Outside the family, where the
gendering of roles and bifurcation of space is often assumed to be ‘natural’, there is a tendency to assume that institutions are neutral with respect to gender. Despite a small though not insignificant change, women continue to be offered and confined to stereotypical female spheres of activity that are closely associated with their domestic spheres of activity. Sexual harassment at work is also a great deterrent for women seeking to extend their working space beyond the confines of the home.
Critics will be quick to point out that Pakistan enjoys a history of appointing high profile women such as the late Benazir Bhutto as the country’s first Muslim woman as prime minister, Hina Rabbani Khar as foreign minister, Dr Fehmida Mirza as the first woman speaker of the National Assembly and Dr Maliha Lodhi as our permanent representative to the UN, and ‘electing’ a number of women legislators (the majority of these enter parliament on reserved rather than openly contested seats). The fact remains that the move towards allowing women to develop a public identity are exceptions rather than the rule.
The truth of the matter is that in Pakistan, education along with a host of other issues has been in crisis since independence. Institutions have been thwarted in their search for excellence by factors as varied as meagre resource allocations, a dogged determination to resist change and a lack of political will. The unfortunate but entirely foreseeable result has been the severing of the essential link between a demand oriented, need based education and local universities where students continue to be held hostage by largely obsolete, non-research oriented curricula.
And yet, ironically, education is one area where female presence is strongly visible as the Punjab Education Department remains the largest employer of women in the public sector while an equally large number of women are employed as teachers in the private sector. The latter significantly shifts from the public sector template in appointing women as CEOs, principals, advisors and administrators but the public sector continues to ignore the appointment of women to higher positions. The handful of women vice chancellors in Pakistan, heads of departments, registrars, syndicate members etc. is ample evidence of a covert attempt at curtailing women’s progress in decisionmaking roles. The same argument holds true for the paucity of women’s presence in policymaking such as heading ministries or acting in the capacity of federal secretaries at the Centre. This ‘invisibility’ is responsible in large measure for state policies that discriminate against women.
The law is also not above making its own biases felt. Two days prior to International Women’s Day 2015, the Punjab Assembly passed five bills to ensure rights for women. Legislation pertaining to ownership and inheritance, payment of alimony and child support, and khula (marriage annulment) were welcomed but in an ironic and inexplicable twist the assembly voted and passed a bill setting the minimum age limit to wed at 18 for boys and 16 for girls. The fact that 16-year-old girls have neither the psychological maturity, education nor life skills to navigate their lives appears to have escaped notice despite the presence of women parliamentarians.
We know that women on a global level are under represented in formal politics. As ‘minorities’ within state bureaucracies they find themselves in the unenviable position of having to work within state apparatus and in a sense rendering themselves powerless. This is, yet again, a perfect case of patriarchy appropriating power from within even as it seeks to perpetuate its hold on public policy at large. While the UN committee on the rights of children also recommends a minimum age of 18 for marriage, poorly thought through, held hostage by varying theological stances; such bills bring little relief to women in a horrifically patriarchal and misogynistic society like Pakistan where they are raped, battered, buried alive and killed with impunity.
It is a rule of thumb that the poorer a country, the greater the divide between the haves and the have-nots. The greater the division, the more logic there appears to be for the upper echelons of society to treat those on the lower rungs of the ladder with disdain bordering on contempt. The division is amply visible in the case of women employed in the domestic sector.
We suffer the poor to rear our children, yet the coldheartedness with which we treat any transgression, real or perceived, is a case in point. Emaciated young girls dangle well fed, plump babies on their bony hips during a punishing 24 hour regimen. We eat in the comfort of electronically cooled dining rooms, the food that a heat maddened serf has slaved over and whine at the saltiness of the roast. Our children with their scrubbed apple cheeks motor their way to school while the ‘others’ stand sweltering at bus stops waiting for transport that respects neither time nor climate. If the majority of the people, particularly women, remain swathed in a culture of silence, illiterate and unprepared for the changes taking place in the world, who is to be held responsible?
Change, and productive change at that, is only possible through collective deliberation, which involves the large, silent masses at present held captive by a seemingly benign, historical paternalism. That is why the establishment of civic platforms is important since they throw out a lifeline to legal, social, political, pedagogical reforms within institutions that form the basis for stability and development in a society undergoing rapid changes.
Past and present education strategies have segmented the education process into units bearing no real link with either the skills developed at a lower level or those required for the unit above. A true case of the part being greater than the whole! The promotion of gender sensitive education is therefore the need of the hour. Women, particularly young women, must be educated on issues regarding their well being, rights and future prospects.
It is in this context that one must move towards another area that requires an immediate and critical overhaul. While one accepts that we live in an increasingly visual world, we must also recognise that recent studies prove visuals have a greater residual impact as compared to the written word. The recent image of a dead child’s body washed up on a beach and the furor it has caused with reference to refugee populations proves this point. What myriads of op-eds, columns and forums could not accomplish one tragic image moved the entire world! The media, therefore, must sensitise and bear responsibility for the subliminal and subterranean nature of the ‘messages’ it airs.
My concern is with the representation of women in general and Muslim women in particular in the media and literary narratives. Visual and print media joined by social media in recent years show images of burqa clad women being accepted as trademarks for Islam’s repression of women. An examination of the production of knowledge related to such issues is an imperative if we are to mainstream women’s issues into the body politic of our respective countries.
As a pioneering television actor and presenter myself, I was delighted with the fact that an Indian television channel had started to air drama serials from Pakistan. The programmes include stand-alone dramatic enactments of stories based on women’s issues such as acid throwing, misogyny and exploitation of women while the effort to introduce Urdu language with a word-a-day translated into Hindi running in ticker tapes is an attempt to bolster familiarity with the language — an ingenious step to say the least.
Recent history evidences that music has played a bridging role between the two countries. At present, it is Pakistan’s electronic media that appears to have provided the trajectory for film careers in the world’s largest and most prolific film industry. Dismissing the nonsensical Twitter and Facebook barrage of unending opinions about cross border working actors, the visual treat these television programmes provide in terms of acting prowess, good looks and realistic set design packaged in an unending plethora of boy-meets-girl scripts is gratifying. Yet, the content of material presented and the manner in which it is dramatised is highly objectionable, inaccurate and borders on the subversive.
(Concluded)
The writer is academic advisor Lahore
Grammar School and can be reached at [email protected]