the dialecti- cally interlocking sentences that are constructible as “White men are saving
brown women from brown men” and “The women wanted to die”, the postcolo- nial woman
intellectual asks the question of simple semiosis—What does this mean?—and begins to plot a
history’.40 In prior work,41 I explored this bind within online communities of South Asian women. I
observed that Indian women are faced with a tension between Indian nationalism’s discursive posi-
tioning of the Bharatiya Nari (Woman of Bharat/India), and Western feminism’s complicity with
colonial discourses. The Indian woman’s expression of agency is complicated by the fact that both
these discourses speak for and about her, but do not allow her to speak for herself. In addition, I
observed that such discourses are also based in class-specific access to the internet.

In the broader context of corporate globalization, Ursula Biemann points to the feminizing of the
global industry and digital industry, through her work on the maquiladora workers situated along the
United States–Mexico border who are ‘the producers of the machines that enable cyberspace’.

If cyberspace is produced at the expense of millions of men and women all over the world who are not
even able to enjoy its conveniences, how can we make claims that ICTs are changing the world for the
better?

Yet, as Laura Augustin points out, ‘some of those excluded from much of mainstream society want to
include themselves in this new technology, whatever it turns out to be’ 49 because they can see how to
make new technolo- gies and current processes of globalization work for them in some way.
Therefore, ‘[t]hey [can] see themselves as protagonists of the revolution’

Unlike liberal cyberfeminists who tend to equate access to technology with empowerment, 51 critical
cyberfeminists are more engaged with issues relating to the politics of race, gender, sexuality,
geography and place in the context of globalization

Connections need to be made between these activities and the literature that examines socio-cultural
aspects of South Asian digital diasporas in order to produce cyberfeminist strategies and tactics for
intervention. Such strategies and tactics would open up categories not only for scholarly analyses, but
also for applied methods for the building of projects that theoretically and practically connect
contextual community needs and technologically mediated environments—such as the internet—in
order to make technological design work within diverse local contexts to the advantage of historically
underprivileged populations.

1. 􏰄“We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others

􏰄have made of us” 􏰄—Franz Fanon

􏰄

What makes possible certain kinds of exchanges online? In order to understand this, we need to
examine various configurations and combinations of socio-cul- tural, structural, technical and
economic constraints that inhibit possibilities for the emergence of various subjectivities online.

In other words, we need to be aware that online discourse is shaped by the socio-cultural and
economic framing of online encounters through the writing of the description of the list, linguistic
restrictions based on the impossibility of using any other script but that enabled by the English
alphanumeric keyboard and software interface, the varying speed and availability of internet
connections, the implicit netiquette requirements, as well as the structure and physical form including
the user’s posture and negotiation of her everyday life as she fits the desktop computer into her daily
schedule.

If cyberfeminist agendas are to produce subversive countercultures or to succeed in changing existing

technological environments so that they are empowering to women and men of lesser material and
socio-cultural privilege the world over, it is important to examine how individuals and communities
are situated within the complex global and local contexts mediated by unequal relations of power.
If a killjoy manifesto shows how the denial of inequality under the assump- tion of equality is a
technique of power, then the principles articulated in that manifesto cannot be abstracted from
statements about what exists. A killjoy manifesto is thus about making manifest what exists.

. Feminists are not calling for violence. We are calling for an end to the institutions that pro- mote and
naturalize violence. Much violence that is promoted by institutions is concealed by the very use of
stranger dange

As Simone de Beauvoir described so astutely, “It is always easy to describe as happy a situation in
which one wishes to place [others]” ([1949] 1997, 28). Not to agree to stay in the place of this wish
might be to refuse the happiness that is wished for. To be involved in political activism is thus to be
involved in a struggle against happiness. The struggle over happiness provides the horizon in which
political claims are made.

To think of killjoys as manifestos is to say that a politics of transformation, a politics that intends to
cause the end of a system, is not a program of action that can be separated from how we are in the
worlds we are in. Feminism is praxis. We enact the world we are aiming for; nothing less will do.

It is from difficult experiences, of being bruised by structures that are not even revealed to others, that
we gain the energy to rebel. It is from what we come up against that we gain new angles on what we
are against.

Our bodies become our tools; our rage becomes sickness. We vomit; we vomit out what we have been
asked to take in. Our guts become our feminist friends the more we are sickened. We begin to feel the
weight of histories more and more; the more we expose the weight of history, the heavier it becomes.

To be more specific: feminist trouble is the trouble with women. When we refuse to be women, in the
heteropatriarchal sense as beings for men, we become trouble, we get into trouble. A killjoy is willing
to get into trouble.

here. We are willing to cause institutional unhappiness if the institution is unhappy because we speak
about sexual harassment. We are willing to cause feminist unhappiness if feminists are unhappy
because we speak about racism. This means that: we are unhappy with this if. This means that: we are
unhappy with what causes unhappiness. It can cause unhappiness to reveal the causes of unhappiness.

We are willing to cause unhappiness because of what we have learned about unhappiness from what
we have been assumed to have caused. An “I” turns up here; she knows what is up from what turns
up. When I spoke out publicly about sexual harassment at my college, I was identified by some as a
killjoy without any sense of irony (there might have been a sense of irony given I had already
professed to be her).

How do you persist? As I suggested in my survival kit, we often persist by finding the company of
other killjoys; we can take up this name when we recognize the dynamic she names; and we can
recognize that dynamic when others articulate that dynamic for us. We recognize others too because
they recognize that dynamic.
Those moments of recognition are precious; and they are precarious. With a moment comes a
memory: we often persist by being supported by others. We might also experience the crisis of being
unsupported; support matters all the more all the less we feel supported.

To make a manifesto out of the killjoy means being willing to give to others the support you received
or wish you received. Maybe you are in a conversation, at home or at work, and one per- son, one
person out of many, is speaking out. Don’t let her speak on her own. Back her up; speak with her.
Stand by her; stand with her. From these public moments of solidarity so much is brought into
existence.

I have thus come to understand, to know and to feel, why many do not speak out. There is a lot to
lose, a lot, a life even. So much injustice is re- produced by silence not because people do not
recognize injustice, but because they do recognize it. They also recognize the consequences of
identifying in- justice, which might not be consequences they can live with. It might be fear of losing
your job and knowing you need that job to support those you care for; it might be concern about
losing connections that matter; concern that what you say will be taken the wrong way; concern that
by saying something you would make something worse

We might need to use guerrilla tactics, and we have a feminist history to draw on here; you can write
down names of harassers on books; put graffiti on walls; red ink in the water. There are so many ways
to cause a feminist disturbance.

Silence about violence is violence. But feminist speech can take many forms. We become more inven-
tive with forms the harder it is to get through. Speaking out and speaking with, sheltering those who
speak; these acts of spreading the word, are world mak- ing.

I think the fantasy of the humorless feminist (as part of a more gen- eral fantasy of humorlessness of
those who question a social as well as political arrangement) does such important work. The fantasy is
what makes the figure of the killjoy do her work. It is assumed she says what she does (points out sex-
ism, points out racism) because she is herself deprived of any joy, because she cannot bear the joy of
others. Often once someone has been assigned a femi- nist killjoy, others then will make certain jokes,
in order to cause her offense, in order to witness her ill humor.

But even for those of us who are included, even when we do receive benefits (we might have salaries;
we might have pensions), we are not willing that inclusion: we are agreeing that inclusion requires
being behind the institution, identifying with it. We are willing to speak out about the violence of the
system, to strike, to demonstrate. We are willing to talk about the rods, to risk being identified as the
wayward arm.

To be complicit should not become its own reproductive logic: that all we can do is to reproduce the
logics of the institutions that employ us. In fact those who benefit from an unjust system need to work
even harder to expose that injus- tice. For those killjoys who are in regular employment—let’s call
ourselves professional killjoys; some of us might even be professor killjoys—when we profess we kill
joy; there is no way of overcoming this difficulty, other than by starting from it.

And: we must keep exposing the violence within the institutions that have included us, especially
when our own inclusion occurs under the sign of di- versity and equality, especially when our bodies
and the products of our labor are used by institutions as evidence of inclusion.

We have to create room if we are to live a feminist life. When we create room, we create room for
others.
We are willing to participate in a killjoy movement. We are that movement.
Watch us roll.

Class Lecture Week 14

• Cyber feminism - something we dont take seriously ; for people like us comes something
so naturally being part of a particular time

• We dont give it the political importance it deserves

• Cyberfemniism is recreating and reforming a new direction in the history of feminism

• It can also be seen an oppositional technology of power as well

- It creates an alternative space for people who are marginalised in the real world and
can express themselves freely
- cyberfeminism relates to the current times we are living in right now

- Donna Haraway - blurring the boundaries b/w human and the machine - she’s talking
about this new manifestation of human part technology - if you look at here work
metaphorically ; its about stepping outside the binary which has shacked the
conceptualisation of human in our mind - its bringing in new forms of tech to create a
new experience

- New form of being for a new world

- Allows us to step outside the binaries we have set across ourselves

- Also cause of the liberating element cyberfemiinism isn’t about the politics of it all or
organising for on ground participation - its also about a culture which cultivates joy
and affirmation , which comes from connectivity which we get to enjoy through
technology

- Feminist women have a history of dancing through the variety of very lethal
minefields in their pursuit of socio-symbolic justice - and nowadays women take the
dance through cyber space

- But imp to remember that this isn’t the same as what happens on the ground and thats
why allows us with different opportunities to be annoynym, be a different side of
ourselves, being artistic == so has helped in reimagining public space and
reimaiinging potentialities of activism which cant be experienced on the ground

- Helps in bringing about a newer way of being which is perhaps not allowed to women
on the ground

- But imp to recognise that even cyber feminism has same restrictions that on ground
activism does based on gender, race and class within the political economy
 - So the agency we are talking about being expressive on digital media - the very
people who are excluded who are excluded from mainstream want to be included in
this cybersphere to be included

- Aurat March ; certain level of autonomy which enables a reconfiguration of who gets
to be at the forefront == so its not just who is available on the ground, but who has
thee agency to churn the narrative and make people see what’s happening ; this comes
from accessibility to th internet, a language on the internet, time to invest in the digital
space which has to do with your responsibilities in the house etc etc

- But the liimitaitons on the ground which are informing limitations in the cyberspace
are still less rigid in that space - easy to circumvent those obitsles == cause going out
for women without a man’s permission iin certain orthodox households can be seen as
very prbelmation to achieve - but the absence of the physical body in the digital space
where you dont have to step out has a very liberating effect

- Idea of humain koi dekh na lay, what if we get recognised - so limits your presence in
women’s activism — but these things aren’t required in social media space, you can
make an anonymous account because you dont face a backlash for voicing their
concerns and dont have to create an uncomfortable process in the household can be
very liberating for women who want to take part in this activism -==> whereas in the
past the only people can be present on the ground and getting arrested for doing so
were cleberaeted for that but now we can celebrate a different idea of doing politics as
well, different ways of making conversations available

- This subaltern space have allowed Pakistani women to be more politically active -

• Aurat March and Online Activism

• Used whatever resources they had to create a digital space where people could practice
their politics

• But that didnt mean they would alienate people who wanted to do on ground activism as
well

• So what they did was they connected both realms

• Limitations of one informs the other - same with benefits

• They used cyberspace to create more accessibility, to churn out more dialogue, to organise
meetings that people can do face to face - and then also collectivised together
• Imp to understand cyberspace isn’t just about staying within that space - but a ridge
between you and who you want to be on the ground

• Aurat March decided they would use social media to reach out to as many people as
possible which is expensive to do on-ground

• So social media provides a free form of campaiginiing

• But they also used digital space to create centers and meetings offline to reach out to
people who dnt have access to the internet

• But the first thing they had to do was reach out to people who do have access to the
internet, who would want to participate in this - and using this to create a manifesto, and
create regulations

• Cause of the anonymity, where women can talk to each other and speak to each and share
each other’s pain - has encouraged women to come out in the space as well because the
digital space was so comforting and felt it was a safe space ; which is why they realised
listening to each and talking back to political and power structures makes you feel better -
so realisd political activism is important

• This was very much encouraged by the me too movement which happened and reached out
to women in almost every country because there hasn’t been any women who haven’t
faced a certain sort of oppression or abuse at the hands of the patriarchal structure — so
that unanimity also led to a tradition of collectivising again and again , very much based on
the history of doing feminism in Pakistan but also a new sense of affirmaiton or creating
affinity beyond identity politics - creating a feeling that we all need to come together and
do something together

• ‘feminist kill joy’ once you know things and become aware of feminist politics you start
calling people out on their mysogny or bad jokes - because you feel uncomfortable by
them and that discomfort is political because you’re not supposed to be okay with those
structures that oppress a certain gender - to kill the joy which comes from ignorance and
mysogunitic biases

• The “feminist snap” ; an irritation - linked to killing joy and creating your own - enough is
enough - you’re using all your resources to create a culture of politics

• You’re re-shfiting your focus on things that bother you and cause discomfort

• You’re re-shfiting your focus on things that bother you and cause discomfort

• Pakistan going through this feminist snap through digital media cause it is accessible

Throughout studying the feminist history - we do see more vocal feminists and more active
feminists, APWA years good relations w govt, WAF years very reactionary - but then we see
a certain level of anger and pushing cause we have the faith-based phase and NGOisation ==
• digital media allows you to be more expressive - the annonymt of it all and the
accessibility, sit in your own house and enjoy that protection - its to create a bridge to on-
ground activism ; esp in times of COVID we have seen how important it is to keep the
debate alive — that’s why there are many people working on this == women need a
particular space to find themselves and do politics ; pre-req for feminist consciousness
(listn to slide for more clarity, slide 7)—

• The Digital divide is very gendered

• Only 50% of women in Pak own a phone, and 81% men own it

• And even owning means using it once a month and having a sim in it

• Even fewer has access to internet on their mobile phones - gendered again

• This is informed by economic factors ; women having less purchasing power ion families
and also more reluctance to spend on women in families for their needs

• Women who are practising cyberfemiinism are mostly middle class sometimes lower
middle and definitely upper middle class who have access to the internet and
knowledge/lang celebrated on social media

• But that has been problematised by PTM and other marginalised communities on the
Internet who do use their own language - more accessible keyboards like Urdu - we now
see more marginalised networks coming in and reaching out to their own people===> this
is gendered

• Even with this tho we see so many women came to attend the Aurat March because of the
awareness created there - so sheds light on how what happens in the digital landscape
doesn’t stay there and doesn’t die there - it has a tangible spill over effect on the realities
on the ground as well - which creates a bigger culture of doing politics

• Women who do get to practice online activism from miiddle classes who may not get
permission to step outside th ehouse more than once a week or attend meetings - but have
access to meetings in their house ==

• A lot of women choose not to do activism becuase of their limitations, or their health or
mental health being threatened - then that’s a high price to pay for doing politics - so if
they dont have to make those sacrifices and still get to enjoy that certain level of protection
doesn’t mean they’re making a choice, but they’re circumventing their lack of choice and
are being made part of a discourse so they’re not alienated anymore

• Many women dont have the ability to make the ‘choice’ to be present on ground - so thats
why the internet is so important because they’re not being put in that tough spot and are
being made aware of this tech and pol advancement

• Women who do practice Digital landscpae and participate in it - have to face very tangible
consequences ; surveillance that then also translates into on ground suveiiallance of people
 being informed of who you are what you do, how you’re activities are logged, online
threats, trolling which has a big impact on your life == digital landscape can also be
precarious, if someone gets your pictures and finds out who you are - can lead to
consequences and that precarity is something women have to face on the ground and also
on digital media so now iits important to take cyberfmeiinism to the next stage ; to make
more innovative ways to protect women online == FIA tried to do so to protectp eople
from trolls, but acc encouraged surveillance over people who are speaking against the
government

• But doing cyber feminism is something recent and with time and investment and
innovative policy making we will be able to counter problems social media creates

• But we need to give cyber feminism credit where its due - site of feminist struggle not just
potential for organising political activity or reaching out to people or using it as a
logistically space for solving your logistical issues like where to meet etc - but its emphasis
on producing a culture of joy, establishing that as a network women may invest in poliiticla
participation and community building activities based on pleasure

• Provides you with opportunity to find like-minded people, to build a community, to

harness friendships and to also seek joy in how you express yourselves and be more
artistically expressive that social media has provided

• Its interesting if you think about feminism in paksitna where stage has arrived where joy
and pleasure and unhappiness aren’t belititled as personalised emotions divorced from
political activism but a social movement ; that through social media is now being
accommodated and being sustained as well based on that collaborative perceiptn of
navigating affect in our daily life

• Experiencing grief, sorrow, dissatisfaction that Sarah Ahmad was talking about isn’t
personal anymore because the personal is political - and that maxim has found its
playground on social media because now your emotions and expressions are enjoying this
outlet where you can reach to 100s of thousands of people who might tell you they feel the
same way - just to know that people are listening to you and these ideas are shared and
theres a space where you can encourage people to understand you and be understood - that
is the very essence of feminist politics ; to tlak to other people, to hold on to other people,
to build a community - how you make online friends and you then meet them in person and
you come together== strength in numbers is important for feminist activism, for people to
know we are fighting for the cause together, solidarity ==

When you talk to inspiring people your beliefs are being reinforced
Q3- By keeping alternative progressive movements like the Sindhiani Tehreek in mind, do you
think cyberfeminism is the new space for conducting alternative politics, especially feminist
politics. Develop your argument on one example/case study. 

What is the Sindhiani Tehreek?

As such these are on- going processes, their nature, and content molded by the general
consciousness of society, its socio-economic structures, and political experienced

In Pakistan, the emergence of the Sindhiani Tehrik (Sindhi Women’s Movement) should be
viewed as an example of that process.

Representing a higher stage in women’s consciousness, and the resultant ability to organize
and mobilize, to plan and act, to be more militant and autonomous, these are distinct in nature
from the earlier women’s struggles for their rights.

Sindhiani Tehrik is probably the largest women’s organization in the country and has
demonstrated its ability to mobilize several thousand women at a time.12

The leadership of the Awami Tehrik, particularly, Rasul BuxPaleejo and Fail Rahu, felt the
need to make women aware of the issues of the day: the language issue, medium of
instruction, auction of land to non-

Sindhis, and the issue of Sindhi nationalism.

They recognized the importance of involving women partly to create an understanding of

their work among women and the necessity of the latter’s participation in political work.
Initially women belonging to the families of the Awami Tehrik members were approached
and mobilized.

During the process the women felt that they needed to broaden the base of their information,
to talk about women’s problems, and identify issues.

The membership of Sindhiani Tehrik is made up of peasant women, school teachers,

educated housewiveS, professional women, and students. The leadership is mainly comprised
of women belonging to middle-level landowners and the petty-bourgeoisie of Shdh.

- Apparently, there are peasant women now inleadership positions too

- The major objective of the Sindhiani Tehrik has been the politicization of women.
The emphasis has been on interaction between urban (small town) women
andtheirvillagecounterparts
Discussions are held on the ills of feudalism, the roots of oppression, the fundamentals of
socialism, and in earlier years on literature about Russian and Chinese women. Women’s
literacy is encouraged. Islamization and its implications for women, discriminatory
legislation, the role of the mulvi, and the use of religion for subordinating women, have
formed part of consciousness-raising sessions on women’sissues.

WhiletheSindhianiTehrikrecognizes men’s oppression of women, it views this as part of the

larger unjust and oppressive system where women’s rights cannot be isolated from men and
society at large.

The impact of Sindhiani Tehrik according to its activists has been quite marked in certain
aspects. In Sindh where the feudal value system is still very strong and women of landed
families are forbidden to step outside their homes, Sindhiani Tehrik‘s activities have brought
about avisiblechange.

Women’smobilityhasincreased,even teenage members of the organization go, in two’s and

three’s, from one city to another with ease.

The b q a (the dress worn asveil and covering over clothes) is fast vanishing among the
educated, and the self-confidence of Tehrik’s members has grown
proportionatelywiththeiractivism.

Sindh. Sindhiani Tehrik admits that it is difficult to fight “these social evils so deeply rooted
in our society,” but nevertheless tries to “cultivate the minds of society” to rid it of feudal
practices.1

. Both are political responses, triggered by the negative measures of a orial regime, whereby
women have proved their ability to organize and mobilize. Both have also demonstrated
resiliency and adaptiveness to changing political circumstances in Pakistan.

Sindhiani Tehrik, on the other hand, is composed of

firstgenerationeducatedwomenofSindh,aswellasthe peasantry, who have strong rural roots.

being the only women’s organization of its kind in the rural areas.

Itdoesnotcome€?omtheuppermiddle class but the upwardly mobile rural classes.

Conventionally, the women of this class (as also women of the lower middle classes in urban
areas) are the most conservative and cloistered in Pakistan. But the current historical juncture
in which Sindh is positioned, politically, and socially, has enabled the breaking of
culturaVsocial constraints on women.

• All readings have mentioned purdah - how certain classes have to follow this - we have t
understand that this is also somewhat manipulated ; death by culture ; somehow it is easy
to pinpoint the insufficiency or lack of advocacy or participation of certain groups - we say
these groups have such a culture which is why they dont do such things ; rather than
 looking at their socio-economic backgrounds rather than cultural limitations which limit
their activism == cultural situation informed by socio-economic circumstances

• Interestinkgy, even in this particular establishment we see relativrs/wives of imp men of

the Pakistani Tehreek — they were given more important roles ; is it something
perpetuated in our mentality cause of patronageee?

• Sindhiani Tehreek tho did manage to wean off from that trend cause women from lower
economic backgrounds were able to lead the way

• What’s really fascinating ; these are first generation educated women — women were
actually for the first time getting an education ; they were becoming more socially active in
the public sphere === there was no precedent ; none of their family had been politically
active in this movement or in another movement

• So choosing to be a precedent yourself is very courageous cause you have nothing to fall
back on - this is why ST has been such a success ; these women desired to be part of that
particular public sphere == this is why ST comes off as a group of courageous women ==
really sets them apart

. Feminists are not calling for violence. We are calling for an end to the institutions that pro-
mote and naturalize violence. Much violence that is promoted by institutions is concealed by the very
use of stranger dange

It is from difficult experiences, of being bruised by structures that are not even revealed to others, that
we gain the energy to rebel. It is from what we come up against that we gain new angles on what we
are against.

But even for those of us who are included, even when we do receive benefits (we might have salaries;
we might have pensions), we are not willing that inclusion: we are agreeing that inclusion requires
being behind the institution, identifying with it. We are willing to speak out about the violence of the
system, to strike, to demonstrate. We are willing to talk about the rods, to risk being identified as the
wayward arm.

Evolutionary process – and cyberfeminism’s emergence

• Cyberfemniism is recreating and reforming a new direction in the history of feminism

 - Emerged in a world where technology is gaining traction – providing a new form of
being for a new world
- Thus, South Asian nationalist identity formations online as well as processes of economic and
cultural globalization through the spread of multinational corporations (MNCs) are important
factors shaping the access and empowerment of third-world women through technological
spaces.
- ‘[i]t is essential to realize that ... concepts of belonging are currently being mobilized in the
service of larger political and economic demands associated with globalization’. 19

Now you need to situate the argument of Aurat March/me too in these points

- A virtual community can be defined as a social space ‘in which people still meet face-to-face,
but under new definitions of both “meet” and “face” ... virtual communities [are] passage
points for collections of common beliefs and prac- tices that unite people who were physically
separated
- This is related to the imagining of any kind of community online, based in common interests,
hobbies, collaboration on projects, professional interests, and so on. For instance, on any
listserv (an internet-based open discussion forum), we imagine our readers/audience when
posting within an online community based on what the listserv frequently asked questions and
information sheets describe; we imagine co-members of the community, a kind of
affective/intellectual ‘communion’. This imagining does not necessarily connect directly to
our various real life communities, or to other imagined ones online.
- Yet, as Laura Augustin points out, ‘some of those excluded from much of mainstream society
want to include themselves in this new technology, whatever it turns out to be’ 49 because they
can see how to make new technolo- gies and current processes of globalization work for them
in some way. Therefore, ‘[t]hey [can] see themselves as protagonists of the revolution’
- Rai attempts to interrogate the diasporic publics and counterpublics in the context of Hindu
religious fundamentalist activities. He too uses Anderson’s concept of imagined community
while arguing that cyberspatial networks ‘provide a space for South Asian Hindus to construct
and contest identities that are doubly marked by the nightmare of all the dead generations—
what we diasporics remember as India— and by the always deferred promises of this new
land of opportunity—what is imagined as America’. 31
-
- Cause of the anonymity, where women can talk to each other and speak to each and
share each other’s pain - has encouraged women to come out in the space as well
because the digital space was so comforting and felt it was a safe space ; which is why
they realised listening to each and talking back to political and power structures
makes you feel better - so realisd political activism is important

- This was very much encouraged by the me too movement which happened and
reached out to women in almost every country because there hasn’t been any women
who haven’t faced a certain sort of oppression or abuse at the hands of the patriarchal
structure — so that unanimity also led to a tradition of collectivising again and again ,
very much based on the history of doing feminism in Pakistan but also a new sense of
affirmaiton or creating affinity beyond identity politics - creating a feeling that we all
need to come together and do something together

- But the liimitaitons on the ground which are informing limitations in the cyberspace
are still less rigid in that space - easy to circumvent those obitsles == cause going out
 for women without a man’s permission iin certain orthodox households can be seen as
very prbelmation to achieve - but the absence of the physical body in the digital space
where you dont have to step out has a very liberating effect

- Idea of humain koi dekh na lay, what if we get recognised - so limits your presence in
women’s activism — but these things aren’t required in social media space, you can
make an anonymous account because you dont face a backlash for voicing their
concerns and dont have to create an uncomfortable process in the household can be
very liberating for women who want to take part in this activism -==> whereas in the
past the only people can be present on the ground and getting arrested for doing so
were

- But imp to remember that this isn’t the same as what happens on the ground and thats
why allows us with different opportunities to be annoynym, be a different side of
ourselves, being artistic == so has helped in reimagining public space and
reimaiinging potentialities of activism which cant be experienced on the ground -
Helps in bringing about a newer way of being which is perhaps not allowed to women
on the ground

- So the agency we are talking about being expressive on digital media - the very
people who are excluded who are excluded from mainstream want to be included in
this cybersphere to be included

- Used whatever resources they had to create a digital space where people could
practice their politics

- But that didnt mean they would alienate people who wanted to do on ground activism
as well

- So what they did was they connected both realms

- Limitations of one informs the other - same with benefits

- They used cyberspace to create more accessibility, to churn out more dialogue, to
organise meetings that people can do face to face - and then also collectivised together

- Imp to understand cyberspace isn’t just about staying within that space - but a ridge
between you and who you want to be on the ground

- Aurat March decided they would use social media to reach out to as many people as
possible which is expensive to do on-ground

- So social media provides a free form of campaiginiing

- But they also used digital space to create centers and meetings offline to reach out to
people who dnt have access to the internet
 - But the first thing they had to do was reach out to people who do have access to the
internet, who would want to participate in this - and using this to create a manifesto,
and create regulations

- Aurat March also organized the rape march, through online activism brought so many
women to the the field – placards go viral – mode of showing other women that we
are with you as well -

The Sindhiani Tehreek Movement can be seen as an on-ground process of feminist politics –
it was distinct in that it was made up of peasant women, school teachers, professional women
and students – unlike previous movements it can be seen to have peasant women in
leadership positions too, an evolution in the women’s movement –

Bring in point of how feminists are exploding against structures that bruise them – Sindhiani
Tehreek spoke against roots of oppression, ills of feudalism, use of religion to subordinate
women –

Sindhiani Tehreek shows the benefits of on-ground feminist politics ; brought about women’s
ability to be mobile, especially in the face of purdah, women’s literacy increased, they even
showed new forms of militancy in carrying Klashinkovs – it built a bridge between urban and
rural areas = set a precedent for themselves and that was courageous

Against the backdrop of on-ground movements like the ST – argued that women’s
movements are ongoing processes, their nature and content is molded by socio-econ-pol
structures – women’s movements are part of an ongoing process, evolutionary

In this regard cyberfeminism has emerged -