Pak women fight on, increasingly aware of their rights

They then `married’ her off to someone else. Meanwhile, Iqbal, who had escaped arrest by the police, filed a writ for the recovery of his wife in the High Court.

Nargis was produced before the court on January 14, and stated that she had been forcibly `re-married’. The court sent her to the Darul Aman, a women’s shelter, until the next hearing. On March 7, Nargis told the court that she wanted to go with her husband Iqbal, rather than to the Darul Aman or to her parents’.

The court observed that she was an adult and could therefore decide her future. The court also asked her to seek police help if she feared threats to her life.

When Nargis came out of the court, she was attacked by her father and other male relatives, who tried to kidnap her. On resistance by her police escort, the assailants opened fire, and beat up some of the male and female constables.

Meanwhile, Nargis was saved by a court official who locked her into a lawyer’s chamber until the fracas died down. Most of the assailants fled, but one was arrested, and the police has registered a case against them.

The story illustrates not only how women in Pakistan are increasingly exercising their rights, in this case to marry of their own choice, but also how society reacts when they do this.

International Women’s Day, March 8, may not mean much to most Pakistani women, but the women’s movement, combined with economic necessities, has contributed to increasing numbers of women asserting their rights to jobs and to education.

This phenomenon, think some activists, may be among the causes for the increasing violence against women in this largely conservative and traditional society.

Says Shahtaj Qizilbash, a para-legal trainer in Lahore, “more women are in the work-force now, working in factories, as field surveyors for multinational companies. They are aware of their rights, thanks to the work being done by various organisations.”

At least half-a-dozen seminars are planned in Lahore alone for Women’s Day — attended and organised not only by women, but also the many men who have been working for the cause of women’s empowerment, and the struggle for democracy.

And while some may dismiss these events as more preaching to the converted, Qizilbash thinks these provide a valuable source of support to the women who attend.

Many of her para-legals, from the poorer areas of Lahore, will be at the seminar organised by the Joint Action Committee, an umbrella group of 30 organisations working for social change, including the Aghs legal aid cell that Qizilbash works with.

“Attending such events gives them confidence. Exposure to women from another social class who are working for change, shows them they have the support of other women,” she says.

Another para-legal trainer, Sohail A Warraich, coordinator for the law programme of Shirkat Gah, a women’s resource centre here, says the increasing violence against women is countered by a corresponding refusal on their part to accept the status quo.

He believes that things are changing on the ground, with issues that were formerly taboo, like `honour killing’, being now openly discussed and reported on — and opposed.