Violence Against Women

Shaukat Aziz — Former Executive Vice President & Head of Global Private Banking Division of Citibank, former Prime Minister of Pakistan

Re: # 7
(i) Islam was initially equitable for women in economic sense AS LONG AS each woman resigned herself to the domain of the man in charge at the moment of her life. That was a victory of sorts in the Seventh Century AD
...
Ans: And Muhammed was married to lady at her 40s with three experience of earlier marriages...nice example of women suppression in pre-islamic arab...

Re: # 27
Saima...

My proposal is that we invite formally groups of South Asian/Pakistani/Indian/Bangladeshi/Sri Lankan/Bhutani/Afghani and/or Muslim/Christian/Hindu/Parsi/Jain/ Jewish undergraduates women students and ask them to write about their experiences as students, workers,

Ans: This is typical moslem problem, which you guys inherited with introduction of barbarism/Islam.
Go to any College/University in India...Situation is different....Bangalore....

Re: # 32
Ahmed madani...
Strange conclusions...If a drink, which is supposed to nourish and heal body causes health trouble, what the health ministry should do? You Pakis are animals, so you don not need to perform puja or get concerned about health issue...
Indra Nooyi is not entering politics and winning an election in India is not that easy. You need to be smart enough to convince people...

Re: # 38
To Teshah...

They say there is a woman behind every successful man. The reverse is also true. Take the case of Mukhtaran Mai. It is the alleged rape of her by Mastoies that made her so rich ...
Ans: Yeh...the rapist may be behind as well as above the wretched lady and switched to couple of other postions to ensure her success....Nice logic!!!!Keep it up you Pakis...

Emma dear

I am at a loss to understand what this woman empowerment means. They say there is a woman behind every successful man. The reverse is also true. Take the case of Mukhtaran Mai. It is the alleged rape of her by Mastoies that made her so rich and powerful that she became a challenge even to the all-powerful general Musharraf. Can a man wish such an easy way to power and glory. So man and woman can be a mutual source of power for each other. It is only the woman who sometimes become a `churel`, seeking power for herself to humiliate the opposite sex.

Well.......the article is as good and informative as it should or possibly might be, but the thing i noticed on part of interaction is that many people have made it a personal war of ideas or views rather than just commenting on the published stuff. a lot of Zara, Saminasha episode and the reactions of HP have made this page a chowk of a slum where triffles are more important than the intellectual issues.
anyway.....write more Emma, after reading a lot.
good luck.

Re: # 36

Here`s where critical reading and thinking skills are necessary, nade. The issues being brought up in the responses are connected to the issues being discussed in the article. Once you put your mind to it, I`m sure you can connect the dots. :)

India govt has banned american company pepsi and cocacola due to bad chemicals, Indians are strange people, they kicked cocakola and IBM while they worship animals. Now new woman CEO of Pepsi will be tested if she can reverse decision. This person is extraordinary and my prediction is one day she will be invited to become Prime minister of India just as Our PM ,former CEO of City bank was invited to become PM.

#30 - Come to think of it, the fact that a 6-year old cute little girl`s case is getting so much publicity all over the world, tells us a lot. Was there any need to reopen an old case? Ideally, we would like to see fairness in every aspect of life. I am not sure if that exists in its perfect form, therefore I do not want to present the west as the epitome of perfection. But I do want to appreciate the obvious that is alien to various other parts of the world.

The root cause of the perpetual pessimism in South Asian culture is the lack of a fair legal system. I do not believe that it has anything to do with democracy or no democracy. Institutions should be able to survive and function regardless of the garb they decided to wear. Coming from a project based thought process, I would like to see a decent closure to the prevalent issues that many of our women have been repeatedly writing about. Is there any closure to any women related issues in Pakistan? Will there ever be any fair and decent closure? The weird timelines are the cause of unnecessary anxiety and unspoken stress among our women.

Even in this country, where you read and hear about both the good and the bad, the focus is not on the bad only. On one end, you read about JonBenet Ramsey, the sweet 6-year old, who was killed mysteriously almost a decade ago, but on the flip side, you also read about the Indian woman who made it to the CEO level at a large conglomerate. I am not sure if anyone read about the horrific case where a maniac killed his mother`s next door neighbor and was arrested while driving around with the victim`s head in his car. One cannot imagine that anyone in the ``civilized`` west would stoop to this level of depression to act and behave like a sick animal. Unfortunately, we are living in a world where many sick animals wear a fine facade of human beings. The major difference is that despite all the sick animals out there, the concept of accountability is not an alien term to this society. That accountability assists in creating a ``civilized`` system. The negative elements of this society are not that strong to take over this system.

Unfortunately, most of the South Asian female writers on Chowk have very little optimism in their writings. In a way, writing is also a reflection of the thinking process. Based on the write-ups on Chowk, it seems as if our women are deprived of the basic healthy elements that assist in forming and promoting positive thinking. What use is that education that does not prepare an individual to face challenges in life and overcome the hurdles?

Chowk is only an avenue for the writers and thinkers to express and share their perspectives on life. Chowk cannot inject women writers / interactors with a dose of enthusiasm. Both the spirit and optimism have to come from within.

Re: # 30

Zahra,

How are you?

I agree with your point that sloppy reading tends to view research/composition text through a ``problem`` framework particularly around issues of gender and identity. In other words, female writers/readers are marginalized through X system. Although the identification of factors, policies and methodologies that do marginalize female writers/readers are one important step, the various ways in which the same writers and readers negotiate these obstacles is profoundly instructive. In my discussions with young Muslim American undergraduate women, I have found a great deal of strength, resourcefulness and complexity in how they process and construct responses that ultimately position themselves towards open mindedness, flexibility, self knowledge and the knowledge of various disciplinary systems. These are students who make the honor roll, serve in student government, hold leadership positions in student organizations and maintain ties with several communities. They are also figuring out where they stand in terms of their familial expectations, their careers and work towards greater economic parity during a time when they are constructed in very negative terms. I would not underestimate what their struggle entails- this is in fact self empowerment.

Having voices like these would illuminate the struggles and victories made by South Asian women in North America and add realism to the discourse on chowk. I seriously hope chowk starts to make a place for these voices if they want to be the change they express committment towards.

Re: # 31

Samina

[How are you?]

Theek Hoon :)

Good points. Your last para gave me some food for thought. What should Chowk do to attract ``that`` audience? Send out an invite to those intelligent women or invite them to a special gathering where only the handsome creation of God is invited to entice the women into writing something moving and stirring(all positive) .... Do you think that will work?

Re: # 34

Zahra,

Yes, that is a start. :) From your lips to chowk`s ears....

#24

i think i have participated here long enough here, and in the ``real`` world to know what happens when a man or a woman`s perspective is not congruent with mine or yours, or with the desi muslim or any other religion female students. i have talked about that point quite a bit here at chowk which relates to why i`ve stayed away from here from time to time, but what i was trying to say in terms of this article, is that there are achievements by pakistani women in pakistan (i am talking about in pakistan) that we don`t get to hear enough about, other than by beena and bina, and that is work there in practice that i would like to know more about as well. it is going to come up against opposition, as it always does, but i would like to see our women (and men) writers based in pakistan to shed some light on that as well, be it an exercise in theory or practice.



#25

HP, it`s not that i object to domestic work, more than a few of us do that in our daily lives, my mother did it to a greater or lesser extent after her marriage. the reason i keep bringing that particular phrase up is because when someone writes, ``women are encouraged to perform domestic duties. . .`` there is an implication that they are not encouraged to go beyond that. even if this article is time-specific, or there is something very wrong because in this specificity, quite a few of the generalized ``women`` have been encouraged to go beyond that in spite of the opposition from certain sections of the community.

***

i would be the last one in the world to say that we should not focus on violence against women, or talk about where we are in terms of that or the plight of women. all i was trying to say was that i want to read about women who are doing something about it as well, women who have surmounted the obstacles and opposition, women like nafis sadik, who is focusing on women not just locally, but globally as well. laila kazmi has a write-up of her at http://www.jazbah.org/nafis.php

Re: # 26

Let me put my point in another way: while it is important to discuss the work and achievement of Pakistani, Muslim and South Asian women on an ongoing basis, it is not enough. On one hand, highlighting the efforts of a woman or an organization educates the readership here of what this acting party is achieving. On the other hand, these kinds of discussions effect a passive engagement that seems to have very little impact on the lives of the readership.

It is easy to talk about women on a very abstract level. What I am proposing here is far more concrete that will show us how we transform this particular cyber community. Chowk Staff, I am giving you an idea, yet another one, it would serve your website to use it:

My proposal is that we invite formally groups of South Asian/Pakistani/Indian/Bangladeshi/Sri Lankan/Bhutani/Afghani and/or Muslim/Christian/Hindu/Parsi/Jain/ Jewish undergraduates women students and ask them to write about their experiences as students, workers, artists, intellectuals, organizers, representatives, and members of their various communities. I can guarantee that their input would radically change the discourse on this website. In addition, their discourses would (hopefully) acheive more tangible, scholarly and humane engagement with these issues than what chowk currently represents.

My point is lets see the practice in action. Can chowk transform itself before it claims to transform society?

However, in order to do this, there would have to be a zero tolerance policy on gendered harrassment.