Redistributed by Prof Shafaat Yar Khan for CSS Aspirants

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Online User Monday, October 18, 2010

A Conversation with Bilquis Edhi (Pakistan)

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▼ October (5)
A Conversation with Bilquis
Edhi (Pakistan)
Women of Pakistan & Legal
Empowerment
Bilquis Edhi is a humanitarian and a social worker. She has been working with
The situation of women in
Pakistan the Edhi Foundation since the early 60's. Edhi Foundation which was started
Women of Pakistan by Abdual Sattar Edhi with the mission to provide aid to Pakistan's poor and
MINISTRY OF WOMEN down-trodden has become Pakistan's major relief organization under the
DEVELOPMENT IN
leadership of the husband and wife team of Adbul Sattar and Bilquis Edhi.
PAKISTAN
Today, in addition to services provided in Pakistan, Edhi foundation is a major
► September (7)
► August (8) resource for assisting victims of disaster internationally... more on Bilquis
► July (5) Edhi.
► June (12)
► May (3) Interviewer's note: This interview was conducted at The Edhi Centre at
► March (9) Mithadar (old city district of Karachi) in November 2003. The conversation was
► January (5) in Urdu and has been translated into English by the interviewer.
► 2009 (193)
What prompted you to join the Edhi Foundation? What were the
Redistributed
conditionsby Prof Shafaat
(of Edhi Yar Khan for
Foundation) CSS
like Aspirants
when you first joined?

I was in school at the time and had recently sat for my 8th grade
examinations. I wasn’t too fond of studying so I left school and
joined the nurses training course at the Edhi Nurses Training
Centre. Later, Edhi Sahib proposed to me, and we got married in
April 1966.

Edhi sahib’s sole possessions at the time were a broken old car
and a small dispensary. There was a maternity home on the first
floor with 6-7 beds, a small room – 6’ X 6’ on the ground floor
which served as an office and a similar room on the first floor.
There wasn’t much else but even in those days when we had very
limited resources, people used to leave their kids with us. I used
to look after them.

What was your first major experience at the Edhi

Foundation - something that left an impact on you early on
in your career?

During the 1965 war with India, the bombings resulted in a

number of brutally mutilated bodies which we had to wash for
burial. At times only an arm, leg or head was recovered. We were
about 60-70 workers including voluntary workers collecting and
then washing these bodies.

What are your current responsibilities at the Foundation?

My current responsibilities include looking after the ladies section,

giving away children for adoption – mostly looking after women-
specific and children related sections throughout Pakistan. My two
daughters also work closely with me. We regularly visit our
centres all over Pakistan to monitor their activities and give
suggestions and recommendations on how we feel the work should
be done. We also call our centres on a daily basis to ask if our
help is needed with anything.

With regard to child adoption, what is the criteria that you

use to approve / disapprove of couples who want to adopt
a child?

Couples who want to adopt a child are interviewed by me. My

criteria for adoption are as follows:

• Even after 10-12 years of marriage the couple is still

childless.
• Prospective father’s salary should be reasonable.
• Prospective father should not have alcohol or drug-
related problems.
• Prospective mother’s age should be younger than 50.
• Couple should own a house
 Redistributed by Prof Shafaat Yar Khan for CSS Aspirants
I don’t give children to couples who keep changing their house –
keep moving from one place to another.

Kids who are physically or mentally disabled are cared for by us.
We have a separate section for them where we clean them, feed
them, play with them etc. They remain with us for the rest of
their lives.

Aside from the disabled children, what about the other

children who don’t get adopted?

This is not a problem. We have over 4,000 applications in hand.

We don’t have enough kids to give to people. So we can be
About Me
careful in selecting prospective parents. We have a shariatnama in
place which we make the parents sign where it is explicitly
Admin
mentioned that in case of separation between the parents, the
View my complete profile Centre will reclaim the child or let the child stay with the mother.
Followers
Edhi Foundation keeps expanding by adding new welfare
services every now and then. How do you see Pakistan's
future in view of the services that are being rendered by
you?

When we go abroad we come back with lots of ideas. My husband

dreams of the day when welfare facilities here would be
comparable to those you find abroad. But right now this seems like
a distant dream. We don’t even have clean drinking water here.
Load shedding is an ongoing problem. After the recent oil spill [in
Karachi] when the oil tanker broke in half, people were saying that
our country had gone back 20 years in time. As far as I am
concerned in the last 55 years we have not moved forward. We
are still where we were 55 years ago.

[Edhi sahib and I] both think of things for the future. Edhi Sahib,
when he comes up with an idea he writes it down. In 1976 we
were involved in an accident which took place near a village with
no airport or landing strip nearby. Around this time a building
collapsed in Karachi - Bismillah Building. This was the time Bhutto
Sahib was in power. Noticing Edhi sahib’s absence from the scene
of the disaster he inquired as to his whereabouts upon which he
was told of the situation. Bhutto sahib immediately dispatched a
small airplane to pick us up. Edhi Sahib was admitted to the Civil
Hospital in Karachi where shortly after gaining consciousness, he
remarked that he would also like to buy a plane. I asked how will
you be able to afford a plane – your current situation is such that
when you put your hand in your pocket for some loose change,
thread comes out instead. He was not disheartened and pushed
on. Alhamdulillah we now have a plane, helicopters everything.

What has it been like being Edhi Sahib’s wife?

Redistributed
He is a by Prof Shafaat
good man. AYar Khanshort
little for CSS Aspirants but good at heart. He
tempered
still hasn’t built his own house yet. For the first 4-5 years after
marriage, I used to live on the roof. Later, after the birth of my
four kids, we moved to my mother’s house. My mother looked
after my kids. On a daily basis I used to shuffle between her
house and the Edhi Centre. After the kids grew up and got
married, my mother passed away. Edhi Sahib spends most of his
time at the Edhi Centre. Even when we were with my mother, he
mostly spent his time looking after the affairs of the Edhi
Foundation. In our 36-37 years of marriage there may have been
at least 36 occasions where Edhi Sahib never even came home at
night. He practically lived at the Edhi Centre here in Mithadar.
Even now when our children want to see him, they bring lunch
from their home and come and eat with us.

Have you ever taken some time out from work? Have you
ever vacationed with Edhi Sahib?

We have never taken any time out from work but we have spent
some good time together on the job. In the last 34-35 years there
have been many occasions where we have had to drop off patients
and deceased people to far off villages. After dropping them off,
on the way back we have stopped over in villages and rural areas
where we have been treated to lassi, chicken in gravy among
other delicacies and looked after extremely well by the people of
those areas. We have also sat on charpoys with our feet in the
water – fresh cold water streams abound in these areas. So we
have had some good times together. On these trips we used to
feel like we were extremely rich people with cars of our own.
Others who lived around us didn’t have any cars so they used to
request us to take them along whenever we went on such trips.
We used to take one or two of them along with us.

Has the government of Pakistan been supportive of your

cause?

The Government of Pakistan has never created any obstacles for

us. We never faced any resistance. In fact we get a lot of moral
support from ordinary citizens, government agencies including the
police. Only last night a child was found by the police – they
straightaway brought the child to our centre.

Have international organizations approached you for

donation purposes? Have you ever accepted donations from
them?

International organizations such as the World Bank have offered

us millions of dollars but we refuse all such offers. We only take
money from Pakistanis residing in Pakistan or abroad. We have
Redistributed by Prof Shafaat
Edhi Centres Yar Khan
in England andfor the
CSS US
Aspirants
where again donations are
only accepted from the expatriates residing there.

In the wake of Hakeem Said's and Dr. Ghulam Murtaza's

murders, a lot of people are thinking that Edhi sahib and
you are also prime targets. Does this situation bother you?

We have been receiving death threats from the outset but we are
not afraid. Death will come at an appointed time, and when its
time we won’t be able to do anything about it. So we are not
afraid.

Who will look after the Edhi Foundation after both you and
Edhi Sahib have retired?

Faisal, Kubra, Zeenat and Almas – all my children are educated,

bright young people. After us, they will look after the Edhi
Foundation.

source:www.jazbah.org
Posted by Admin at 1:29 AM 2 comments:

Women of Pakistan & Legal Empowerment

Redistributed by Prof Shafaat Yar Khan for CSS Aspirants
THE CRIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT

ACT, 2004

The Ministry of Women Development promotes the rights of

women to security & life. It took substantive initiative, first in
South Asia, by promulgating law titled “The Criminal Law
(Amendment) Act 2004”. The new law on honor killing makes
change in the existing criminal law to deal effectively with
offenders. The salient features of this law are as under.

CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE (AMENDMENT)

ORDINANCE, 2006

The President of Pakistan promulgated an Ordinance on 8th July,

2006 by amending section 497 of CRPC to grant bail to women in
jails on charges other than terrorism and murder. According to the
information provided by provinces, eight hundred and forty eight
(848) female prisoners have been released from different prisons
of Pakistan under this new law.

PROTECTION OF WOMEN (CRIMINAL LAW) AMENDMENT ACT,

2006

Protection of Women (Criminal’s Laws Amendment) Act, 2006 has

been enacted on 1st December, 2006 to provide relief and
protection to women against misuse and abuse of law and to
prevent their exploitation. The object of this Act is to bring the
laws related to Zina and Qazf, in particular, in conformity with the
stated objectives of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the
Constitutional mandate. This Act contains 30 important
amendments in the existing ‘Offence of Zina and Qazf
(Enforcement of Hadood Ordinance 1979)’, the ‘Pakistan Penal
Code (Act XLV of 1860)’, the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 (Act
V of 1898)’ and the ‘Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939’.

INITIATIVE FOR LEGISLATION ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

AND PREVENTION OF ANTI WOMEN PRACTICES

I. Domestic Violence, hidden in nature and considered as a private

matter involves physical, sexual, emotional, social, economic
and psychological abuse committed by a person. There is a
need to provide legal mechanism for protection of victims of
domestic violence inline with the provision of the Constitution
of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. To address this alarming
issue, Ministry of Women Development and Ministry of Law
have been actively involved in the finalization of a draft Bill
called Domestic Violence against Women and Children
Redistributed by Prof Shafaat
(Prevention andYarProtection)
Khan for CSS Aspirants
Bill, 2007, by
the National
Assembly Standing Committee on Women Development. The
draft Bill has been forwarded to the concerned
Ministries/Divisions/Departments for views/comments.

II. With a view to banishing harmful age-old customary practices

like forced marriages, marriage with Quran, Vani-Swara etc. A
Draft Bill under the title, “Prevention of Anti-Women Practices
(Criminal Law Amendments), Bill 2006” moved by a former
parliamentarian is under study/review by the Select Committee of
National Assembly.

source:202.83.164.26
Posted by Admin at 1:25 AM 1 comment:

The situation of women in Pakistan

"No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side
by side with you; we are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against
humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the
houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable
condition in which our women have to live."
Mohammad Ali Jinnah, 1944
(taken from the US Library of Congress report "Pakistan - A Country Study")

Men, Women, and the Division of Space

Gender relations in Pakistan rest on two basic perceptions: that women are
subordinate to men, and that a man's honor resides in the actions of the
women of his family. Thus, as in other orthodox Muslim societies, women are
responsible for maintaining the family honor. To ensure that they do not
dishonor their families, society limits women's mobility, places restrictions on
their behavior and activities, and permits them only limited contact with the
opposite sex. Space is allocated to and used differently by men and women.
For their protection and respectability, women have traditionally been
expected to live under the constraints of purdah (purdah is Persian for
Redistributed
curtain), by Prof
most ShafaatinYar
obvious KhanBy
veiling. forseparating
CSS Aspirants
women from the activities of
men, both physically and symbolically, purdah creates differentiated male and
female spheres. Most women spend the major part of their lives physically
within their homes and courtyards and go out only for serious and approved
reasons. Outside the home, social life generally revolves around the activities
of men. In most parts of the country, except perhaps in Islamabad, Karachi,
and wealthier parts of a few other cities, people consider a woman--and her
family--to be shameless if no restrictions are placed on her mobility.

Purdah is practiced in various ways, depending on family tradition, region,

class, and rural or urban residence, but nowhere do unrelated men and
women mix freely. The most extreme restraints are found in parts of the
North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan, where women almost never
leave their homes except when they marry and almost never meet unrelated
men. They may not be allowed contact with male cousins on their mother's
side, for these men are not classed as relatives in a strongly patrilineal
society. Similarly, they have only very formal relations with those men they
are allowed to meet, such as the father-in-law, paternal uncles, and brothers-
in-law.

Poor rural women, especially in Punjab and Sindh, where gender relations are
generally somewhat more relaxed, have greater mobility because they are
responsible for transplanting rice seedlings, weeding crops, raising chickens
and selling eggs, and stuffing wool or cotton into comforters (razais). When a
family becomes more prosperous and begins to aspire to higher status, it
commonly requires stricter purdah among its women as a first social change.

Poor urban women in close-knit communities, such as the old cities of Lahore
and Rawalpindi, generally wear either a burqa (fitted body veil) or a chador
(loosely draped cotton cloth used as a head covering and body veil) when
they leave their homes. In these localities, multistory dwellings (havelis) were
constructed to accommodate large extended families. Many havelis have now
been sectioned off into smaller living units to economize. It is common for one
nuclear family (with an average of seven members) to live in one or two
rooms on each small floor. In less densely populated areas, where people
generally do not know their neighbors, there are fewer restrictions on
women's mobility.

The shared understanding that women should remain within their homes so
neighbors do not gossip about their respectability has important implications
for their productive activities. As with public life in general, work appears to
be the domain of men. Rural women work for consumption or for exchange at
the subsistence level. Others, both rural and urban, do piecework for very low
wages in their homes. Their earnings are generally recorded as part of the
family income that is credited to men. Census data and other accounts of
economic activity in urban areas support such conclusions. For example, the
1981 census reported that 5.6 percent of all women were employed, as
opposed to 72.4 percent of men; less than 4 percent of all urban women were
Redistributed
engaged by Prof Shafaat
in some form ofYar Khan work.
salaried for CSS
ByAspirants
1988 this figure had increased
significantly, but still only 10.2 percent of women were reported as
participating in the labor force.

Among wealthier Pakistanis, urban or rural residence is less important than

family tradition in influencing whether women observe strict purdah and the
type of veil they wear. In some areas, women simply observe "eye purdah":
they tend not to mix with men, but when they do, they avert their eyes when
interacting with them. Bazaars in wealthier areas of Punjabi cities differ from
those in poorer areas by having a greater proportion of unveiled women. In
cities throughout the North-West Frontier Province, Balochistan, and the
interior of Sindh, bazaars are markedly devoid of women, and when a woman
does venture forth, she always wears some sort of veil.

The traditional division of space between the sexes is perpetuated in the

broadcast media. Women's subservience is consistently shown on television
and in films. And, although popular television dramas raise controversial
issues such as women working, seeking divorce, or even having a say in
family politics, the programs often suggest that the woman who strays from
traditional norms faces insurmountable problems and becomes alienated from
her family.

The Status of Women and the Women's Movement

Four important challenges confronted women in Pakistan in the early 1990s:

increasing practical literacy, gaining access to employment opportunities at all
levels in the economy, promoting change in the perception of women's roles
and status, and gaining a public voice both within and outside of the political
process. There have been various attempts at social and legal reform aimed at
improving Muslim women's lives in the subcontinent during the twentieth
century. These attempts generally have been related to two broader,
intertwined movements: the social reform movement in British India and the
growing Muslim nationalist movement. Since partition, the changing status of
women in Pakistan largely has been linked with discourse about the role of
Islam in a modern state. This debate concerns the extent to which civil rights
common in most Western democracies are appropriate in an Islamic society
and the way these rights should be reconciled with Islamic family law.

Muslim reformers in the nineteenth century struggled to introduce female

education, to ease some of the restrictions on women's activities, to limit
polygyny, and to ensure women's rights under Islamic law. Sir Syed Ahmad
Khan convened the Mohammedan Educational Conference in the 1870s to
promote modern education for Muslims, and he founded the Muhammadan
Anglo- Oriental College. Among the predominantly male participants were
many of the earliest proponents of education and improved social status for
women. They advocated cooking and sewing classes conducted in a religious
framework to advance women's knowledge and skills and to reinforce Islamic
values. But progress in women's literacy was slow: by 1921 only four out of
Redistributed by Prof
every 1,000 Shafaat
Muslim Yar were
females Khan literate.
for CSS Aspirants

Promoting the education of women was a first step in moving beyond the
constraints imposed by purdah. The nationalist struggle helped fray the
threads in that socially imposed curtain. Simultaneously, women's roles were
questioned, and their empowerment was linked to the larger issues of
nationalism and independence. In 1937 the Muslim Personal Law restored
rights (such as inheritance of property) that had been lost by women under
the Anglicization of certain civil laws. As independence neared, it appeared
that the state would give priority to empowering women. Pakistan's founding
father, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, said in a speech in 1944:

No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side
with you; we are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that
our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There
is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have
to live.

After independence, elite Muslim women in Pakistan continued to advocate

women's political empowerment through legal reforms. They mobilized
support that led to passage of the Muslim Personal Law of Sharia in 1948,
which recognized a woman's right to inherit all forms of property. They were
also behind the futile attempt to have the government include a Charter of
Women's Rights in the 1956 constitution. The 1961 Muslim Family Laws
Ordinance covering marriage and divorce, the most important sociolegal
reform that they supported, is still widely regarded as empowering to women.

Two issues--promotion of women's political representation and

accommodation between Muslim family law and democratic civil rights--came
to dominate discourse about women and sociolegal reform. The second issue
gained considerable attention during the regime of Zia ul-Haq (1977-88).
Urban women formed groups to protect their rights against apparent
discrimination under Zia's Islamization program. It was in the highly visible
realm of law that women were able to articulate their objections to the
Islamization program initiated by the government in 1979. Protests against
the 1979 Enforcement of Hudood Ordinances focused on the failure of hudood
ordinances to distinguish between adultery (zina) and rape (zina-bil-jabr). A
man could be convicted of zina only if he were actually observed committing
the offense by other men, but a woman could be convicted simply because
she became pregnant.

The Women's Action Forum was formed in 1981 to respond to the

implementation of the penal code and to strengthen women's position in
society generally. The women in the forum, most of whom came from elite
families, perceived that many of the laws proposed by the Zia government
were discriminatory and would compromise their civil status. In Karachi,
Lahore, and Islamabad the group agreed on collective leadership and
formulated policy statements and engaged in political action to safeguard
Redistributed
women's by Prof
legal Shafaat Yar Khan for CSS Aspirants
position.

The Women's Action Forum has played a central role in exposing the
controversy regarding various interpretations of Islamic law and its role in a
modern state, and in publicizing ways in which women can play a more active
role in politics. Its members led public protests in the mid-1980s against the
promulgation of the Law of Evidence. Although the final version was
substantially modified, the Women's Action Forum objected to the legislation
because it gave unequal weight to testimony by men and women in financial
cases. Fundamentally, they objected to the assertion that women and men
cannot participate as legal equals in economic affairs.

Beginning in August 1986, the Women's Action Forum members and their
supporters led a debate over passage of the Shariat Bill, which decreed that
all laws in Pakistan should conform to Islamic law. They argued that the law
would undermine the principles of justice, democracy, and fundamental rights
of citizens, and they pointed out that Islamic law would become identified
solely with the conservative interpretation supported by Zia's government.
Most activists felt that the Shariat Bill had the potential to negate many of the
rights women had won. In May 1991, a compromise version of the Shariat Bill
was adopted, but the debate over whether civil law or Islamic law should
prevail in the country continued in the early 1990s.

Discourse about the position of women in Islam and women's roles in a

modern Islamic state was sparked by the government's attempts to formalize
a specific interpretation of Islamic law. Although the issue of evidence became
central to the concern for women's legal status, more mundane matters such
as mandatory dress codes for women and whether females could compete in
international sports competitions were also being argued.

Another of the challenges faced by Pakistani women concerns their integration

into the labor force. Because of economic pressures and the dissolution of
extended families in urban areas, many more women are working for wages
than in the past. But by 1990 females officially made up only 13 percent of
the labor force. Restrictions on their mobility limit their opportunities, and
traditional notions of propriety lead families to conceal the extent of work
performed by women.

Usually, only the poorest women engage in work--often as midwives,

sweepers, or nannies--for compensation outside the home. More often, poor
urban women remain at home and sell manufactured goods to a middleman
for compensation. More and more urban women have engaged in such
activities during the 1990s, although to avoid being shamed few families
willingly admit that women contribute to the family economically. Hence,
there is little information about the work women do. On the basis of the
predominant fiction that most women do no work other than their domestic
chores, the government has been hesitant to adopt overt policies to increase
women's employment options and to provide legal support for women's labor
Redistributed by Prof Shafaat Yar Khan for CSS Aspirants
force participation.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) commissioned a national study

in 1992 on women's economic activity to enable policy planners and donor
agencies to cut through the existing myths on female labor-force
participation. The study addresses the specific reasons that the assessment of
women's work in Pakistan is filled with discrepancies and underenumeration
and provides a comprehensive discussion of the range of informal- sector
work performed by women throughout the country. Information from this
study was also incorporated into the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1993-98).

A melding of the traditional social welfare activities of the women's movement

and its newly revised political activism appears to have occurred. Diverse
groups including the Women's Action Forum, the All-Pakistan Women's
Association, the Pakistan Women Lawyers' Association, and the Business and
Professional Women's Association, are supporting small-scale projects
throughout the country that focus on empowering women. They have been
involved in such activities as instituting legal aid for indigent women, opposing
the gendered segregation of universities, and publicizing and condemning the
growing incidents of violence against women. The Pakistan Women Lawyers'
Association has released a series of films educating women about their legal
rights; the Business and Professional Women's Association is supporting a
comprehensive project inside Yakki Gate, a poor area inside the walled city of
Lahore; and the Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi has promoted networks among
women who work at home so they need not be dependent on middlemen to
acquire raw materials and market the clothes they produce.

The women's movement has shifted from reacting to government legislation

to focusing on three primary goals: securing women's political representation
in the National Assembly; working to raise women's consciousness,
particularly about family planning; and countering suppression of women's
rights by defining and articulating positions on events as they occur in order
to raise public awareness. An as yet unresolved issue concerns the
perpetuation of a set number of seats for women in the National Assembly.
Many women activists whose expectations were raised during the brief tenure
of Benazir Bhutto's first government (December 1988-August 1990) now
believe that, with her return to power in October 1993, they can seize the
initiative to bring about a shift in women's personal and public access to
power.

SOURCE:www.islamfortoday.com

Posted by Admin at 1:14 AM 1 comment:

Women of Pakistan
Redistributed
Scalingby ProfHeights
the Shafaat Yar
of Khan for CSS Aspirants
Excellence

Women in Pakistan, are generally perceived to be confined to their houses in

a tightly controlled society. Although, generally true, the trends are now
changing. The 53% of total population is now finding avenues to express
them and come out the shell they have been encased in for many centuries.
However, there is a marked difference in their lives in urban and rural areas.
While most urbanized women can now get from basic to masters level
education, the women in rural areas are still struggling to reach up to
secondary level of education.

The Rural Women count for the majority of female population. From daily
household routine to joining their men folk in the fields at the time of harvest.
However, they generally do not have a share in the income and lack adequate
empowerment - but so do most women in the developing countries. Generally
the rural women is not only subjected to financial discrimination, but they are
also victims of inhuman customs and laws such as Karo Kari (the honour
killing by relatives of the girl if she elopes with a man of her own choosing)
and marriage to the Quran to save on the family property to being transferred
outside the family. Though, now people are voicing concern about these age
old stringent self proclaimed local laws, much still needs to be done. An active
women specific NGO, "The Women's Action Forum" is playing a central role in
exposing the controversy regarding various interpretations of Islamic law and
its role in a modern state, and in publicizing ways in which women can play a
more active role in politics.

Vocational and technical training for women tended to increase lately and
training schools in non-traditional fields such as electric technology, computer
technology, etc. are also increasing. However, many of the training programs
by the government still cling to traditional fields such as sewing and
embroidery where wages are low and employment opportunities are few and
opportunities
for management.
Redistributed
The Urban by Prof Shafaat
Women Yar Khanthe
, specially formajor
CSS Aspirants
cities are more independent, owing
to greater exposure to education of their men and impact of media. Now most
females find their way to schools, colleges, universities or scholarships
abroad. Other than the medicine, which was once considered to be the only
profession which women joined, now even the most technical spheres like
engineering, architecture, communications and IT. However, medicine remains
the most favoured field generally pursued by the women. Women can now be
seen encouraging cricket teams and participating all kinds of sports from
cricket to athletics and even marathon recently held in Lahore (though much
to the disgust to a section of conservists).

Today, women in Pakistan hold high ranking positions as the CEOs and
executives. Recently the president has appointed Dr Shamshad Akhtar as the
first female governor of the State Bank of Pakistan. Two lady doctors of the
Pakistan Army have also risen to the rank of major general. The female
doctors joined hands with the male doctors in the most inaccessible earth
quake hit areas in the northern part of Pakistan to treat the sick and
wounded.

There are many names to be honoured - Fatima Jinnah, Jinnah's sister who
stood by her brother when he was struggling for an independent Muslim state
from the British India, Razia Bhatti, the courageous journalist who braved the
man dominated media in Pakistan and won Courage in the Journalism award.
Then there is Anoushka, who became the first women and Pakistani of course
to have gone to the frozen Arctic region. And finally Raheela Gul, a young
women who was a trekker, expeditionist and history maker - had it not been
the mournful earthquake of 8 October 2005 struck and she succumbed to the
tragedy, Raheela would have been still with us - happily preparing for her
Amazon Rainforest expedition. Mehreen Jabbar, another promising women is
making headlines in filmmaking these days. Her work has appeared in many
film festivals around the world including The Hong Kong International Film
Festival, The San Francisco Asian-American Film Festival, and The Leeds Film
Festival in U. K. to name a few. At home, in Pakistan, her unconventional style
of story telling has earned her much acclaim and several awards. Nafis Sadiq,
Redistributed
physicianbyby
Profprofession,
Shafaat Yarhas
Khanspent
for CSS
a Aspirants
lifetime working on the politically
charged and non-glamorous issues of global population control and women’s
health, issues which at first glance some may consider irrelevant to their daily
lives. Yasmeen Lari has the distinction of being Pakistan’s first woman
architect. After retiring from a career in architecture which spanned over
thirty-five years, these days she is devoting her time to writing and serving as
an advisor to UNESCO project, Conservation and Preservation of Lahore Fort.
She is also the executive director of Heritage Foundation and the Chairperson
of Karavan Initiatives, both are organizations devoted to historic preservation.

Left to Right: Fatima Jinnah - Jinnah with women delegation - Razia Bhatti -
Women for their rights - Raheela Gul

Women as Pilots : Presence of women in the aviation has not a new

phenomenon since there have been a number of women pilots in the national
flag carrier PIA since long. PIA has some 548 and 6 female pilots and Miss
Shukriya Khanum was the first female pilot of PIA, who was awarded with
the commercial pilot license (CPL) as back as 12 July 1959. However, the
women pilots had generally been the co-pilots until 25 January - 2006 when a
completely female crewed Fokker of PIA operated from Islamabad to Lahore &
Multan. The team captained by Miss Ayesha Rabia (below left), co-pilot Sadia
Aziz, and flight attendants Shazia Kauser and Tauseef Ashraf flew a Fokker
Friendship F-27 Flight PK 632 from Islamabad to Multan via Lahore. The
passengers on board did not know of the First in Islamic Countries' History -
making crew till it landed at Lahore airport and the crew was garlanded by
the local PIA staff for their land mark achievement. Captain Ayesha Rabia
Naveed, 48, already has 6,000 hours' experience flying as a co-pilot with
Pakistan International Airlines, now aims to captain larger jet airliners for the
national carrier.
Redistributed by Prof Shafaat Yar Khan for CSS Aspirants

Now the women have gone a step further. It was like making history in
Pakistan, when four women pilots formally joined Pakistan Air Force on 30
March 2006. Saba Khan, Nadia Gul, Mariam Halil and Saira Batool (above
centre) were among 36 aviation cadets who received their wings after three
and a half years of intensive training, breaking into all-male bastion of
Pakistan armed forces. The then Vice-Chief of Army Staff General Ahsan
Saleem Hayat, the chief guest on the passing out ceremony at the PAF
Academy Risalpur said, "The four had shown the spirit and courage to rise
above the ordinary and break new ground for others to emulate." When
asked how did they feel about being a fighter pilot, one of the women pilots
remarked, "I want to fly fighter jets and prove that girls can equally serve our
country in the best possible manner as men are doing." Seen in photograph
above (above right) are Bismah and Fatima packing their chutes after a
successful para landing exercise near Risalpur.

On the
eve of
130th
birth

anniversary of Jinnah, the Founder of Pakistan and commonly known as

Quaid-e-Azam, the cadets of Pakistan Military Academy mounted guard at
the tomb of the father of the nation on 25 December 2006. But the
highlights of the this special guard was that it also included 6 FEMALE
CADETS INCLUDING ONE SIKH presently under training at the Military
Academy. The president of Pakistan, who was also present on the occasion
said that it was the effort of the government to provide equal rights to all,
Redistributed
whether by Prof Shafaat
minorities Yar Khan
or women as for CSSPakistani
every Aspirantswas being provided equal
rights in line with the principles of Quaid-e-Azam. He lauded the
performance of a Sikh cadet saying that for the first time the contingent of
Pakistan Military Academy has girls and a Sikh cadet. He also added that he
would like to get more of them in future and that he took the opportunity to
say how alert and vigilant they all were looking.

The women athletes have shown their mettle in

international sports events. In Pakistan’s female athlete
Shabana Akhtar won two gold medals for long jump in
the 1993 and 1995 SAF Games. Recently Naseem
Hameed (left), the female member of Pakistani squad

became the fastest women of South Asia in the 11 th

South Asian Federation (SAF) Games. The 22 years old clocked 11.81
seconds, 0.12seconds ahead of Sri Lanka’s Pramila Priyadarshani, and
clinched the gold for her country in the women event of 100 meter race. Not

only she became the fastest women of South Asia in the 11 th South Asian
Federation (SAF) Games, she also became the first female athlete to win the
race in Pakistan's sports history. Another female member of the Pakistan
squad Sara Nasir also bagged a gold in karate. The women cricket team of
Pakistan, though in its infancy, is also showing promise in international
matches and it would not be far when they too bring laurels for the country.

Efforts are now at hand to change and

uplift the role and status of women in
Pakistan. The Women's Division was
founded in 1979 as the Women's Division
of the Pakistani government. At the time of
the Unite Nations Decade for Women, the
Pakistan Government, which realized the
necessity for the improvement of women's position, upgraded the Women's
Division to the Federal Ministry of Women Development in 1989. It was
merged with the Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education and
reorganized as the Federal Ministry of Women Development, Social
Welfare and Special Education in the end of 1989. Among projects being
implemented by MOWD, there are the establishments of community
centres for women and the organizing of literacy rate improvement centres
and cooperative associations. In order to promote women's participation in
the development and to strengthen their roles by promoting equal
opportunities for both sexes, etc. as urged in the Eighth Five-Year Plan, it
is necessary for MOWD, as the supervisory organization, to enforce its
organizational capability and provide the policy framework for promoting
integration from the point of view of gender in the development processes
from now on. There is a female federal minister who looks after the affairs
of the women.
Redistributed by Profrates
Adult literacy Shafaat
areYar Khanfor
54.8% formen
CSSand
Aspirants
25% for women (Labour Force
Survey 1996-97) and, especially, the literacy rate of women in rural areas
(15%) is less than a third of that of women in urban areas (50%).
Moreover, regardless of whether in cities and towns or farm villages, the
older the age group is, the lower the literacy rate. The importance of
women's education has begun to be recognized in recent years and the
improvement of girls' enrolment rate in primary education is being
stipulated as the most important task of the nation in the Social Action
Plan. Literacy programs for adult women are being implemented utilizing
books and posters, cassette tapes, radios, etc. by NGOs. Also, literacy
education training for adult women and girls has been implemented with
the support of UNESCO since 1988.

To enhance the avenues for the women's financial status and to encourage
them to undertake micro-financing, The First Women Bank was founded in
1989 by the Pakistani Government as the first financing organization for
women. The promotion of financing for women is linked with the founding
of small-to-medium sized enterprises and the improvement of income, and
is contributing to the elevation of women's economic and social situation.
The First Women Bank also implements training for the management of
small-to-medium sized enterprises for illiterate women. In addition, it
implements financing programs in areas far from urban areas cooperating
with local NGOs. Moreover, small scale financing programs for low income
women have been started in rural areas by public banking facilities such as
Regional Development Finance Corporation and Agricultural Development
Bank of Pakistan. Loan recovery rate is more than 90% and the
reliability of financing for women has been substantiated.

There are a number of organizations, mostly managed and operated by

women in Pakistan that are actively involved in raising the standard of
living of women, specially the rural women, and addressing their pressing
problems. One of these is Jazba.Org that narrates life and achievements of
some of the women celebrities of Pakistan. Women Entrepreneur
Information Network is another organization that provides information
about women entrepreneurs in Pakistan.

SOURCE:www.pakistanpaedia.com

Posted by Admin at 1:10 AM 1 comment:

MINISTRY OF WOMEN DEVELOPMENT IN PAKISTAN

Redistributed by Prof Shafaat Yar Khan for CSS Aspirants

Advisor to the Prime Minister on Women Development, Yasmin

Rehman Saturday left for Dhaka, Bangladesh for participation in 7th
South Asia regional ministerial conference ‘Commemorating Beijing”,
starting from today (Sunday) and continue till October 05.The Prime
Minister of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh will inaugurate the
conference. The year 2010 is a special one. It marks the 15th
anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA). The
implementation of the BPfA was appraised at the 54th Session of the
UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March 2010.In line
with its tradition, UNIFEM facilitated national and regional processes in
2009 to feed into the global review in 2010 at the 54th Session of the
CSW. This included support to a South Asia Consultation on Beijing
+15, which took forward the “India Forward Moving Strategies for
Gender Equality 2008. It provided a platform for women’s groups to
prioritize their concerns and develop a consensus lobby document on
key gender concerns in preparation for the CSW in New York. At this
meeting an effort was made to transform the review process and go
beyond it. In order to make it as cutting edge and strategic as
possible, two critical challenges to gender equality in the region have
been identified for focus, namely, economic security and rights of
women and violence against women. A workshop mode and a
conference mode are being harmonized to coalesce stock-taking and
active learning on gender equality. It will also seek to lay an emphasis
on partnership building. The consensus document of the meeting will
delineate the current key priorities for South Asia. Participants to the
reviews include Ministers responsible for Women’s Development, the
SAARC Secretary General, Secretaries of the Women’s Ministries, a
section of civil society and women’s organizations from the region.At
the end of the conference, delegates are expected to draft and adopt a
series of recommendations / forward moving strategies on crucial
gender issues affecting women across countries in the region.
source:www.mowd.gov.pk
Posted by Admin at 1:05 AM No comments:

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Redistributed by Prof Shafaat Yar Khan for CSS Aspirants
Offering a Fresh Perspective on Muslim Women

Dr. Shahla Haeri is the director of the Women's Studies Program

at Boston University. She holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology
and is the author of No Shame for the Sun: Lives of
Professional Pakistani Women (Syracuse Press, 2001).
Through her book Dr. Haeri hopes to offer a fresh perspective on
the lives of Muslim women which challenges the stereotypes of
Muslim women being generally oppressed.

Dr. Haeri has lived and researched in Pakistan. No Shame for the
Sun includes detail interviews with six educated and professional
Pakistani women, as well as Dr. Haeri's analysis of these women's
status in Pakistani society.

The women in the book come from diverse backgrounds. Readers

get an intimate look at each of their lives. Quratul Ain Bakhteari
talks about growing up in a refugee camp after independence and
the partition of India and Pakistan. She becomes an active
participant in the community and goes on to obtain her PhD
despite pressures of marriage and children. We get to know Rahila
Tiwana, her political activism, her imprisonment, and her struggles
in police custody. Through Ayesha Siddiqa we learn how the feudal
conscience develops. Ayesha is well aware of her vulnerable status
as a female feudal lord. She is constantly striving to be better or
stronger than a man in every aspect. Pakistan’s internationally
revered feminist poet, Kishwar Naheed, tells us about her troubled
marriage, her start in literature, and her status as a feminist and
activist. The amazing Sajida Mokarram Shah tells us about the
stigma of becoming a widow. She discusses her struggle to raise
her children independently despite intense family opposition,
getting a job, getting a law degree, and having a promising law
career, all after becoming a widow. Last but not least we get to
know, Nilofer Ahmed, the Sufi feminist, her stance on women’s
rights in a religious context and her work to raise awareness of
these rights.
Redistributed
Each womanby Prof Shafaat
tells aYar Khan forand
fixating CSS Aspirants
inspirational story. This is Dr
Haeri's second book. She hopes to translate it into Urdu (official
language of Pakistan) and Persian. In 2001, she also produced a
documentary film called Mrs. President: Women and Political
Leadership in Iran.

(Interviewer's note: The following is an excerpt of an interview

which that was conducted mostly through telephone
conversations, as well as, some e-mail exchanges.)

Dr. Haeri, you were born and raised in Iran and came to the
US by yourself at a young age in order to attend college.
What was that experience like for you, having come from a
conservative culture like Iran’s?

It was difficult because I was emotionally very much attached to

my sisters and brother, my [whole] family. I was very close to my
siblings and my cousins, you know, and [we] got together often.
So, in that sense it was hard. But in the sense of discovering a
new world, It was very exciting. You know, I quickly picked up
things, I rented my own apartment, I started painting it and doing
things that you would never do [back home]. Then I became
involved in my school and tried to learn English. I was very much
determined to learn English because you know, unlike Pakistanis,
Iranians don’t learn English from childhood. So I needed to put a
lot of effort in my English, which I did.

Did your parents encourage you to go abroad for studies?

Not particularly. But when I did not pass the university entrance
examination [in Iran], primarily because of my English, the only
option at that time was to go abroad [for further education]. I had
a cousin at Harvard University [so] my mother thought it would be
okay for me to come to Boston. You see, almost everybody in my
paternal extended family had gone to college. My mother was a
teacher, so higher education was not considered a luxury but a
necessity. My mother wanted me to become a physician… So, to
her credit she encouraged me to come to Boston and go to school
here even though she didn't want me to leave her.

So why did you decide to study Sociology instead of

Medicine after you got to Boston?
I studied sociology, which was really not a very wise thing to do
because I could hardly speak the language. But I was excited
about this new world… I was always socially and politically
conscious. My father encouraged us to be politically aware of what
was going on around us. Then, you know, I arrived in the United
States in the late 1960s, which coincided with the beginning of the
third wave of the feminist movement. So, I became very much
impressed and excited about sociology. But later on I switched to
cultural anthropology.
Redistributed by Prof Shafaat Yar Khan for CSS Aspirants
You state in the book your reasons for
choosing Pakistani women for the subject of
No Shame For the Sun. Can you speak more
about that. Why did you decide to go to
Pakistan as oppose to Iran for the research
for your book?
Well, I also briefly mention in the book that I
would have liked to go back to Iran but what
was happening in Iran at that time [1980-88]
was just too painful to bare. I just didn’t think
that I [could] go back to Iran, for a variety of
reasons, most important of which was the
ongoing war [with Iraq]. So I [thought] of going
to the Middle East or North Africa to do field
work. But then I was talking to a friend who said,
“Why don’t you go to South Asia? There are a lot
of things you can do there.” And all of a sudden,
you know, a light went on in my head and I
thought, “Yes, why not? We always seem to be
looking to the West [but] why not go back East?”
And that was the best decision I ever made. I
applied for a grant, a post doctorate grant, and
fortunately I got it, but that was mainly for India.

So I went. I had a short stop in Pakistan. I was pleasantly

surprised, because as you know, in 1987, Pakistan was under
General Zia. Despite that, it seemed to be relatively freer than
what I had experienced in Iran, and that the people were just
wonderful, very helpful, excited to see me. From there I went to
India and similarly I found Indians just as warm. Sometime I
would forget where was I, whether in Pakistan or in India, because
people were really nice. Whether they were Hindus, Jains, or
Muslims, didn’t make any difference. They were just all very
friendly, going out of their way to be helpful to me.

Did you know anyone in Pakistan before you went there?

Not a single soul! Now when I think about it, I wonder, “How did I
manage to do that?” When I arrived in Karachi, I got there early
in the morning and my suitcase got lost. I kept on thinking, “how
am I going to make it to the hotel?” Finally, I [found] my suitcase
and walked to the bus early in the morning. I was the only woman
in that bus - and at that hour. The guys in the bus just stared at
me - which was pretty nerve wrecking.

So going to Pakistan, after having grown up in Iran, where

women are required to veil, did you find Pakistani society
to be a little more liberating?
This is really very interesting. If I ever get a chance I will write
Redistributed by Prof Shafaat Yar Khan for CSS Aspirants
about it [laughing]. You know, before the revolution, of course,
[Iranian women] didn’t veil. So we had the experience of not
being [forced] to veil. Women wore skirts and sleeveless dresses.
So I was brought up under [those] conditions... When I went to
Pakistan, on one level I found it liberating, in the sense that I
didn’t have to wear the veil [head scarf and long overcoat]. But in
another sense I found it very oppressive. Even more so than what
you may find in Iran under the present conditions. That is very
paradoxical! Because in Iran once you have [on] the veil, the scarf
and the long robe, you can basically go anywhere and do anything.
Where as in Pakistan, even though I was always dressed in
shalwar qameez, if I were to walk out on the street [by myself], I
would be stared at. It was apparently something not done. And
then, of course, I realized that many of the Pakistanis [from]
upper-middle class and middle class have drivers who drive them
around. Karachi is a little bit different, in Karachi it was okay but
Lahore was oppressive on some levels.

When you went to Pakistan, was it with the intention to go

and interview women and talk to them?
No, no, I didn’t have the idea at all. Actually, after that year
(1987-88), I applied for another grant, which I got - a small grant
for a short period - to be in Pakistan and that had to do with the
tension between the fundamentalists and the secularists within a
democratic state. I wanted to see what roles women played and
how they engaged with institutions of power. So I was more
interested in the development of fundamentalism and in how
women responded to that. So when I first went to Pakistan it was
with a different project.

The women whom you interview in the book are all very
strong and inspirational figures. Each has gone through her
own trials. They speak about some very personal and
intimate experiences from their lives. Was it difficult to get
them to open up?
Well, these women did not all react the same way to my inquiries
and interests. Some were my friends [after having lived in
Pakistan over multiple trips there] and I knew them for a while
before they agreed to talk to me about their personal life. With
some others, we seemed to have hit it off quickly. Our interactions
were more like open ended conversations rather than a structured
interview. Perhaps that's why they felt more comfortable to delve
into their emotions.

One thing that stands out about the book is that the
women whom you interviewed, they are all from affluent,
privileged backgrounds. Did you purposely do that?
Yes, I intended to do that because if we look at all the
[anthropological] books on women from the Muslim world -- most
Redistributed
that arebypublished
Prof Shafaat
in Yar
theKhan forleast,
US at CSS Aspirants
I don’t know about Europe --
are primarily about peasant women, tribal women, rural women,
urban poor women. [They are] seldom, if ever, about the lives or
activities of educated, professional, upper-middle class women
who have all along been very important in their societies, engaged
in various institutions of power, have been participating in the
public domain and trying to influence some change.

Do you think you have succeeded in your mission, which

was to reveal the professional and working Muslim women
to the Western audience. In other words, who is reading
your book now? Is it being read in colleges?
Well to some extent I have been successful if only to introduce the
idea into the discourse. Even the fact that I have in the subtitle
‘Lives of Professional Women,’ that by itself created a lot of
interest. In fact, I was just attending a conference in Canada, an
international conference, and one of the themes that was proposed
was to have more research done on the lives and activities of
professional women in the Muslim world because this is the
category of women who are in fact trying to influence change or
supporting women’s human rights. Since my book was published, I
have been invited to give many talks on Pakistan. Many professors
at Universities have been using my book. So, I guess it is reaching
a wide audience.

Before you wrote this book, you have

written another book?
Yes, it’s called Law of Desire: Temporary
Marriage in Shiite Iran.

How long did it take you to write that

book?
Well, that book was based on my Ph.D.
dissertation. So I did my research in Iran,
which was faster because I could speak the
language, travel easily, and talk to people. I
did the research both before and after the
Revolution [of 1979]. After the Revolution, I
was in Iran for six months and then it took me
about three years [to complete the book] and
then another two years to get it into a book
form. I actually submitted it a lot earlier, but it
took my publisher a long time to publish it. So
it came out in 1989 and quickly it was sold out,
and had to be reprinted in 1993. Now my
publisher wants me to write a new introduction
[for republishing].

Dr. Haeri, it has been a pleasure talking to you and learning

Redistributed
about yourby Prof experience
Shafaat Yar Khan
inforwriting
CSS Aspirants
No Shame for the Sun.
Thank you so much for this opportunity.

source:www.jazbah.org
Posted by Admin at 11:39 PM No comments:

Perfect Women. Imperfect Men

Fouzia is more than a picture-perfect woman. Young, educated,
intelligent, pretty, feminist, political and human rights activist,
educationist and a social worker. She is soft spoken and a very
affectionate, caring woman. She has a PhD. in Sociology from the
University

of California, USA. Fouzia loves fine and performing arts, classical

and semi-classical music. She has been associated with
non-government organizations (NGOs) and women’s help groups.
She has also acted in plays and performed as a classical and folk
dancer. With her attractive personality and engaging
communication skills Fouzia becomes the center of any social,
artistic, political or private gathering. Once I asked her how she
has managed to stay single and avoided marriage as most women
desire that union. Surely there would have been no shortage of
highly successful and popular eligible bachelors vying for her
attention. Fouzia with her ever-wonderful smile and sweet voice
replied, “I don’t want to get into that mess!”

Fouzia is not the only such Pakistani woman. I have come across
many Fouzias, educated, talented, professional, independent,
successful, charming and popular women who have preferred to
stay single and keep marriage on the back burner. There is Salma
who has a great job working in a multinational corporation,
traveling the world, being sought at seminars, workshops, parties
and yet leading her single life on her terms. She is tall, attractive
with an infectious laugh and a wonderful personality. She firmly
states that she will not be pressured into marriage for the sake of
just being married and will wait for ‘Mr. Right’ as long as it takes,
Redistributed by Prof Shafaat Yar Khan for CSS Aspirants
even forever!

Then there are other professional women with the difference that
they got married, lived a few happy years and found their
educated, brilliant, successful husbands stuck in the bad old ways
where women took a back seat and men called all the shots. The
men were not ready to compromise. The men’s careers, choices,
and whims took precedent over their wives. It did not matter how
successful the women were in their work. The marriage faltered
and the women soon realized that they are better off without their
spouses.

These women are mostly from the middle or upper middle class.
They lead a very busy social and professional life. They are highly
successful, very popular and have several male friends as well.
Some have enjoyed romantic relationships only to be disappointed
with the self-centered, egoistic beings of their companions. Others
may be too engrossed in their high-pressure and demanding
careers to give marriage a serious thought until they have become
too used to their way of life. These women have from the outset
ruled out the concept of ‘arranged marriages.’

While in the western countries the choice of staying single for

whatever reasons has become an accepted one, it is still frowned
upon in our country. One has to admire these Pakistani women’s
courage to live and face the world as single women on their terms.

When I asked Sheema Kermani, feminist, political activist, noted

classical dancer, head of Tehrik-e-Niswan, an NGO devoted to the
uplift of women through performing arts, she thoughtfully
reflected: “The institution of marriage is itself very difficult and
unnatural, specially for women who go through the process of
‘arranged marriage’ and are forced to live with someone for the
rest of their lives. The predetermined roles husband and wife are
assigned by the society are no longer valid as Pakistani women
have advanced emotionally and psychologically far more than the
men. The latter may create an aura of being strong, successful,
outgoing, working professionally, but in reality they are backward
emotionally, psychologically and are very insecure. The men may
appear as modern and advanced but are quite conservative. Their
attitude towards marriage is warped. They are caught in between.
On one hand they want their wives to be modern, university
educated and glamorous; on the other they don’t want their wives
to be free and independent. Rather, they prefer the wives to be
totally dependent on them. Even those men married to
professionally successful women are not prepared to share
household work or parenting responsibilities. Insecurity leads the
men to be jealous and possessive of the wives.” Sheema
Redistributed
emphasizesby Prof Shafaat
that WomenYar Khan
wantforaCSS Aspirants
free, happy marriage rather than
a bonded type!

Fahmida Riaz, famous poet, writer, dramatist, feminist, traced the

problem to the historical inequities and injustices to women. “
Most societies have given an inferior position to women,” she
pointed out. “Men are conditioned by social values. So are women.
Many women accept the inferior position and are comfortable with
it. But now more and more women are challenging and trying to
emerge out of this situation of inferiority. However, men are
finding it much more difficult to cope with the independent-minded
women. Humaray mosaheray mein mardon kau sikhaya jaata hai
kai agar woh aurtaun kau dominate nahi karaingay tau woh such
moch mard hi nahi hain!” (In our society the men are taught that
that if they do not dominate the women then they are not real
men!)”. Fahmida feels that today’s women are more conscious and
aware of their rights. They are demanding equality and respect.
They are also earning their own living. Thus today they are not so
hard pressed for marriage. The women can enjoy a social status
without a marriage. They can also remain single for a much longer
time.

Ms. Sarwat Sultana, a successful career woman, Public Relations

Officer, Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), is of the view
that, “ the educational level of women has risen dramatically and
more women have acquired a higher level of education than ever
before. These educated women do not usually find suitable
educated men. So they end up marrying less- educated men. Then
men start feeling threatened by such women and try to put the
women down as inferior being.” Sarwat Sultana also talked about
the taboo against women not getting married and opting to stay
single. Some of those who get married and are treated as
‘housewives’ (as if these women are married to the houses!), good
only for raising children and looking after the home. The women
eventually get fed up and move away from their husbands.
“Women are seeking security, equality, respect and friendship
from their husbands. They want to pursue their interests, careers
and have a life of their own as well,” concludes Ms. Sultana.

To find out more about the underlying emotional and psychological

reasons behind this complex issue, I talked to one of the country’s
best-known psychiatrist, human rights activist, Dr. Haroon Ahmed.
He traced the current state to the marriage institution itself as it is
commonly accepted. “In our society marriage is arranged by the
elders in the family. There are not many places where boys and
girls can freely meet and explore the possibility of a relationship
leading to marriage. There is some interaction between the young
people at mehndi and marriage ceremonies. That is not enough.
Redistributed
They have by Profnothing
Shafaat Yar
to Khan
do for
in CSS
theAspirants
evenings.” In Dr. Haroon’s
assessment, today more girls are university educated than boys.
For the past many years, the girls have been consistently
outperforming boys in all levels of examinations, from
matriculation and intermediate to graduation and post-graduation.
(This seems to be a universal trend. In the recent ‘A’ level
examination results in the United Kingdom, the dominance of girls
over the boys has gone to an all time high—over 9%.) Education-
wise, competency-wise the women have outdone men. Today’s
women cannot remain mere commodities to be married to any
one without their own choosing or choice. They will also not accept
a life of misery and suffering if their husbands turn out to be not
to their liking, or worse, mistreat them. The days of ‘ghar say doli
jai aur janaza aai’ (Once married there is no other life for women
until death) are fast becoming ugly relics of the past. Education
and careers have given women a new confidence. They now have
higher expectations. They are exposed to new ideas today as
never before. The conditions of marriage as put forth by men are
no longer acceptable to them. Some marriages have broken down
on the basis of the pursuit of individual careers.

Dr. Unaiza Niaz on men, women, relationships and their

psyche

In a detailed analysis of this issue, Dr. Unaiza Niaz, well known

psychologist and psychotherapist, head of the Stress Research
Centre, who specializes in the treatment of stress, anger and deep
psychological problems resulting from failed relationships, finds
that: “ Today we all are in the phase of developing ourselves to be
better and successful human beings. The basis of harmony in life
is success and fulfillment. The disharmony comes from inner
insecurity and self-doubt. Truly happy people tend to be modest,
soft spoken and resilient by nature. One doesn’t necessarily have
to be intelligent to be a happy human being. Emotional
intelligence is more essential in that it depicts the depth in a
person.

Personality strengths do not mean being worldly-wise and

successful. True strengths in a personality are reflected in
maintaining a balance in life, embodying certain disciplines,
understanding human weaknesses and having empathy for fellow
human beings. Some of us have been able to do better than
others. We should aspire to be what we want to be in life. And let
others be what they want to be in life. No two people are alike. No
two more so than men and women.” “Remember ‘Men are from
Mars, Women are from Venus, (Title of Dr. John Gray’s best selling
Redistributed by Prof Shafaat
book considered Yar Khan for
a practical CSS for
guide Aspirants
improving communications
and getting what you want in your relationships.). She declares,
“We have our own little spaces. When this is threatened chaos and
disorder takes over.”

Dr. Unaiza then talked about the basic differences that she feels
why women are different than men, “Women are primarily creative
beings. Doll making, ceramic and porcelain painting, sense of
colours, pottery, embroidery, are only few of their creations.
Women have an eye for the artistic and the aesthetic and all the
finer things in our lives.”

Dr. Unaiza is hopeful and optimistic that with major developments

in science and technology; revolutionary changes all around the
world, acceptance and even incorporating the concept of human
right and women’s rights, universally under the various U.N.
Conventions and nationally in many countries laws, men are also
adapting to the feminine attributes of sensitivity, care and finer
aesthetic sensibility.

She traces the historical and traditional roles of the two genders.
“Men were supposed to take care of bread and butter and provide
protection and home to the women. With civilization, maturity,
globalization, women are taking over more and more of men’s
roles and responsibilities and men are doing the opposite and
learning the women’s roles and responsibilities. In a family unit
the man is considered the head and thus the boss. If you are
sensitive and educated the roles are interchangeable and
replaceable. And should be so. One need not be rigid and stiff.”

Dr. Unaiza in her analysis thinks that when more and more women
became successful professionals and careerists, they felt equal (to
men), and started emulating men; becoming loud, crude,
aggressive—‘the hockey stick’ personality. Then they became
feminists, officially feminine, looking attractive but not attracting
attention. They were now not afraid to express themselves freely
and forcefully. It’s been a difficult and an uphill battle for women.
Highly qualified women have not found acceptance at work
because women have very ‘special’ personalities. These women
have all their male colleagues’ attributes plus they also have
charm, sensitivity and adaptability. Thus their male colleagues find
it very tough to compete with them. The key is that these women
are not trying to compete with men. They are being what they
are, women. All these women really want is the same respect,
support and understanding, which they extend to the men at
work. Some women may even be tempted to exploit their
situations but such occasions are very rare.
Redistributed
Dr. Unaizaby Prof Shafaatthat
affirms Yar Khan
thereforare
CSSsome
Aspirants
inherent qualities in men
and women respectively. Men are more physical. Women are more
emotional and sensitive. Men are better aware of their sexuality
and sexual pleasures. Few women have this awareness. Sexual
factor is very important as women resent it and feel that they are
being exploited. On the other hand men are neither verbal nor
expressive about their feelings. When sensible and mature couples
have problems, they should give space, respect and equality to
each other. Dr. Unaiza strongly feels that marriage is a roller
coaster ride. Couples should be adaptable, understanding, trusting
and above all remain friends. Professional women end up burning
the candle at both ends.

“In situations of conflict is where I come in,” Dr. Unaiza says. “I

encourage men to play the mother’s role as well; appreciate the
woman’s juggling and balancing role in life. I tell women that if the
men are reasonable guys, hold them, mould them and make them
your best friends. Women have to play a very active and positive
role. They are intelligent, proactive and can help in the civilization
of men! Both jointly complete the picture as they are the colours
in the picture and as such inseparable.”

- Nafees Ghaznavi

To find out the thoughts and views of the today’s generation I

talked to some young men and women. A modern, independent
Pakistani woman living and working in New York said that she had
not given much thought to marriage as yet. She was too busy
with her work and life in general. She rejected outright the idea of
an arranged marriage—“Never!” She thought that, “Women who
lack confidence and are confused about their values would face
problems in life as well as in marriage. If you are smart enough,
astute, intuitive and know yourself, there shouldn’t be a problem
in finding a partner. Hopefully I will find one soon and yes, I would
like to get married,” she confided and to my surprise asked me
not to publish her name.

A young entrepreneur, who is in a hurry to be highly successful in

business and also contribute as a human rights and social activist
took time off his busy schedule to give his views on the subject.
Omair Lodhi’s schooling was in England and higher education in
USA, yet he is happy living in Karachi. Omair says that there is
something wrong with today’s women. Their priorities are not in
order. They are over-ambitious which is not a good thing. Being
ambitious is good. Ambition is what you can realistically achieve.
In life every endeavor should not be to prove a point, a kind of
Redistributed by Prof ShafaatOmair
one upwomanship. Yar Khan for CSSfeels
strongly Aspirants
that there is a woman for
every man and a man for every woman. A woman should not let
the opportunity (of getting her man) pass by is how Omair sees it.
Women as housewives are taken for granted by men. They can
understand women’s traditional roles. Similarly the concept of men
working is universally accepted. But women working and taking
good jobs is hard for men to digest. “Women have to realize and
understand that most men work under a great deal of pressure,”
was Omair’s advice. He felt that when women become successful
in their careers they do not strike a balance. To them career
becomes everything. Its good for women to be professional but
women should also be able to fulfill their responsibilities towards
their homes, their children. She has to decide about her priorities
in life. Omair further ventured in deeper waters by suggesting that
women are jealous of other women. There’s no end to a woman’s
jealousy. Women also become frustrated and turn vindictive by
asserting that they don’t need a man. These women in Omair’s
opinion opt out of marriage.

Young Tahira Saleem an art-student who hopes to be a famous

artist one day, summed up her views thus: “No matter what these
women--beautiful, intelligent, educated, talented-- think about the
men—conservative, old-fashioned, even dumb—they (the women)
cannot live without them (the men). It is nature. That’s the way it
is!”

One artist who has already made his mark in the world of art,
Shahid Rissam was very keen to speak on the subject. Like a true
artist, Shahid’s art is more than just painting. He is an avid
reader, loves literature, studied art in London and Paris and is a
visiting art teacher in the UAE. So it was not surprising that
Shahid started off with a couplet from Zehra Nigah’s poem:
Aurat kay khuda dau hain haqeeqi aur majazi
Pur iss kay liyyay koi bhi achha nahin hota
(Woman has been blessed with two gods, one heavenly, one
worldly
But none have brought her any bliss)

Shahid refused to generalize about men and women. He pointed

out that every person--man or woman--is different from another,
having a different psyche and a different background. Women
have definitely come a long way. With education and opportunities
they now have a greater potential and desire to succeed in life.
Shahid believes that in the past many marriages were successful
because of understanding and a high degree of tolerance. Shahid
said that: “Happiness depends on what you give and not what you
get,” quoting Mahatma Gandhi. This philosophy of giving has now
ended. Being educated one should learn and be prepared to
Redistributed
understandby Profeach
Shafaat Yar Khan
other for CSSOne’s
better. Aspirants
expectation
in life and
marriage should not be idealistic.
As for his own marriage, Shahid asserted that he was against the
tradition that men should marry women who are younger than
men. Shahid wanted a woman who would share his ideas. “One
who would point out my weaknesses and the mistakes I make,”
Shahid declared. He gave the example of Will Durant’s work,
“Pleasure of Philosophy,” This work was only possible because of
Durant’s wife. The teacher at Cambridge University, London,
England, married one of his students, quit his job and went on a
world trip. His wife accompanied him and shared his passion
throughout their life. Also the saga of “A Beautiful Mind,” Nobel
laureate Dr. John Nash’s deep inner struggle while pursuing his
marvelous work. The man was schizophrenic. His wife not only
helped him get over his illness but also looked after him and their
children all by herself. Shahid paid tributes to women by
proclaiming, “A woman has that magic that can change the world,
leave alone a man.”

A young man, Adnan Jaffar, back from a six-year study and a

master’s degree from the USA, sounded more feminist than some
women, in his initial observations. According to him men haven’t
come to terms with the reality that women coming out, as
professionals, are as good or even better than men in their
respective fields. “It’s not that women don’t make good bosses.
The truth is that men are not yet prepared to accept the women
as such,” declared the young man. The men haven’t broken out of
the old mindset of male dominance and chauvinism. “The men still
see women as ‘sex objects.’ It doesn’t matter how tahzeebwala
banda hai (how cultured a guy is), he still has it in his
subconscious this sexist image of women.” Then Adnan shocked
me by confessing, “I am also such a man!” He defended himself
by saying that consciously, “I try to breakout of this mould. In the
presence of women I am well behaved. I speak the politically
correct language. I don’t try to stare at women and make them
feel uncomfortable. But deep down I am not much different than
most Pakistani men. This is how Pakistani male has grown up to
be. May be it is the segregation of males and females in our
society. My elders tell me that it was not so in the 50’s and the
60’s; even until the late 70’s.” He thinks most Pakistani men
marry to have a legitimate relationship. Marriage is the only way
out for Pakistani men (and women). He illustrated this point by
saying that when a man talks about his sexual frustrations his
friends usually advise him, ‘Ttau tum shadi kiyon nahi karlatey?’
(Why don’t you get married?). Where there is integration of men
and women, the men start thinking and behaving differently. The
inhibitions start breaking down. And when it comes to
relationships they are easier to make and turn out to be more
Redistributed by Prof Shafaat
stable. Another Yar Khanofforour
sad aspect CSSsociety
Aspirantsaccording to our young
philosopher is that friendships between boys and girls end when
one of them gets married. The inhibitions and the sexist attitude
surprisingly are more common among the upper classes, the so-
called elitists. The respect shown to women is superficial. As to
how he intends to find his life partner, Adnan Jaffar summed up
thus: “First I will gauge her views, her ideas, her total personality.
Then if we have something to talk about and share the same
interests and there is something original about her, then I will
become serious about her. Just knowing a girl will not be enough
for me. In our social milieu most romances begin with mere social
contact between a guy and a girl. This is a sign that we still are
immature and not yet fully grown up to enjoy healthy and stable
relationships.”

Mariam Ghaznavi, a very talented and bright young woman, a

journalist living and working in Karachi, was very forthright and
outspoken: “ I don’t think I will ever find someone compatible and
totally understanding. There are many guys who are educated and
intelligent but they still live in the old world. They think that they
are the kings of the castles and the women in their lives should
revolve around them. These men believe that girls should not have
a personality of their own. The wives are supposed to be totally
dependent on the husbands and whatever the men say should be
done. The men don’t believe marriage is a partnership for them—it
is a rulership! (“Rulership? Is there such a word? Am I making
sense?” Mariam herself interrupted her speech. Since she seemed
to be enjoying herself and on a roll, I encouraged her to just go
on.) “These guys treat you with full respect and equality as long as
you are their friends. But if you become a wife or even a girlfriend
then all respect and equality is blown away with the wind.” At this
I could not help asking Mariam how has she come to such
negative conclusions? “Seeing people around me. Seeing my
friends. Seeing myself. All experiences mashed together,” she
answered. As to how she sees herself when she gets married,
Mariam laughed and viewed her married life as a very difficult one.
“I will probably be fighting with my husband all the time!”

Writing this article was a very educational and learning experience

for me as well. Life itself is a great teacher. If I knew then what I
know now I would not have gone through a lot of pain at a certain
period in my life. What I have learnt from women, starting with
my great guru—my mother—and many other intelligent and
wonderful women, has enriched my life and made it truly worthy
of living. The same holds true for women. They can also learn
from men or at least try and understand their psyche. That would
be a good beginning.
source:www.chowk.com
 Redistributed by Prof Shafaat Yar KhanPosted
for CSS
byAspirants
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