Daily Times

Renowned feminist activist Nighat Said Khan delivered the keynote address at a conference in connection with 100 years of Soviet Revolution held at Lahore University of Management and Sciences (LUMS). She discussed the participation of women in leftist movements across the world and the status of women before and after the Soviet Revolution.

She said women’s involvement in leftists movements has been remarkable, but historians often tend to ignore the impact created by them during the uprisings across the world.

Nighat was of the opinion that women’s involvement in the political process was essential because men could not be counted on to take up issues related to women and children. “It was only after women managed to get some space in the society through endless struggle that the discussion on women’s reproductive rights such as right to abortion began.”

Russian revolution, she said, was a turning point in terms of women’s access to social and economic rights. However, she added that the struggle failed to bring an end to gender-defined roles determined by patriarchy.

“Women continued to be the one responsible for the household duties and were expected to produce children and provide comfort to the male members of their family, who were the enablers of capitalism. Thus, women unintentionally served the purpose of capitalism by comforting the workers of the system, or in other words, reproducing the labour, she said. While discussing women’s involvement in the decision making process during the 1920s, Nighat said despite their involvement in socialist and communist movements and trade unions, women’s role in decision making largely remained non-existent.

“They were mainly seen writing things, copying them and sending out posts and pamphlets during the anti-state movements. The role was well-constructed along labour lines.”

She added that the Pakistani left inherited the non-exclusion of women in decision making bodies from the British movements. “Although women are present in governmental bodies and political organisations, the space continues to be dominated by men”, she said.

Nighat added that a lot of women in Pakistan and India had to ‘leave the left’ due to lack of space. “Even when women try to come across sectors of the left, the male higher ups do not support them. In trade unions, female members are not taken seriously and union leaders shy away from awarding senior positions to women.

Nighat said the reason for men trying to stop women from taking an active role is not always political. Sometimes the reasons may be personal. But it is a fact that the structure of the society and internalised misogyny continue to be a hurdle in active participation of women in the decision making process, she opined.

“Every time an ethnic minority group in Pakistan is wronged, we stand up against the oppressors in hopes it might help revive the struggle against system of exploitation of weaker segments at the hands of stronger groups, but the activists today seem divided along ethnic as well as sectarian lines.” —Nighat Said Khan

While discussing leftist movements in Pakistan, Nighat mentioned leftist leader Rasul Bux Palijo and shared with the audience how his own daughters and sisters used to attend the protest demonstrations organised by Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) during dictatorial regime. “Some of those girls were as young as 8 and 10 years old. He wanted to give a message about women being at the forefront of struggle against draconian policies of the military dictators.”

Nighat said that after studying the manifestos of political parties in Pakistan over the years, she came to the conclusion that Awami Workers Party (AWP) has discussed the women question in its entirety unlike other parties. “The AWP manifestos covered all the prevalent issues along with their impact on women, which is something most political parties tend to ignore completely.”

About the current status of leftist movements and parties in Pakistan, she says the secular elements of the country start associating themselves with anything that makes them feel a part of the socialist movement, but the spirit of struggle is now missing.

“Every time an ethnic minority group in Pakistan is wronged, we stand up against the oppressors in hopes it might help revive the struggle against system of exploitation of weaker segments at the hands of stronger groups, but the activists today seem divided along ethnic as well as sectarian lines.”

Nighat also shared memories from days when renowned writers and literary figures used to gather at Pak Tea House to discuss social and political issues.

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

Published in Daily Times, November 4^th 2017.