Amar Sindhu talks to Zulfiqar Shah about the contemporary outlook of the women’s movement in Sindh, and how gender is placed within a larger rights movement of the oppressedHas urbanisation and socio-economic development contributed positively to the women rights situation in Sindh?
There is no remarkable difference in the sociological context, although a socio-economic change at a certain level has been witnessed over the past two decades. Due to urbanisation, cities have grown in size, but the quality of life remains questionable. There is, no doubt, a considerable change in human rights situation of women in comparison to the decades of the 80s and 90s. The situation is relatively better in urban hubs, however, the situation has further deteriorated in rural areas.
The process of urbanization is unplanned, unorganized and unconscious; therefore it doesn’t influence the women rights situation as such. Basically, collective social structure influences the overall women rights scene here.
Urban development and the political scene has unexpectedly isolated rural women, and made them more vulnerable. In the last two decades, rural society of Sindh has become more retrogressive, squeezing space for rural women to have an affirmative access to their rights. The impacts of restriction have opened up space for rights violation. The excesses of women denied their basic needs is coupled with gender-based violence.
How do you analyse the contemporary women rights movement?
A woman in rural areas is a political non-entity. Whenever she is in the process of resistance, she is proactive. There has been no higher level women rights resistance in the last fifty years in Sindh; however, many minor instances of resistance are part of our past and contemporary times.
Urbanisation has opened many avenues for women to the modern web of globalisation, in which fresh currents and flows of knowledge have empowered them enough to become conscious, and at a certain level, vocal for their rights. Exposure through various means and tools of communication has further developed a sense of movement building, provocation and resistance regarding emancipation and rights of women. The process has been recently initiated by resistance and struggle for individual issues or cases.
The credit of the contemporary scene goes to education, access to information and exposure to professional life and the world outside. This has helped Sindhi women to develop their own worldview about society and politics, including their rights and violation of these rights. Therefore, new opportunities have opened up in that context for a relatively backward rural society to come ahead, along with the developed urban women. This is the time when we need to connect women’s rights to human necessities.
What is the current scene of women rights violation?
Honor killings, selling women, and extreme form of labour are the worst faces of gender-based violence in Sindh, specifically in the rural north. This is due to the political economy of these areas, and the power nexus of rural society, which has been made more tribal than ever before by making the state apparatus invisible. There are many economic factors, particularly property, that leads tribal communities to honor killings, selling girls and forced marriages. The perception for women to become identical to a man’s honor has turned her into the virtual commodity.
Do you see any connectivity between women rights struggle with other social movements?
According to the Paulo Frère, the struggle cannot always go on in the same frame. It’s a process of gradual development.
If we see the movement in its literary context, we will see that there is a huge literary movement which has greatly contributed in the women rights struggle in Sindh. The actual issue is that the oppressed are not conscious of oppression. In fact, the conceptualisation of a movement is always at a higher stage than that of the prevailing society. The question is one of connecting these movements within Sindh, rest of Pakistan and globally, because this process helps out in defining and redefining itself in the context of liberation and rights struggle of women.
There is an issue of discourse within political movements. Activism supports theory, and vice versa. Both are gradual in their process, and are interchangeable. If the formation of theory is not reflected by activism and vice versa, then certainly, there are essential gaps in higher concepts, strategic planning and the struggle itself. The real women rights movements can only grow through people’s movements.
Is there any space here for reforms and revisualisation of struggle?
A movement around women rights should be, and exists to some extent, around individual as well as collective social issues. It depends on the forms of violation, whether they are individual or collective. One has to keep in the mind that forced marriages and honour killings are backed by rural political economy; the reflections of which always revolves around personal, individual and collective issues. Therefore any movement that emerges tomorrow will challenge the major issues initially at individual level, and then connect the individual with the collective.
What is the relation between women rights movement and other forms of social oppression?
Gradually, the women rights movement will challenge higher forms of political issues. Achieving that stage requires going beyond the abastractism in movement as well as in issues. We should not keep ourselves and struggle process in the illusions.
We want a parallel women movement going along with the other rights movements. It must challenge the various forms of operations, including national and class. We have always focused the legal framework for women’s rights; this is the time when we need to connect the personal or individual issues of women with the collective and legal or legislative reforms.
The nationalist movements in Morocco established some gender-based principles, which caused a mass participation of women in the nationalist struggle. These principles included the abstention of second marriage of a nationalist, and the commitment by a male to provide independent homestead to a wife after marriage. If our movements do not connect personal issues of the movement with the mainstream political initiatives, they will not be able to connect a broad participation of the women in the movement.
There is a huge space for collective struggle for women rights in Pakistan. We have recent examples of success that includes legislation against harassments and seats reservation in the assemblies. This was achieved by many civil society forums initiatives, including Aurat Foundation. Now, this is the time to struggle for the implementation of these laws in society. Today, reality has proved that women parliamentarians are more active in the process of legislation than that of man parliamentarians.
Do you see any effective role of literature?
Pakistan literature today is isolated from people’s issues. There is a gradual decline in the role and approach of literature for depicting, portraying and focusing the people’s real issues. Even in Sindh, it has encountered a decline.
There is a role of progressive literature in the social movements of Sindh that the majority of the activists and organizations including all forms of nationalists are secular and liberals in their essence in comparison with the other provinces. This is visible especially in the context of fundamentalism. Secularism is the foundational element of Sindhi literature. There is no reactionary writer in Sindh who has become popular. However, a reality we need to appreciate is that in the post 1980s scenario, there is a declining trend in Sindhi literature for social realism. Today, Sindhi literature doesn’t represent contemporary Sindhi society.
How do you analyse the state with respect to women’s rights?
We are living in a period of state crises in Pakistan. This is a period of catastrophe and destruction, and an age of uncertainties. There will emerge a political movement with deep roots in the society. It is a fact of our times that women leadership of Pakistan is a public critic of the country’s issues, such as fundamentalism and oppression
What are the threats to the women rights movements in Pakistan?
The women rights movements today is threatened by the fundamentalism, feudalism and tribalism. I am of the opinion that the state is easier to bargain with than these elements.
Courtesy: Daily The News karachi
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/jul2010-weekly/nos-04-07-2010/kol.htm#3
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