Monday, July 18, 2016

Qandeel Baloch: Leading Social Revolution in Pakistan?

Could Qandeel Baloch, also known as Pakistan's Kim Kardashian, even be imagined in conservative Pakistan just a few years ago? Doesn't the fact that she existed is in itself a sign of a social revolution sweeping Pakistan today?

Tragic honor killing of Pakistani social media phenomenon Qandeel Baloch by her own brother in the city of Multan in highly conservative Seraiki region has received global media coverage. It's being offered as yet another example to support their convenient narrative of unspeakable brutality against women in Muslim Pakistan.

Fauzia Azeem AKA Qandeel Baloch
Unanswered Questions:

What is missing from the news reports, op-ed pieces and editorials about these incidents, however, is any serious research and analysis to answer the following:

A. Why are such events happening with increasing frequency?

B. Is it because Pakistanis' sense of "honor" has suddenly become more acute?

C. Or, is it because Pakistani girls are defying old traditions in much larger numbers than ever before?

Going by Karachi-based architect and sociologist Arif Hasan's insight into Pakistani society, the answer is C. As he said in a 2015 interview with The News: "Media projects a lot of injustices against women, but they do not project the changes taking place, nor are they projecting the role models who are challenging these traditional barriers. Role models, too, are just individual cases, like Malala."

Enabling Environment:

What is the enabling environment for these social changes?

There are a number of enabling factors ranging from increasing rural-to-urban migration to greater access to education and technology and growing opportunities for communication and self-expression via the new social media like Facebook. Here are a few them:

1. Pakistani women and girls in rural areas and small towns are better educated than ever before. Since 2000, over twenty universities have been established in small towns of Pakistan where men and women from small towns and villages are enrolling and graduating.

2. Young men and women are questioning conservative traditional values with rapidly growing access to television, cell phones and social media.

3. Nearly a quarter of Pakistani females over the age of 10 now work, up from 14 percent a decade ago, according to government data. Women now hold 78 of the 342 seats in the National Assembly.  Women now make up 4.6% of board members of Pakistani companies, a tad lower than the 4.7% average in emerging Asia, but higher than 1% in South Korea, 4.1% in India and Indonesia, and 4.2% in Malaysia, according to a February 2011 report on women in the boardrooms.

4. Court marriages that were rare just a decade ago have increased dramatically. Girls and boys are defying their parents by rejecting arranged marriages.

Causes of Violence Against Women: 

Whether it was the bloody Civil War to abolish slavery in America or the Meiji Restoration that transformed feudal Japan into an industrial giant, history tells us that violent conflict has been an integral part of the process of social change.  Pakistan, too, is experiencing a similar violent social revolution. It started well before the terrorist attacks  of 911 and the subsequent US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.  It has only intensified after these events.


The "peace of the dead" has ended with the continuing "eclipse of feudalism" in Pakistan.  A significant part of  the what the world media, politicians and pundits call terrorism is in fact  an "unplanned revolution" in the words of a Pakistani sociologist, a revolution that could transform Pakistani society for the better in the long run.

 Violence is being used by the defenders of  a range of old feudal and tribal values in Pakistan. Some of the traditionalists are fighting to keep girls at home and out of schools and workplaces while others are insisting on continuing traditional arranged and sometimes forced marriages within their clans. Such violence is being met with brave defiance, particularly by the younger generation.

Sociologist Arif Hasan's Insights:

Media coverage of the attempt on Swat schoolgirl Malala Yosufzai's life by the Taliban has brought attention to what the tribal traditionalists see as a serious threat to their old feudal-tribal ways. In an October 2012 speech at a social scientists conference in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, Arif Hasan recalled what a village elder in Sindh told him about the reasons for the increase in honor killings. He said: “The young people, they’ve gone to the city, and they’ve done all the wrong things. The girls have learned how to read and write, they’ve gone to school, some of them have gone to university as well. They have no morals left, so this is bound to happen.”

When Hasan asked the village elder as to when will the honor killings stop? He replied: “The honor killings will stop when everyone becomes shameless, then it will end.” Then he added, “But I hope that I die before that day.”  Hasan says "he was a man of the old, feudal rural culture, with its own pattern of behavior and way of thinking. He was part of it, and it was dying, so he wished to die with it."

There was a news story this morning about young Pakistanis engaging in Internet dating and marriages. In 1992, the applications for court marriages in Karachi amounted to about 10 or 15, mainly applications from couples who were seeking the protection of the court for wedlock without familial consent, according to Arif Hasan. By 2006, it increased to more than 250 applications for court marriages per day in Karachi. Significantly, more than half of the couples seeking court recognition of their betrothal came from rural areas of Sindh. This is yet another indication of how the entire feudal system and its values are in rapid collapse.

Rapid urbanization , rising economic mobility  and media and telecom revolutions have been the key contributors to the process of social change in the country.   New York Times' Sabrina Tavernise described the rise of Pakistan's middle class in a story from Pakistani town of Muzaffargarh in the following words:

For years, feudal lords reigned supreme, serving as the police, the judge and the political leader. Plantations had jails, and political seats were practically owned by families.

Instead of midwifing democracy, these aristocrats obstructed it, ignoring the needs of rural Pakistanis, half of whom are still landless and desperately poor more than 60 years after Pakistan became a state.

But changes began to erode the aristocrats’ power. 
Cities sprouted, with jobs in construction and industry. Large-scale farms eclipsed old-fashioned plantations. Vast hereditary lands splintered among generations of sons, and many aristocratic families left the country for cities, living beyond their means off sales of their remaining lands. Mobile labor has also reduced dependence on aristocratic families.

In Punjab, the country’s most populous province, and its most economically advanced, the number of national lawmakers from feudal families shrank to 25 percent in 2008 from 42 percent in 1970, according to a count conducted by Mubashir Hassan, a former finance minister, and The New York Times.

“Feudals are a dying breed,” said S. Akbar Zaidi, a Karachi-based fellow with the Carnegie Foundation. “They have no power outside the walls of their castles.”



As early as 1998 when the last census was held, researcher Reza Ali  found that Pakistan was almost half urban and half rural, using a  more useful definitions of ‘urban’, and not the outdated definition  of the Census Organization which excludes the huge informal settlements in the peri-urban areas of the cities which are very often not part of the metropolitan areas.

A 2012 study of 22 nations conducted by Prof Miles Corak for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has found that upward economic mobility to be greater in Pakistan than the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, China and 5 other countries. The study's findings were presented by the author in testimony to the US Senate Finance Committee on July 6, 2012.

 Pakistan's media and telecom revolution that began during the Musharaf years is continuing unabated. In addition to financial services, the two key service sectors with explosive growth in last decade (1999-2009) in Pakistan include media and telecom, both of which have helped create jobs and empowered women. The current media revolution sweeping the nation began ten years ago when Pakistan had just one television channel, according to the UK's Prospect Magazine. Today it has over 100.  Pakistan is among the five most dynamic economies of developing Asia in terms of increased penetration of mobile phones, internet and broadband, according to the Information Economy Report,  2009 published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad). Among the five countries in terms of mobile penetration in South Asia, Pakistan is placed at number three followed by Sri Lanka and Bhutan. Iran and Maldives are ranked above Pakistan.

Here's how Arif Hasan concluded his Kathmandu speech:

 Pakistani society continues in its state of flux, and the Afghan war has escalated this. The normal evolution of society has been stopped by the militancy in Pakistan linked to the war in Afghanistan. If you remove these militants – which you won’t, by the way – then a whole new world emerges in Pakistan, a transformation in a society trying to define itself. The recent shooting of Malala Yusufzhai has shown what Pakistani society really feels and how it thinks on issues. For the first time the Pakistani establishment – the army as well as the three major political parties – have all condemned the Taliban for the shooting. The people have spoken in the huge rallies, in Karachi and elsewhere. Earlier, this never happened because people were scared of being shot, kidnapped, and having bombs thrown at them. This is the first time that there has been such a huge public outpouring.

But even as people find a voice, we do need the inculcation of new societal values. The problem is, how do you promote these values and through whom? It is too much to ask media, and academia is busy in consultancies for the donor institutions. The literature is all about the struggle between fundamentalism and liberalism, but that is not where the problem lies. The challenge is for Pakistani society to consolidate itself in the post-feudal era. The society has freed itself from the shackles of feudalism, but our values still remain very much the same. There are very big changes that are taking place – how do you support them, how do you institutionalize them, how do you give the people a voice? I leave you with these questions, rather than try and provide the answers.


 Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Silent Social Revolution in Pakistan

Arif Hasan's Website

The Eclipse of Feudalism in Pakistan

Social and Structural Transformations in Pakistan

Malala Moment: Profiles in Courage-Not!

Urbanization in Pakistan Highest in South Asia

Rising Economic Mobility in Pakistan

Upwardly Mobile Pakistan


34 comments:

Ahsan H. said...

I hope a social revolution for women has begun in Pakistan. For too long now, women in Pakistan --- indeed in all male-dominated societies of the world --- have been subjugated and brutalized. It's time to institutionalize gender equality in the old country, as women's empowerment has been picking up steam in the rest of the civilized world.

Too bad Qandeel Baloch wouldn't get to see the culmination of the women's empowerment struggle in Pakistan

Anonymous said...

Fact is, honor killing is on the rise in Pakistan.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/07/pakistan-end-impunity-for-honour-crimes/

Riaz Haq said...

Anon: "Fact is, honor killing is on the rise in Pakistan."

This fact is not in dispute.

But why is it? That's the question I have answered in my post.


In the past, girls did not question traditions and submitted to the authority of their family elders. Hence few honor killings happened.

Now, with better education and greater media/communication exposure, girls are defying conservative norms and asserting themselves. They are declaring independence causing the status quo forces to commit more violence to defend their old ways.

Farrah R. said...

We cannot handle internet , Pakistan is a very isolated country .Border is closed on four sides even we do not travel within the country .Sorry to say no exposure with other cultures , peoples , no tourism , no business expansion .Internet in Pakistan has become a preaching centre too every two minutes , hadith , quran , Kaaba , Masjid , qabar , aur qabar ka ahwal , welcome to internet in PK . PK media is an insult to injury .It does not educate people about social issues neither help to form a consensus .Actually there are more people in Broadcast and social media who keep repeating themselves as if we are in 1857 actually that is wrong because 1857 and 1947 were very positive , radical eras for Muslims of Indo Pak . Pakistani society is dead and stagnant because no dialogue happens , zero tolerance

Riaz Haq said...

Farrah: "Pakistan is a very isolated country ."

To the contrary, Pakistanis are now much more exposed to external influences than ever before. Pakistan's air travel market is among the fastest growing in the world. Broadband Internet access is growing at an explosive rate via rapid uptake of at least a million new 3G subscriptions every month. There are over 6 million Pakistanis living overseas, making Pakistani diaspora the 6th largest in the world. That global exposure is what is causing young people to defy traditions as Qandeel did.

Anonymous said...

We need more qandeels in Pakistan only then can mullahs be defeated.

Jasbir said...

In South Asia, Pakistan has the highest gender gap according to the World Economic Forum http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2015/rankings/
Sadly, Pakistan has been unchanged since 2008 while rest of South Asia has made progress.

Riaz Haq said...

Jasbir: "In South Asia, Pakistan has the highest gender gap according to the World Economic Forum"

Well, the UN thinks otherwise.

India ranks 130 out of 155 countries in the Gender Inequality Index (GII) for 2014, way behind Bangladesh and Pakistan that rank 111 and 121 respectively, according to data in the United National Development Programme’s latest Human Development Report (HDR) 2015.
Among South Asian countries, India fares better than only Afghanistan which is at 152.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/more-gender-inequality-in-india-than-pak-bangla-un/

Here are a few highlights from Freakonomics series authors about Indian women:

1. If women could choose their birthplace, India might not be a wise choice of a place for any of them to be born.

2. In spite of recent economic success and euphoria about India, the people of India remain excruciatingly poor.

3. Literacy is low, and corruption is high in India.

4. Only half the Indian households have electricity, and fewer have running water.

5. Only one in 4 Indian homes has a toilet.

6. 40% of families with girls want to have more children, but families with boys do not want a baby girl.

7. It's especially unlucky to be born female, baby boy is like a 401 K retirement plan, baby girl requires a dowry fund.

8. Smile Train in Chennai did cleft repair surgery at no cost for poor children. A man was asked how many children he had. He said he had 1, a boy. It turned out that he also had 5 daughters which he did not mention.

9. Indian midwives in Tamil Nadu are paid $2.50 to kill girls with cleft deformity.

10. Girls are highly undervalued, there are 35 million fewer females than males, presumed dead, killed by midwife or parent or starved to death. Unltrasound are used mainly to find and destroy female fetuses. Ultrasound and abortion are available even in the smallest villages with no electricity or clean water.

11. If lucky enough not to be aborted, girls face inequality and cruelty at every turn because of low social status of Indian women.

12. 51% of Indian men say wife beating is justified, 54% women agree, especially when dinner is burned or they leave home without husband's permission.

13. High number of unwanted pregnancies, STDs, HIV infections happen to Indian women when 15% of the condoms fail. Indian Council of Medical Research found that 60% of Indian men's genitalia are too small to fit the condoms manufactured to international standard sizes.

14. Indian laws to protect women are widely ignored. The government has tried monetary rewards to keep baby girls and supported microfinance for women. NGO programs, smaller condoms, and other projects have had limited success.

15. People had little interest in State run TV channel due to poor reception or boring programs. But cable television has helped women, as 150 million people between 2001-2006 got cable TV which gave them exposure to wider world.

16. American economists found that the effect of TV in 2700 households empowered women to be more autonomous. Cable TV households had lower birthrates, less domestic abuse and kept daughters in schools.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2010/05/superfreakonomics-on-status-of-indian.html

Anonymous said...

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/five-young-indians-die-in-suspected-honour-killings/ar-BBuIHBz?li=AAggFp5&ocid=mailsignout

Rana said...

@jasbir
@riaz

There is a gender gap in ALL countries but relatively speaking (the gender inequality index is being revamped) Pakistan is the 10th from the bottom.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6241216/slideshow/385698

Yet that doesn't mean India doesn't have problems. It does but it is the progress and direction where the country is going.

Riaz Haq said...

Rana: "Yet that doesn't mean India doesn't have problems. It does but it is the progress and direction where the country is going. "

India has much more serous problem...that of the women's right to life. It's much more serious than female representation in paid workforce.

The land of former Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi is killing its daughters by the millions. Economically resurgent India is witnessing a rapid unfolding of a female genocide in the making across all castes and classes, including the upper caste rich and the educated. The situation is particularly alarming among upper-caste Hindus in some of the urban areas of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, specially in parts of Punjab, where there are only 300 girls for every 1,000 boys, according to Laura Turquet, ActionAid's women's rights policy official.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2009/07/female-genocide-unfolding-in-india.html

Riaz Haq said...

Five young Indians die in suspected 'honour' killings

https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/32134787/five-young-indians-die-in-suspected-honour-killings/#page1


New Delhi (AFP) - Five young people in northern India are believed to have been murdered by their families or partner's relatives in suspected honour killings, in three separate incidents this week, police said Saturday.

Police arrested the father and brother of a 19-year-old Hindu woman Friday on suspicion of murdering her and her 23-year-old lover, both from the lowest Dalit caste.

The relatives allegedly strangled the couple after catching them having sex at their home in Shamli district in Uttar Pradesh state, police said.

"We have arrested the father and brother of the girl. They told us they killed them because she had brought disrepute to the family," Bhushan Verma, investigating officer in Shamli, told AFP.

"We are investigating to see if there were more relatives involved. Both were strangled to death."

It came after another Hindu couple in their 20s were Thursday found dead in nearby Saharanpur district, also in Uttar Pradesh, after their families allegedly objected to their relationship.

Police have not ruled out suicide after the couple were found hanging inside the man's house.

"It could be honour killing or suicide. We are waiting for the post mortem reports to confirm the cause of death," Pradeep Kumar Yadav, police chief of Saharanpur, told AFP.

Yadav said the couple were in a three year relationship and wanted to marry but faced resistance from both families.

Both of the deceased couples were biologically unrelated to one another.

However, in each case, the couples belonged to the same "gotra" -- or kinship group -- something considered incestuous by many Hindus despite the lack of biological links, and which can be a cause for such killings.

In a third case, police on Thursday found the body of a 16-year-old Muslim boy buried near an edible oil factory in neighbouring Muzaffarnagar district, after he earlier went missing from his home.

Police said the teenager was in a relationship with the niece of the factory's Hindu owner, adding her relatives strangled him to protect the "honour of the family".

"We have arrested the girl's brother, uncle and cousin for the murder," Deepak Kumar, police chief of Muzaffarnagar district, told AFP.

Marriages outside one's caste or religion still attract censure across India.

Honour killings -? which often see couples targeted because their families or communities disapprove of their relationship -? have been carried out for centuries in the country, especially in rural areas.

They are typically enacted by close relatives or village elders to protect what is seen as the family's reputation in a hereditary caste system.

United Nations statistics suggest 1,000 out of the 5,000 such murders that occur worldwide every year are in India.

India's Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that those found guilty of the killings should face the death penalty.

Tambi Dude said...

http://scroll.in/article/812272/muslims-have-the-lowest-rate-of-enrolment-in-higher-education-in-india

Riaz Haq said...

#India: 14-year-old killed in second double rape as epidemic of rapes continues. #Dalit @CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/26/asia/india-rape-cases/

A 14-year-old girl died Sunday in another case of a lower-caste woman allegedly being raped by the same man twice in India.

The victim was kidnapped in May by the same suspect who allegedly attacked her in December of last year, according to a police report filed by her parents, a senior Delhi police official told CNN.
The suspect was reportedly out on bail while he awaited trial for his first rape of the teenager.
Rape survivor: Not enough victim protection in India
The girl belonged to the Dalit caste, Swati Maliwal, Chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women told CNN, traditionally regarded as "unclean" and the lowest of the low.
Her parents told police she had been forced to drink chemicals by her alleged attacker.


She died on Sunday after being admitted to hospital in June after falling ill. The suspect was re-arrested following her death, police said.
The case comes soon after brutal details emerged last week of another attack on a Dalit student allegedly raped by the same group of men for a second time. News of the horrific double gang-rape caused an international outcry, raised questions around why the accused were granted bail, and highlighted the vulnerability of Dalit women in India.
According to India's National Crime Records Bureau, more than four Dalit women are raped every day, with 2014 statistics saying crime against Dalits rose 19%. In many of the cases, these crimes are committed by upper caste perpetrators.
"For centuries the lower caste have been subject to oppression, and one form of suppressing their empowerment has been through violence," Sunitha Krishnan, a rape survivor, activist and mental health specialist, told CNN following the first incident.
"And to a woman or a child, the worst form of violence you can think of is sexual assault and sex crime."
Four year-old and foreigner attacked
Unfortunately, these incidents are by no means unusual, but the more sensational cases help increase visibility, according to Krishnan.
"We need to acknowledge that statistics say every 22 minutes a woman or a child gets raped in this country, and we need not only to break our silence, but to act on it," she said.
"Sex crime is not only in India. You can single out India, saying that is is the only one having this problem, but it happens everywhere. However, in a country like India, these issues are not highlighted. For every 100,000 cases, only one gets highlighted."
Follow

Riaz Haq said...

A star rises from poverty, is killed defying #Pakistan norms. #QandeelBaloch

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/celebrities/a-star-rises-from-poverty-is-killed-defying-pakistan-norms/2016/08/08/85e84b76-5d30-11e6-84c1-6d27287896b5_story.html

Like most of the men in this village of mudbrick homes and wooden carts pulled by water buffalo, Muhammed Azeem cannot read or write. Like the other fathers, he raised a family of six boys and three girls on whatever he could coax out of a soil baked by the searing Punjab sun.

But in a culture where a family’s worth is tallied in the number of males it can produce and girls are second-class citizens at best, Azeem was different.

He valued his daughters as much as his sons.

He raised them to be independent young women. When one of the girls married, she refused to take her husband’s name. Another changed hers to Qandeel Baloch and became famous, shocking this conservative Islamic country with risqué dance videos that showed her in skin-tight clothing grinding against men.

Azeem didn’t care. He loved Qandeel - whose new name meant “torch” in their native language.

“I supported everything she did,” Azeem says, tears glistening on his weather-beaten face. “I liked everything she did.”


----------------

Her father’s love helped make Qandeel a role model to a generation of young Pakistani women. But it also may have planted the seeds of her destruction.

Her younger brother Muhammed Wazeem seethed. It was bad enough that he couldn’t compete with his sister for their father’s affections, and lived in a home that she paid for. But even worse was the relentless sniping from villagers. Storekeepers would show him her Facebook posts on their phones, criticizing his family for allowing her to make the videos.

He decided he had to save the family’s “honor.” Last month, he drugged Qandeel and then, as their parents slept downstairs, strangled her.

In most so-called honor killings, families close ranks around the killer. But Qandeel’s father wants his son punished.

“My son was wrong,” Azeem said. “I will not forgive him.”
t is a paradox of today’s Pakistan, a deeply religious country where 4G service and social media have arrived in even the most isolated communities, that one family could produce a wildly untraditional daughter and a son so traditional he felt compelled to kill his sister for her 21st-century ways.

Qandeel’s home village, Shah Saddaruddin, is a seven-hour drive from the capital, Islamabad, a journey through sugar-cane and mango fields, often on roads that are no more than dirt tracks. Murky streams and canals flow through a vast countryside owned by feudal landlords who keep their workers deep in debt.

Most girls are hidden away once they reach puberty, and many are married shortly afterward to a boy chosen by their parents. Occasionally, women are exchanged to pay off a debt, or to settle a dispute.

“Women here are strictly controlled,” Qandeel’s sister Munawar Azeem says. “It’s our tradition, but Qandeel was stubborn, she always wanted more, had different ideas.”

Riaz Haq said...

Fortunately, there are others who understand her murder for what it was. In recent years, Pakistan has witnessed a political revival of its feminist tradition. Decades after the Women’s Action Forum led a 1980s women’s movement against the military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq, a new generation of activists is challenging the patriarchal status quo. This includes groups such as Girls at Dhabas that have, in less than a year, initiated a countrywide conversation on women’s access to public spaces. It includes the Feminist Collective, which has taken up political fights such as public campaigns in support of domestic violence legislation. It includes the Awami Worker’s Party’s Women’s Democratic Front, organising in working class communities and taking on feudal landlords in local elections.

It is clear that for this new generation of feminists, Qandeel’s murder was a catalyst. Countless enraged denunciations were delivered on social media and on the airwaves. Protests erupted across the country and a petition demanding justice and accountability by a feminist group was signed by thousands.

Within days, the Pakistani government, not known for bold stands against patriarchal violence, announced the introduction of a long-delayed anti-honour killing bill. The bill, criticised as inadequate by activists, is unlikely to work without broader social and legal reform, but will be an important exercise in state signalling nonetheless. A perceptible shift in consciousness appears to be under way.

In his book Metapolitics, the French philosopher Alain Badiou says that all political consciousness emerges from moments when the truth of power is forced to reveal itself, “undermining the illusion of the existing order”.

Through her life and death, Qandeel laid bare the truth of patriarchal power in Pakistan. Her murderer wished to silence her audacity in death; her detractors wanted to bury her defiance in shame. Instead, she ended up teaching a lesson about the reality of Pakistani patriarchy to a generation of feminists unlikely to forget it.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/aug/08/culpability-qandeel-baloch-death-pakistan

Riaz Haq said...

#PMLN Senator Sardar Yaqoob Nasr: "Poor are born to serve the rich... God made people rich or poor" http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/pakistan-politician-comment-poor-serve-rich/1/749331.html … via @indiatoday

WHO SAID WHAT
"The poor of this country will never get to decide their own fate," Haidar said.
To this, Nasar remarked that if everyone were to become wealthy, there would be no one to grow wheat or to work as labourers.
"This is a system created by God and He has made some people rich and others poor and we should not interfere in this system," he said.
Haider countered that socio-economic classes were man-made and God had nothing to do with it.
Another Senator, Mohammad Usman Khan Kakar, too said that God created all people as equal and that the poor were not meant to serve the rich.
But Nasar could not be convinced and said: "Once in China all people were considered equal, which did not work out well.
"Those who cannot get an education and cannot earn more have no right to live the life of a bureaucrat," he said.

Riaz Haq said...

‘Honour killings’ in the West

Mon., June 2, 2014

Toronto Star Op Ed

Family stones woman to death outside court, May 28

Your article says that, since 2013, 869 women suffered “honour killings” in Pakistan. Compare this to the United States, where three women a day are killed by their male partners or husbands. By my count, since 2013 about 1,095 women were killed by men who think they have been dishonoured by their female partners.

Maybe the women wanted to leave the marriage, or had found a new partner, but clearly the men felt betrayed and dishonoured by their partners and killed them. The media are quick to target women murders in Muslim-dominated countries, but maybe the media should also look at the facts in the U.S. (and Canada) as well.

Judy Haiven, Department of Management Professor, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, N.S.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2014/06/02/honour_killings_in_the_west.html

Riaz Haq said...

I attended Silicon Valley book launch of Pakistani-American Saqib Mausoof's "The Warehouse".

The Warehouse is set in Pakistan's federally administered tribal area (FATA) that has seen a powerful Taliban insurgency since the US invasion of Afghanistan.

The author's novel's protagonist is Cash (Syed Qais Ali), an insurance company adjustor from Karachi who ends up in Waziristan to survey damage in a warehouse fire.

During discussion at the launch event at PACC last Saturday, Sept 10, 2016, Mausoof said he saw many FATA women attending Namal University in MIanwali that was founded by PTI Chief Imran Khan.

Namal University is located close to Pakistan's tribal areas where women have traditionally not benefited from higher education.

Mausoof saw several women from FATA wearing veils using computers and developing software in information technology classes at Namal.


Fyza Parviz, originally from Peshawar but currently in SF Bay Area, confirmed that she too is seeing many veil or hijab wearing Pashtun women from KP's rural areas attending colleges and universities.

Fyza Parviz originally hails from Peshawar Pakistan and has been living in the Bay Area for 14 years. She is a Software & Electrical Engineer by profession and loves to read, write, attend events, and create literary experiences. She is also the Web Producer for the Annual Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley. She is currently developing an engaging Online Social Platform for writers and readers. Her short stories, essays, and reviews have been published in PaperCuts Magazine and LitSeen.

Here's a news story from last year's graduation ceremony that feaured Imran Khan as keynote speaker at Namal:


Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Imran Khan on Sunday attended the convocation ceremony of Namal University at Mianwali.

Imran Khan, while addressing the ceremony gathering, welcomed the Parents of the students hailing from Waziristan and also extended his congratulations to the parents whose children earned Bradford degree.

Imran Khan, in his message to the students, said that those people had never failed, who stuck to their aim, adding that unfortunately quality education in Pakistan was not accessible to poor’s segment of the society.

http://dailycapital.pk/ik-addresses-namal-convocation-ceremony/

Riaz Haq said...

BBC News - 'Honour killings': #Pakistan closes loophole allowing killers to go free. #QandeelBaloch #honorkillings

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37578111

Pakistan's government has closed a loophole allowing those behind so-called honour killings to go free.
New legislation means killers will get a mandatory life sentence.
Previously, killers could be pardoned by a victim's family to avoid a jail term. Now forgiveness will only spare them the death penalty.
It is being seen as a step in the right direction in a country where attacks on women who go against conservative rules on love and marriage are common.
According to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), nearly 1,100 women were killed by relatives in Pakistan last year in such killings, while many more cases go unreported.
The loophole allowed the perpetrators of 'honour killings' - often a relative acting on the pretext of defending family 'honour' - to avoid punishment because they can seek forgiveness for the crime from another family member.
'First step'
In recent months, a number of high-profile deaths have made headlines both in Pakistan and abroad, including the killing of British woman Samia Shahid in July, allegedly by her father and her former husband.
The same month, Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch was strangled to death, allegedly killed by her brother in the province of Punjab.

The amended law was debated by Pakistan's National Assembly for four hours on Thursday, before being passed unanimously.
Campaigners have been calling for tougher legislation to protect women from violence for years.
A 2005 amendment to the law pertaining to 'honour killings' prevented men who kill female relatives pardoning themselves as an 'heir' of the victim.
Pakistani activist and filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid - who won an Oscar earlier this year for a documentary on 'honour killings' - paid tribute to the people who had worked to get the bill through.
"It may not change much over night but it is certainly a step in the right direction," she said in a Facebook post. "And today I am proud that we have gone the distance on this bill."
Others were more cautious, raising concerns over the fact the bill still allows a judge to decide whether a murder qualifies as an 'honour killing' or not.

Riaz Haq said...

The Viral #Chaiwala Was Given A Makeover On A Talk Show in #Pakistan And Holy Smokes https://www.buzzfeed.com/soniathomas/masha-allah?utm_term=.nlaqVyd7R … via @SoKneeOh @BuzzFeedIndia

If you’ve not heard of Arshad Khan, the viral and incredibly gorgeous Pakistani tea seller, in the past week, you’ve probably been living under a rock.

Since his rise to stardom, Khan has bagged modelling contracts and millions of thirsty fans all over the world.

On Tuesday, Khan appeared on popular Pakistani talk show Good Morning Pakistan, where he was 100% himself.

And by himself I mean his everyday, beautiful goddamn vision self.

https://youtu.be/99R5hOFJ2WI

Riaz Haq said...

Muktaran Mai, gang-rape victim, now walks the #fashion runway at #fpw2016 in #Karachi #Pakistan

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mukhtar-mai-pakistani-woman-once-sentenced-to-be-gang-raped-now-walks-the-fashion-runway/

In 2002, Mai was sentenced by a local council of tribal elders to be gang raped and publicly humiliated as punishment for her brother’s perceived insult to a rival family. The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual assault unless they choose to identify themselves.

Rather than commit suicide, as many Pakistani women in her position have done, Mai went public and fought all the way to the country’s Supreme Court to have her attackers jailed.

Fourteen men - the alleged rapists and the tribal council members - were put on trial, and six were handed the death sentence. But all of them were eventually released on appeal.

Nevertheless, Mai went on to become an international advocate for women’s rights and founded a charity that sponsors a women’s shelter and a girl’s school in her rural hometown of Meerwala.

On Tuesday night, surrounded by Pakistan’s top models and wealthy designers, Mai appeared slightly shy and nervous when faced with the blitz of cameras. Mai, now 44, wore a light green embroidered bridal shirt and silver, silk pajama pants, designed by Rozina Munib, with a scarf covering her hair.

Munib said she approached Mai to display her designs to send a public message that, “If you have a mishap, it’s not the end of life.”

Mai smiled as she walked the runway along with several other models in the concluding event of the three-day Fashion Pakistan Week event. Afterward she moved around freely through the crowds, chatting with well-wishers and allowing a steady stream of admirers to take selfies with her.

The annual fashion showcase was started in 2009 in defiance to religious fundamentalists in Pakistan who sought to enforce strict dress codes and behavioral restrictions on Pakistani women.

“I want to be the voice of those women who face circumstances similar to what I did,” Mai said. “My message for my sisters is that we aren’t weak. We have a heart and a brain, we also think.”

“I ask my sisters to not lose hope in the face of injustice, as we will get justice one day for sure.”

Riaz Haq said...

Shahid Javed Burki Op Ed in Express Tribune


.... Large workers’ migration to the Middle East began in the mid-seventies. This was the time when construction booms began in the countries that had windfall gains in their incomes as a result of the several-fold increase in the price of exported oil. Since that time, I estimate that half a trillion dollars of remittances were sent by the workers to their families who stayed back in Pakistan. The Middle Eastern countries did not allow the workers to bring in their families. They were brought in on limited-time contracts and new recruits replaced those returning. Most of those who came were poor but the money they sent back made it possible for their families to graduate to the middle class status. My guess is that this social transformation involved at least 5 million households or 20 to 25 million people.

Pakistani sociologists need to study this new middle class,in particular their location, aspirations, and demands. K-P province and northern districts of Punjab have a large number of such people. A significant number of them are from the country’s major cities. They form a voter-block unlike any Pakistan has seen in its political history. They don’t have fixed political affiliations. They don’t constitute a reliable vote-bank. Their expectation from the government is that of the satisfactory fulfilment of their basic needs – food, shelter, education, health and transport. Those who meet their aspirations will get their support.

A quick study of the results of the 2013 elections suggests that some 15 million moved away from the People’s Party and were equally divided between the Nawaz League and Tehrik-e-Insaf. However, the beneficiaries must not assume that this was a permanent move. If this social group is unhappy with the substance of governance, it will move on to other places. This is one reason why we are likely to see considerable volatility in the structure of politics in the country.

The rise of the new middle class also has significance for the productive sectors of the economy. With sufficient disposal incomes these people would like to spend on high value agricultural products such as vegetables, fruits, milk products and meat. However, the heavily subsidised agricultural sector under the influence of the old political class is still engaged in producing food grains. This means that in terms of adding value to the economy, agriculture is performing well below its considerable potential. This must change for political as well as economic reasons.

Demographic change is another area of analysis for those who would like to understand Pakistan’s political development. Pakistan has the youngest population among the world’s most populous countries. Since we have not held a census for 18 years, the country’s demographic profile can only be guessed at. I assume that the median age of the population is 23 years which means that some 100 million people are below that age. Youth moves more than those who are older. A large number of them have left their homes and are living in large cities such as Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi-Islamabad. Three-fourths of the populations of these cites is below the age of 25 years. They want good education and training, essential to find well-paying jobs. The Pakistani state has failed in this area which was why for-profit educational institutions in the country have proliferated.

Pakistan is changing fast, a fact that the old political class has not fully understood. It will pay a price for not watching what is happening around it. By the time this comprehension occurs, the country would have moved beyond its grasp.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1222708/understanding-pakistans-new-politics/

Riaz Haq said...

Pakistan has got a new publisher of English books, and she’s looking to stir things up

https://scroll.in/article/827854/pakistan-has-got-a-new-publisher-of-english-books-and-shes-looking-to-stir-things-up

Pakistan has produced several internationally acclaimed writers in English, including two Booker Prize nominees (Mohsin Hamid, 2007 shortlist; Mohammed Hanif, longlisted in 2008). But the English language publishing scene in the country is conspicuous by the absence of presses of any repute, barring Oxford University Press Pakistan. Enter, in this space, Mongrel Books, started by Shandana Minhas, author of three novels – Tunnel Vision, Survival Tips For Lunatics, and Daddy’s Boy. Excerpts from an interview on publishing in Pakistan, Mongrel’s vision and mandate, and the way ahead:

Why did you decide to set up Mongrel Books? How has the journey been so far?
For some years now my husband Imran and I have been quietly building the life we always imagined for ourselves, in the company of books, in the service of books. Recently we have been struggling to find books we want to read on shelves in Karachi, so we just decided to take the next logical step and publish them. The journey has just started. I hope you’ll ask me again in a year and I’ll be around to answer.

Why do you think that the English language publishing scene hasn’t evolved in Pakistan? Is it because of a lack of a dedicated readership, infrastructure or even security threats?
Lack of a dedicated readership and infrastructure would be news to the retired bureaucrats, landowners, politicians, socialites and inbred memoirists whose English language offerings have been, and continue to be, published in Pakistan. Just two minutes ago the host of the country’s most watched political talk show told us that all three of the night’s guests were published writers. Between them they had written books on law, dentistry and honour killing.

They might all be good books; the point is that traditional publishing in Pakistan is as riddled with greed, nepotism, cronyism and corruption as the body politick of the wider nation. Its totemic figures, the gatekeepers to visibility, haven’t looked to sustain anything other than their own relevance. If something happens and they aren’t involved in it, they won’t tell you about it. And given the opportunity they will tear it down.

This applies to everything from state-funded cultural bodies to privately owned enterprises to media coverage, and cuts across class. They might tell you they’re not publishing English language fiction because of security threats or censorship, but the truth might be closer to self-censorship: the margins aren’t big enough and “native Pakistani” writers (like me) don’t add to their social cache.

But there might be something stirring in English language fiction publishing too, finally. A distributor in Lahore set up a dedicated imprint a couple of years ago. A big distributor in Karachi is quietly testing whether the footfall at book fairs and festivals might translate into actual sales for its own new fiction imprint. Talented young writers have organised themselves into collectives and started publishing online and in print. And one of the older, smaller presses just published a book of English short stories. By the chairman of the senate.

Almost all Pakistani authors publish or aspire to publish with major Indian publishers. How does Mongrel plan to reverse this trend? And have you managed to poach any writers from bigger publishers?
We have no aspirations to trend setting, bucking, reversal and/or spotting. Pakistani writers need to continue to find as many publishers as they can. All writers should. We’d love to do co-editions with other indie presses in the region to bring our writers to as wide a readership as possible. Maybe one day we’ll all make enough to pay our electricity bills, haina?

Riaz Haq said...

Home-grown #streaming app helps #Pakistan's musicians find voice. #music #talent http://reut.rs/2k1ibmZ via @Reuters

For years, violence kept most of Pakistan's aspiring young musicians from following their dreams, whether the threat of Taliban militant attacks or gang wars in the crowded southern port city of Karachi.

Now, as law enforcement crackdowns slowly improve the security situation across the nation, some musicians are getting help from two-year old Pakistani start-up Patari, a music streaming and production company.

Both the startup and the musicians' efforts are helping to carve out a new creative space for young people in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where those below 30 make up 60 percent of a population of almost 200 million.

Karachi rap ensemble Lyari Underground was once afraid of putting its music on Facebook, deterred by episodes of bloody gang war in the precinct of the same name that many Pakistanis consider the most dangerous in their largest city.

But the same violence has inspired many of the group's songs, taking cues from the music of U.S. rapper Tupac Shakur, said its founder, who uses the name AnXiously.

"In a ghetto, rap exists naturally," he added. "If there is no rap, then it is not a ghetto. Rap is a product of this reality and these surroundings."

Band members said when they first heard the music of Tupac, although half a world away, it reminded them of their own experiences living with violence and poverty.

Lyari remains one of Karachi's poorest areas and financial limitations often force its young people to forego creative pursuits.

FROM STREAMING TO PRODUCING

Launched in February 2015, Patari now boasts a library of 40,000 Pakistani songs and podcasts, and subscribers exceed half a million, said Chief Executive Khalid Bajwa.

Nearly 30 million of Pakistan's people use the internet, mainly on mobile telephones, says digital rights organization Bytes for All.

Bajwa declined to discuss revenue, apart from saying the company was "self-sustaining", mostly by producing events for established firms such as drinks company Pepsi, consumer goods giant Unilever and Pakistani clothing brand Khaadi.

The company's latest initiative, Tabeer, or 'Dream Come True', pairs established artists with unknown musicians to produce six songs and music videos, completed on a budget of $15,000, and features on its app.

Patari exploited the fact that Pakistan's tiny pop music scene comprised a couple of "corporate branded shows" featuring the same artists every year, but excluded amateur musicians.

"We saw an inefficiency in the market, where you have all this talent, all this interest, but there is nothing bridging the two," said Chief Operating Officer Ahmer Naqvi.

The first two videos, featuring Abid Brohi, a rapper from remote Sibbi in southwestern Balochistan province, and 13-year-old tea vendor Jahangir Saleem, have drawn more than a million views, matching Coke Studio, Pakistan's premier music programme.

Another video features Nazar Gill, from the capital, Islamabad, who was one of the cleaning staff at an apartment building where Naqvi once lived.

One day, Gill knocked on Naqvi's door and asked to sing a song he had written.

"I sang my song for him and he liked it," recalled Gill, a member of the country's tiny Christian minority that prides itself on its musical tradition.

"He said, 'Nazar, I will not let your voice go to waste.'"

Riaz Haq said...

Her Father Gave Her The Courage To Speak Out Against 'Honor Killings'

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/09/04/644498267/after-her-cousins-honor-killing-khalida-brohi-became-a-womens-rights-activist

In the tribal region of Pakistan where Khalida Brohi grew up, girls didn't typically go to school. Instead, some were forced into marriage at a very young age — and punished by death if they don't act according to plan.

That's what happened to Brohi's 14-year-old cousin, Khadija. Khadija's family had arranged a marriage for her, but Khadija fell in love with someone else and ran away. Then, Brohi says, "Three men arrived and they took her ... to a place where her grave was already dug and she was murdered by my uncle right there."

Brohi herself would have been betrothed before she was even born had her father not refused to sign the marriage contract. "It saved my life, definitely," she says of her father's refusal.

Instead, Brohi became the first girl in her village to go to school. After being exposed to books and ideas — as well as to the suffering of girls and women in her village — Brohi dedicated herself to educating women. She's launched several nonprofit organizations and speaks out against so-called "honor killings" — in which women are murdered by family members because of a perceived shame. Her new memoir is I Should Have Honor.

Interview Highlights


On her cousin's family getting money after Khadija's murder

This is this is very hard for me to speak about, but when [Khadija] was murdered, the boy's family had pleaded with them to take money instead of murdering him, and the money would bring food to the table of this family. And the mother would refuse to eat, and because there was nothing else to eat they would force her to have a few bites. And one day she ate from that food, and the next day she said, "I feel a cancer growing in me, because I ate my daughter."

On exchange marriages, in which each tribe trades a bride to the other in order to establish trust

Exchange marriages are usually very common between two different tribes. ... People who don't know each other and cannot trust each other. A lot of times even in small villages, trade also happens between their own tribes and so do relationships. But when there is a persistent offer ... for starting a relationship, then one tribe gives a daughter to the other tribe and demands a daughter in return. This is usually so that the daughter they've given is kept happy, and in any given good facilities of life, and if she's ever beaten in the other tribe, they would beat this daughter.

On how she was nearly in an exchange marriage before she was born

Before I was born, my uncle ... who at this time had murdered his own wife, decided that he's going to marry again and he needed another wife, but the family he was asking that woman from demanded an exchange, and there was no one else to be given, so he asked my father, who was his youngest brother, ... to give his first daughter as an exchange. ...

This was the first time when [my father] said no. He refused his father, he refused his brother, because he said ..., "Before even I hold her in my hands in my arms I cannot make such a decision." And because of that he disgraced his family and eventually left the family to give us a new life.

On how her father's education affected the family

It's shaped the family to become who we are, and to give us the path that we chose, because when he made it to university, he started realizing the injustices even more. He had started thinking about women's rights and about the position he would one day give to his daughters. At the time of university he discovered that his village not only had given him opportunity to go to school, but at the same time had also made him suffer by putting him through this tragic exchange marriage to a girl he had not met ... and at the time my mother was nine and he was 13.

Riaz Haq said...


Power dressing in Pakistan: how fashion became a battleground
The renaissance of Pakistani fashion is a sign of women’s growing independence, and has fuelled the religious right’s ire

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/24/pakistan-fashion-becomes-battleground-power-of-women

In the luxurious surroundings of a top hotel, a parade of glamorous, impossibly slim women walk with gazelle-like grace down the catwalk. Bare midriffs and legs are proudly displayed in intricately embroidered golden fabrics, and there isn’t a veil in sight. This is Pakistan Fashion Week, the jewel in the country’s haute couture crown and an unrivalled glimpse into a creative industry that has surged in recent years. There’s just one thing that’s not quite as you might expect: Pakistan Fashion Week is not in Karachi or Islamabad but in London.

“The religious identity that is given to our country to some extent precedes the cultural identity. Many things that are beautiful in our culture are often suppressed and not prominent to their full extent at times,” says the fashion designer Fahad Hussayn. “There is a clash between the religious right and the cosmopolitan youth.” In Pakistan itself, the location of fashion shows is rarely publicised in advance and they are subject to strict security measures, meaning that they tend to be held in Europe and Dubai.

The industry has become a battleground between the religious right, desperate to maintain its influence, and the growing strength of young people, particularly the burgeoning middle classes, with women at the forefront of the battle for Pakistan’s cultural identity.

“It’s sad to see the kind of image that Pakistan has in the west. It’s a country that’s full of art, music and creativity and there are lots of talented people here that nobody gets to hear about.

“All we hear about is the political turmoil and the religious issues. Everyone thinks it’s all bombs and burqas,” says Adnan Ansari, the celebrity make-up artist and fashion entrepreneur who eight years ago set up Pakistan Fashion Week (in fact just a weekend, held at the London Hilton on Park Lane).---------

The trend towards more cosmopolitan fashion is part of a cycle. “Pakistani fashion was very liberal in the 60s and early 70s, but there was a real crackdown on women under General Zia, who stamped a very Islamic-focused identity on Pakistan. Women’s bodies were policed through sharia law and through the media. This started to change in the 90s, but even today there is still the tension between the religious conservatives and the image of women,” said Amina Yaqin, a senior lecturer in post-colonial studies at SOAS.

“The tension you see now is that women are taking a stance and want the freedom to wear what they want, but it is not freely available to all women because of a complex network of systems such as class, economic mobility and honour issues.

“The new generation from the middle classes are fed up and don’t want to be restricted, and as they become more visible it starts to matter to them. The question is whether this power is real or just being offered for consumption by the fashion industry.”

Riaz Haq said...

Oscar winner filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's #mobile #cinema is helping #women in #Pakistan learn their rights. Her team selected films that tackle income #inequality, the #environment, ethnic relations, and #religious tolerance. #genderequity https://www.fastcompany.com/90337127/this-mobile-cinema-is-helping-women-in-pakistan-learn-their-rights

In 2016, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won an Academy Award for her documentary film A Girl in the River: The Price of Freedom. The film told the story of a woman in Obaid-Chinoy’s home country of Pakistan whose father and uncle attempted to kill her after she married someone she chose instead of having an arranged marriage. This is not uncommon in Pakistan; the Human Rights Commission counted 460 such murders–called “honor killings”–in 2017. What’s uncommon is that this woman survived, and was able to tell her story.

When the film was released, it became headline news in Pakistan, and the prime minister invited Obaid-Chinoy to host a screening at his office, which was live-streamed across the country. On the stage at TED2019 in Vancouver, Obaid-Chinoy told the audience that after the film ended, the prime minister said to her, “There is no honor in honor killing.” He told Obaid-Chinoy that he would work to bring an end to the practice, starting with the fact that a loophole in Pakistani law allowed men who attempted murder to avoid jail if they secured forgiveness from the victims. After the woman featured in A Girl in the River left the hospital and began a court proceeding against her father and uncle, she received mounting pressure to forgive them. In the end, she did. For Obaid-Chinoy, that lent a fresh urgency to the film. “When such a strong woman is silenced, what chance did other women have?” she says.

After A Girl in the River won the Academy Award, the prime minister of Pakistan did close the “forgiveness loophole”: Now, men who kill women in the name of honor receive life imprisonment in Pakistan if convicted.

But the day after the legislation passed, Obaid-Chinoy said, a woman was killed in the name of honor, then another, then another. “We had impacted legislation, but it wasn’t enough,” she told the audience. The film had proved effective politically, but, she wondered, could it change culture and put an end to honor killings before they were carried out?

“We needed to take the film to the heartland, to small towns and villages across the country,” Obaid-Chinoy says. She and her team built a mobile cinema on a truck and began driving it to communities in Pakistan where honor killings were most prevalent, where they would host screenings of the film and discuss the changes in the law and how women can advocate for themselves. Sometimes, they faced opposition. One village shut the screening down “because they didn’t want to women to know their rights,” Obaid-Chinoy says. In another village where some men clamored to have the screening stopped, a plainclothes policeman ordered it back on, saying it was his duty to protect the rights of women to know their rights.

Since Obaid-Chinoy’s mobile cinema began rolling in 2017, it has screened A Girl in the River, but “we also began to open up our scope beyond honor killings,” she says. Her team selected films that tackle income inequality, the environment, ethnic relations, and religious tolerance. Often, they would set up separate showings for women of films that feature women as heroes–heads of state or advocates–and encourage them to step into those roles. For groups of men, they show films that feature men as advocates for women and show punishment for those that disparage or harm women.

Obaid-Chinoy recently heard from organizers in Bangladesh and Syria who want to bring the mobile cinema there, and they’ve begun to plan how best to do that. “For me, cinema can play a very positive role in changing and molding society in a positive direction,” Obaid-Chinoy says.

Riaz Haq said...

#Pakistan to create 1,000 courts to tackle #violence against #women. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent watchdog, reported at least 845 incidents of sexual violence against women in its 2018 report. #genderequity https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/20/pakistan-to-create-1000-courts-to-tackle-violence-against-women?CMP=share_btn_tw

Pakistan is to set up more than 1,000 courts dedicated to tackling violence against women, the country’s top judge has announced, seeking to tackle a problem activists say the criminal justice system has long neglected.

Chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa said the special courts would allow victims to speak out without fear of retaliation in the conservative Muslim country, where domestic violence is often seen as taboo.

Pakistan sees thousands of cases of violence against women every year, from rape and acid attacks to sexual assault, kidnappings and so-called honour killings.

“We are going to have 1,016 gender-based violence courts across Pakistan, at least one such court apiece in every district,” Khosa said in an address to fellow judges broadcast on national television. “The atmosphere of these courts will be different from other courts so that complainants can speak their heart without any fear,” he said.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent watchdog, reported at least 845 incidents of sexual violence against women in its 2018 report.

There were no comparative figures and the commission had previously said violence against women went largely unreported, particularly in rural areas, where poverty and stigma prevented victims from speaking out.

The country was ranked the sixth most dangerous for women in a Thomson Reuters Foundation a survey of global experts last year.

The new courts will operate in existing courthouses, but will hold domestic violence hearings separately from other cases to enable victims to testify in confidence.

A pilot court of this kind was opened in 2017 in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province.

Local high court chief justice Mansoor Ali Shah said at the time that women were the most vulnerable members of society and that one in every three had been a victim of physical or psychological violence.

Human rights campaigners said the Lahore court had been a success and welcomed the move to expand the programme.

Romana Bashir, who heads the Peace and Development Foundation, a non-governmental organisation working on women’s rights, said it was “a wonderful safeguarding measure”.

“Certainly women will be encouraged and feel strengthened to speak up against gender based violence. Consequently, women will be able to get justice,” she said.

Fauzia Viqar, a women’s rights campaigner who advised the Punjab government until last month, said studies had shown the performance of such dedicated courts to be “many times better than other courts”.

Riaz Haq said...

#Pakistani #women break dating taboos on #Tinder. Though casual #dating for women is still frowned upon in socially conservative & heavily patriarchal Pakistan, attitudes are rapidly changing in the country's cities. #Karachi #Lahore #Islamabad #Pakistan https://www.dw.com/en/pakistan-women-tinder/a-54509792


Casual dating for women is often frowned upon in Pakistan's male-dominated society. However, dating apps such as Tinder are challenging norms and allowing women to take more control over their sexuality.

Faiqa is a 32-year-old entrepreneur in Islamabad, and, like many young single women around the world, she uses dating apps to connect with men.

Although casual dating for women is still frowned upon in socially conservative and heavily patriarchal Pakistan, attitudes are rapidly changing in the country's cities.

Faiqa has been using the dating app Tinder for two years, and she said although the experience has been "liberating," many Pakistani men are not used to the idea of women taking control of their sexuality and dating lives. Pakistani women are often expected to preserve a family's "honor."

"I've met some men on Tinder who describe themselves as 'open minded feminists,' yet still ask me: 'Why is a decent and educated girl like you on a dating app?'" Faiqa told DW.


Online dating grows in South Asia

India leads South Asia's online dating market, and Pakistan is slowly catching on. A study by the Indonesian Journal of Communication Studies found that most of Pakistan's Tinder users come from major cities including Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi and are usually between 18 and 40 years old.

Other dating apps are also growing in popularity. MuzMatch caters exclusively to Muslims looking for a date. Bumble, despite being relatively new to the online dating market, is a favorite among many Pakistani feminists, as women initiate the first conversation.

"There are fewer men on Bumble, therefore it somehow feels safer to use. Tinder is well-known and someone you know could see you, making it uncomfortable," said Nimra, a student from Lahore.

However, many young women in Pakistan use apps because it makes dating more private.

"With a dating app, a woman can choose if she wants a discreet one night stand, a fling, a long-term relationship etc. It is hard for women to do this openly in our culture, which is why dating apps give them an opportunity they won't find elsewhere," said Nabiha Meher Shaikh, a feminist activist from Lahore.

Exploring sexuality in a conservative society

Sophia, a26-year old researcher from Lahore, told DW she uses Tinder to explore her "sexuality without constraints."

"I don't care if people judge me. Society will always judge you, so why bother trying to please them?" she said.

However, not all female Tinder users are as open as Sophia. Most Tinder profiles of Pakistani women do not disclose their full identity, with photographs showing only cropped faces, close-up shots of hands or feet, faces covered with hair or only painted fingernails.

"If we put up our real names or photographs, most men tend to stalk us. If we don't respond, they find us on social media and send weird messages," said 25-year-old Alishba from Lahore.

She also pointed out dating double standards, explaining that married men on Tinder often use their "broken" marriage as an excuse to date other women.

Riaz Haq said...

The #Indian girl killed for wearing #jeans . Her mother, Shakuntala Devi Paswan, told BBC Hindi that the teenager had been severely beaten with sticks by her grandfather and uncles after an argument over her clothes. #Hindutva #misogyny - BBC News

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-57968350

Women and girls in small town and rural India live under severe restrictions with village heads or family patriarchs often dictating what they wear, where they go or who they talk to, and any perceived misstep is considered a provocation and must be punished.

No wonder then that the alleged assault of Neha for her choice of clothing is just one among a number of brutal attacks reported on girls and young women by their family members that have recently shocked India.

Last month, a gut-wrenching video that emerged from Alirajpur district in the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh showed a 20-year-old tribal woman being beaten by her father and three male cousins.

Following outrage, police lodged a complaint against the men and said she was being "punished" for running away from her "abusive" marital home.

A week before the incident, reports said two girls were mercilessly beaten up by their family members for talking on the phone with a male cousin in the neighbouring district of Dhar.

--------------


Reports of girls and young women being brutally assaulted by family members have recently made headlines in India. The incidents have also put the spotlight on how unsafe girls and women are within their own homes.

Last week, 17-year-old Neha Paswan was allegedly beaten to death by members of her extended family in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh because they didn't like her wearing jeans.

Her mother, Shakuntala Devi Paswan, told BBC Hindi that the teenager had been severely beaten with sticks by her grandfather and uncles after an argument over her clothes at their home in Savreji Kharg village in Deoria district, one of the least developed regions in the state.

"She had kept a day-long religious fast. In the evening, she put on a pair of jeans and a top and performed her rituals. When her grandparents objected to her attire, Neha retorted that jeans were made to be worn and that she would wear it," her mother said.

The argument escalated, resulting in the violence, she claims.

Shakuntala Devi said as her daughter lay unconscious, her in-laws called an autorickshaw and said they were taking her to hospital.

"They wouldn't let me accompany them so I alerted my relatives who went to the district hospital looking for her but couldn't find her."

The next morning, Shakuntala Devi said, they heard that the body of a girl was hanging from the bridge over the Gandak river that flows through the region. When they went to investigate, they discovered it was Neha's.

Police have lodged a case of murder and destruction of evidence against 10 people, including Neha's grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and the auto driver. The accused have yet to make any public statement.

Riaz Haq said...

Man in #Odisha, #India decapitates wife over infidelity suspicions, then walks miles with her severed head. Nakaphodi Majhi suspected his wife Sachala Majhi of infidelity and murdered her by slitting her throat with a sharp #dagger. https://news.yahoo.com/man-india-decapitates-wife-over-221706535.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via @YahooNews

A man allegedly decapitated his wife and walked over seven miles to the police station with her severed head in Odisha, India.

Nakaphodi Majhi, 55, reportedly suspected his wife Sachala Majhi of infidelity and murdered her by slitting her throat with a katuri, a sharp dagger, during a heated argument at around 3:30 a.m. on July 15 in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district.

Majhi then reportedly beheaded Sachala before walking seven miles toward the nearest police station with her severed head.

Locals of the Chandrasekharpur village were horrified as Majhi was captured en route to the Gondia police station. Witnesses reportedly apprehended him at Jankira village and informed the police.

Joranda Police arrested Majhi and registered a case against him. Police also recovered the blood-stained weapon Majhi had used in the crime.

The investigation is currently ongoing.

Majhi and the deceased woman were married for 25 years. They have two sons, according to the police.

Riaz Haq said...

Four key trends - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

https://www.dawn.com/news/1766451

By Umair Javed


The cultural indicators are about how people understand the world around them and the degree to which they are engaged with it. The first of these relates to consumption of information, especially among young people, who constitute a majority in the country. For this, we can turn to Table 40 of the last census, which reports that 60 per cent of households rely on TV and 97pc rely on mobile phones for basic information. The corresponding figures in 1998 were 7pc and 0pc respectively.

What this overwhelmingly young population is watching on TV or through their mobiles is something that we can never completely know. But what is clear is that a lot of information is being accessed, and a lot of ideas — about politics, about religious beliefs, and about the rest of the world — are circulating. Controlling or regulating this flow is an impossibility. Will it lead to an angrier population or a more passive one? A more conservative one or one with some transgressive tendencies? So far, the outcome leans more towards anger and conservatism.

Another slow but steady sociocultural transformation is the vanishing gender gap in higher education. Men and women between the ages of 20 and 35 have university degrees at roughly the same rate (about 11pc). Between 20 and 30, a slightly higher percentage of women have a college degree compared to men. And just two decades ago, women’s higher education attainment in the same 20 to 35 age bracket was 3pc lower than men. This gap has been covered and there are strong signs that it will reverse in the other direction as male educational attainment stagnates.

What does a more educated female population mean for societal functioning? Will these capabilities threaten male honour (and patriarchy) in different ways? Will there be new types of gender politics and conflicts? And will the levee finally break in terms of the barriers that continue to prevent women from gaining dignified remunerated work? As in other unequal countries, Pakistani men hold a monopoly over economic benefits and public space. And they are unlikely to give these privileges up passively.

In the socioeconomic domain, there are also two things worth highlighting. The first is urban migration, not just in large metropolitan centres, but in smaller second- and third-tier cities as well. Fragmenting land holdings and climate change are compelling young men in particular to move to cities in large numbers. A 10-acre farm inherited by five brothers will lead to at least three seeking work outside of agriculture.

The official urbanisation rate may be at around 38pc but this is a significant underestimate. Many villages are now small towns, and small towns are now nothing less than large urban agglomerations. The perimeters of these urban areas are dotted with dense informal settlements that provide shelter — often the only type available — for working-class migrants.

Finally, the last trend is employment status in the labour force. In the last 20 years, the percentage of people earning a living through a daily/weekly/monthly wage (as opposed to being a self-cultivator, self-employed, or running a small business) has increased by 10pc. Much of this increase is taking place in the informal economy and that too in the services sector.


Starting your own business, however small, requires money, which most do not have. Getting higher-paying, formal-sector jobs first requires getting credentials and training, which again is beyond the budget of most. Large swathes of the working population will grind out a living by taking care of the needs of the better off — fixing their cars, cleaning their houses, serving them food. Given the condition of the economy, this trend is unlikely to change.

Riaz Haq said...

In Pakistan’s Tharparkar, single mother defies gender norms to take up drumming as profession

https://www.arabnews.pk/node/2332731/pakistan


MITHI, THARPARKAR: Rocking a colorful Rajasthani dress, singing Marwari folk songs, and playing a drum that hangs from her neck attached to a sturdy blue strap, Maryam Naz, 40, impresses her audience with her performance standing atop sand dunes in Tharparkar, a southern Pakistani desert region where seeing a woman publicly singing or playing instruments had largely been unheard of.

Playing a drum, which is a two-headed hand drum, is common all across the subcontinent in countless folk genres, devotional traditions, and family functions. In Pakistan, most drum players are men, therefore, seeing a woman playing the percussion instrument in public is a rare sight.

But for Naz, a single mother of six children hailing from Tharparkar’s Mithi city, traditionally-defined gender norms could not become a hurdle and she chose drumming as a profession when things turned difficult for her following her husband’s death in 2016 nearly a decade ago.

“After my husband’s death, I faced many problems, I was unable to feed my children,” Naz told Arab News. “I had to earn for my children, so I decided to sing and play in public.”

Naz, who also sings in Urdu, Sindhi, Dhatki and Marwari languages, belongs to the Manganiar community, which has produced many traditional folk musicians in India’s Rajasthan and Pakistan’s Tharparkar. Members of the community are known for their unique folk style and have contributed significantly to the region’s rich cultural heritage.

She says she learned singing and playing drum at the age of eight from prominent local singer and drum player, Ustaad Soomar Faqir, while her skills were further polished by her father, who also used to sing and play drum at weddings and other events.

Naz initially sang and played drum at weddings, but she was criticized when she took it up as a profession due to cultural norms. She, however, defied the norms and continued doing what she was best at, so much so that many Sindhi-language entertainment channels invited her on shows and appreciated her music skills.

Imtyaz Dharani, a local journalist, told Arab News he reported Naz’s story for the first time on his YouTube channel, Indus Globe, in 2020.

“I saw her first time playing dholak in a wedding function in Mithi, where she was playing dholak in an amazing way,” he said. “So far I haven’t found such a woman dholak (drum) player in the Sindh province.”

Naz says it is often difficult for her to make ends meet amid rising inflation in Pakistan and due to inconsistent earnings, but she is passionate about what she does.

“I could have another profession for earning, but I was passionate [about playing drum and singing],” she said. “I did not quit.”

Nadeem Jumani, a local poet from Tharparkar, said Naz had been playing drum alongside many prominent Sindhi singers, including Sanam Marvi and Allah Dino Junejo, but she did not get her due share of fame.

“She is a very talented artist, therefore [Sindh culture minister] Sardar Shah should give her a stipend,” Jumani said.

He added that Naz’s skills should be lauded as she was challenging the gender stereotypes created by the society.

“In a male-dominated society, it is difficult for women to do a government job, but she sings and plays drum [alongside] her male counterparts,” he said.

“After her initiative, the trend is changing here as other girls from her community are also coming forward to learn drum-playing skills.”