Day: January 19, 2007

The more the government attempts to demonstrate a commitment to the empowerment of Pakistani women, the more clear it becomes how clueless it is about what women empowerment is all about. To add to it claims of empowering the Pakistani woman, this year again the government organised the mixed international marathon in Lahore for the third consecutive year. Most will remember the controversy that mixed marathons generated prior to institutionalisation of this event. The issue had gained international attention when the government forcefully tried to clamp down on a mixed marathon organised by HRCP where the police manhandled Asma Jehangir. The event got the government much bad press internationally. Not surprisingly, soon after that the government announced mixed marathons in Lahore as an annual event to counter this critique from western quarters.

This fact that the event has been institutionalised in response to western reaction was clear in the speeches made at the event. General Musharraf inaugurated the walk with following remark: “This event has helped in creating a soft image of our country.” Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi echoed the same view in his speech saying that the success of the event “had not only highlighted the identity of Lahore, but also promoted an enlightened image of the country at the international level”. In addition, General Musharraf criticised the religious elements in the society for marginalising women. Such views raise important issues.

One, what has women empowerment come to mean to the present government. There are multiple perspectives on what women empowerment is all about. Even western feminism has branched out into multiple streams: at two extremes, some argue for equality purely calculated in terms of economic and political opportunities, others argue for recognizing the maternal instinct within women and acknowledging their primary role as nurturing the family.

Then there are the modern interpretations of Islamic laws as opposed to the more traditional interpretation of gender roles in the traditional Islamic scholarship. Central to western scholarship on feminism are the issues of power, authority and women’s ability to make choices. Central to the traditional interpretation of Islamic laws is the division of roles and responsibilities between the two genders to preserve the family and societal structures. The two thoughts work on different trajectory and do eventually clash.

Therefore, for a government that is claiming to empower women, the first issue to resolve is that ideologically what kind of society it is aiming to develop. Is it aiming for a wholesale replication of the western notions of female empowerment, where there has undoubtedly been immense progress but hand in hand have come many problems like single motherhoods, teenage pregnancies, high divorce rates, and the old age homes? Or, is the aim to pick the good things from the western cultures while retaining what is positive in our own culture: values that have held the family structure together. The current government seems to have no vision on this.

Two, in claiming to empower women what is critical is for the government to identify the institutional hurdles in the way to women empowerment. Within the current government, it is difficult to see either a clear vision of what form of society it wants to develop or what meaningful strategies it is putting in place to make the environment more conducive to women. The benchmark of government commitment to women empowerment has become such superficial activities like the holding of mixed marathons and encouraging media to expose more of women’s bodies. Ironically, in the feminist discourse this is the utmost sign of women’s subjugation because then women are again reduced to being important because of how they can visually please the men rather than for their intellectual or professional abilities.

What the government needs to acknowledge is that it is not the religious elements in the society, which are responsible for suppressing women. Central to the problem is the feudal structure where life of poor men as well as women has no protection against powerful groups. Also, central to it is the lack of education. If most Pakistani women don’t like walking on the city streets, or joining mixed marathon, it is not to do with Islamic values alone; there are many practical reasons for it: no one wants to be stared at and touched by passing men. Now Islam is clearly not preaching men to do these things. Such cultural habits are closely linked to other factors, most importantly lack of education.

The fact is that every society needs to undertake its own analysis of what form of societal values it wants to promote; which groups of women are most vulnerable within the society; and, what are the institutional hurdles impeding development of a progressive society. Clearly, the present government is not doing that. Instead, it is engaging in frivolous activities without a systematic vision or strategy of what needs to be done to develop a more tolerant and progressive society. And the reason for that is clear: its attempts at women empowerment are purely driven by its desire for western approval rather than a genuine commitment to the cause. After all, why should General Musharraf and Pervaiz Elahi both mention projecting a liberal image internationally as an important purpose of hosting the mixed marathon?

Also, unlike their claims, it has to be remembered that hosting such contentious events actually reinforces the conservative image of the country internationally. Mixed marathons are a non-issue for western countries. When in their press an activity like this is reported as a special deal in Pakistan where many were resisting it, it does not give the western audience an image of a liberal Pakistan. What they interpret from the event is that Pakistan is a highly conservative society where such events have to be artificially engineered. So the image that is promoted is of a conservative society, but a liberal government. This clearly helps General Musharraf’s strategy of retaining support within the western capitals, but it does not win Pakistan a soft image. The claims of women empowerment are thus proving to be yet another tactic of General Musharraf to defend his liberal credentials; they seem little to do with actually developing a progressive society.

Source: The News

Date:1/19/2007

The arrest of a former captain of the national cricket team in Karachi this week on charges of physically beating his wife has brought into focus the serious and vastly underreported issue of domestic violence in Pakistani society. At the outset, however, one would like to commend the cricketer’s wife for having the courage to call the police and also the latter for making the arrest and not brushing the matter under the carpet as a domestic or private matter as usually happens. In most cases of domestic violence, the victim often endures the physical and mental pain of the abuse for years on end and does not often report it to anyone. The deeply patriarchal nature of Pakistani society is such women are strongly discouraged from speaking up when they have been subjected to abuse of any kind — when they are made to feel as if the fault lies with them and not with the perpetrator of the violence. Hence, often it happens that a victim of domestic violence thinks it simply not worth it because of perhaps the impact it may have on the children or because she may not be financially independent. Also, families of married women and large sections of society as a whole often tend to frown on those women who try to show some independence.

One good thing arising out of this incident is that it at least shows that some women can and do stand up against their abusers, even if they happen to be their husbands. It also reminds us that domestic violence is not something that only women from low-income and/or underprivileged backgrounds have to deal with and that it happens in situations where the husband and wife are both educated and the family is relatively well off. Domestic violence cases tend to go mostly unreported and are not restricted to husbands but can also involve fathers and brothers or even other male relatives. Also, while the police did arrest the offender in this particular case, the routine is to dismiss the victim’s plaint as a family or internal matter and to tell her to seek reconciliation. This needs to change if we are to root out this evil from our society. Also, families in general need to be more supportive of victims of physical abuse instead of asking them to forget about the abuse, as they normally tend to do.

The government which has done something positive at least on the issue of discrimination against women by piloting the Women’s Protection Bill through parliament has spoken of further measures to safeguard women’s rights. It has been said, from the prime minister to the president of the ruling PML-Q, that new legislation is on its way and that it will outlaw swara, vani, karo kari and other kinds of misogynist customs and traditions. It is hoped that any such new legislation will also contain provisions that bring domestic violence within the ambit of the law. Civilised nations do not tolerate wife-beating because they realise that being a spouse does not give one unbridled authority to do anything with one’s partner. It would be good if our laws moved in this direction as well.

Source: The News

Date:1/19/2007

ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat on Thursday unanimously referred the Equality of Opportunity for Women in Employment Bill, 2005, to the Law Division for vetting and then tabling in the National Assembly for enactment. The committee, which met under the chairmanship of Ahmed Raza Maneka, discussed the bill, which was moved by MNA Sherry Rehman and 12 other lawmakers in the National Assembly. The movers of the bill proposed that the selection of women on the reserved quota of 10 per cent would be made on the basis of merit through fair and impartial competition among women duly qualified for the job. The committee also discussed the Patents (Amendment) Bill, 2006 (Ordinance No XX of 2006), in detail and constituted a three-member sub-committee to prepare a report within two weeks.

Source: The News

Date:1/19/2007

ISLAMABAD: Gender equality is a precondition for meeting the challenges of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance. Mazhar Hashmi, Deputy Director General, Federal Bureau of Statistics, said this while addressing ‘International Conference on Gender Mainstreaming in Planning and Development’ here on Thursday. Najwa Ksaifi, ILO Gender Expert from Yemen, Nesrin Cobanoglu, Head, Women Research Studies Centre, Gazi University, Turkey, Dr Ritu Dewan, Professor Gender Economics, Mumbai University and Dr Feroza Ahmed, Expert Gender Studies also attended the conference.

Mazhar said purpose of holding the gender mainstreaming conference is to review gender and statistics, advocacy for establishment of gender disaggregated database and measuring success from the gender perspective. A nation cannot progress until women are provided equal opportunities in all the fields, he added. Dr Nesrin said since the establishment of Turkey, there has been a movement of modernisation in many areas of society such as law, economy whereas the issue of the women status has taken much prominence. She said like other women of the world, Turkish women have also been struggling for having equal rights since the early days of the Republic.

Rate of women employment in Turkey is only 24.3 percent while women representation in the parliament is only 4.2 percent, only 24 out of 550 and at the local government it is only 1 percent whereas women participation in the other decision-making bodies is also extremely low, she added. However, the new Turkish Penal Code accepted by Turkish parliament fails to criminalise honour killings and instead of using this exclusive term that define murders committed in the name of honour, the parliament insists on the way to less inclusive term of ‘custom killings’. Moreover, the justification of the same article opens the possibility for a sentence reduction in the case of unjust provocation.

Dr Ritu Dewan said the absence of gender incorporation and analysis in development, planning and also anti-poverty strategies lead not only to misallocation of resources but also virtually denies the very existence of households as well as vulnerable sections. Najwa Ksaifi said ILO objective is the promotion of opportunities for women and men to obtain productive work in conditions of freedom, equality, security and human dignity.

She said the concept of productive work integrates the four pillars of ILO activities that include labour standards, rights, employment, social protection and social dialogue between the government, workers and employers organisations. The ILO promotes gender mainstreaming strategy through various channels, promoting International Labour Standards by rectification of Conventions on Discrimination in Employment and Occupation, Equal Remuneration, Workers with Family Responsibilities and Maternity Protection.

Dr Feroza said Millennium Development Goals include eradication of extreme hunger and poverty, achievement of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women, reduction in child mortality, improvement of maternal health, HIV/AIDS, Malaria prevention, environmental stability, global partnership for development. She said the country cannot prosper without women empowerment that is possible only through gender mainstreaming.

Source: B/Recorder

Date:1/19/2007

PESHAWAR: Policewomen belonging to the first female batch of officers, after completing their training at the Hangu Police Academy (HPA), have joined various police stations in the NWFP. The officers were sent home without being told if they would be taking part in a passing out parade, which is deemed customary for every batch of policemen. This has only served to sow seeds of unhappiness. The policewomen told this reporter that their nine-month training was as tough as the one which their male counterparts underwent. Therefore, they were surprised at not being asked to participate in the passing out parade to be held on March 20.

“The training was quite tough and hectic as our day used to begin very early, as we underwent physical training and parade and special weaponry drills. After going through such a tough routine, silence on the part of our superiors on the issue of the parade has really demoralised all of us,” said one of the graduating officers. Another officer said: “We were all very happy during the entire training but felt dejected when told to go home without a word on the passing out parade.” Attaullah Wazir, the commandant of the HPA, said the passing out parades were normally held on March 23 and the female officers who had completed their training would be participating in the next one. The NWFP chief minister was expected to be the chief guest on the occasion.

The trainees – including constables and senior rankers from Peshawar, Haripur, Abbottabad, Chitral, Swat, Dir, Karak, Swabi, Charsadda, Nowshera and Dera Ismail Khan – were trained in collecting evidence and registering the First Information Report (FIR). They were also given lectures on the Pakistan Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Police Rules, Traffic Laws, Rules of Patrolling and Security Procedure for the VIPs, said a graduating officer. “We were also trained to use weapons like China rifle, semi-automatic rifles, submachine guns and to deal with mobs and protests through ‘baton charge’ and ‘rifle squad’,” said another policewoman.

The policewomen were also sent to the Sehala Training Academy, which was a bit expensive. Many could not attend the course due to various cultural constraints.
During the tenure of Riffat Pasha, the former inspector-general of police, a large portion of the HPA was reserved for the training of policewomen under the supervision of female superiors without any extra cost. There were some 200 female officers in the NWFP working at two police stations in Peshawar and Abbottabad, while the rest performed duties during raids, patrolling and for the security of the VIPs. PRIVATE SCHOOLS: Owners of private schools in Hayatabad have rejected the imposition of 3 per cent quota
in private institutions for children of employees of the City Development and Municipal Department (CD&MD). Under the banner of National Education Council, private school owners complained that the director-general of the CD&MD had been pressing private institutions to fix a quota and free education for the CD&MD employees’ children, a press release issued here on Thursday said.

Source: Dawn

Date:1/19/2007