A woman is not supported by
men essentially when it comes to giving her the right to make choices. She is allowed to fetch water, till fields and stand in the inexhaustible queue to take money doled out by the Benazir Income Support Programme, but the man she is sheltered by would not give her the permission to get education, to make choices about her life, and to vote. The rustic man is not against women stepping out of home, he is averse to the idea of losing control over her. If educated, she could not be hauled like a dumb, driven cattle, said Naheed Bukhari, an active PPP supporter and mother of four. “I have been so certain to finally make it to the assembly, as I have worked for 20 years in Union One in Dera Ismail Khan (DIK) and my votes were secure. However, I had to withdraw my nomination papers from PK 64. Being a woman it was expected of me to give in.” Nahid lamented further, this time bringing her own self in the spotlight. “It did not mean I gave up. DIK has always been a typical male-dominated area, yet I have been working, putting up with the constraints. Nevertheless, when it came to choose among the candidates, we were four contesting from the same constituency, it was my female counterparts and I who were asked to leave the field to bring down the chances of a split mandate. When initially I refused to comply, I was deprived of every support by the PPP and from the Shia community. Once the flow of money was stopped, I had no option but to withdraw my candidacy. Elections cannot be contested, leave along win without money. Therefore, had I not budged, lack of funds would have taken its toll, stripping me of the mandate I am depending upon to reach the parliament. I am a middle class woman, my husband is an advocate and we barely make our ends meet. The money played its role,” said Naheed with a heavy heart.
This is a typical story of a woman living in a patriarchal society. The irony is that Nahid is now working for Senator Waqar, the PPP candidate from NA-24 DIK, in order to galvanise women to vote in his favour. Her party still needs her expertise and experience, but they do not need her as the representative in the parliament. Syeda Fauzia Batool, District President PPP, DIK, had a worst fate as she has been given party ticket for women reserved seats, only to be withdrawn at the nick of the time in favour of some landlord family in Peshawar. It was a tell-tale description of the PPP becoming the party of the elite.
Dera Ismail Khan, one of the three main cities during the British rule after Mumbai and Bangalore, is now a ruins of its own past. Sectarian violence and terrorism has sucked the blood of this city. Every face has a story of agony related to terrorism. Balqees bibi was looking at me intently, during my visit to a PPP’s election rally in DIK held in a marriage hall. I thought Balqees with such lively eyes, glossed with dreams, would at last have some good story to tell me. Already every women that I met had either lost a husband, a brother or a son in target killing, sectarian violence or suicide attack. To my dismay hers was the goriest experience. Her husband had lost his bowels following the operation on his stomach that was ripped apart by shrapnel that hit him during a funeral prayer in a suicide attack. “He cannot digest food like a normal person. Severe depression has taken over him, rendering him incapacitated. He is not working and he does not want to do anything,” said Balqees bibi. When his elder brother received serious injuries in another suicide attack, and was rendered to a handicapped life forever, his wife threw kerosene oil on her. “Thank god she was saved, but poverty, hopelessness and a bleak future has broken us. Though I am attending the PPP’s rally, I would not vote for it. When my husband was in critical condition I went to Faisal Karim Kundi’s home to seek his help. His guards turned me back after throwing blows and hurling abuses at me. I am glad that he is not standing from DIK anymore. He is not even allowed to enter the city. We do not trust the PPP, we want to give a chance to Imran Khan. Alone in the voting booth, my personal choice would reign and I will stamp the bat. The arrow has wounded its own people, instead of its enemies,” that was Balqeess’s thinking about her voting rights.
The surprising yet not very shocking thing was that every woman loathed the ‘maulanas’, including Maulana Fazlur Rehman. They do not want any maulana to win in the election. They believe that the seed of terrorism is their brainchild. It would be the first time that the majority of women would be participating in the elections in DIK, as nearly most of them are now registered voters, which was not the case earlier.
Balqees, Fauzia and Naheed shared a common fate for being ignored and exploited by its own party: the PPP. But their common desire to rise above womanhood and struggle to make a difference has made them indispensable. Enlightenment, sprouting from despondency and delayed justice, is always dangerous. A recipe to revolution, so much for the desire of change, if not provided by the next government, terrorism might become the ‘cause’ of ordinary people fed up of being juggled by politicians for their self-interest.
Senator Waqar is running against Maulana Fazalur Rehman. His election motto is to beat extremism and promote secular values in DIK. Nothing could be more pleasing to the ears. However, the effervescence of this rubric, died down by evening when in his election rally, a Deobandi scholar delivered a sermon laced with threats to the state and persuaded people, (the audience largely being illiterate and ignorant) to pick up guns against the infidels. The scholar accused those in power of selling short to some agents abroad. He provoked the audience that in order to protect their iman (Faith) and to make tauba (ask forgiveness from Allah), they must fight them to the finish. I looked at the audience while he was delivering the explosive sermon, there was rapt silence. People were paying heed to his utterances. I sat motionless, absolutely perplexed. My inquisitive eyes searched senator Waqar’s face for uneasy emotions, I failed. There was none. He was too preoccupied with the thought of his election. His tall claims about secularism drowned comfortably in the sermons designed to radicalise those sitting there. The sermon was followed by a joint prayer. Nearly two hours were spent on these rituals before Senator Waqar rose from his seat to promise making Pakistan a true ‘Islamic’ State, much to the chagrin of those seeking change.
Without taking out the causes of terrorism, how could we possibly think of eliminating it? Radicalisation is the mother of Islamic militancy annihilating Pakistan. Aslam Awan, a renowned journalist in DIK, told me that even on funerals such sermons are delivered. “This keeps the bombs away.” Why so? “Because there is a Taliban in every house of DIK and the news of defiance to their values travels by the speed of light.”
The women of DIK hate maulanas of every breed, sect and party. The men are ‘sold’ to them. The politicians have no choice but to follow the powers to be. It is the nation of individuals, confounded and unaware of their enemy. Will anybody rise to identify the Fustians? There are many, actually.
The writer is Assistant Editor at Daily Times and can be reached at [email protected]