Week 14 – Gender and

Development
Muhammad Ali Jan
ITU
Fall 2020-21
 Overview
• Must be kept in mind that in both urban and rural Pakistan, patriarchal
relations and forces remain strong despite many changes
• These have kept women in a WORSE position than men  differential
impacts of poverty, access to resources etc. also programs meant for
their improvement
• Second, not all changes have meant an IMPROVEMENT in the lives of
women  cannot view things in a linear fashion  forces like capitalism,
new technology, education etc. DON’T lead to one type of outcome
• But also, no ONE type of gender situation  plus beyond binary of men
and women to include transgender rights and other sexually
marginalized groups.
• Intersecting forms of exploitation and oppression with class, locality (urban rural),
religion and tradition to create intensification
• Many poor working women look after BOTH the household and contribute to the
earned income of the house
• Yet much of their contribution remains unrecognized
• Also have to bear the brunt of poverty, lack of access to sanitation, health and
education disproportionately
• In addition to these, also have to face cultural and social pressures
• The core of ‘izzat’ (household honour) are women and a violation of these mores ultimately
falls on them (most dramatically ‘honour killings’ but even everyday, mundane problems)
• The easiest targets for stereotyping: “too modern”, “too conservative”  female sexuality
the core preoccupation in popular culture
• Mental health problems of women ignored even more than men
• Yet women also constantly negotiating and often challenging (mostly quietly but
also directly) these patriarchal norms and relations.
 Dimensions of Discrimination
• Employment
• Labour force participation  both participation and recognition
• Most underestimate contribution of women (inappropriate definitions of what is
considered economic activity and emphasis on single main activity)
• Particularly in rural areas: Differential rates of Female Labour force participation by
regions and after certain technological changes
• Southern Punjab  increase in female agricultural labourers due to expansion of cotton cultivation
(traditionally female task)
• Northern/barani Punjab  off-farm and overseas male migration  women looking after farms
• Inverse relationship in Green Revolution Central Punjab  decrease in female labour force
participation  prosperity culturally translates in removing women from the fields and into the four
walls of the house (so technological progress not always linear in its effects) and is a change
(according to Alavi) that women resented.
• Some increase overall in non-farm rural or small town employment for women with some education
• In urban areas, most noticeable increase in informal sector during the 1980s and 1990s
(manufacturing, home-based workers, domestic help etc. for unskilled) but also increase in
participation from the 2000s onward in the formal sector (including the bureaucracy, legal and
medical professions)
• Health and Education
• Problems both in access to health and education  women’s literacy rates half of men
• Disproportionate harm of lack of medical facilities falls on women (child birth etc.)
• But also in terms of becoming professionals in these fields
• Legal system
• Once again, access and participation markedly less than men
• Zia’s brand of “Islamization” left women even more vulnerable than before
• Hudood Ordinace, Law of evidence etc.
• Property ownership inheritance discrimination helped by the character of the legal system
• Financial exclusion
• Lack of access to finance in general but women worse off: lack of mobility, literacy,
land/property ownership as collateral
• Historically have used indigenous institutions (committees) but these remain understudied
• Government level initiatives have only recently begun to tailor themselves to the needs of
women and some positive impact has also been created by private microfinance institutions.
 The Women’s movement in Pakistan: Challenges and
Achievements

• Main challenges faced:

• How to be as inclusive as possible across divides of class, sexual orientation, ethnic,
religious and other divides while maintaining some level of coherence
• How to engage with other social movements (human rights, labour and student
unions, civil society, political parties etc.) especially in a context of resurgent political
Islamism
• Useful to distinguish women’s rights movement with women’s movement
since many in the latter don’t consider themselves feminists or working
within a women’s rights framework
• 2 Phases of activism
• the 1980s activism in opposition to an adversarial state
• Post-1990s activism more directly engaged with international arenas (NGOs)
• Is there a third phase post 2008 with women’s marches and social media activism?
• Possible futures
 Origins: myth of a western movement
• Most women’s activists have had to deal with the label of being
westernized (or agents of the west) in a conservative Muslim society
• Yet origins much older than 1980s and more broad-based than simply elite
women
• Also many versions (think of Mumtaz Ahmad’s pamphlet and many such
indigenous writers like Quratulain Haider, Atiya Faiz and Ismat Chughtai) who
simultaneously critique colonialism and social conservatism and associated with
Progressive writers movement and progressive causes
• Think of political leaders like Fatima Jinnah, Begum Liaqat Ali Khan or Shaista
Ikramullah and the Muslim League women
• Of course, absence of an indigenous term for ‘feminism’ (a label begun to
be used in the 1980s) does make it difficult to translate locally.
• In the Pakistani context it seems more appropriate to speak of a women’s
movement which has some feminist underpinnings; a women’s
movement with feminist demands
 Phase 1: Zia and the Hudood Laws
• The 1980s movement caught the state by surprise but was the product of a
particularly regressive brand of Islam forced on the society by a military
dictator  made the Women’s Action Forum (WAF)
• Most important aspect was mass mobilization on the streets against a
military regime  connecting with labour and student unions, Court Bar
organizations, journalists and other civil society members  connected the
oppression of women with a certain interpretation of Islamic Law but also
questions of democracy and civil rights
• Against the language of conservative Islam, used the language of
constitutionality and rights
• Gave rise to a whole generation of activists who became important in the
second phase of the movement: Asma and Hina Jilani, Tahira Abdullah etc.
 Phase 2: Dispersion and International Connection
• Many in this movement very enthusiastic about Benazir’s return to power
 some initiatives like Women’s Bank, Women’s Thanas etc. but overall
too caught in the larger political situation
• During this time a new model began to be developed by veterans of the
1980s movement: the creation of rights based NGOs (Shirkat Gah, Aurat
Foundation, AGHS etc.)  engaging with international donors and human
rights discourse + engaging with governments to pass particular laws
• Achievements include domestic violence bills, anti-workplace harassment laws,
legal help to burn victims
• Contradictions, splits over things like the corrupting effects of global
donor led neoliberalism as well as support for the supposedly ‘liberal’
military dictatorship of Pervaiz Musharraf
 A new phase post 2008?
• Rise of social media activism
• Much greater presence of women in the public sphere
• Many incidents of violence as a backlash  cases of rapes as well as
killings
• Rise of Aurat March  questions of sexuality much more at the
forefront (“Mera Jism Meri Marzi”)
• New kind of conservative backlash but even arguments/debate
between veterans of 1980s and today’s activists