By B. R. Gowani
In the late 1980s, Pakistan became the first Muslim country in the world to elect a woman as its prime minister. In doing so, it was following the South Asian tradition of widows and daughters of prime ministers entering politics and taking a leading role. Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1960 became the first woman in the world to head a government. (Later, her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga became prime minister and president.) India had Indira Gandhi. Bangladesh is the only country in the world to have a woman prime minister and a woman as the main opposition leader. Both Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina Wazed have changed roles twice.
And not surprisingly, none of the women did anything notable for women’s cause because they entered the men’s world and basically pursued similar policies. The South Asians can feel proud that four out of seven (or nine, if Afghanistan and Myanmar are included) countries have had women prime ministers. The pride ends there. Killing of women for dowry, in the name of honor or religion, and the acid disfiguring of women still exist and remain a cause for shame. And now there is a new menace in the form of Taliban who proudly video tape their barbarity and distribute it to create terror amongst the populous. They have succeeded; women (and men) have become fearful in Pakistan.
When women on streets are threatened by strangers to cover up; when taxi drivers warn women to cover up; when the videos of women and men being flogged by the wild militants circulate freely; when the videos of Taliban cutting off a man’s head and placing it on his body are rampant on the internet, who would not feel terrorized? Normal people would feel a chill run up their spine at witnessing this barbarity.
Whether the statements coming out of Washington pre- and post-Zardari visit, or the sudden revelation to Pakistan’s ruling class that the words of the Muslim militants are not to be trusted or the Pakistan military’s much delayed (Lal Masjid style) action is a last minute effort to save Pakistan or to make arrangements for Pakistan’s funeral-pyre, only time will tell.
Meanwhile, as the saying goes: the show must go on, that is, the people should cling to hope. In these delicate times, one has to do whatever is possible. One possibility which can be converted into reality is to form a women’s political party with a progressive agenda. In this endeavor, they can rely on the help of progressive men.
This is the right time for progressive women to come forward and form a political party because people are fed up with the current leaders: government and opposition.
These leaders have neither any democratic inclination nor are they enlightened enough to consider putting the country on a democratic and progressive path — much less, empowering women.
Nawaz Sharif is cozy with the Saudis and the Islamic parties. The US was thinking of planting him in the Prime Minister’s seat because Zardari is too weak. That plan will have to wait as Zardari* has said all the right things during his US visit. (His ambassador is a step ahead in the PR department and has gotten into the good books of the US ruling class.) Imran Khan has been kidnapped by the Holy Ghost, or more correctly, Hamid Gul, long ago. Khan’s anti-US stand has retarded his thinking to such an extent that he is incapable of seeing how would Pakistan fare under Taliban rule?
Yes, the root cause of the present crisis is the US government. But one should not forget that the Pakistan military’s mixing Islam and politics, and the feudal characters of the leaders are equally responsible. But are the Taliban any better?
There are a total of 76 or 22.5% women in Pakistan’s lower assembly and 17 or 17% in the upper assembly. Many of them may desire to do something to improve the condition of their sisters but their party leaders are the perpetual perpetrators of women’s inferior role in society.
The late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party is the only major liberal party. The women members of the party may have joined hoping that they’ll be able to get some of the reforms on women’s issues passed and implemented. Even when they do succeed and a bill is passed, to expect an implementation is unrealistic; especially when the country is going through uncertain times.
Sherry Rehman, the former Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, showed courage and resigned over differences with Zardari regarding the freedom of the press issue. She should now quit PPP and invite Lila Thadani, Sheema Kirmani, Zubeida Mustafa, Kamila Hayat, Attiya Dawood, Fatima Bhutto, Maleeha Lodhi, Fehmida Riaz, Kishwar Nahid, and other progressive women to form a women’s political party.
Pakistan already has the First Women Bank Limited since 1989 (created during Benazir’s first reign).
Now they can have their own political party. If in the parliament they are able to garner 10% of the votes, they can force the ruling or the opposition party to listen to women’s issues through their power to align with either of them in order to grant them a majority in the National Assembly and the Senate.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com
*He has become quite savvy as evident from the interviews. Talking to Spiegel Online he said: “I would advise you to read about the Afghan wars. It’s the way the Taliban, who are Pashtuns, fight: They take you on and then they melt into the mountains. And you often can’t tell who is who or what they are up to. These men are like old Indian chiefs in the US who didn’t want to recognize the fact that, by then, they were ruled by American laws.”
Regarding Zardari’s comment on the Indian chiefs, it was obvious that the Native Indians in the US, whose land was stolen, were going to fight till the end. However, some of the Taliban in Pakistan (and in Afghanistan) are foreigners like the white Europeans who “discovered” the Americas and then through genocidal wars became the masters of the land, and so the comparison does not really apply.