The lack of Women’s Rights in Pakistan

Omar Mirza October 29, 1998

Tags: Justice , Law , Freedom , Oppression , Revolution , Lahore , China , Pakistan

It is indeed a sad state of affairs in Pakistan (an Islamic country)
when a rape occurs approximately every three hours, and in most cases
the guilty go free and the women victims themselves

are prosecuted for
Zina under the Hudood Ordinances. If they are unable to meet the
Islamic buren of proof of 4 male witnesses to the crime of rape, which
is an impossibly high burden to meet, the rapist is acquited of the
alleged rape, and the charges are changed to Zina and the victim joins
the accused as a Co-defendant, her testimony is then used against her,
her pregnancy from the rape is used to substantiate the charge of
unlawful sex, which then "logically" follows the legal dismissal of
the charge of rape (since the state has now to account for the
illegitimate sex that occurred according to the "rape" victims own
testimony, and since legally speaking in Pakistan "rape" does not
occur without the presence of 4 male witnessess willing to testify in
court) thus the victim is prosecuted for Zina. The burden of proof
then shifts upon them women "rape" victims to demonstrate that they
were coerced, since coersion would demand a conviction for rape by the
male defendant, this is impossible to then prove.

This treatment of women is against all international norms of
justice. And since Pakistan is a poor country, these women are
inadequately defendent by counsel, and in most cases not at all. All
too frequently,they are raped while in police custody in the jails of
the Islamic republic of Pakistan. Let us be clear that rape is a form
of male social behavior designed to make the woman feel in no
uncertain terms that she is under the male's dominance and power. The
rapist wields power over the powerless victim. In Pakistan, the Hudood
ordinances are also used as a tool to threaten political opponents, as
is gang rape of female relatives by police officers. All this in
Islamic Pakistan. Imagine if the 15th Amendment is passed ! A larger
dose of this type of treatment at the hands of "Islamic" society is
something the women of Pakistan do not need. I have often wondered as
to whether the enormous expense of organizing wedding functions and
inviting numerous guests was not simply society's way of legitimising
sex, which outside of marriage is taboo in Pakistan.

Then too there is the question of "marital rape", a category which
does not legally exist in Pakistan, or is recognized as such in
Islam. This is because women are essentially viewed by and large in
Pakistani society as chattal, to be wedded off as property to
whomsoever their parents choose. And it is a well known principle of
property that its owner may do with it whatsoever he wishes, in its
enjoyment thereof. Martial rape which i believe is widespread, occurs
in Pakistan as an extension of the husband-wife power
relationship. The husband seeks to demonstrate his power to impose sex
on the wife as his form of punishment/control mechanism over her and
to demonstrate to her that she is truly powerless and subservient to
him in their unequal relationship. Women are not to be allowed to
enjoy sex. Sex itself is unmentionable in society, whether marital or
otherwise. The clitoris too, is unmentionable, yet G-D created it for
women's pleasure. The treatment of women rape victims and the unequal
power relationship of men and women in marriage in Pakistan signify to
me the wider social problems and attitudes that need to be addressed,
of which these are only the symptoms, not the causes. I will now
attempt to diagnose the problem and suggest a remedy.

In Pakistan, women are also denied equal educational opportunities in
many areas of the country, (although in this case class undercuts
gender identity), and equal opportunities for advancement in society
exist more on paper than in practice for the vast majority of women in
the country. The high birth rate in Pakistan signifies the lack of
control women have over their own bodies. One hundred percent female literacy,
nothing less, must be our goal. I believe it is instructive to look
at the Chinese experience in this regard. In China, before 1949 women
can be said to be truly oppressed, if anywhere in the world by
patriarchal society. The customs of foot binding, arranged marriages,
child brides, no right to petition for divorce and lack of property
and inheritance rights, in addition to the fact that the average woman
gave birth over ten times in her life, and wide spread female
illiteracy were the lot of women.

After the 1949 revolution and the Marriage law of 1950, women achieved
full legal equality of rights. Until 1976, Chinese literacy rates were
above 90 percent. Women not only gained equal rights, they entered the
workforce as equal and productive members of society. Acceptance in
the workplace led to acceptance by men of social equality. This did
not however occur by governmental fiat so much as by active
participation in the work force and social reeducation.

Until and unless this occurs on a large scale, at all social levels,
women will not achieve gender equality in Pakistan. Rights can be
granted, but must be fought for to be acknowledged. China as a model
is not of course perfect, there has been a drop in literacy rates
after forced rural collectivization stopped, and due to its "one child
policy" female infanticide is a major problem. Nevertheless, many of
the problems in pre-communist China confront women in Pakistan
today. It should be noted however, that Islam gave women the right to
initiate a divorce, in the Seventh Century A.D, which contrasts
sharply with any other society including the West where women obtained
this well over a thousand years later. Furthermore, it was Islam that
outlawed marriage without the consent of those being married. Women
were no longer to be viewed as chattel, or the personal property of
men, to be disposed of as they wished. They were given specific legal
rights.

Lamenting the problems that exist today however, will not resolve
them. Acknowledging that they exist is a step in the right
direction. However, the question of how to address and rectify the
problems that exist today can only be approached after identifying and
accepting their root cause.

The root cause of these problems is the dominant patriarchal culture
of Pakistan. It is negatively reinforced in practice by its
misapplication of Islam. To illustrate my point, even some of the
judges of the Lahore high court had some doubts in the Saima Waheed
case as to whether an adult, a grown woman had the right to choose her
own mate without the consent of a wali (a novel religious
idea). Again, religion was used as a cloak by the patriarchal society
(represented in this case by her father who was against the marriage)
in its attempt to control and victimize women in Pakistan. It is only
within this context that one can understand the backlash (including
death threats) the judgement produced for Asma Jehangir, the lawyer
who represented her in court. It was not a religious backlash, for no
one could seriously dispute that the innovation of the concept of wali
was without serious basis in Islam, but rather, because of the fact
that this courageous woman stood up to and threatened the dominant
institution of patriarchy. Free choice marriage threatens the very
base of the institution of patriarchy, for it as a corollary obviously
includes the notion that besides a woman's right to choose her own
mate, there would have to be a rather freer mingling of the sexes for
this to become an issue at all. It does not restrict a woman to simply
choosing from a pool of pre-approved candidates carefully screened and
selected by her parents.

Islam envisions an egalitarian society for all members of the
community, with social justice for all. Unfortunately, the patriarchal
culture has usurped the rights of women in practice by the gender
biased application of the religion to the detriment of women's rights.

It is true that in the legal realm, the testimony of two women is
considered the equal of one male witness, this is inherently
prejudicial to the conception of rights of women. Inheritance rights
of widows and daughters are similarly not on a par with those of male
heirs.

An apologetic argument can, and has been made in both these cases
that:

a) these rights represented an improvement for women in the 7th
century A.D,

b) women get their share of inheritance in the form of dowry, which
they take with them to their husband's home.

It is also true that the birth of a son is celebrated, while that of a
baby daughter is simply accepted (the saying goes, haan, yeh bhee
Khuda ki daeen hai). (Trans. this TOO is a gift of G-D)

So called "Islamic" legislation by the modern nation-state today in
the area of women's dress and morality winds up giving patriarchal
society too much power to enforce the simple guidelines articulated by
the religion as rigid and eternal codes, thereby giving it a powerful
weapon with which to control and dominate women.

It is useful to note that the custom of veiling was only introduced at
the time of Walid II as a fashion for upper class women in the mid
eighth century (A.D). It has little Islamic basis. At the time of the
prophet (pbuh), men and women prayed in the mosques together. Only
much later was the seclusion of women and men in the mosques
introduced. This seclusion has over time turned into the virtual
exclusion of women from the mosque, leaving the mosque as the
exclusive domain of men.

Islam enjoins virtuous women to "dress modestly", this injunction was
not meant to stifle their very humanity as living beings, as the
Taliban have recently done in Afghanistan. It should also be
remembered that Ayesha the Prophet's (pbuh) youngest wife used to ride
into battle on a camel. There were other women including wives of the
prophet's companions who went about quite freely unveiled. One of
them, when asked by her husband why she did so, replied,that G-D had
put the stamp of beauty upon her face and that it pleased her that the
world should see G-D's grace upon it. In both these examples of women
in early Islam it is clear that there were no hard and fast
restrictions upon them, as the self-proclaimed "moral guardians" of
today's "Islamic" societies would impose on women, keeping them both
confined to the house and outside the sphere of public life.

Women's general seclusion, (defacto exclusion) from the mosques has
also had singular political consequences. The mosque has never been
an apolitical institution, and unlike Churches in the West, there has
never been a clear delineation of mosque and state. In early Islam
women were not excluded from the mosques but this occurred over time
as patriarchial society sought to restrict women to the
home. Exclusion from public performance of religious duties has thus
conferred an inferior political status to women in Islamic states for
over a millenium. Patriarchal society is singularly obsessed with the
virginity of females, and it is not for religious reasons, but rather
because male control over women and male pride are linked in
patriarchal society to the chastity of their unmarried daughters.

Through restrictions on dress and sex, which women by and large have
legitimated for religious reasons, patriarchy acquires the trappings
of both legality and righteousness in an Islamic society. After that,
it is only a matter of arguing on behalf of concern for the seclusion
of women from the "lustful" eyes of men, and their manner of dress to
discriminate against them in multifarious other ways. Women having
conceded on sincere religious grounds are an easy mark for patriarchy
which deprives them from developing to their full potential as human
beings, as the role of mother is the only one it envisions for
them. The idea of daughter as prayee ammanat, (property-held-in-trust)
is yet another example of the insidious nature of patriarchy. Once the
daughter has left the father's house, any shame she may bring will be
on her husband and in-laws, no more on him. It is the risk of shame in
the community which makes patriarchal males petty tyrants in their own
homes over their wives and daughters.

The solution to improving the lot of women in Pakistan is as simple as
it is breath taking. We must follow the ideals of the Quaid-e-Azam
(father of the Nation) and build a secular republic where religion is
a private matter for the individual, thereby establishing legal
equality between the sexes on the basis of citizenship, not religion,
which has become the bastion of patriarchy in its dominance of women.

Islam is the religion of enlightenment, to fully appreciate the
significance of the rights it granted to women one must view these in
the perspective of seventh century Arabia to understand how truly
revolutionary they were. That appreciation however does not and
should not confine us today. The grant of specific rights at a
specific time and place in history does not mean that women have no
other rights except those enumerated specifically. (An extreme example
of this is the Saudi prohibition of women driving automobiles in the
kingdom, although one could argue that since Ayesha could drive a
Camel into battle, women today can drive cars, but this method of
reasoning is dangerous if we are to rely upon it to create a civil
society whose members are all equal in rights before the law, which is
the ideal that the Quaid-e-Azam clearly articulated during the process
of the creation of the state of Pakistan on numerous occasions). As
times have passed however, the institution of patriarchy has sought to
limit women to those (hitherto revolutionary) rights only, and
crippled their effective exercise of those rights as well.

Indeed, it is the Spirit of the laws that is missing today in
Pakistan. Unfortunately this is because of the monopolization of Islam
by patriarchal & religious reactionaries (Those who cannot, and
moreover refuse to see the forest for the trees). Thus a
self-perpetuating morality and language of oppression is created.

The institutions of patriarchy have spent over 1,000 years (as long as
there have been men, there has been gender discrimination)
consolidating their positions, by whitling away at the very conception
of the rights of women in Islam, and our only option (coupled with the
fact that the gates of ijtehad have been closed for too long), must
now be to conduct this debate on a different playing field, otherwise
forever, the dominant patriarchal culture reduces the debate on
improving women's lot (be it in employment, personal freedom or other
areas) to being held within a "religious context", i.e. on its turf,
making any discussion of progress all but meaningless except in name.