Gender Studies Lecture 1

Bilal Rasheed
Dy CEO Peshawar
 Topics
1. Feminist Movement in Pakistan
2. Status of Gender Studies in Pakistan
3. Women’s Health in Pakistan
4. Women’s Education in Pakistan

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 1. Feminist Movement in Pakistan
(1/7)
• The two strands:
• Islamic feminism:
– Riffat Hassan, Amina Wadood, Asma Barlas
• Secular Feminism:
– Shahnaz Rouse, Fouzia Saeed (see feminism as an
extension of basic human rights)
• “Pakistan needs a feminism that elegantly
marries both strands of feminism, secular and
Islamic” (Bina Shah)
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 1. Feminist Movement in Pakistan
(2/7)
• Backlash Against Feminism:
• It’s viewed as anti-Islamic, and is considered
to be influenced by foreign and especially
Zionist policy.
• Poor women internalize their suffering
because of fear and lack of resources, upper
class women simply turn a blind eye, hoping
to maintain status quo.

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 1. Feminist Movement in Pakistan
(3/7)
• Timeline:
• Fatima Jinnah rallied thousands of women.
• Begum Ra’ana Liaqat Ali khan founded All
Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA) in 1949.
• Bhutto opened up all government services for
women, including District Management Group
and Foreign Services of Pakistan.
• Women’s Action Forum (WAF) was founded in
1981.

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 1. Feminist Movement in Pakistan
(4/7)
• Comedian and director, Rangeela, was the first to
publically express support for women through his
movie “Aurat Raj” (1979) which was the story of a
woman who stands up against her chauvinist
husband, forms a political party, and becomes a
national leader.
• Rose as a backlash to Hudood Ordinance of 1979
which as rape vicims to produce four witnesses.
• Zia banned women from taking part and from
being spectators in sports.
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 1. Feminist Movement in Pakistan
(5/7)
• When the victim was women, diyat was
halved.
• WAF devised the slogan ‘men, money, mullahs
and military’ in that era.
• Feminism gained momentum in Benazir’s
governments (1988-90 &1993-96) when
NGO’s and focus groups thrived.

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 1. Feminist Movement in Pakistan
(6/7)
• Feminism suffered a backlash during Nawaz
government in 1997 when conservatism
revived. Islamic ideology council proposed
making burqa mandatory and honour killings
rose to new heights.
• Musharraf advanced women’s rights and
encouraged their involvemnt in media, sports
and socio-political activities.

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 1. Feminist Movement in Pakistan
(7/7)
• How to support and strengthen Feminist
Movement?

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 2. Status of Gender Studies in
Pakistan (1/8)
• Problems:
• Taught in Western perspectives.
• Absence of indigenos content and dearth of
indigenous writers
• Dearth of reliable statistics

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 2. Status of Gender Studies in
Pakistan (2/8)
• Timeline:
• Institute of Public Studies (IPS), a civil society
think tank has undertaken a number of studies
and publication of gender studies since its
inception in 1979.
• IPA established Study Group on Gender Studies in
2001.
• Institute of Women Studies Lahore (IWSL) 1986
started offering Diploma and Certificate
Programmes and engaged in research and
advocacy
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 2. Status of Gender Studies in
Pakistan (3/8)
• Center of Excellence for Women Studies
(CEWS) in 1989 by Ministry of Women
Development, in 5 public universities.
– CEWS offers courses and seminars, conducts
research and acts as a functional base of
knowledge.
• Pakistan Association for Women Studies
(PAWS) in Karachi in 1991

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 2. Status of Gender Studies in
Pakistan (4/8)
– Objectives of PAWS:
• A forum for interaction and coordination among female
activists
• Build solidarity among women
• Develop feminist research on indigenous issues
• Strengthen the capabilities of women through training
and education
• Assist women in self-employment
• Report findings to assist policy makers
• Organize conferences, workshops and short courses

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 2. Status of Gender Studies in
Pakistan (5/8)
• First MA in 1996 in University of Karachi
• M. Phil / Ph D programs in 2002
• As a subidiary course at First Year (Hons.) level
from 2004
• BS Hons. 4 years program from 2007
• MA evening program from 2010
• Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
has been working on perception of the subject in
Pakistan.

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 2. Status of Gender Studies in
Pakistan (6/8)
• Universities:
• AIOU, Islamabad
• University of Sindh Jamshoro
• Islamia University of Bahawalpur
• Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad
• Szabist Islamabad
• Bahauddin Zakaria University, Lahore
• Bahauddin Zakaria University, Multan
• University of the Punjab, Lahore
• University of Peshawar
• Women University Islamabad

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 2. Status of Gender Studies in
Pakistan (7/8)
• Steps:
• To be established as an optional subject and
secondary, intermediate and bachelor’s level
• Promoting indigenous research
• Collection of reliable statistics
• Avoiding labelling of Westernization
• Islamic feminist discourse to gain larger
support of society
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 2. Status of Gender Studies in
Pakistan (8/8)
• Objective research based on ground realities to
identify the scope and gravity of issues
• Gender studies departments in universities to
coordinate with other departments
• Different shades of opinion be reflected in the
indigenous discourse
• Examples of women in developing life be quoted
• Enhanced participation of women in life without
disintegration of family

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 3. Status of Women’s health in
Pakistan (1/7)
• Anaemia:
• Due to Iron deficient nutrition and blood loss throughout a
woman’s life
• Four Delays in Pregnacy:
• Delay in Decision
• Delay in Transportation
• Delay in Emergency Care
• Delay in Recognition of Post-natal Complications
– Losing three women per hour
– 30000+ deaths per year i.e. 340/100000 pregnancies because of
Hemorrhage, hypertension and infection, the three major
causes of maternal death

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 3. Status of Women’s health in
Pakistan (2/7)
• Major complications faced by pregnant
women:
– Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF), Recto-Vaginal Fistula
(RVF), Depression, Chronic Pelvic Pain, Loss of
Uterus, Infertility, Pelvic Inflammatory Diseases,
etc.
• 80% + women are delivered at home
• Villages lact proper road networkss.
• EmOC isn’t available at most RHCs and BHUs.

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 3. Status of Women’s health in
Pakistan (3/7)
• Girl Child
• Termination of pregnancy based on ultrasonic
confirmation of gender.
• Girl Child infant mortality rate is higher than male child
infant mortality rate
• Little access to playgrounds, social funcitons and other
community activities
• Marriage without consent.
• Bartered and given as ‘blood money’.
• Traditions like Vana, swara, watta satta, dundee, karo
kari, etc.

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 3. Status of Women’s health in
Pakistan (4/7)
• Cancers of Women:
• Breast, cervical, ovarian and colon cancers are
leading causes of death
• No screening programs and very few trained
surgeons
• Chemotherapy is extrememly expensive.

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 3. Status of Women’s health in
Pakistan (5/7)
• Violence against women:
• Acid throwing, rape, etc.
• At least 1 in every 5 women suffers rape or attempted
rape in their lifetime.
• Mental Health and Women:
• Depression, organic brain syndromes and dementias
• Povety, hunger, malnutrition, overwork, domestic
violence and sexual abuse
• Sense of loss, inferiority, humiliation, etc.
• 80% of the people affected by violent conflicts and
wars are women

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 3. Status of Women’s health in
Pakistan (6/7)
• Gender Biases in Health:
• Many health workers tend to have gender
biases.
• Communication between health workers and
women patients is extremely authoritarian
which makes woman’s disclosure of
psychological and emotional distresss difficult.

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 3. Status of Women’s health in
Pakistan (7/7)
• Steps to be taken to improve this situation:

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 4. Status of Women’s Education in
Pakistan (1/7)
• Status:
• Literacy rate of females
total rural urban
Province
females males females males females males
Baluchistan 24 56 15 48 44 76

KPK 36 72 33 70 52 70

Sindh 44 67 19 51 65 80

Punjab 54 59 44 66 73 82
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 4. Status of Women’s Education in
Pakistan (2/7)
• Drop outs from schools
• Alif Ailaan’s 25 million broken promises, 2015.
• Out of 25 million out of school children, 55%
are girls
• Child labour

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 4. Status of Women’s Education in
Pakistan (3/7)
• Hurdles:
• Social Hurdles:
• Patriarchal values/negative social behaviours towards
female education
• 34% of the out of school girls are so because their
parents won’t allow.
• Gendered labour:
• Females specialize in reproductive labour
• Economic hurdles
• 15% of the out of school girls are so because their
parents are poor.

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 4. Status of Women’s Education in
Pakistan (4/7)
• Insurgency hurdles
• By 2012, 710 schools had been damaged or destroyed
by the terrorists in KPK.
• Malala was shot in the head in Oct 2012
• Rural vs urban
• Infrastructure issues
• 60% students study in government schools and 9% of
those schools are without a building, and buildings of
38% of them are not in a satisfactory condition.
• Educational system is unable to retain students

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 4. Status of Women’s Education in
Pakistan (5/7)
• Importance of women’s education:
• Ability to form social relationships and have
self-respect
• Mobility – access to jobs and political
processes
• Access to legal system and justice
• Have their own choices

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 4. Status of Women’s Education in
Pakistan (6/7)
• Women are linked with other facets of human
development i.e. childhood care, nutrition,
water and sanitation, community
empowerment, peaceful resolution of
conflicts
• Developing organizational, managerial and
administrative skills
• Economic benefits for the country

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 4. Status of Women’s Education in
Pakistan (7/7)
• Steps to Improve the situation:

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 Q/A

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