Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, speaking at the 6th convocation ceremony of Lahore College for Women University on Saturday, said that “a nation cannot progress without active involvement of women in all walks of life”. He also safely quoted Mao Zedong: “Women hold up half of the sky. To take over the sky and to rule the earth requires a significant contribution from women”.
Across the oceans in the United Kingdom, Information Minister Ms Sherry Rehman, while addressing the Oxford Union Society, proudly highlighted “the political progress” of women in Pakistan, saying their representation in politics was higher than in some developed democracies. A reference, of course, was made to Pakistan being the first Islamic nation to have a woman as prime minister.
Of course, it would have been impolite to mention that Pakistan was also the first Islamic state to cruelly assassinate Ms Bhutto, not to mention the many years in exile she had to endure for survival. The quotation from Mao was also neither here nor there. In Pakistan, the Taliban are robbing the women of their patch of the sky, which is already very small given the on-going transformation of the country in favour of extremist views. It is, of course, praiseworthy that we have a lady speaker in the National Assembly — a great improvement on the old male incumbent — and that a “dictator” got the parliament to admit more women on special seats, but the parliament frequently says things about women that the world hears with disbelief.
The latest news is not that the girls in the Tribal Areas can no longer get education, it is that the rest of the country is fast imitating the “model” Islamic order of places like Swat where girls’ schools have been bombed and some lady teachers have been put to death. The latest news is that in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, restaurants have banned entry to women “apparently after being pressured by religious elements”. Quetta restaurants already had separate rooms for lady customers; now they have put up a placard saying: “For gentlemen only. Women not allowed”.
Read More