The documentaries by Pakistani journalist and filmmaker Beena Sarwar, screened at the Press Club on Sunday evening, had an uncanny context. Raising the issues of women’s rights in Pakistan, the three films — Jabar Ki Shadi, Hudood Ordinance and Mukhtiar Mai: The Struggle For Justice , brought to mind the execution of a couple by the Taliban in the North West Frontier Province, allegedly on charges of adultery.
One also recalled the video of a teenage girl being flogged in the same region that outraged the world about two weeks ago.
The documentaries, each raising the issue of women who are forced into marriage, raped and denied justice, their struggle for survival, and the campaigns of the human rights activists, came like a much- needed third eye view on the contemporary issues that trouble the Pakistani intelligentsia as much as the civilised society all over the world.
“I’ve been making these films for a long time now. And while I was working for Geo TV — the first 24 hour news channel of Pakistan — I had to fight for eight-10 minute slots to telecast these films,” said Sarwar, who has been active in women’s rights, human rights and peace movements.
Drawing comparisons with India, Sarwar said, “I’m asked by people in Pakistan why don’t I make such films about India too. But that’s for the Indians to do. What they mean is why do I show the country in bad light; the same accusation that Arundhati Roy faces here.” The film on the Hudood Ordinance was the most engaging, peppered as it was by facts and figures on the status of women in the jails of Pakistan, suffering as a result of this law. For the uninitiated, this ordinance refers to a law enacted in 1979 by the then military ruler Gen. Zia- ul- Haq. It had earned a lot of flak as it had led to several incidents where a woman subjected to rape/gang rape was eventually accused of Zina (extra-marital sex).
“There have been changes in Hudood laws; they have been defanged and weakened considerably but they still exist. Nobody has been stoned to death by a court as a result of those laws,” Sarwar said.
The last film, Mukhtiar Mai: The Struggle for Justice , was more positive as it catalogued the famous case of Mukhtiar Mai who was gang- raped in June 2002 to avenge the alleged eve- teasing of a girl by Mukhtiar’s 14-year-old brother Shaqoor.
Instead of suffering in silence or committing suicide, Mukhtiar had gone to the police and her case caught global attention.
“When one woman speaks, two get the courage to follow her. That’s what I did,” the victim says in the film. With graphic details of how the victim re- built her life, educated herself and offers help to other women, the film was rivetting. It had won the best documentary award at the Jaipur International Film Festival in February.
“About three weeks ago, Mukhtiar Mai married, becoming the second wife of a man seven years younger than her. It was the man’s first wife who begged her to marry him as he would have otherwise committed suicide,” informed Sarwar.
The films were also shown in Allahabad where Sarwar’s father hails from. Her mother is from Pratapgarh.
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