Daily Times

The mudslinging and personal attacks that followed Ayesha Gulalai’s harassment allegations against PTI chief Imran Khan sent a clear message to all the women of Pakistan — don’t speak out if you are a victim of sexual harassment. The reaction to her outburst and what was witnessed on the political scene following the development is enough to further shatter the confidence of victims who are not courageous enough to speak out.

Ayesha Gulalai’s case shows that, once again, Pakistan’s patriarchal society is unable to shed its misogynistic fixation with the ‘honor’ (ie physical control) of womenfolk

Ayesha Gulalai’s case will be settled after an investigation begins, because of its high profile status — and the truth will eventually be out. But this entire episode is a reminder of the hell that sexual harassment victims in Pakistan experience once they make their grievances public.

Apart from the culture of misogyny, the episode revealed another disturbing aspect of Pakistan’s politics. PTI leaders criticised Gulalai for refusing to resign from her National Assembly seat saying she was nominated by the party on a reserved seat and has therefore lost the moral authority to retain it after her decision to quit the PTI. This particular argument exposes the disdain for women elected to the parliament on reserved seats.

There is a need for reserved seats for women politicians because they don’t get equal opportunities while running for public offices because of the patriarchal structure of politics, and of our society itself. Women often have had to deal with personal attacks and propaganda campaigns while running their election campaign.

From Fatima Jinnah to Benazir Bhutto, every female politician had to face misogynist elements, and rivals used character assassination as a political tool against them. This is one of the reasons why middle class families discourage their daughters from entering politics, and the field is widely seen as male dominated. Therefore, those who see women elected on reserved seats as ‘lesser’ members should realise these seats exist because patriarchy is still alive and kicking — even in 2017. There won’t be a need for special arrangements to bring women to the assemblies if men helped create a safe environment for them — based on equality and free of hostility.

Ayesha Gulalai belongs to Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) where previously women were not even afforded the right to vote. Her sister had to live as a boy for years in order to be able to follow her dreams of being a squash player. None of us are aware of the struggle Gulalai went through before joining politics, given that she belongs to one of the most backward and conservative regions of the country.

Every political party ought to ensure that its female workers do not duffer because of a lack of opportunities. By giving her the NA seat, PTI only fulfilled this political responsibility and it should not be presented as a personal favour to her. PTI has every right to take disciplinary action against Gulalai, but the party MNAs’ act of interrupting her NA speech was entirely uncalled for.

From PTI followers maligning Gulalai’s squash-playing sister for wearing shorts, to party representatives making sexist remarks, the reaction to her allegations of sexual harassment had been disgusting — but hardly surprising. However, it would be wrong to single out PTI for criticism because a number of PML-N leaders resorted to the same tactics when Ayesha Ahad reappeared in the limelight and accused Hamza Shehbaz of mistreatment.

Most PML-N representatives who are so eager to have the Gulalai case investigated are guilty of practicing misogyny and sexism. Not too long ago, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif insulted the female participants of the PTI rallies for dancing and singing. Rest assured the PML-N leaders who claimed to be the champion of women rights in the wake of Ayesha Gulalai’s allegations will never support a woman of their own party if she accuses one of their leaders of harassment. PTI reps who are questioning Gulalai’s allegations today will then be speaking for women’s right. No political party has a harassment cell or committee despite presence of woman members. No party considers this serious issue worthy of being addressed in party manifestos. It appears that they only use such incidents and the victims’ grievances to pull each other down.

To reverse this all, we will need a counter narrative to the flawed concept of ‘honour’ that exists in the country. A woman’s ‘honour’ is associated only with her body, and this is why she is merely seen as an entity that needs to be controlled in order to protect this so-called ‘honour’. As soon as this flawed belief ends and women are respected as complete humans instead of their identity being determined by their gender or relationship to men, real progress with regard to women rights will be seen. Ordinary women and girls need to reclaim the public space occupied by men and take it from there. Furthermore, awareness campaigns about pro-women legislation like Protection from Sexual Harassment at Workplace and Protection of Women against Violence should be initiated by the government.

The writer is Assistant Editor, Daily Times. She tweets at @AiliaZehra and can be reached at ailiazehra2012@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, August 23^rd 2017.