Adil Najam
November 5 marks the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) in Pakistan.
For all of us who lived through the Zia era, the scars of those memories run deep into our psyche. This is not the time or place to talk about the pain that was inflicted on our national ethos by those years. But this I do know: very few demonstrated the courage of conviction and stood up to the Zia regime, its KoRas, and its brutality with the resolute steadfastness and graceful persistence that WAF and its membership demonstrated.
While too many of us stood quietly in the corner and sulked, they stood up for what they believed in and confronted the laathis of the police. In doing so, they made us feel proud of that which they did while also ashamed of that which we did not do. No matter what you think about the issues that the WAF has stood for and pushed over these 25 years, for that demonstration of courage alone it deserves our respect.
According to a Dawn report about the WAF silver jubilee:
All three chapters of the WAF, Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, have gathered [in Lahore] to celebrate 25 years of the founding of the forum, the women’s rights organisation working in close collaboration with other civil society and democratic forces to defend the rights of women and all oppressed and marginalised sections of society…. These and hundreds of other, anonymous, women pioneers representing the struggle by civil society against the forces of obscurantism broke the ice at a time when chilly winds blew across the country, freezing even the few men who dared to speak up in their tracks, as efforts were being made by Gen Zia’s dictatorial regime to further gag the women, the minorities and the democratic voices.
The defunct student and trade unions and the harassed political activists later joined the struggle led by the show of courage that these brave women put up against what they saw as distortion of the social order and dreams of an emancipated society that Pakistanis from all religious, ethnic and economic backgrounds had long cherished. The Women’s Action Forum emerged on the scene as a vanguard of a movement that defied General Zia’s martial law and its torturous tactics. On Feb 12, 1983, the WAF along with the Pakistan Women Lawyers’ Association took out a public rally against the Law of Evidence on The Mall, Lahore, which came under brutal police attack. The late poet Habib Jalib was prevailed upon to rally the women demonstrators with his rebel-rousing poetry before being beaten by the police. This was a turning point in the gathering of democratic forces against military dictatorship.
Related posts on: Rape Laws in Pakstan and ATP Poll on Women’s Rights Action.
[quote]”The sad bit is WAF’s ultimate failure is because of the PPP and not because of Zia.”[/quote]
I don’t think WAF has failed. On the contrary, it was solely responsible for changing the mindset of women in Pakistan and giving them a voice. The origin of most of the progress in the area of women’s rights that you see today in Pakistan can be traced back to WAF. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) is a direct offshoot of WAF.
The young Chinese man who blocked the way of a tank in Tiananman square in 1989 did not trigger a revolution overnight but did light a bulb in millions of heads in China and around the world.
Hear Hear!! Thank You for doing this piece Najam. These women truly deserve a grand salute.
From Stalin to Gorbechev is what comes to mind when i think of Zia and Musharraf.
The destruction of Pakistans leftist movement is Zias greatest legacy ..leftists like those involved in WAF, while they were not destroyed by Zia they were marginalised from mainstream dialogue by Zias creation of a right wing constituency.
The sad bit is WAFs ultimate failure is because of the PPP and not because of Zia.
I was way too young to remember Zia regime with any clarity. However, I remember my mum stopped writing as a journalist because newspapers would not publish what she wanted to say. Now as I have grown older, I have learnt about the demonstrations she participated in and the brutalities that came with that participation.
My grandfather left for England (because of various reasons) at that time and all his books were hidden in an attic, it was only after his death we discovered some of them. If there was a dark period in Pakistan history of brain drain and erosion of knowledge it was Zia’s regime.
WAF, was and till today remains one of the main forces behind women rights in Pakistan and deserves respect for their courage.
who can forget those dark days when secret police use to visit people and confiscate books on politics and history of pakistan. these books were publically burnt as being rebellious to the government(dictatorship) of Pakistan. mention of Bhutto’s name was enough to land someone in jail.
i was a 5- 6 yr old then, i stil remember nightmares of police and CID knocking at our doors at night or early dawn, because my father was a trade union leader demanding rights for workers.
who can forget colony textile mills in multan where police and army fired on peaceful striking workers and killed dozens demanding their rights, the workers were enclosed within factory walls and police snipers were standing on roof tops just like the 1919 jallian wallah bagh massacre the only difference is that general Dyer was imperialist Englishman, while general Zia and his troops killed their fellow pakistanis