Editorial — Issue 5

When­ev­er Pak­istan is dis­cussed in an opti­mistic light there are a few fac­tors that are usu­al­ly men­tioned, includ­ing its geo-polit­i­cal posi­tion, youth bulge, socio-cul­tur­al diver­si­ty, and abun­dance of nat­ur­al resources. One fac­tor, how­ev­er, does not get the men­tion it deserves. This is the valiant role of women, despite many odds, in build­ing our state and soci­ety.

Ours is not quite a woman-friend­ly soci­ety. With ram­pant gen­der-based vio­lence, harass­ment, hon­or killing, rape and bar­bar­ic trib­al cus­toms, Pak­istan ranks 82 out of 93 coun­tries on the Gen­der Devel­op­ment Index and 152 out of 156 coun­tries on the Gen­der Empow­er­ment Mea­sure. Women have restrict­ed mobil­i­ty and poor access to edu­ca­tion, pro­fes­sion­al train­ing, health care and labor mar­kets. Despite all these chal­lenges how­ev­er, the women of this coun­try have stood tri­umphant in the test of time.

They have his­tor­i­cal­ly defied all dic­ta­to­r­i­al regimes, from Fati­ma Jin­nah oppos­ing Ayub to Benazir Bhut­to stand­ing against Zia-ul-Haq, and even the unex­pect­ed Kul­soom Nawaz chal­leng­ing Mushar­raf. A good num­ber of them have excelled in all fields includ­ing pol­i­tics, art, edu­ca­tion, busi­ness, sports and media. In this patri­ar­chal soci­ety, they have secured the high­est posts in the high­er judi­cia­ry, bar coun­cil, mil­i­tary, and oth­er pub­lic offices. All this, how­ev­er, has come after many tri­als and tribu­la­tions.

From strug­gling for the Fam­i­ly Laws Ordi­nance to resist­ing the Hudood Ordi­nance, we have come a long way for­ward. Dur­ing Benazir’s sec­ond term, Pak­istan pre­ced­ed many devel­op­ing coun­tries of sim­i­lar pro­file in rat­i­fy­ing the UN Con­ven­tion on the Elim­i­na­tion of All Forms of Dis­crim­i­na­tion against Women (CEDAW). Today we are among the most pro­gres­sive coun­tries in the Mus­lim world for pro-women leg­is­la­tion with such land­mark laws as the Nation­al Com­mis­sion on the Sta­tus of Women Act 2012, The Pre­ven­tion of Anti-Women Prac­tices Act 2011, The Acid Con­trol and Acid Crime Pre­ven­tion Act 2011, Pro­tec­tion against Harass­ment of Women Act 2010 to name a few.

Some of the cred­it does go to the cur­rent demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­ern­ment but it would nev­er have been pos­si­ble with­out the decades’ long strug­gle of human rights activists and the gal­lant female par­lia­men­tar­i­ans such as Sher­ry Rehman, Dr. Fehmi­da Mirza, late Fauzia Wahab, Bushra Gauhar and oth­ers. Accord­ing to a report, the female par­lia­men­tar­i­ans who con­sti­tute only 23% and 16% of the Nation­al Assem­bly and the Sen­ate respec­tive­ly have over­all been more active in par­lia­men­tary activ­i­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly leg­is­la­tion.

We need to cel­e­brate the long lega­cy of great Pak­istani women who are a bea­con of light in this dif­fi­cult peri­od of our his­to­ry. We must be proud to have among us Asma Jahangir, the icon of human rights; Sharmeen Obaid Chi­noy, the only Oscar win­ner from Pak­istan; Ayesha Jalal, the acclaimed his­to­ri­an and many oth­ers; this short space is too lit­tle to name them all.

We ded­i­cate this issue of Laal­tain to all the great Pak­istani women of the past and present who give us hope and inspi­ra­tion to work for a more tol­er­ant and pros­per­ous Pak­istan.

(Rab Nawaz - Edi­tor-in-Chief)
(Pub­lished in The Laal­tain — Issue 5)