When it comes to moulding public opinion, no newspaper or television or advertisement agency or government can match the skill, ability and expertise of our conservative uncles. They have been especially effective in propagating the idea that women's emancipation is a western agenda against Muslim culture, tradition and religious norms.
However, this is the first time that they have targeted International Women's Day celebrated on 8 March. This is the first time that our conservative uncles showered their wrath on a day sponsored by the United Nations and celebrated by all members of the UN no matter what their cast, creed or culture may be. Previously, they criticised only such universal festivity as New Year and Valentine's Day which have an indirect origin in Christianity.
Our conservative uncles did not pick on International Women's Day before this 8 March. Not even in the "chadar aur chardeevari" era of our super conservative daddy, Zia-ul-Haq. Women's Day has been celebrated in Pakistan since Independence. In the 1990s the country also wholeheartedly participated in observing the UN-sponsored Women's Decade of Development, launching several schemes for the empowerment of women, as well as creating awareness of their rights and crimes against women such as rape, domestic violence, honour killing.
So why did our conservative uncles target Women's Day this year? It could be a reaction to their failure, politically and socially, to make Pakistan conform to out dated norms so dear to their hearts, such as the Hasba Bill which failed everywhere except in the Frontier - and even there, despite its passage in the NWFP provincial assembly, the public and opposition has not accepted it.
The MMA's threat to resign if the Women's Protection Bill was passed by the national assembly did not scare anybody and the bill became an Act, thus gagging the Hudood Ordinance to some extent. These Ordinances had been the legal instrument of violence against women, much favoured by our conservative uncles.
The conservative elements have been feeling cornered and sidelined ever since. So they have retaliated by condemning Women's Day.
So Women's Day was dubbed anti-Sharia. That is what I heared from the neighbourhood mosque where it was the theme of the Friday sermon (8 March was Friday); and from the speeches of the Jamat-i-Islami leaders who harangued their burqa-clad bunch of about 50 women standing obediently on the street outside the Karachi Press Club; and even from the rickshaw driver who took me to the KPC to attend the function honouring Mukhtara Mai.
It is amazing how fast the conservative element is able to get its message across. Ever since Women's Day I have been hearing disapproval about it from people of all walks of life who repeat our conservative uncles' criticism as if it was their own opinion. But then, the pulpit and the street are the best platforms for generating widespread public opinion.
Nevertheless, it is alarming that the mosque and the street are being used to create rage against women on the pretext that anything that goes against conservative opinion, such as freedom of women from the shackles of feudalism, is anti-Islam. Our conservative uncles don't approve of science, technology and ideas from the West, except, of course, the ubiquitous loudspeaker which they use as if it was the Doomsday Trumpet to frighten, intimidate and bully.
The conservative leaders must be aware that their criticism is responsible for encouraging crimes against women committed with impunity and even a sense of righteousness. The recent murder of Punjab PA's minister Zille Huma by a fanatic who had earlier murdered five women with impunity speaks volumes about the state of affairs.
This is certainly not only Pakistan's problem. It is evident throughout the world, including the West, that is, in any social set up where a woman is thought to be less than a man. Whether such an idea is a social norm or merely an individual's personal opinion is beside the point.
This is why this year's Women's Day theme was "Ending impunity for violence against women and girls". According to the United Nation's report, violence against women is the most common but least punished crime in the world. So our conservative uncles have many brothers elsewhere in the world, too.
In Karachi this trend is comparatively less rampant than in the rest of the country. This is the city which has pioneered the participation of women in many fields which were once the exclusive preserve of men. To name a few: journalism, stock exchange, banking, industry. This is the city where women are visible in as great numbers as the men, working as labour in construction, as teachers, technicians, telecommunications, shopkeeping, fashion designing, teaching, nursing, medicine, domestic services, waiting at tables in franchised food outlets.
At certain hours of the day (school and office time) there are more women drivers to be seen on the road than there are men. Go to any cultural "do", except mushairas, and you see women outnumber the men as audience. At mushairas they make up a considerable part of the crowd, if not a majority. Any awareness cause such as Green Peace, a fund-raiser for poor patients, a walk and it is the women of Karachi who are in the forefront. They represent all segments of society, these aggressive Makrani matrons and elegant ladies of Clifton and Bath Island. In short, Karachi's women have a say in every thing be it economic, social or political or civic issue.
Karachi's burqa brigade is less than ten percent, so our conservative uncles don't have too many obedient nieces. This lot allow their men to do the talking for them; the rest of Karachi's women speak for themselves.
But suppose there comes a time when the burqa brigade outnumbers the rest of the women in Karachi. What will happen? Karachi will die. The outgoing, assertive ethose of the city will disappear to be replaced by feudalistic thuggery. The modern outlook of the city will change to monstrosity with fewer women visible in the open. It won't happen, I was just airing the thoughts that I mulled over on 8 March at the KPC as we waited patiently inside to begin our programme to honour Mukhtara Mai. We had to delay it by half an hour although the chief guest as well as two other rape victims, who were our honoured guests, too, and the members and invitees were all present by 4pm when the programme was scheduled to start.
We were waiting for the Jamat-i-Islami street meeting, being held outside the KPC, to finish. It was quite niggardly of the Jamat to have started their meeting at the time the Mukhtara Mai ceremony was to take place. They had done this deliberately to sabotage the KPC function. Women's Day meetings were going on in many other clubs and institutions throughout the city. Even on the street outside the club, the Attorneys of Human Rights had held a demonstration demanding rights for women. But no one tried to put a spanner in another's work, except the Jamat-i-Islami.
Their speeches made it clear that they disapproved of the KPC honouring a dishonoured woman. Mukhtara Mai is a national icon of hope for women in Pakistan. This victim of gang rape chose to challenge the rapists by taking them to court.
Her struggle for justice has made a dent - albeit a very small dent - in the feudal mindset of our society. She represents change that is possible. For example, in her own village of Meerwala where rape is a form of punishment has changed. There has been no case of rape in Meerwala since Mukhtara Mai went to court. Our conservative uncles don't like this.
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