Daily Times

The need for women empowerment is one of the sore points of society in Pakistan which pops up its head now and then through episodes of women marginalization and triggers a feminist discourse in its wake; however, every time it leaves the society with some more questions to introspect on. In the last two years, calling out culture coming in the wake of #MeToo movement has gained traction in Pakistan through various case studies in which women met with excesses in a patriarchal society dared to pitch themselves with the pent-up frustration fed by a sense of victimhood in the mainstream social media which garnered a mixed reply from the society at large. Case in point is Meesha Shafi vs Ali Zafar episode in which the former accused the latter of harassment. So many other cases of this nature also surfaced. It is not unusual to see Pakistan’s haphazard approach towards feminist discourse in the wake of #MeToo movement as the society, at large, has still been making sense of whether Feminism is an Islamic concept or it is western propaganda to disrupt the fabric of a Muslim society. However, an underlying theme of #MeToo Movement has turned out to be another feminist trigger which has made the society at large to face with troubling question of women empowerment and bring into the mainstream in its wake challenges women face across Pakistan.

To make a collective sense of calling out culture unfolding in the backdrop of budding #MeToo Movement in Pakistan, Women’s Collective and Haqooq-e-Khalq arranged a seminar about the impacts of calling out culture on feminist discourse in Pakistan at Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s Auditorium on September 14, 2019, in Lahore. Among the panelists in the seminar were leading feminists across Pakistan which comprised Aisha Ahmed, Aimen Bucha, Hibba Akbar and Leena Ghani. The discussions held in the seminar including both panelists’ take on the issue at hand and thought-provoking questions on the part of the audience were ennobling in nature and brought into spotlight critical questions which feminists across Pakistan need to be concerned about and which have surfaced in the backdrop of #MeToo Movement. Here are some of the takeaways from the seminar.

Leena Ghani, an activist for women empowerment, defined #MeToo movement as an outlet for women to own themselves in mainstream society by expressing their pent-up grievances against the patriarchal system and asking for accountability of those who wronged them. However, she said that #MeToo movement was overall reactive in nature in Pakistan and most of the time it has got off the track instead of sticking to the essence that is like building a narrative around feminist discourse through the mantra of “personal is political” which was the major theme of the second wave of feminism in the west. And this is agreeable as episodes of #MeToo movement in Pakistan have been unable to keep feminist discourse alive and most of the time they create hype for a time being and then fade away.

While talking about the efficacy of #MeToo movement and how to use it for a greater purpose, Hibba Akbar said that the aim of the #MeToo movement is not just to protect the victims and bash the predators rather it has an educational aspect to it. Every episode of #MeToo movement should be turned into an educational mean for the society about issues of women. While talking about the importance of #MeToo movement, Hibba said it’s a great medium through which women could create dents in patriarchal structure and could create a space for themselves by educating masses about issues of women. However, its absolute reactive nature in the current state, as per her, is problematic in the sense that neither it gives a proper healing space to victims nor it gives a space to someone who has been called out for committing excesses and making an excuse.

It is not unusual to see Pakistan’s haphazard approach towards feminist discourse in the wake of #MeToo movement as the society, at large, has still been making sense of whether Feminism is an Islamic concept or it is western propaganda to disrupt the fabric of a Muslim society

While shedding light on an overall play of #MeToo movement in Pakistani society and the challenges it faces, Aimen Bucha almost grabbed the attention of the audience through sharing her personal ordeal of sexual harassment at an early age and laid bare the overall insensitivity on the part of society at large towards harassment meted out to women in various forms. She said that there was a need to bring online #MeToo Movement to real life as it was easy to call out someone online for committing excesses but it’s hardly possible for the victim to stand by their victimhood in the mainstream society which has a patriarchal milieu and where there is no support extended to victims except public gossip. The thought-provoking point on the part of Aimen Bucha was to expand the scope of #MeToo movement in Pakistan and saying that it should not only highly women issues rather its scope should be expanded to all kinds of victimhood regardless of any particular sex -be it in the political sphere, economic sphere or social sphere. Also, as per her, the themes highlighted in #MeToo movement should be made a part of the political struggle to actualize what they ask for.

Lastly, Aisha Ahmed talked about how to save #MeToo movement in Pakistan from being exploited for nefarious interests. She said that feminists across Pakistan needed to be vigilant about the opportunity which #MeToo movement carried in its lap for bringing into spotlight feminist discourse in the mainstream and should make sure that its value was not dwindled keeping in view every #MeToo movement episode was trivialized in near past.

Overall, the seminar almost left almost everyone engaged in some kind of feminist debate as during the question-answers’ session topics ranging from popular belief in Pakistan that says feminism and Islam are incompatible with each other to a need for inclusion of men in the promotion of feminist discourse were brought into mainstream for discussion.

I think and believe that feminist discourse can thrive in Pakistan through such kind of discussion platforms where people can be made aware of various nuances of women empowerment. In order to uproot women marginalization in our society, we need to disentangle the various fabrics of feminist discourse and lay it bare before the masses by impressing upon them that feminism is not malicious to their social fabric or a threat to their religious belief rather it’s the need of the time and actualizing its essence is in consonance with Islam.

Inamullah Marwat teaches at the Department of Political Science in the University of Management and Technology, Lahore and is an editor at KENZ News. He can be reached at uinam39@gmail.com