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According to Shenila Khoja-Moolji Pakistan continues to debate women's dress codes, Shenila says anxiety about how women dress themselves is a case in point of how the state as well as other social institutions and individuals in Pakistan promote their specified assumptions about public piety and morality.[1] Shenila says state of Pakistan places special emphasis on educational platforms to produce idealized 'Muslims' and 'Pakistanis' and that is schooled through 'Muslim morality' focused curricula and dress codes.[2]

Early discourse[edit]

Shenila Khoja-Moolji study 'Forging the Ideal Educated Girl' notes that with increased accessibility of printing presses since 19th century India of colonial times, reformers started printing various literature including various periodicals. Few reformers also took their wives and other female relatives as co-editors. Through the periodicals some women authors also expressed their opinions on the then contentious topics like purdah (women’s dress and veiling culture) along with other topics like marriage, polygamy, right to vote, Age of Consent laws, and education.[3] In a 1905 text named Sughar beti, author Muhammadi Begum adviceses Muslim girls to continue with quami dress (i.e. ethnic / religious dress) and not to adopt English dresses or see through dresses.[4]

According to Shenila Khoja-Moolji by the 1950s, as the school, instead of the familial home, became the main platform for education and moral instruction, lead to passionate discourse around curriculum, language policies, and dress codes.[5] In her study 'Forging the Ideal Educated Girl', Shenila Khoja-Moolji brings to notice a generational anxiety that worried the emergent nation’s citizens around independence through one Zubaida Zareen's opinion in a 1950s magazine called Ismat saying that while it is okay to learn from other nations but expresses displeasure over continuation of dress in the convent schools even after Pakistan attaining independence after Britishers left and expresses concern over perceived undesirable effects on culture and religion.[5]

1980s[edit]

Background of Zia regime[edit]

According to Shenila, in 1977 General Zia Ul Haq came into the power, with backdrop of political developments of international implications in neighboring countries i.e. Iranian revolution of 1979 and Soviet communist interference in Afghanistan; to counter communism expansionism, United States sought to use Islam as a defensive strategy (in Pakistan) and Zia patronized the Wahhabi version of Islam promoted by Jamaat-e-Islami and Saudi Arabia to manage his otherwise illegitimate regime.[6] Zia’s Islamization policies along with changes in all other  domains of life through changes in laws, school curricula, also strived to impose dress codes to focus on piety in public and personal lives. The ideal woman in Zia’s  discourse was the caretaker of the home, who conformed to strict compliance  of public piety - A domestically confined, sexually pure, and pious womanhood as the ideal which his regime strived to codify which institutionalised secondary position for women in Pakistan society with increased dependence on state and  family having a lasting effect on women’s autonomy. These Zia policies created space for feminism which is enfluenced by and idealised with international outlook. According to Shenila however, feminism  with international influence not only has to grapple with local sensibilities, due to differences in perceptions about ideal womanhood, but have also been frequently  criticized for  being closely aligned to promarket, neoliberal agendas which exacerbate women’s exploitation (Sic). Shenila says, still these discursive contexts shape contemporary meanings of girlhood and womanhood.[7] 

According to Nadeem F. Paracha in 1981 General Ziaul Haq personally took interest in starting a weekly televangelist show for then Islamic cleric Dr. Israr Ahmed on PTV, Pakistan's public broadcasting service. Rather than limiting himself to just religious preaching, Ahmed went on to include moral and political dimensions too. Since in 1982 hijabs and burqas were not too usual among middle-class Pakistani women. When some women attended Israr Ahmed' s PTV show, in audience without hijab, Ahmed expressed his displeasure to the PTV producers. In response, General Zia's information ministry took steps to instruct women newscasters, and actresses in TV plays to wear least make up and be modestly dressed. According to Paracha those were same times when women were on the streets to agitate against General Zia's policies which were objectionable on human rights count to them.[8] But when Ahmed started preaching to restrict women from watching men's cricket matches the Government stopped broadcasting Israr Ahmed.[8][9][10]

Dupatta burning protest[edit]

According to Ayesha Khan, General Zia Ul Haq used to distribute chadar cloths as modesty garment to girls and women at all academic functions he attended; in 1987 a rape of two burqa clad women took place in day time while women were accompanied by their father, the incident enraged the activists and during a protests held at Lahore attended by activist Lala Rukh protesters burned their dupattas and chadars as mark of their protest.[11][12][8]

Drama[edit]

In her study Shenila discusses Pakistani drama in 2010s where in notions of middle-class respectability, by avoiding extravagant makeup, dressing modestly is depicted as a way to secure one’s honor and avoid the male gaze.[13]

Academic institutions[edit]

According to Shenila, In October 2017,  the International Islamic University of Islamabad, a public university, issued a circular warning  non conforming to its dress code that such women shall be punished. The dress code was  informed as: “Shalwar Kameez with minimum  knee-length shirt, trousers are allowed only with long shirts, with all the dresses dupatta or scarf is compulsory; dress should not be see-through;  make-up and heavy jewellery [sic],  skinny jeans, tights, capris,  sleeveless shirts and deep necks strictly not allowed.”  Shenila says clothing of girls / women including female faculty  is regulated even at private educational institutions in Pakistan.[14]

See also[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2018). Forging the ideal educated girl : the production of desirable subjects in Muslim South Asia. Oakland, California. ISBN 978-0-520-97053-3. OCLC 1022084628. .. Anxiety over women's dress is just one example of how the state as well as other societal institutions and individuals advance their particularized assump- tions about public piety and morality. These contestations often spill over into the realm of curriculum as well, as I will describe later. .. {{cite book}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 78 (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2018). Forging the ideal educated girl : the production of desirable subjects in Muslim South Asia. Oakland, California. ISBN 978-0-520-97053-3. OCLC 1022084628. .. Moral instruction of young people remains a crucial objective of schools. .. The state of Pakistan has drawn on the institution of schooling to produce proper "Muslims" and "Pakistanis." It has sought to do this by introducing elements of Muslim morality in schools through courses such as Islamyat and Pakistan Studies, appointments of public school teachers, and dress codes. {{cite book}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 93 (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2018). Forging the ideal educated girl : the production of desirable subjects in Muslim South Asia. Oakland, California. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-0-520-97053-3. OCLC 1022084628. .. Women's periodicals began to appear in many languages in colonial India around the mid-nineteenth century. .. While male social reformers established most of these periodicals at the time, ..many took care to note the valuable partnership, sometimes co-editorship, of their wives or other female relatives.. In the periodicals women also expressed their views on the then contested topics such as purdah/ veiling, marriage, polygamy, right to vote, Age of Consent laws, women's dress, and education. .. {{cite book}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 278 (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2018). Forging the ideal educated girl : the production of desirable subjects in Muslim South Asia. Oakland, California. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-520-97053-3. OCLC 1022084628. ..The author goes on to explain how to sit in the presence of adults, par- ticularly, fathers;86 to put on orthni (covering) when brothers or father enter the zenana; and, to respect them (tazeem). The author also discusses personal hygiene, dress, and play... In one instance, she men- tions an event from when she was sixteen years old and wanted to have a new set of clothes. The fabric the shopkeeper sent over to her, however, was see-through. She returned it, asking for thicker cloth to maintain her haya (shame). .. Muhammadi Begum provides detailed advice on how to perform this subjectivity of the good daughter ( beti): .. The ideal girl is also not enticed by English norms. Muhammadi Begum advises girls to not take up the English dress because those who do are laughed upon by both their own quam and the English:87 "we should continue our quami dress and if there are any faults we should correct them."88 Here quam signifies the spe- cific religious, class, and ethnic community that made up the ashraf. .. {{cite book}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 75 (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ a b Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2018). Forging the ideal educated girl : the production of desirable subjects in Muslim South Asia. Oakland, California. ISBN 978-0-520-97053-3. OCLC 1022084628. .. Consider the conversation across three issues of Ismat in 1956 and 1957 about convent/missionary schools. We find that colonial legacies in education were seen as undesirable for the new nation of Pakistan due to their (real and imagined) corrupting effects on the nation's children. In an article entitled "The Convent School," written by Zubaida Zareen, the author notes that the movement for an independent Pakistan rested on claims that Muslims needed a separate home- land to sustain their language, culture, and religion. .. The author argues that such students will neither become English nor remain Pakistani; rather, they will be "neem-angraiz" (pseudo-English). She also criticizes the dress prescribed for girls in convent schools (recall figures 5 and 6 in the last chapter). .. She asks: "Why are we investing so much on this identity—is that why we created Pakistan?" Zubaida Zareen concludes by explaining that while she is not against learning from other nations, "Pakistan should also have its own distinct identity," and she cautions that "such Christian missionary schools will destroy our religion." .. Zubaida Zareen's article represents a generational anxiety that consumed the emergent nation's citizens around independence: .. For Zareen this threat materialized in the kinds of attitudes that these schools seemed to engender in its students: convent-school students thought of themselves as superior to other Pakistanis, were enamored with the West, and did not know the Quran; female students did not abide by normative dress codes, signaling a potential for crossing other social boundaries as well. .. Page 149: .. By the 1950s, the school, rather than the familial home, emerged as the primary site for education and moral instruction, leading to intense debates around cur- riculum, language policies, and dress codes. {{cite book}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 81 (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ^ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2018). Forging the ideal educated girl : the production of desirable subjects in Muslim South Asia. Oakland, California. ISBN 978-0-520-97053-3. OCLC 1022084628.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2018). Forging the ideal educated girl : the production of desirable subjects in Muslim South Asia. Oakland, California. pp. 95–96. ISBN 978-0-520-97053-3. OCLC 1022084628.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ^ a b c Paracha, Nadeem F. (2013-02-14). "The heart's filthy lesson". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  9. ^ Dakshita, Singh; Kothari, Shamini; Rukh, Lala (July 8, 2015). "LALA FROM LAHORE (Part 1)". zubaanbooks.com. Archived from the original on August 10, 2017.
  10. ^ Dakshita, Singh; Kothari, Shamini; Rukh, Lala (July 9, 2015). "LALA FROM LAHORE (Part 2)". zubaanbooks.com. Archived from the original on August 10, 2017. Retrieved May 24, 2022. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; May 24, 2022 suggested (help)
  11. ^ Khan, Ayesha (2018). The women's movement in Pakistan : activism, Islam and democracy. London. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-78673-523-2. OCLC 1109390555.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ^ Babar, Aneela Zeb (2017). "Cultural underpinnings Pakistani Muslim women's Conceptions of Hijab in Islam (Chapter no. 3)". We are all revolutionaries here : militarism, political Islam and gender in Pakistan. LOS ANGELES: SAGE PUBLICATIONS. ISBN 93-86062-49-6. OCLC 986669827.
  13. ^ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2018). Forging the ideal educated girl : the production of desirable subjects in Muslim South Asia. Oakland, California. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-520-97053-3. OCLC 1022084628.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  14. ^ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2018). Forging the ideal educated girl : the production of desirable subjects in Muslim South Asia. Oakland, California. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-520-97053-3. OCLC 1022084628.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

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