Pak girl students stand up to Jamat’s Talibanisation efforts

The fundamentalist control of the campus was total a few months ago, until the girls decided to fight back. In the vast new campus of Punjab University, for instance, the women students were not allowed to make phone calls from any of the 30-odd PCOs. “It is the order of the Jamat-e-Islami,” explains one of the PCO owners. “If we allow girls to make calls, they have threatened to vandalise our shops,” he adds. This is just one of the Jamat-e-Islami diktats that the girls are fighting.

The girls found their voice three months ago when a boy student was brutally beaten by the Jamat followers.“One of the girls had a problem with a Mathematics question and had sought help from one of her classmates, who happened to be of the opposite sex. The Jamat student leaders saw the boy talking to her and started beating him up. There were a few other girls also who witnessed it and protested. The explanation offered by the Jamat students was that the boy was misbehaving with the girl, which was not true,” explains Sabiha, a first-year Psychology student.

That incident marked the beginning of the girls’ movement against the Jamat-e-Islami enforcers. In a spontaneous outburst against the Jamat-e-Islami fundamentalists, the girls took out a procession, shouting anti-Jamat slogans. “We discarded our fear that day,” says Rukhsana, an MSc (Mathematics) student.

But the movement is still in its nascent stage. Majority of the girls still keep their heads covered and hair tied. “There was a time when not even a single girl dared to keep her head uncovered or her hair loose.

The Jamat students literally used to go around carrying scissors, threatening to cut the hair of any girl who hadn’t plaited it. But now you can see all that is changing,” says Qudsia, another MSc student, pointing towards a group of girls sporting trendy hairstyles.

The girls are no more scared by the sight of Jamat-e-Islami student leaders, wearing the traditional salwar-Kurta and sporting beards. “Till recently, the girls used to scurry inside classrooms, seeing the Jamat guys approaching,” says Amara, who stands her ground when three Jamat-e-Islami students on a motorbike, come closer. They stop and ask the group of girls not to talk to the reporter from India.

“All journalists need permission from our leader Hamid,” one of them growls. “Nobody needs permission from you people,” says a girl bravely. “Please, go,” she tells them. Surprised by the girl’s unexpected ferocity, the Jamat youth retreat but hang around at a distance.

“The power of Jamat-e-Islami is slowly but surely eroding in the University. Our vice Chancellor Lt General Harshad Mahmood has come down heavily on them. But it will take some time before they are completely sidelined,” says Sumaira.

The girls still feel inhibited to wear jeans on the campus. “I wear them sometimes and so do a few others. But we are yet only a handful. Though I felt slightly uncomfortable initially, with people staring, it is okay now. Even the stares have become less frequent. This is the only way that people will get accustomed to the change. Somebody has to bell the cat,” says Amara with a grin.