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On 12 February 1983 a women's march led by Women's Action Forum (WAF) and Punjab Women Lawyers Association assembled at Mall road in Lahore to proceed toward Lahore High Court in Pakistan to protest against the discriminatory Law of Evidence and other Hudood Ordinances. The marchers were tear gassed and baton charged by police injuring many women. 50 of the marchers were arrested for defying the then prohibition of public assembly.[1][2][3][4]
According to Farida Shaheed it was the idea of activist Hina Jilani to reach the Lahore Highcourt premises in small groups of two to three persons. However Hall road was cordoned off by the police. At Hall Road, Habib Jalib started reading his poetry and meanwhile one of the protesters, Mubaraka, of the Democratic Women's Association managed to slip through the cordon and signaled other activists to follow her. The police tear gassed and baton-charged the protestors. Madeeha Gauhar was hit by a baton and many of the protesting women were arrested.[4]
The prime cause for the demonstration was the proposed law of evidence, which intended to reduce the value of testimony of women to half of that of men. This was in addition to the dictatorship's moves to reduce women's rights using Pakistan's Sharia laws which were called the Hudood ordinances.[4] According to Sehrish Ali it was the first such public demonstration by any group under the martial law of General Muhammad Zia Ul Haq.[1]
According to Anis Haroon when they held solidarity demonstration at Jinnah Mausoleum in Karachi against treatment given to women at Lahore March, while police did not beat them but molvis then declared to have annulled nikah (marriages) of the participants in the demonstrations.[5]
Prominent participants[edit]
Media coverage in February 1983[edit]
According to Taimur-ul-Hassan study, in 1983 Pakistani media coverage largely projected women's protest on negative trajectory emphasizing on stereotypical gender roles for women in Muslim society.[6]
The Taimur-ul-Hassan study says, except for few newspapers like The Muslim the rest of media coverage mainly included anti-women negative clichés and rhetoric. The government-run NPT newspapers and also private news papers like Daily Nawa-i-Waqt were negative towards empowered women’s role. Out of 26 negative stories published in four newspapers, 21 were the statements, indicating instead of playing a proactive role in highlighting the issue of women empowerment, the policy of the newspapers’ relied on statements.[6] In some cases where women's concerns were reported but then neutralized with critical statements against protesting women.[6]
The Taimur-ul-Hassan study says supportive statements in media informed that Pakistan's constitution provides for rights for women, ‘women can play their role in all fields’, ‘Hadd laws are anti-women and women interests should not be the attacked through biased laws’. The Taimur-ul-Hassan study says negative media coverage included statements like ‘ Islam does not permit women to go out of house and that women’s best role is in their houses’, ‘women organizations are anti-Islamic and spread vulgarity’, and other such prejudicial rhetoric.[6]
The Taimur-ul-Hassan study says, Pakistan's print media Government and private both was heavily pressurized and controlled by agenda driven biased gate keeping of General Zia Ul Haq regime through agencies like National Press Trust.[6] Daily Mashriq and the Pakistan Times were owned by National Press Trust itself. The Muslim Nawa-i-Waqt, In The Muslim 5, The Pakistan Times 7, Daily Jang 14 and Mashriq 16 a total of 42 stories were studied by Taimur-ul-Hassan study, they found while 16 news stories were appreciative of women's struggle while 26 news stories had a negative tilt against women's movement.[6]
Bibliography[edit]
- Khan, Ayesha. The Women's Movement in Pakistan: Activism, Islam and Democracy. United Kingdom, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.
- Weiss, Anita M.. Interpreting Islam, Modernity, and Women's Rights in Pakistan. United Kingdom, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Page 49.
- Omvedt, Gail. “Women in Governance in South Asia.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 40, no. 44/45, 2005, pp. 4746–52, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4417361.
- Imran, R. (2005) 'Legal injustices: The Zina Hudood Ordinance of Pakistan and its implications for women', Journal of International Women's Studies, 7(2), pp. 78–100
- Jalal, A. (1991). The Convenience of Subservience: Women and the State of Pakistan. In: Kandiyoti, D. (eds) Women, Islam and the State. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21178-4_4
- Korson, J. Henry, and Michelle Maskiell. “Islamization and Social Policy in Pakistan: The Constitutional Crisis and the Status of Women.” Asian Survey, vol. 25, no. 6, 1985, pp. 589–612, https://doi.org/10.2307/2644377.
- Women's Movements in Asia: Feminisms and Transnational Activism. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2010. Page 167
References[edit]
- ^ a b Ali, Sehrish (2012-02-10). "National Women's Day: 'We will raise our voices against discrimination'". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
- ^ "National Women's Day: Struggle for equal rights will go on". The Express Tribune. 2013-02-12. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
- ^ "Women's achievements highlighted at event to mark National Women's Day". www.thenews.com.pk. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
- ^ a b c Reporter, The Newspaper's Staff (2019-02-13). "Women remember iconic 1983 demo, vow to fight oppression". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
- ^ Mujahid Hussain, Nida. "National Women's Day 2020: Karachi event discusses measures to end gender-based violence". www.geo.tv. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ a b c d e f Hassan, Taimur-ul (July–December 2010). "The Performance of Press During Women Movement in Pakistan". South Asian Studies (A Research Journal of South Asian Studies). 25 (2): 311–321 – via eds.p.ebscohost.com.