In case you have not noticed on the sidebar on the right, ATP has a new feature. An ATP opinion poll for our readers and visitors. The question is about what can be done to improve Paksitan’s international image in terms of women rights.
I must confess, even though this is my question it bothers me a bit. Maybe, a better question might have been about what can be done to improve the condition of women’s rights in Pakistan. However, there are three reasons why I chose this question. First, the 
powers that be seem to be very concerned about Pakistan’s image these days, so why not give them the benefit of our advice. Second, some folks seem convinced that this blog is about Pakistan’s image; it really is not, but lets play along. Third, a lot of our readers are quite perturbed about the image question as various comments have shown, most recently in relation to the ATP post about the Dawn ad. So, OK, lets be positive and think about what ought to be done. Over to you!
The Question: Which of the following will do most to improve Pakistan’s international image in terms of women’s rights?
1. Publicize positive news about women pilots, professional women, etc.
2. Highlight how Islam gives a lot of rights to women
3. Vigorously defend against mis-reporting on women’s rights in Pakistan
4. Write and complain to media outlets that propagate negative stereotypes
5. Launch a ‘charm offensive’ on ‘softer side’ of Pakistan (cultural shows, fashion shows, etc.)
6. Change behavior of Pakistani men towards women though educational campaign in Pakistan
7. Repeal Hudood Ordinance and other laws that restrict women rights
You can get to the polling area by clicking on the responses in the sidebar, or directly by clicking here.
I know you are all more tech savvy than me and could skew the results by voting multiple times if you wanted to. I hope you won’t (it would be dishonest, unfair, and it will devastate my faith in our potential for real democracy). But if you do want to influence the results, please, by all means ask your friends to also vote!
The fundamental human rights of women and how they are perceived and treated in a predominately patriarchal society are at the core of the question on ‘how to improve’ the image and more so the condition (as you, Adil, even felt was the better question to ask) of women’s rights and how they may be perceived globally. Apologies in advance if I seem to stray from the essence of your poll, but I feel I must express in greater detail!
Harping on the image issue is not the reason why women’s rights should be improved. Improving the ‘image’, however defined, will not make the inadequate & unrealized rights of women in Pakistan disappear. Mountains have to be moved.
The Image Issue:
The question I ask, is what is the image that we want to portray of Pakistan and the status and plight of those women? And again, from which segment of society, are these women who’s image needs to be promoted? Do we want to promote how the educated class of women (so many of us now educated in the UK and US) are working side by side with their male counterparts in high profile banking, marketing, and industry professions with much greater access today? Of course, no doubt, it is a good way to publicize to the world at large that Pakistan is able to churn out female prime ministers, internationally acclaimed women artists, female fighter pilots, fashion designers, cardiologists, business leaders, and entrepreneurs – and that the Pakistani middle and upper classes are more westernized and progressive now. But I feel the question of image also should more broadly include the underrepresented, urban poor and rural, feudal communities, where this wave of modernity and gender equality has yet to hit! I guess it is safe to say that there are, in essence, 2 worlds, 2 Pakistans? The image of women repressed by patriarchy, conducting their daily lives under the so called ‘veil’ and oppression, whilst being victimized by unjust Islamic rules, is probably the one we should be more concerned about. That is not to say that sexism is rampant amongst the professional class, as the Dawn Ad illustrated. But is that not the case in even European and other western societies? Women at work are subject to that, day in and out in varying degrees and subtleties. The plight of women like Mukhtar Mai or female child brides for that matter, is what we really need to focus on, as far as ‘improving their condition’ is concerned –. It took a NY Times journalist to bring Mukhtar Mai to the International media arena, forcing the government and President to have to deal with this ‘national shame’ by confiscating Mukhtar Mai’s passport & putting her on a ‘no exit list’, so that she would not leave the country to further ‘tarnish’ Pakistan’s image internationally. (I am not sure if such eye-opening news reports would either contribute to or take away from items: 1, 3 & 4 listed in your Poll Question!) If this kind of press is given in the international arena, then perhaps it may put governments to shame and finally force them to act?
Anyway, here are a few mountains to move…
Education:
Agreeably, like many who have thus far commented, education, that is, equal access and delivery of that education to girls, is a must. Sadly, we are not even close to that target, let alone overall literacy. Educating girls, will educate the next generation and in turn will teach the sons of those women how to respect women and show how important their mother’s education, vocation and worth is in their families. So you ask, what ought to be done? Well, for those of us who are privileged and are able to afford it: donate generously to NGO’s which support the education of children, especially young girls. Since governments (and not just Pakistan’s’, but many of the world’s underdeveloped governments) are unable to provide this basic ‘right’ and public service, it falls on the abled citizens and expatriates of Pakistan to fill this gaping void, by outsourcing this job to the private organizations who can deliver tangible results with a higher rate of return.
Violence and Abuse against women must be publicly shunned:
Sadly, the world (not only Pakistan) is rife with domestic abuse and violence towards vulnerable women. It transcends all stratas of society, regardless of economic or educational backgrounds, but tends to be more prevalent, and accepted in the rural and tribal communities. The immediate remedy is clearly to repeal the irreprehensible, Zia installed, Hudood Ordinances which provide absolutely no legal protection to women who ‘allegedly’ commit adultery and the like, and then criminalizing them. Massive social, economic and judicial reform must take place, and here are some starters:
1)affording proper legal representation to women who are ‘accused’;
2)provide vocational and academic education to women in hopes of making them financially more self dependent;
3)providing protection while they are in Police custody, reforming the Police & their proceedings with severe legal consequences for irreprehensible ‘Police behavior’;
4)and ultimately making women more aware of the power they have, from breaking their silence by reporting abuse, violence and rape.
Unfortunately, not all are as brave as Mukhtar Mai. This public form of ‘outing’ may be the only, desperate channel left to many. The press, NGO’s and women’s rights activists like Asma Jahangir remain the thin line of hope for so many of these women. Sadly, there is no institutional infrastructure in Pakistan to help rape victims, no trauma centers or legal aid bodies where women can even turn to. Just repealing archaic laws or doing an educational campaign won’t rid the mentalities and backward traditions.
Women in Islam?
I think most Muslims will agree that the essence of Islamic teaching and the Qu’ran place the status of women in extreme high regard, as did Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). So I am not sure how highlighting the point that Islam, (‘theoretically’ gives a lot of rights to women), even to the Western media, can truly ameliorate the plight or image of women in Pakistan? It’s a great spiritual belief, but it’s not doing that well in practice on the whole. It is the ‘clergy’ of Islam which needs reform – A wake up call to us to stand up to uneducated mullahs who dominate the educational & cultural fabric and mentalities of the common Muslim men (and women)’s understanding of the essence of Islam. Again, repealing the Hudood Ordinances would be the first signaling of this much needed shift in interpretation, but not the end all. John Esposito’s: What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam, © 2002 Oxford University Press (found in an article on this website: http://arabworld.nitle.org/texts.php?module_id=2&r eading_id=62&sequence=8 ), sums it all up interestingly:
“…The status of women in Muslim countries has long been looked to as evidence of “Islam’s” oppression of women in matters ranging from the freedom to dress as they please to legal rights in divorce. The true picture of women in Islam is far more complex. The revelation of Islam raised the status of women by prohibiting female infanticide, abolishing women’s status as property, establishing women’s legal capacity, granting women the right to receive their own dowry, changing marriage from a proprietary to a contractual relationship….The Quran declares that men and women are equal in the eyes of God; man and woman were created to be equal parts of a pair (51:49) . The Quran describes the relationship between men and women as one of “love and mercy” (30:21) …Most Islamic societies have been patriarchal, and women have long been considered to be the culture-bearers within these societies. Prior to the twentieth century, the Quran, hadith (traditional stories of the Prophet), and Islamic law were interpreted by men in these patriarchal societies, and these interpretations reflect this environment. Women were not actively engaged in interpreting the Quran, hadith, or Islamic law until the twentieth century. Nowhere in the Quran does it say that all men are superior to, preferred to, or better than all women. God’s expressed preference for certain individuals in the Quran is based upon their faith, not their gender.”
For real and more permanent change to occur in how the world views the rights of women in Pakistan, or even Islam for that matter, we need more than an image make-over, so that we are not forever hinged on an image, but rather on actual realities. Reform & revolution in the legal structures and religious institutions, as well as the eradication of female economic dependency are the tasks ahead. These, in essence, are the mountains.
Why has the poll and the link to the poll and its results disappeared?
Dear Adnan,
The “indecent note” was reported by the newspaper http://www.dawn.com/2006/06/22/top7.htm thats why I quoated it in my response too. I think we all agree that the legislators’ reaction is condemnable and they should be punished for that. But the reaction was based on “honor” which is again a patriarchal approach. You can see their reaction from other newspaper “Khuhro demands suspension of treasury member”
http://www.thenews.com.pk/arc_news.asp?id=4
As discussed in my earlier response that patriarchy, power and masculinity are the salient features of Traditional paradigm and unfortunately this is the existing image of Pakistan. For softer image of our country, I think this blog is a wonderful discussion forum to think and discuss about Alternative paradigm which promotes gender equality, feminism and social justice and so on so forth.
Roshan.
PS. Thanks MSK, I own what you said !
Personally i dont believe that embarking on a PR campaign would make much of a difference. Our image would improve if we actually made progress on the ground. So in the short term, the government would need to repeal ‘draconian’ laws such as the hudood ordinance. However, in the long term, an education campaign would be far more effective. The government would have to do both things at the same time. Only then would we be able to see an improvement in the long term prospects of women.
Dear MSK
I was actually replying this statment of Roshan
Even graduate parliamentarian in Sindh Assembly sent an “indecent noteâ€