Every year the issue of gender equality and women rights gets ignited in the month of March as International Women’s Day is celebrated by human rights activists and feminists across the globe on 8th March. This year the debate is much noisier. The ugly scene of use of expletives by a prominent playwright, Khalil ur rehman against a well known female activist Marvi Sirmed, has given volcanic heat to an already divisive debate. Voices of reason have condemned the remorseless attitude of Khalil ur Rehman so in this piece I intend to take a fresh look at the highly polarised debate over women rights and the controversy over ‘mera jism, meri merzi’ slogan in a rational and dispassionate way.
A society can be seen as a superstructure of customs, values and laws, which are implemented by law enforcement institutions. This superstructure is built upon the base of economic relations such as master and slave, feudal lord and peasants, capitalists and workers. Engles in his book on origin of private property refers to the fact that in early societies sexuality of women was their only worth and just as men privatised land and other forms of property the sexuality of women was also privatised. Customary and religious laws helped in enforcing this chattel status of women in the hands of men. In short we can say that our norms, values and mindset are a reflection of our socioeconomic conditions. Societies of developing countries like Pakistan are exposed to two types of competing consciousnesses. One emanates from the socio-economic foundation of tribal and feudal relations and legitimises various forms of discriminations. The second consciousness comes from exposure to modern education driven by scientific knowledge which inculcates ideas of equality and human rights. Whether a person is an exponent of culture dictated norms or an advocate of equal human rights depends upon which exposure has played a greater part in developing the basic mindset of that person. Khalil ur Rehman iconises the first exposure while Marvi Sirmed embodies the second one. The former has the advantage of numbers, social history and religious narrative. The latter has the advantage of being young and vibrant.
The American constitution begins with the phrase “ we the people” and declares justice and liberty to be the guiding principles for framing the constitution. Despite being motivated by genuine democratic ideals, the framers of the constitution, however, did not consider women and slaves to be part of the phrase ‘we the people”. They were not given voting and other substantive human rights. A scholar of US Constitution contends that the voting and property rights of various sections of a society are historically tied up with the warfare and defence activity of a community. That explains the denial of rights to women as in the 18th century warfare was the exclusive domain of men. When women took part in the continental wars by getting involved in ammunition making factories they became more vocal and assertive in demanding their political and social rights. The Suffragette movement in Britain met same kind of ridicule and misogynistic opposition as we are witnessing today in our society. The fact that over the last century the base of developed economies evolved towards science and technology has helped in eroding the grip of religious and feudal notions of gender based rights and duties. Even in this part of the world the debate is, however, far from over as issues of gender pay and board level disparities are still being keenly debated by feminists in the western countries.
The purpose of a revolution is to shorten the distance to a particular stage which others have reached through the long route of evolution, says Trotsky. The women in the western world have reached the present stage of gender equality in substantive human rights eg inheritance, free movement, education, career and cohabitation choices through a long and painstaking journey that spans over two centuries. Our progressive men and women that have internalised the humanist ideals must be aware of the fact that they are on a revolutionary path. ‘Mera jism, meri marzi, slogan is provocatively a red rag to those who have for centuries believed womenfolk to be their chattel. The adoption of such a ‘shock and awe’ strategy can be traced back to the anarchist literature which advocated use of terrorist activities as an advertisement to attract commoners to the idealistic narrative of anarchists. In fact religious extremists also picked up this strategy and resorted to terrorist incidents to popularise their presence. Of late, animal rights and environment groups have also used ‘shock and awe’ strategy to gain attention of commoners and policy makers.
If women activists are using ‘shock and awe’ strategy to promote their narrative in a peaceful and legal manner we should accord respect to their right to do so. They need to be aware of the challenges of using such a strategy as instead of gaining attention it might generate negative publicity. They should, however, not be daunted by seeing the custodians of the old order bringing out swords of culture and religion to wipe out the narrative that is partly facilitated by exposure to the globalised world.
Frailty’s name was woman in the past. But now even pure eastern cultures like China, Japan and Korea have increasingly become gender neutral and have come up with legislation to ensure that women advance in all walks of life and contribute to the national economy. Unfortunately, in Pakistan social norms and legislation do the opposite. Nothing will, however, change unless women themselves become champions of their cause.
It is high time our women heeded the call of Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali who, more than 150 years ago, had asked the Muslim women to shun their chains, benefit from modern education and assert their right of being treated with dignity and equality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn1QQZHWSl8
The writer teaches public policy in University of Hertfordshire and is the founder of Rationalist Society of Pakistan. He can be reached at hashah9@yahoo.com
A society can be seen as a superstructure of customs, values and laws, which are implemented by law enforcement institutions. This superstructure is built upon the base of economic relations such as master and slave, feudal lord and peasants, capitalists and workers. Engles in his book on origin of private property refers to the fact that in early societies sexuality of women was their only worth and just as men privatised land and other forms of property the sexuality of women was also privatised. Customary and religious laws helped in enforcing this chattel status of women in the hands of men. In short we can say that our norms, values and mindset are a reflection of our socioeconomic conditions. Societies of developing countries like Pakistan are exposed to two types of competing consciousnesses. One emanates from the socio-economic foundation of tribal and feudal relations and legitimises various forms of discriminations. The second consciousness comes from exposure to modern education driven by scientific knowledge which inculcates ideas of equality and human rights. Whether a person is an exponent of culture dictated norms or an advocate of equal human rights depends upon which exposure has played a greater part in developing the basic mindset of that person. Khalil ur Rehman iconises the first exposure while Marvi Sirmed embodies the second one. The former has the advantage of numbers, social history and religious narrative. The latter has the advantage of being young and vibrant.
The American constitution begins with the phrase “ we the people” and declares justice and liberty to be the guiding principles for framing the constitution. Despite being motivated by genuine democratic ideals, the framers of the constitution, however, did not consider women and slaves to be part of the phrase ‘we the people”. They were not given voting and other substantive human rights. A scholar of US Constitution contends that the voting and property rights of various sections of a society are historically tied up with the warfare and defence activity of a community. That explains the denial of rights to women as in the 18th century warfare was the exclusive domain of men. When women took part in the continental wars by getting involved in ammunition making factories they became more vocal and assertive in demanding their political and social rights. The Suffragette movement in Britain met same kind of ridicule and misogynistic opposition as we are witnessing today in our society. The fact that over the last century the base of developed economies evolved towards science and technology has helped in eroding the grip of religious and feudal notions of gender based rights and duties. Even in this part of the world the debate is, however, far from over as issues of gender pay and board level disparities are still being keenly debated by feminists in the western countries.
The purpose of a revolution is to shorten the distance to a particular stage which others have reached through the long route of evolution, says Trotsky. The women in the western world have reached the present stage of gender equality in substantive human rights eg inheritance, free movement, education, career and cohabitation choices through a long and painstaking journey that spans over two centuries. Our progressive men and women that have internalised the humanist ideals must be aware of the fact that they are on a revolutionary path. ‘Mera jism, meri marzi, slogan is provocatively a red rag to those who have for centuries believed womenfolk to be their chattel. The adoption of such a ‘shock and awe’ strategy can be traced back to the anarchist literature which advocated use of terrorist activities as an advertisement to attract commoners to the idealistic narrative of anarchists. In fact religious extremists also picked up this strategy and resorted to terrorist incidents to popularise their presence. Of late, animal rights and environment groups have also used ‘shock and awe’ strategy to gain attention of commoners and policy makers.
If women activists are using ‘shock and awe’ strategy to promote their narrative in a peaceful and legal manner we should accord respect to their right to do so. They need to be aware of the challenges of using such a strategy as instead of gaining attention it might generate negative publicity. They should, however, not be daunted by seeing the custodians of the old order bringing out swords of culture and religion to wipe out the narrative that is partly facilitated by exposure to the globalised world.
Frailty’s name was woman in the past. But now even pure eastern cultures like China, Japan and Korea have increasingly become gender neutral and have come up with legislation to ensure that women advance in all walks of life and contribute to the national economy. Unfortunately, in Pakistan social norms and legislation do the opposite. Nothing will, however, change unless women themselves become champions of their cause.
It is high time our women heeded the call of Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali who, more than 150 years ago, had asked the Muslim women to shun their chains, benefit from modern education and assert their right of being treated with dignity and equality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn1QQZHWSl8
The writer teaches public policy in University of Hertfordshire and is the founder of Rationalist Society of Pakistan. He can be reached at hashah9@yahoo.com