Establishing Patriarchal Control Over Women in Pakistan - Part One
By Imaan Zainab
Mazari-Hazir
October 2,
2020
For several
decades now, Pakistani society has operated under the doctrine of control
vis-a-vis women. As a result, the human dignity of Pakistani women and the
scope of protection given to their rights are contingent upon the recognition
and mercy of men.
It is men
who have been granted the ultimate authority to determine the status and fates
of women in Pakistan, and there is no real understanding or acknowledgment of
this, let alone any prospect of moving forward by breaking down these
structures.
Suppose the
woman on the motorway who was gang-raped on September 22 this year had been a
single woman, with no children, travelling alone at night. Would the collective
outrage have been the same? The answer to that is a resounding ‘no’. The
reaction that came from the CCPO Lahore would have been the collective societal
reaction had a single woman been gang-raped while travelling alone.
That woman
would have been ‘unworthy’ of protection, viewed as a woman with questionable
character for stepping out of her home alone at night. Therefore, even after
reports of the Motorway gang-rape incident and the abduction and rape of a
young woman from Clifton in Karachi, our male leadership is focused on
castration, public hangings and greater moral policing as solutions to violence
against women.
What we see
in Pakistan is a general refusal at the state and societal level to acknowledge
the role of authority and power in establishing patriarchal control over women.
We see this in responses to sexual violence against women – through calls for
moral policing and implementation of violent penalties, instead of recognition
of the flawed basic structure of this society that seeks to invisibilize,
oppress and control women.
Muhammed
Asadi’s research paper, titled ‘Militarization and Gender: pathways to a
Violence-Based Patriarchy’, is an interesting read, which, when viewed within
the context of Pakistan, provides explanations of how patriarchy has been
embedded in the fundamental structures of our society. Asadi explores (and
tests) “the relationship between the level of militarization of a society as
reflected by the dominance of the military in the state’s expenditure
priorities and …. the level of gender-based stratification that exists in that
particular society”.
Asadi also
says: “The image of the citizen soldier, who is always a man, translates into
other facets of public administration as well. Citizenship is structured in a
hierarchical fashion based on sacrifice to the nation with sacrifice being
measured in terms of actual combat roles that then get linked to men because
they monopolize such roles in the military”. In this regard, it is pertinent
for us to understand how the militarization of our society laid the foundations
for misogyny and exclusion of women from public discourse.
In ‘The
politics of misogyny: General Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamization of Pakistan’s legal
system’, Shireen Khan Burki explains how the Zia regime’s “identity politics”
and “Islamic morality” resulted in women becoming “the target of the religious
clerics who began a campaign to get females out of the public sphere in the
name of Islam”. We have not moved forward from that: we need only go back to
March this year, when extremists attacked the Women’s Day March in the federal
capital. Even the murals women in Islamabad had painted, prior to the march,
were defaced by extremists from Lal Masjid.
A woman
being in the public space is a deviation from the patriarchal rules
underpinning this society and therefore, for the men in this society, it is
essential to restore patriarchal control and get women off the streets, off
television sets and out of the assemblies. This control is exercised within the
corridors of power as well, where when women are finally able to break through
and enter the mainstream, their own colleagues become obstacles to their right
to expression and participation.
This is
also seen in the deeper political structures and political decision-making,
where political parties nominate women for tickets in areas where the political
party is expected to lose. What results is critique of women who come in on
reserved seats, who quite frankly, have a bad deal as it is. First, male
politicians control and determine who will be nominated on reserved seats,
after excluding women from winning constituencies, and then, women on reserved
seats have a sword hanging over their heads if they have strong voices because
there is a very real threat that they will be removed by the male leadership.
It is still men who control and determine access to political spaces.
A 2005
research paper by Aysan Sev’er, titled ‘In the Name of Fathers: Honour Killings
and Some Examples from South-eastern Turkey’, explained this quite succinctly:
“Patriarchy subsumes power differences that systematically occur at the social,
legal and cultural levels and bestow authority on men… Male authority is so
ingrained, unquestionable and effective that it permeates all other social
realities and institutions… Male domination gets so infused into values, norms
and behaviour and the socio-religious outlook that one can rarely defy that
power”.
While
discussing Walby’s theory of patriarchy, Sev’er writes: “What is important is
the relentless control of women’s behaviour and sexuality where violence is a
condoned tool of control… women’s worth is equated with marriage and
motherhood”. This was reflected inter alia in a statement on the floor of the
house by Khawaja Asif, who asked a female MNA how she could handle the country
when she couldn’t even “control” the free discourse in her home environment.
Some years
ago, similar misogynist comments were made by PPP MNA Khursheed Shah on the
floor of the house, who informed the then speaker of the National Assembly that
women should not be interrupted while speaking as they would fall ill. We see
this in our daily public discourses as well: women are painted to be emotional,
hysterical and incapable of rational thought and debate. That is why when women
argue (online or in public spaces) on issues of public importance, it is not
labelled as “debate” but a “cat-fight”. This is inherently linked to the idea
that women ought to be domesticated.
Relying on
Puri’s work, Sev’er writes: “the three statuses open for women are: that of
some man’s virgin daughter; another man’s pious wife; and the self-sacrificing
mother of sons”. And so Pakistani women continue to identify themselves as wives,
mothers, sisters and daughters, rather than equal citizens and equal human
beings.
As rightly
pointed out by both Puri and Sev’er, “women learn that any deviation from rules
can trigger violence against them”. The unfortunate reality is that when women deviate
from these patriarchal rules, the all-powerful male club bands together to
utilize religion, morality and deflection to restore that patriarchal control.
To be continued
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Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir is founding partner
of Mazari-Hazir Advocates & Legal Consultants.
Original Headline: Doctrine of control - Part I
Source: The News, Pakistan
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Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism