"What does women's rights mean to you?" It seemed a strange question to ask a group of around 20 young women crammed in a little room, sweltering in 47oC heat, in a desert village in Pakistan. But this was no ordinary group of young women. They were teachers in Johi, a village deep in the desert of Sindh province, a four-hour drive north of Karachi.
Not only had they managed to educate themselves but they were now teaching other girls in Johi and the surrounding areas. In a country where religious fundamentalists routinely burn down girls' schools, this is a truly remarkable achievement.
Some responded quickly to the question, as if to catch their thoughts before they vanished. Others pondered the question a bit longer. They all responded with passion:
"It means that women are equal to men."
"Women must be treated as equals, especially in education and employment."
"Equality and choice. We decide when to marry and whom to marry."
"It means social change."
"Women must have basic human dignity."
These were no ordinary answers. They were statements of what they had become and had achieved through intense personal and political struggles for their rights.
Pakistan has the lowest literacy rate in South Asia. It has the lowest female participation rate in education and the highest female drop-out rate at primary-school level.
The dismal state of girls' education in the country is the result of government policies that systematically deny, violate and assault the most basic human rights of Pakistani women. The political system in Pakistan represents a political dictatorship against women.
The Hudood Ordinances epitomise this dictatorship. Introduced in 1979 during the military regime Zia ul-Haq, the law makes adultery a crime against the state and requires that legal proof of an act of rape includes the evidence of four Muslim male witnesses against the accused Muslim man.
The testimonies of Muslim women or non-Muslims are not accepted. If a Muslim woman is raped by a Muslim man in the presence of several Muslim women, for example, the rapist cannot be punished under the Hudood law, as the testimony of the women cannot be accepted by the courts.
The Zina Ordinance (covering adultery and fornication) under the Hudood law treats rape as a form of adultery, although adultery signifies consent and rape does not. Hence under the Zina Ordinance, women's reporting of rape has often been turned against them, leaving women with the deadly burden of having to prove their innocence at the risk of being charged with adultery.
Women rights' organisations estimate that a majority of the women in jail have thus been wrongly convicted of the "crime" of adultery under the Zina ordinance.
Alongside these existing anti-women laws that continue to be implemented with ferocious zeal, there are ongoing attempts to introduce new laws that further restrict and suffocate women's already heavily curtailed rights.
In a country where there is virtually no public space for women, the North West Frontier Province provincial government, which is under the control of religious fundamentalist parties, drafted a bill that would have prevented a woman from being seen in public without a male companion.
However, as a result of a brave, mass campaign organised by women's rights' activists through the Justice Action Campaign, the government has been forced to temporarily back down from pushing through with the legislation.
The tribal custom of "honour" killings or karo-kari, continues to be practised with impunity in many parts of the country. Between January and August 2003, karo-kari claimed a total of 393 lives. The vast majority of the victims were women.
The April 1 Pakistani Daily Times carried the following report of a typical case of karo-kari: "Lahore: A girl, Kausar, 17, was strangled by her elder brother because she married of her own free will. Ms Kausar left her home around 45 days ago and married Muhammad Suleman. On Wednesday she returned home and asked her family to forgive her, but her brother Muhammad Safdar, strangled her with a piece of cloth."
The women activists who struggle against these assaults to women's dignity and rights are some of the most courageous voices in Pakistani society. The women's movement has its roots in the anti-dictatorship struggle of the 1980s, when women were the first to take to the streets against martial law in 1981.
While middle-class and affluent women tend to be the more public figures of the movement, some of the bravest and most inspiring fighters for women's rights in Pakistan are working-class women. The young women school teachers in Johi represent such courageous women.
Reihana Mohideen
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, June 23, 2004.
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