‘Reimagining’ a Pakistan for Women

This article is part of a series titled “Is There A Way Forward For Pakistan?”. Read more about the series here.

At the start of 2023, the only good news for Pakistan is that a clear democratic defiance has deepened across its citizenry (despite the military’s persistent interventions in governance and the political economy). This is a sign of an increasingly empowered electorate that is flexing its voting scrutiny over national and provincial parliamentarians. It is rewarding or punishing these representatives through the ballot box and challenging institutional over-reach through street and social media protests.

The former finance minister of the PML-N, Miftah Ismail, was ousted from his party five months into his appointment after he successfully negotiated a new loan scheme with the IMF and rescued Pakistan from bankruptcy in 2022. Since then, he channeled his defiance by a series of hardtalks across the country on the failing economy and frustration with nepotistic policies and decision-making that drive Pakistan’s mainstream parties. 

Ismail took the initiative to launch a pressure group that drew membership from outliers from other mainstream political parties, and which also includes several public intellectuals who want to ‘Reimagine Pakistan’. This forum, thus named, is also an expression of the shifting winds of political defiance under a collapsed economic scenario following the Covid pandemic and the devastating climate-induced floods that displaced millions and wreaked havoc in 2022. It is also indicative of an opportunity to develop a bi-partisan and potentially, re-structured political economy for Pakistan – something historically missing from the nation’s political culture. 

The bad news is the crude reality that Pakistan is a country of men, run by men and for men. (Zia 2015, Is Pakistan Male?; Zia 2023, A Response to Miftah Ismail’s six pillars). It’s not just a case of male-dominant public institutions such as the judiciary, government, political parties and religious bodies but public spaces and policies have enabled a hegemonic masculinity that excludes and polices women, non-binary genders, the poor and working classes and religious and ethnic minorities. 

Even liberal political parties such as, the PPP, continue the legacy of male heirs ‘inheriting’ the chair of the party instead of a daughter and, while Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of the former PM, Nawaz Sharif, has been ordained leadership position in the PML-N instead of her brother, such traditional dynastic continuity may be symbolic of an individual woman’s empowerment. But this is hardly the definition of feminism, or a democratic, collective, or, alternative politics.

Despite such political traditionalism, most political analysis in Pakistan from the Left to Right prefer to deflect blame to ‘culture’, the IMF, colonialism, imperialism and a series of abstract sources when in fact, other than the inequalities inherent in capitalist economies, it is Pakistan’s man-made discriminatory and elite-subsidizing laws and policies that have perpetuated unjust and unequal gendered and class dynamics and provincial inequalities. 

Surrender to religious lobbies by the conservatives, and far too many liberals, has further embedded bigoted and disconnected policies that are out of touch with global opportunities and standards and which deny the peoples’ desires, aspirations and which stymy normative gender and transgender relations and practices. 

Male elites

Even within the ‘Reimagine Pakistan’ collective, centering gender in the exercise of dialectics, dialogue and imagining structural change is a challenge. The core founders attempt to make space for feminist experts and feminist economics but do not take ownership for intersecting this as their own responsibility. The male members rightfully identify the issue of ‘elite capture’ in Pakistan despite the irony that the members of this platform are not just male elites but also, the biggest beneficiaries of such policies. This is not just in terms of their economic power but also, as institutional heads and influential voices and decision-makers.

Elite men in Pakistan instrumentalize such privilege in other ways; many do not distribute familial wealth, assets or inheritance equally to the women of their families but according to a shariah-based formula, which qualifies them for far less than male heirs. This way, they purport to have faithfully adhered to Islamic gender rights. These elite men have the privilege of automatic legal guardianship over children at a certain age, and enjoy unequal marital and divorce rights over women. There is no concept of joint marital assets or division of these at times of divorce and even the Pakistan citizenship act is gender discriminatory and violates the fundamental constitutional rights of women. In most countries, national identity is drawn from that of the mother but in Pakistan, unless a male relative testifies to a woman’s identity she cannot avail of her identity card or even buy a sim card for a cell phone. Why don’t progressive men distinguish and object to such ‘elite male capture’?

In the same way, male leaders, policy makers, bureaucrats, state bank officials refute their responsibility to scrutinize or amend the abysmally low Female Labour Force Participation. Nor do they pledge to increase bank accounts for women or ease the criteria for documentation for women entrepreneurs for ‘doing business’. No affirmative action is initiated for women agricultural workers who do not receive minimum wage for their work and while the cash handout under the Benazir Income Support Programme is a rare poly-successful initiative, there is no ideological or policy road-map to scale this to a universal income scheme for all of the country’s poor.

Feminism is more than women’s empowerment

Women’s economic empowerment is not just about adding women to the labour force, but requires a radical transformation in traditional attitudes and policies. Miftah Ismail rightfully identifies the complete silence on family planning and population management but a gendered understanding and radical ‘reimagine’ would mean framing and promoting this issue as men’s responsibility and not women’s.

All traditional vocations and roles of women – tending livestock or home-based exploitative work – needs to be reimagined by creating more non-traditional and innovative opportunities for women. Legal and economic autonomy is directly connected with social freedoms and mobility and so, freedom from sexual harassment and sexual objectification is a pre-requisite for productivity. Restricting and guarding women in the domestic realm or inflicting inhumane punishments for rapists is not the solution for such injustices. The driving mantra needs to be that, ‘There can be no production without protection or autonomy.’

Pursuing economic justice 

The concept of economic justice is under-discussed. Structural change means rethinking how wealth and resources are collected and distributed and to reimagine incentives other than those made in the recent World Bank report, which recommends cash handouts and increased wages. Fair access to work for women means much more — quality child care facilities, regular payment of wages and safe access to markets and labour courts; unrestricted access to basic services to the internet, phones, mobility or recreation, without the interference of male gatekeepers. 

Muslim morality (ikhlaaqiyat), corruption, religious rights are abstractions that delay or serve as impediments to social, political and economic restructuring and women and the economically marginalized are the biggest losers in this game of male elites across all classes and sectors.

Way forward 

Random seminars and occasional research projects on hurdles to women’s economic progress by business schools are eye-washes – instead, feminist economics needs to be curated into a discipline and taught in all institutions. Gender equality has to become a goal and benchmark and gender audits should be conducted as a policy requirement in all private and public sectors.

Judicial protection and safeguards in public spaces and transportation is critical for women’s economic progress – the promotion of feminizing these is imperative. Another urgent policy correction that is needed is the end of the concept of male ‘heads of households’ as a unitary measurement in government or private sector surveys or policies. 

Lack of incentivised, smart solutions that respond to the needs of women workers and entrepreneurs are due to material and bureaucratic impediments and non-responsive institutional weaknesses. These need to be addressed by acknowledging that women are already ‘doing’ business but they need direct access to technology and that bank account drives should be on a scale similar to voter registration campaigns. Women are already economic actors but they require financial literacy and instruments and issuance of NTN numbers. Women need banking services but there has to be ease in opening bank accounts and there must be customized schemes which provide easy loans and mortgages for women. The State Bank of Pakistan has to be committed to such policies.

Women want economic justice and they know their rights to inherit will ensure economic security but the legal system is not delivering these in a committed manner. Justice means redressing women’s systematic exclusion from the property regime or ownership of means of production. While some property rights of women are being realized, possession and entitlement are the problem and these need concentrated policy attention.  Further, many women do not know how to manage these assets. Technology (digitized land revenue records) is recognized as creating an enabling environment for realizing these rights but this requires empirical evaluation and political buy-in. 

Women are bold in seeking legal recourse for their fundamental rights (marital, property, political, harassment/violence) but are risk-averse in pursuing economic autonomy, markets and tech-related careers. Case studies of women entrepreneurs need to be documented to encourage more positive lessons.

Politically, evidence reveals that women are now voting differently from male relatives but a vicious cycle exists – women aren’t motivated to vote and politicians don’t seek their votes. Political parties must be committed to soliciting women’s votes and treating them as a valued constituency.

Women are breaking conventions and in non-traditional pursuits too, such as sports and popular culture but they need active encouragement, sponsorship and these activities need to be de-stigmatized. A feminization of public services is critical and it is imperative to normalize women in public spaces. Mobility is key for gender equality.

Women use tech in innovative ways to circumvent family restrictions but the State is not on their side – it imposes censorious laws and policies that restrict women. Women also want to be in tech-related occupations but tend to be scared of it and men distrust women’s access to means of communication. A gendered communication strategy that closes these trust deficits is imperative.

Pakistani media needs to transition urgently out of the profit-making scheme of tragedy-porn which portrays women as constant victims and panders to the Madonna/whore dichotomy. Media campaigns have to revise the victim narrative that defines women and the image of working women needs to be an appreciated and valuable one. If the Female Labour Force Participation is to be incentivized, then the working woman’s image (of all classes) needs to be developed as a strong, trustworthy, reliant citizen who must be rewarded and respected. 

Documentaries on rights of land/property/entrepreneurship of Muslim women in history are useful points for de-stigmatizing myths but exceptionalizing women’s roles by tethering them to religious identities is not going to lend to a gender equal productivity. Nor will this contribute to the growth of the country’s economy but it will barter off women’s autonomies in other aspects and deny them equal citizenship. 

The connection between women, sexual minorities and transcommunities’ education, economic equality, health of the family, community and nation needs to be promoted and sexual equality remains a central and original factor that has historically contributed to women’s other rights. Pakistani women are going to be no exception.

Pakistan’s male elites have to acknowledge the above dynamics and actively unpack the privileges that they currently enjoy and jealously guard, instead of merely paying lip-service to gender equality and women’s inclusion in the economy. Only then, there may be a chance of restructuring and re-imagining this country for women.

Afiya Shehrbano Zia

The writer is a feminist researcher and activist based in Karachi. She is the author of “Faith and Feminism in Pakistan” and several published articles on women, secularism and religion