In the past few days, two senior Pakistani politicians, namely Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Senator Hafiz Hamdullah, hurled sexist abuse on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Shireen Mazari and rights activist Marvi Sirmed, respectively. In the case of Hamdullah, this was allegedly followed up by attempted physical assault, which is beyond condemnable. The Awami Workers Party (AWP) stands in solidarity with Shireen Mazari, Marvi Sirmed and the countless other Pakistani women who must put up with sexism, misogynist abuse and harassment on a daily basis. It is a violence that is escalating day by day. As a party with several female members who regularly engage in political activism and organizing in public spaces, AWP recognises the repeated sexism and sexual abuse that women in Pakistan must put up with everyday. It is an abomination that two senior politicians are so emotionally fragile and entitled and think that it is both acceptable and necessary to resort to abusive and near-violent, if not outright violent, sexist language and behaviour. The AWP demands that both Asif and Hamdullah issue an unequivocal, formal and public apology for their language and behaviour to Mazari and Marvi respectively. In the case of Hamdullah, AWP also calls on Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani to order a Senatorial inquiry into his conduct to assess whether he is fit to qualify as a member of the Upper House as per the rules of the Senate. AWP also supports Marvi in her attempts to bring him to justice before the law and calls on the government to provide her the necessary security to guard against threats on her life by Hamdullah’s supporters.
While the scale of Asif and Hamdullah’s abuse may be different, the logic behind their actions is the same and it is that both are reproducing patriarchal norms that seek to silence, belittle and demean women, laying the basis for the social and physical injury that is the lot of women in this country.
Their actions are especially repugnant in a social context where crimes and violence against women, including so-called ‘honour’ killings, are escalating on a daily basis and state institutions like the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) (also headed by a member of the JUI-F Maulana Sheerani) are issuing obscene misogynist anti-women proclamations that legitimize and sanction such violence against them.
AWP restates its call for the CII to be disbanded, a stance which was supported by over twenty other progressive parties, trade unions, women’s groups and student organizations in AWP’s recent All Parties Conference on the Women’s Protection Act and also asserted by Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Senators in the past week. The CII is an ideologically regressive institution empowered by a dictator Zia ul Haq that has become an increasingly dangerous body for women, minorities and other oppressed groups in the country.
Such rampant physical and ideological violence against women cannot be allowed to continue. Ultimately, the only way to overcome this spiralling patriarchal violence is for progressive forces in Pakistan to come together in organized socialist-feminist resistance against such violent and regressive patriarchal groups, norms and values. AWP will continue its efforts to build a broad-based anti-sexist, feminist, socialist and multi-nationalist force of the Left in Pakistan, to collectively fight for a progressive and equal society.
