Women Work: A Case Study of Raana Liaquat Ali Khan

INTRODUCTION
There have historically been two views about women in politics.
One, what can be called the patriarchal view, is that women do
not belong in politics because politics requires calculations and
rationality and women lack in them. This view has also been
endorsed by some cultural feminists calling politics a mens
arena and saying women should separate themselves from it
completely. The other view, which can be called the feminist
view, holds that women have always been part of politics and
their voices and their contributions have been consistently
either ignored or forcefully repressed. This view stresses that
women are forced into the private sphere and focuses on
womens roles and their actions in the public sphere. We
subscribe to the second view. We believe women face several
discursive, ideological, cultural, societal and personal barriers
to performing in politics.
This raises the question as to whether women have a distinct
politics. It has been shown that women when in power show
distinct politics. Farzana Bari has demonstrated 1 that women
parliamentarians tend to focus more on soft-sector issues like
education and health and also focus on womens issues. This
might not necessarily be true in all cases but it does point in a
certain direction. The second question is how does the position
of women (in relation to class, ethnicity etc) affect their
politics? Does a woman from the bourgeoisie have different
politics from a proletariat and more importantly how does this
position affect areas and avenues for politics?
To answer these questions we have chosen as a case study for
women work in politics Begum Raana Liaquat Ali Khan. We
chose her for two reasons:

1 Bari, Farzana (2008) Assessment of the Performance of Women

Parliamentarians (2002-2007). Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI)

1) As First Lady she had great avenues for politics and was
relatively freer than most women.
2) She lived throughout the Cold War and saw the many
changes in the political system and the politics of
Pakistan.
We will analyse her career and try to find out her contributions
to solving the issues faced by women in Pakistan.

BIOGRAPHY
Begum Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan (13 February 1905 13 June
1990) was born in Uttarakhand, India, to a military family who
had converted from Hinduism to Christianity in 1887. Her birth
name was Sheila Irene Pant.2 She was educated at
the University of Lucknow where she gained degrees in
Economics and Religion studies. Later she also obtained a
degree in Sociology. She was appointed as Professor of
Economics in the Indraprastha College, of Delhi. There she met
Liaquat Ali Khan in 1931 and in December 1932 they got
married and she changed her name to Ra'anna Liaqat Ali
Khan3.
She was politically active from the start. She organized her
students against the Simon Commission and became politically
active, with her husband, in the Pakistan Movement. Due to her
efforts she was appointed as an executive member of the
Muslim League and the Chairperson of the Economic Division of
the Party and was also part of Jinnahs Working Committee as
an Economic Advisor4.

2 (APWA), All Pakistan Woman Association. "APWA Public Press". APWA

Directorate for Public Services. All Pakistan Woman Association.
3 Faisal Abdulla. "Women of Pakistan: Begum Ra'ana Liaqat Ali Khan". Jazbah
Magazine.
4 ibid

When she became the First Lady of Pakistan she formed a

Nursing Core for women to help the refugees and faced stiff
resistance from the conservative sections of society. In 1949
she formed the All Pakistan Women's Association (APWA) an
organization for the promotion of womens rights and the uplift
of women. She was also instrumental in forming the Pakistan
Women National Guards (PWNG)5 but that quickly faltered after
her husbands death due to lack of funds. After her husbands
assassination she was appointed as Pakistans ambassador to
Netherlands, Italy and Tunisia. In 1972 she expressed support
for Zulfiqar Ali Bhuttos government and was appointed the
Governor of Sindh in 1973. She was dismissed by the Zia-ulHaq government in 1976. During the 80s she criticized the
government for its anti-women policies and the Islamic Laws
despite her advanced age. She died on 13th June, 1990 and is
buried in Karachi.

CONTEXT BUILDING
Raana Liaquat Ali was situated in a particular context that
helped her throughout her life.
First, she came from a rich and powerful family that educated
their daughter despite the times. With education also came
exposure to new ideas and this gave her the politically
moderate and liberal temperament.
Second, she was a Muhajir. This ethnic group dominated
Pakistan during the 50s. Muhajir people formed the elite upper
crust of Muslim Indian society. If she had belonged to any other
ethnicity, say for instance Sindhi, she might not have been able
to achieve all that.

5 "Legend: Ra'ana Liaqat Ali Khan" (ASPX). The Directorate for Electronic
Government. Women Parliament Caucuses of Pakistan Parliament. 2010.
Retrieved 2011.

Third, she was the First Lady of Pakistan and that gave her
almost complete power in decision making.
It was this particular context that propelled her to the top. If, for
instance, she had not married Liaquat Ali Khan she would not
have been able to achieve half of the things she actually did
and would be remembered only as a minor Muslim League
activist like, say, Fatima Sughra.

ANALYSIS
Raana Liaquat Ali makes a very interesting case study because
of the following reasons:
1) It shows that being a woman does not necessarily mean
being a feminist or having a feminist perspective or carrying
out feminist politics. In her case her politics were very liberal.
She did not want to transform the society in which she was
living to make it more accommodating towards women but
instead only wanted to add women to existing frameworks.
2) It shows how completely dependent she was on her husband
as all her pro-women activities died out after the death of her
husband. It was also because of her husband that she could
move up so quickly in the ranks of the Muslim League. After
Partition she had no independent means of income as well.
3) Her case study shows how severely limited are the options of
female politicians and how dependent they are on males to
carry on politics. Politics is very male-centric and women still
are dependent on male relatives to push their ideas forward.
4) It shows the importance of having a power base and how
women politicians cannot develop a power base because of
several functional constraints. If Raana Liaquat had a strong
power base she could not only carry on with her pro-women
actions after her husbands death but Zia-ul-Haq would not not
have been able to remove her from her position as Governor of
Sindh.

5) Raana Liaquats performance as a politician is pretty bad.

She did not push for any pro-women legislation during her time
as First Lady or even as Governor of Sindh. She did not take up
any initiatives that sought to structurally change patriarchy and
her political career was in all entireties nothing special.
6) She did not take any concrete steps to make women
politicians feel more comfort in their vocations. She did not
push for affirmative action or any other concrete steps.
7) Finally she also did nothing for her ethnic or religious
minorities in the country.
These can all be attributed to two things. One that she was not
completely immune from patriarchal thinking and second that
she lacked independence and was completely dependent on
others. This is something that women from all walks of life
generally face.

CONCLUSION
It is obvious that women politician face serious challenges in
the public sphere but this also does not mean that women
politicians want to change this. As our case study shows even
the most powerful of women cannot exit patriarchy or even
want to change it for that matter. In order for us to counter
patriarchy we must not limit ourselves to merely adding women
to existing structures but ins seeking to transform those
structures.