Chapter 4 Progressive Women's Ngos' Interpretations of Women's

C h a p t e r 4

Progressive Women’s NGOs’ Interpretations of Women’s Rights

What started out, by in large, as an urban-based reactive response to Zia ul-Haq’s promulgation of new laws based on his interpretation of Islam as manifest in his 1979 Islamization program has transformed into a vibrant conglomeration of distinct organizations that have helped facilitate the state’s modernity project, and urge it to go even further than it has. 1 There are many Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that fit into this group, some having their ori- gins just after partition (e.g., the All Pakistan Women’s Association), some in the 1970s as the UN Decade for Women was getting under- way (e.g., Shirkat Gah founded in 1975), many in response to the dim- inution of women’s rights under Zia’s regime (e.g., Women’s Action Forum, AGHS Legal Aid Cell, ASR, Simorgh, Sindhiani Tehrik, and the Aurat Foundation founded in 1986), and others, generally newer, created in response to specific concerns (e.g., War against Rape, Acid Survivors Foundation-Pakistan) confronting women. 2 In addition, there are a large number of organizations that while not explicitly identified as women’s NGOs (e.g., SUNGI Development Foundation, Pattan Development Organization, PILER), their optic nonetheless is deeply concerned with women’s rights and empowerment. The common experiences they have had—for those that pre- dated Zia’s time, those that emerged during it and new entries in this arena—is the reinvigoration to fight for women’s rights and interpret what those rights are as understood within the global human rights community, and have them realized in Pakistan.

A. M. Weiss, Interpreting Islam, Modernity, and Women’s Rights in Pakistan © Anita M. Weiss 2014 76 Interpreting Islam

There are thousands of NGOs registered in Pakistan, and all do not fall into this category under study.3 There are numerous women’s NGOs focused on service delivery and municipal concerns. Indeed, many madrasas and subgroups within Islamist organizations (see Chapter 5 ) have created NGOs to support their myriad activities, and many other NGOs exist for explicit purposes that are not focused, whatsoever, on women’s rights concerns. This chapter explores interpretations of women’s rights held by progressive, highly educated, generally urban-based women’s rights advocates. This group is characterized by a myriad of NGOs; while this constituency doesn’t hold solely one vision on women’s rights, many do share common interpretations. It specifically explores the vision and activities of two of the most representative organizations, Shirkat Gah and the Aurat Foundation, as they exemplify the kinds of interpretations of women’s rights held by groups in this category. Both have also played important roles in establishing, running, and later elevating the National Commission on the Status of Women. While each of the two NGOs has distinct priorities and activities, these two organizations reflect best the common interpretation of women’s rights shared by most members of this group in Pakistan’s modern context. For our concern in this chapter, progressive women’s NGOs, what is the basis of their ijtihad? It is as compelling an interpretation of Islam as any of the other entities under analysis in this book, with one explicit difference: they don’t usually talk about it nor do they usually articulate women’s rights within an Islamic framework. Instead, what emerges from reading innumerable reports and documents and talking with activists from myriad organizations is a general view that there are numerous verses in the Qur’an and stories in the hadith that provide women with equal—or at least equitable—rights with men, and that Islam does not support discrimination or injustices against women. Modernity requires read- justing social norms and visions, and therefore women should not be left to be solely dependent on men. It is important for women to be educated, have access to good health care, be an active participant in her own marriage arrangements, be able to earn an income that she can decide how to spend, and have a voice in the political process of the country. Naeem Mirza of the Aurat Foundation refers to “a fractured modernity” in Pakistan having multiple contradictions,

It has come in terms of physical infrastructure—cell phones, cars— but it hasn’t come with ideas. Progress in the west occurred along Progressive Women’s NGOs’ Interpretations 77

with production of things and learning. But those (as in Pakistan) who don’t create things don’t appreciate the new value. The psychol- ogy of people who produce things is different from those who “just buy it.” The dilemma of modernity in this culture is different than in India. India’s industrial base is much wider. Here, tribalism, feudalism, and crumbling forms of feudalism prevail.

Remembering history is important to place what is occurring today in Pakistan into a context. In tracing the history of Muslim women who have previously struggled for their rights, Farida Shaheed 4 a n d Aisha Lee Shaheed have found women actively opposing polygyny, asserting the right not to veil, and to choose their marriage partners and effecting other kinds of social changes. They show that striving for women’s rights in Muslim contexts is neither new nor an import from the West and argue that to think so is a myth that suggests,

that women’s struggles for their rights are alien to societies that have embraced Islam . . . The myth derives sustenance from the ahistorical and misconceived notion that contemporary women’s movements in diverse parts of the world all spring from the struggles and thinking of European and North American women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 5

Through examples starting in the eighth century, they identify women who “defied culturally defined gender norms to assert their right to be different and to change their society.” 6 Given that there are abundant examples of such women, their actions clearly challenge the myth especially prevalent within Islamist groups in Pakistan that all efforts for change emerge from the West. Shaheed considers that the myth, however, exists as a “useful tool” in exercising power and control over women, as “an insidious way of suppressing women’s demands for rights and justice.”7 An interesting difference with women’s rights NGOs in Pakistan compared to some in other Muslim countries is that none appear to advocate individuals engaging with the texts (Qur’an and hadith ) themselves, such as Sisters in Islam in Malaysia and many women’s groups in the Middle East. 8 Instead, these women’s NGOs, engaged in activist research, operate exclusively within a global human rights framework. They address such themes as the rise in domestic violence, female education, and women’s political participation, ques- tion Islam’s jurisdictional space in the contemporary political sphere, and whether women’s rights need necessarily be limited at all by 78 Interpreting Islam

Islamic injunctions. They have been demanding for reform of discriminatory laws and practices in Pakistan, seeking to translate how new rights can most effectively be articulated within Pakistan and resisting the counterattacks against progress made in legal reforms affecting women’s rights in the country. Many individuals affiliated with these NGOs and the NGOs themselves have conducted research on women’s rights that was either commissioned by or later made available to the Government of Pakistan over the span of the past few decades. In many cases, the state recruited these writers to author government documents, especially for international distribution. Yet these NGOs’ visions of women’s rights are not identical to those of the Government of Pakistan as they seek to advocate for additional rights, opportunities, and safeguards that have not made it onto any official agenda. We now turn to the key issues with which these NGOs are focusing upon today, with the goal of understanding what they consider to be their greatest accomplishments and what else they want the state to prioritize in promoting women’s rights. In other words, which rights have they already prioritized and which remain to adopt in the future?

Shirkat Gah and the Aurat Foundation: The Organizations and their Visions

The achievements thus far of the Government of Pakistan, especially in the past decade, to promote women’s rights have been accomplished in large part due to the actions and mobilization of women’s rights activists in this group. We therefore do not need to review what they have already accomplished in changing state policy, as Chapter 2 provides a thorough discussion of this. Instead, we explore what Shirkat Gah and the Aurat Foundation consider to be their greatest accomplishments, their distinct priorities and activities, the existing challenges they now identify, and their goals for expanding the discourse on women’s rights in Pakistan. Shirkat Gah Women’s Resource Centre, constituted during the UN International Year of the Woman (1975) which launched the UN Decade for Women (1975–85), was created as “a non- hierarchical women’s collective to integrate consciousness raising Progressive Women’s NGOs’ Interpretations 79 with a development perspective, and to initiate projects translat- ing advocacy into action.”9 From the outset, Shirkat Gah focused on applied development projects to promote the empowerment of women that combined substantive research with action-oriented proposals. It conducts and supports “various activities for creating awareness on issues and empowering individuals and organizations through advocacy, research, publications and interventions to work towards sustainable development.” The NGO helps build capacity of local community-based and civil society organizations through research and awareness sessions on sexual and reproductive health, livelihoods, violence against women, environment, and sustainable development. It is actively engaged in various campaigns in Pakistan to promote human rights, good governance, legal reforms, and related concerns. Importantly, Shirkat Gah conducts extensive baseline research to capture women’s lived realities on the ground. These have resulted in numerous publications in English, Urdu, and Sindhi which include research findings, tools for training, awareness, and “a host of advocacy materials that include guides, manuals, posters, cartoon booklets, etc.” Importantly too, Shirkat Gah par- ticipates in national, regional, and international civil society coali- tions, networks and alliances including the Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development, Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Over the years, its members have played important roles in the Pakistan state’s efforts to empower women. They have had substantive input into the state’s stance on the full range of women-oriented global conferences, were included by the provincial Government of Punjab’s Women Development Department in the recently recon- stituted Punjab Provincial CEDAW Implementation Committee, helped create the Women’s Division (later the federal Ministry for Women’s Development), and were consequential in establishing, running, and later elevating the National Commission on the Status of Women. Its current chairperson, Khawar Mumtaz, is a longtime member of Shirkat Gah. Previous major projects were “Women Law and Status,” “Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights,” “Women and Sustainable Development,” and the “Green Economics and Globalization” initiative. The current over-arching initiative, the Women’s Empowerment and Social Justice Programme, begun 80 Interpreting Islam in 2008, captures Shirkat Gah’s vision as it works with partners throughout Pakistan to address key legal, economic, livelihood, cultural taboos and attitudes and health-related issues affecting women in the rural and underdeveloped parts of the country.10 Shirkat Gah has consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. It has been active within the UN system on a number of occasions, including contributing to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing—and its subsequent quinquennial follow-up conferences—along with Pakistan’s adherence to the UN Convention on Elimination of all form of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). It actually “initiated and led” the NGO Beijing +5 and Beijing +10 reviews on behalf of Pakistan. Shirkat Gah today is a nationwide force with documentation centers in Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar. These offices constitute the most comprehensive collections of published and unpublished reading material in Pakistan related to women’s issues and their struggles for empowerment along with development programs and schemes. Today, under the Women’s Empowerment and Social Justice Programme, its key thematic areas concern rights, governance, and livelihoods. In particular, Shirkat Gah identifies these as, 11

● Rights: Ensure knowledge about and access to rights, with a focus on family laws, violence against women, sexual and reproductive health and rights, access to and control over resources, environmental rights. ● Governance: Revise laws, policies and procedures to eliminate gender biases and discrimination by engaging with policy-makers, duty bearers, and elected women representatives to ensure responsiveness; by building capacity of women and communities to claim their rights. ● Livelihoods: Promote and facilitate access to and control over natural resources, women-led sustainable agriculture and livelihoods in the context of globalization.

The list of projects and publications that have resulted from this initiative is extensive, including two Shadow Reports submitted to the CEDAW Committee on growing Talibanization and poor Progressive Women’s NGOs’ Interpretations 81 governance in Pakistan (Shirkat Gah 2007 and 2013a), inheritance and land rights in Pakistan (Mumtaz and Noshirwani 2013), and extensive research on women’s sexual and reproductive health rights. Shirkat Gah collaborated with ASR (2011), another longstanding women’s rights progressive NGO, to provide a substantive review of Pakistan’s implementation of its commitments since the Beijing 1995 UN 4th World Conference on Women. Underscoring their involvement with the Government of Pakistan, they write,

At the national level, Shirkat Gah and ASR have played a lead role in the Beijing Conference and the subsequent review process . . . along with their numerous local partners, both organizations continue to actively lobby and advocate for the Government of Pakistan to deliver on their commitments on the BPfA [Beijing Platform for Action ], the MDGs. CEDAW and other international instruments ensuring the progress of women. 12

Along with Shirkat Gah’s involvement with UN activities, ASR Resource Centre has also been involved in similar processes since the 3rd UN World Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985, being involved in the Asian NGO report and related activities. Indeed, both can claim a very long list of ways they have facilitated not only the Government of Pakistan but other Asia-Pacific allied NGOs in the entire UN women’s rights review process, from 1985–2010. 13 The two organizations decided to undertake a collaborative, integrated consultative process to work toward strengthening “the national and regional position on Beijing +15” so as to enable “a collective reflection and review on the national implementation of Beijing commitments along with their intersections with other international agreements.” They set out with a nationwide survey of myriad civil society organizations (CSOs), building on the roughly 100 groups Shirkat Gah had been surveying for five years, to identify “the achievements, challenges and emerging issues” between 2004–09, organized a two-day “National Consultation of NGOs on B+15” and organized Pakistani delegations to participate in a wide range of regional and international (in New York at the NGO Forum) dialogues. 14 Shirkat Gah’s survey found that,

while most of NGO advocacy was on VAW [violence against women] and related legislation or excesses, the least number of activities were 82 Interpreting Islam

undertaken by CSOs/NGOs in the critical areas of environment, media, and institutional mechanisms. 15

In terms of activities (as opposed to advocacy), they identified that most of the organizations addressed practical needs including formal and informal education, healthcare, family planning, micro credit, legal aid, and research to support advocacy campaigns. In addition, they found organizations trying to facilitate women acquir- ing National Identity Cards, providing training to female elected representatives, and various other advocacy activities to challenge discriminatory customary practices. They argue that the most sig- nificant development of all since the 1995 Beijing conference that produced “tangible results” was NGOs,

joining in campaigns by the women’s movement on critical issues and taking an active part in emerging social movements. This signi- fies the expansion of the women’s agenda to include broader societal change and women’s role in it.16

After all this activism, communication and mobilization, Shirkat Gah and ASR identified four arenas for further mobilization and action, notably concerning poverty (both rural and urban), women’s participation in the democratic process in Pakistan (including the crisis of democracy and rule of law challenges in the country), conflict-related crises and their implications for women, in particular, and violence against women.17 The important thing is that they see their efforts thus far as a starting point, and that while it certainly has been beneficial for women’s rights in Pakistan for the state to have pursued the policies and legal reforms that it has, there is still so much more that remains to be done to fully empower women and ensure their rights. As they conclude,

While the women’s movement has come a long way and had many successes, women continue to face discrimination, oppression and suppression at all levels. New and emerging crises, insecurity and violence which impact on women present even greater challenges. The women’s movement needs to address this in a comprehensive and sustained manner yet the discussion on how to do this remained inconclusive . . . The women’s movement itself is becom- ing more conservative either because it is caught in donor frames which may address social oppressions instead of rights, or because Progressive Women’s NGOs’ Interpretations 83

people are increasingly turning inward . . . The “norm” is no longer being challenged at the personal level and a retreat into the “known” and the “secure” overrides personal courage to live out one’s public positions. 18

Shirkat Gah’s February 2013 Shadow Report on the Government of Pakistan’s Report to CEDAW reinforces its concerns lodged in its earlier 2007 report. As with the earlier report, it argues that societal challenges are today the greatest hindrances to the further empowerment of women and highlights gross inconsisten- cies between policy and practice “due to weak implementation of otherwise adequate policies” (Shirkat Gah 2013a: 5). It voices concerns about a variety of issues, but what manifests strongest is their recognition of the ongoing culture wars that affect the securement of women’s rights. Most of their recommendations both to the Government of Pakistan and to the UN CEDAW Committee are operational, that is to ensure enforcement of existing laws and policies by the state. There is a great deal of attention to arenas that are resource-poor (e.g., in access to identity cards, credit and health expenditures) and less attention, at least here, to ideological differences with other communities in Pakistan. There are few concerns or recommendations that explicitly articulate differing interpretations of Muslim women’s rights in modern contexts except for the sections on honor crimes, the Hudood Ordinances, and discussion of social rights. Shirkat Gah’s Shadow Report draws attention to an issue rela- tively unique for Pakistan, notably the inequitable treatment of family members who murder women. While legally such murderers can no longer draw on the defense that it was to preserve honor, it is because they are family members that they are often let off with impunity. In part, this is because murder (as well as bodily harm) is regarded as a crime against an individual in Pakistan, rather than as a crime against the State, due to the sharia provisions in the Qisas and Diyat (retribution and compensation) laws. In effect, this allows heirs of the deceased to pardon murderers. As the Shadow Report (2013a: 18) notes, however,

Flaws in these legal provisions become glaring in cases of “honour” killings as the majority of such murders of women are commit- ted by family members who may be “forgiven” by the heirs of the deceased. 84 Interpreting Islam

It argues that until the provisions of Qisas and Diyat are revoked, “the perpetrators of ‘honour killings’ will continue to enjoy impunity and Pakistan’s compliance with its international obligation of combating discrimination against women remain unmet” (Shirkat Gah 2013a: 18). While the 2006 Women Protection Act modified some of the clauses of the Hudood Ordinances that the progressive women’s movement found the most oppressive, Shirkat Gah’s Shadow Report argues that inequities remain. First, the legal age for adulthood for females is 16 years (for males it is 18 years), thereby enabling under- age marriages to be declared valid. Second, the statute regarding women’s ability to be witnesses in a Hadd crime was not modified, resulting in the retention of legal discrimination against women,

because their unequal status as witnesses under the Hudood Ordinances has been retained, along with the controversial punishment of stoning. (Shirkat Gah 2013a: 19)

Shirkat Gah’s critique of the need to enjoin a new perspective on social rights revolves around education. For example, the Shadow Report takes on the National Education Policy 2009 as focusing excessively on religion and that prevailing sociocultural norms “are deeply impacted by a particular religious perspective in textbooks.” It (Shirkat Gah 2013b: 21) argues that this emphasis on religion should be removed from the National Education Policy, a view that differs from that existing in the 1973 Constitution and held by many Islamist groups and extremist Islamist groups (e.g., such as by orthodox Islamist groups discussed in Chapter 5 and the Swat Taliban discussed in Chapter 6 ). The Aurat Foundation emerged over a decade later than Shirkat Gah, just toward the end of Zia ul-Haq’s regime. Many of its members had been active in mobilizing for women’s rights through the Women’s Action Forum and other groups. Founded in 1986 by econ- omist Nigar Ahmad and lawyer Shehli Zia, current Chief Operating Officer Naeem Mirza said they had “a moderate vision of feminism and a broader vision of women’s rights” resulting in their initial slo- gan being “Women’s Rights are Human Rights,” underscoring that they “started this journey with a larger vision of social reforms.” 19 From the outset, the Aurat Foundation contended that as women had been excluded from all mainstream processes, its goal was to Progressive Women’s NGOs’ Interpretations 85 make Pakistan an inclusive society. Given the priorities of the two founders, the Aurat Foundation initially focused on mainstreaming women in the economy and legal equality. Mirza contends they didn’t have a hardline feminist discourse, but rather saw the need to have women as part of the larger society. Consistent with many of the other large women’s NGOs, the Aurat Foundation also began as an Information Resource Center. A year later, in 1987, the Aurat Foundation developed a new slo- gan, “Information Is Power: Share It,” reflecting the evolution of its vision. The mandate now was that they should collect information and pass it on to women to use for social activism. Building on this, the Aurat Foundation started to organize informal groups of women in the early 1990s. By 1992–93, they decided there should be some mixed groups (with men) as well, and they started Citizen Action Committees. The initiative grew, and groups were forming throughout the country. In the early 2000s, a final core strategy began to emerge, promoting women’s political participation and making them visible. The Aurat Foundation, along with other women’s NGOs, became passionate about the need to end discriminatory laws (e.g., Hudood Laws, Blasphemy Code, swara ) and sought to move strategically to address the “legal tyranny that Zia had unleashed,” resulting in a historic struggle against discriminatory laws. They turned to advocacy, taking local actions as key to resolving problems and linking them to national policy. This puts the Aurat Foundation, according to Naeem Mirza, in a unique position as it is an organization “with a flavor of a social movement but with a multidimensional, layered structure.”20 Another core strategy of the Aurat Foundation is promoting women’s political participation, both as voters and as candidates. This became a major strategy that ultimately paid off in the Local Bodies elections, in particular, in the early 2000s when women entered mainstream political life in record numbers. Today the Aurat Foundation has about 700 employees spread between its six main offices (Islamabad/Head Office, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, and Gilgit in Gilgit-Baltistan) and thirty Project Offices. Its priorities now are to reduce gender gaps in political, economic, and social arenas. The head of the Aurat Foundation’s Gender Equity Program (GEP), Simi Kamal, says that the Aurat Foundation “seeks a society where the demand for women’s equality—equal rights for women as well as gender equity—is raised 86 Interpreting Islam from the ground, from the people.” This is consistent with the organization’s Mission,

To create, facilitate and strengthen civil society groups and networks for promoting trust and collaboration among citizens to mobilize public pressure for women’s empowerment in the country.

The Aurat Foundation acts as a catalyst to enable groups to influence policy, legislation, and programs for greater economic and political power for women in society. They have developed salient linkages with grassroots organizations, macro-level decision-makers, and with various departments of the Government of Pakistan to achieve their main goals that are,

● To enable women to acquire greater access to knowledge, resources and institutions ● To influence attitudes and behavior for a social environment responsive to women’s concerns and people-centered issues ● To facilitate citizens’ active participation in the process of social change and governance at all levels

Kamal notes that to accomplish these goals, “gender mainstreaming and gender equity” have become popular terms in the organization now.21 While she contends that these are problematic terms throughout the development sector, she considers it important for the Aurat Foundation today to “reconnect with the agenda of feminism and women’s rights” and needs to work with men and the way men think. This discourse of gender mainstreaming has enabled the Aurat Foundation to secure more funds in the past few years, such as USAID’s support for its Gender Equity Program. It has engaged in a number of national-level advocacy campaigns in the past two decades. Some of the most important of these were: to recognize women’s work in the 1998 national census; to put women’s rights issues on the electoral agenda in the 1993, 1997, 2002, and 2008 general elections; to repeal discriminatory laws including the Hudood Ordinances, “honor” crimes and ending violence against women; to ensure 33 percent reservation of seats for women in all legislatures in Pakistan since the 1990s; to promote relief and rehabilitation of survivors of natural disasters following the 2005 earthquake, the 2009 IDP crisis in Swat, and the 2010 floods; to Progressive Women’s NGOs’ Interpretations 87 raise awareness of the need for women to get national identity cards and register to vote; and to ensure and maximize women’s representation in local government elections in 1998–99, 2000–1, and 2005. We can see that their activism consistently retains strong ties with local communities and groups. In 2012–13, the Aurat Foundation had nine ongoing current projects supported by bilateral and multilateral donors from throughout the world: 22

1. Gender Equity Program (2010–2015). This will extend over 400 grants to civil society organizations and governmental gender entities within four key objectives: i) women’s access to justice and human rights; ii) women’s economic empowerment; iii) combating gender-based violence; and iv) capacity-building of Pakistani organizations. 2. AAWAZ Voice and Accountability Programme (2012–2017). This five- year program to strengthen democratic processes in Pakistan by making it more open, inclusive and accountable to citizens is being implemented in 45 districts across Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces by Aurat Foundation, SAP-Pk, SPO, Sungi Development Foundation, and SDPI. 3. Policy and Data Monitor on Violence against Women (2011–2016). The Aurat Foundation monitors and documents incidents of violence against women and works towards pushing them higher in priority on the agendas of major political parties and decision-making bodies. 4. Women’s Effective Participation and Leadership in Decision-Making Processes (2009–2013). This works to strengthen the role of poor and marginalized women in governance, thereby promoting accountability for gender equality and women’s empowerment to achieve pro-poor development for women and the wider society. 5. Engendering Peace & Security Project (2010–2013). The project aims at achieving better understanding and ownership among concerned stakeholders about Security Council Resolutions on women, peace and security, increased presence of women in peacekeeping and peace building and in rehabilitation and reconstruction processes. 6. Restoration of Women Livelihood Project (2012–2013). This is being implemented in the four union councils of district Swat. The objectives are to establish women entrepreneurship for the restoration of their livelihoods, develop marketing and business skills in women entrepreneurs and strengthen women’s roles in the community to minimize violence against women. 7. Social Mobilisation—National Cash Transfer Programme (BISP) (2012–2013). The Aurat Foundation and Act International are testing a social mobilization strategy in selected districts [Karachi South (Sindh), Noshki (Baluchistan), Malakand (KP), Skardu (GB) and Mirpur (AJK)] 88 Interpreting Islam

to suggest a comprehensive social mobilization strategy on the basis of lessons learnt for roll-out of the Benazir Income Support Programs in the rest of Pakistan, keeping in view the geographical and cultural differences between different areas. 8. Women CarVan Leaders Project (2012–2013). This aims to create a replicable model for establishing and introducing domestic women workers as professional drivers and getting them decent employment with organizations, companies and offices. A batch of 10 such drivers is targeted for a 12 months intervention. 9. Women Learning Partnership Initiative (2012–2013). This seeks to increase the number of women taking on leadership and decision-making roles at family, community, and national levels, and to improve the effectiveness of feminist movements by strengthening the capacity of partner organizations.

A seminal consideration, in the Aurat Foundation’s view, is that creating a level playing field for women is still a long way off. Nonetheless, society is moving on and women are involved every- where. Women are in shops, businesses, schools, universities, but still face so much discrimination. For example, roughly 4/5 of women who graduate from medical colleges in Pakistan don’t ever end up practicing medicine; wealthy girls often attend medical schools for status concerns and their families don’t want them working, again for status concerns. While progressive women’s NGOs support educating women, is it a contradiction when this education is used only to secure a higher status marriage? Simi Kamal sees this as Pakistan “frittering away our resources.”23 A major effort has been to address violence against women, not only in the provision of services but also to promote accountability and state responsiveness through institutional mechanisms. A big difference in the Aurat Foundation’s effectiveness today is that with the USAID-funded Gender Equity Program (GEP), they are now in a position to give grants as they are the “prime” on USAID’s grant. This enables them to distribute funds to counter violence against women by helping other NGOs create response mechanisms such as developing helplines and shelters. Through the provision of such support, they can now deliver “seamless service,” a key aspect of the Aurat Foundation’s strategy to confront gender-based violence that is playing a pivotal role in the national system of shelters. In addition to supporting public- private partnerships, they also support four Government of Pakistan crisis centers and numerous private shelters including Mukhtar Mai’s shelter, AGHS Legal Group’s Dastak, among others. Progressive Women’s NGOs’ Interpretations 89

The Aurat Foundation, along with Shirkat Gah and the other progressive women’s NGOs in Pakistan, work within a secular paradigm. However, these two NGOs differ in that Shirkat Gah works entirely within a global human rights framework while the Aurat Foundation has taken what Simi Kamal refers to as “a middle path” to enable them to engage with all groups in Pakistan, including religious groups. She considers that “people are so religious here, they won’t engage in any discourse unless you bring Islam in.” Naeem Mirza contends that the very narrow, restrictive view of the orthodox clergy on such issues as sharia law, polygamy, khula (highly restrictive right of a woman to seek a divorce from her husband), inheritance, blasphemy, and minimum age of marriage are being used to control women. The Aurat Foundation went to many religious scholars, including Muhammad Tufail Hashmi, Javed Ghamdi, and Khalid Masud, to discuss the Qur’an and existing laws and women’s rights. Based on all these consultations, they decided it appropriate to support revising the Hudood Ordinances and regulating and restricting polygamy on the grounds that Islam “provides justice, and we know a man won’t be able to do that with multiple wives.” In effect, the Aurat Foundation supports the idea to make it difficult for a man legally to marry multiple wives, and to ensure safeguards are in place in the event he does. In addition, they are seeking to refine the way a woman can reserve the right to divorce in the nikahnama (Muslim marriage contract) so that it is automatic, that it’s part of every nikahnama and not only the ones where the bridegroom has agreed in advance it can be added (which is current practice in Pakistan). The Aurat Foundation, in its role of bringing together myriad stakeholders to promote women’s rights, conducted an extensive per- formance review of the work conducted by women parliamentarians in the 12th National Assembly, 2002–07 (Mirza and Wagha 2009). They found that the women who had been elected were enthusi- astic to go “beyond political borders, expanded their horizons and proved that they were suited to their new role of ‘public representative’” (Mirza and Wagha 2009: 87). This translated into four words summing up their overall achievements: pioneering, participation, persistence, and purpose:

Pioneering in the sense that it was the first National Assembly where women had a substantial strength; there were a lot of expectations attributed to them; and that they did not disappoint and lived up 90 Interpreting Islam

to the expectations in many respects; Participation -wise, they per- formed extremely well; and it might be a challenge for their suc- cessors to compete with them; Persistence they showed by gradually increasing their interventions in each successive year; Purpose they never forgot the commitment to women’s cause and spared no opportunity available to spek on behalf of the women and common citizens of Pakistan. (Mirza and Wagha 2009: 89)

The Aurat Foundation compiled a wide-ranging list of suggestions for political parties to embrace to promote women’s rights in their 2013 election manifestos.24 Based on an extensive consultative process held during 2010–11, unlike the state’s “light pebble skipping across the waters” of women’s rights, no “stone”—foundational aspect of women’s rights—was left unturned. It begins with a no- holds-barred recognition that what has already been legislated is often not implemented, in large part because there has not yet been a national shift in thinking about women’s rights. The document advocates that there is a need to acknowledge,

a national imperative for far-reaching and wide-ranging structural change. Without this, neither can Pakistani women and girls be empowered, nor can the national development goals be met, nor can the economy be helped to regain its lost momentum, or the public infrastructure and institutions to shed their disfunctionality, nor indeed can we rectify the shameful gaps between the haves and the have-nots, the feudal lords, tribal chieftains and their serfs, the religious lords and their devotees, the remunerated employed vs. the unpaid “family helpers” vs. bonded and forced labour. 25

The 14 arenas in which it identifies situations that require rectifi- cation and engagement to further promote women’s rights are: the state and governance; poverty and economy; institutional and finan- cial mechanisms; legislation, judiciary and law enforcement; political participation and representation in the public sphere; labor and employment; health, reproductive rights, and population; education and training; violence against women and girls; environment and climate change impact; women and girls in humanitarian/conflict- related emergency situations; women and media; creative arts and sports; and physical infrastructure and basic services. The report urges that action on long-delayed legislation be expedited, systems be established to ensure implementation of “the positive clauses” of Progressive Women’s NGOs’ Interpretations 91 recently enacted laws, and ensure that “the legal frameworks, policies and institutional mechanisms are in harmony with the prin- ciples and provisions ratified in the international covenants” [that Pakistan has ratified]. 26 It further advocates that political parties support methods to halt “the rising tide of extremism and violence in society” in multi-faceted ways including, 27

● Launch sustained mass-awareness campaigns to address social practices and negative traditional customs which discriminate against girls, women an d minorities, oppose girls’ education, deny women equal right to vote, or engage in productive work outside the home, or participate in cultural, recreational and sports activities; inculcate values of inter-faith and inter-ethnic harmony, peace and tolerance; and build these values into educational systems, curricula and textbooks; ● Take urgent steps to restore the rule of law; enforce feasible measures to de-weaponize the entire country; disband and dis- arm all illegal/private militias . . . [and] institute strict preventive and punitive action against violent protests which result in the loss of life and destruction of private and public property; ● Adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards violence against women, girls and minorities; and abduction, forced conversion, marriage, migration, prostitution, trafficking and others; ● Urgently address the current conflict-related crises in Baluchistan, FATA, PATA, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Karachi, which negatively impact on the fundamental human rights of the relevant affected communities, and of women and children in particular; ● Enforce a ban on fatwas issued against the rights of women and minorities, and monitor khutbas [sermons] in mosques or on the media with strict necessary action taken if found to include messages likely to instigate hate crimes; ● Curtail, penalize and if necessary terminate those offending private media found to be promoting and inciting increased vigilantism, hate crimes, religious and ethnic intolerance, discrimination, anti-women diatribes, shows and programmes, or promoting retrogressive codes of social conduct for women, 92 Interpreting Islam

and justifying or condoning (or even lauding) gender-based violence.

Throughout the document, when addressing distinct issues (e.g., poverty, the environment, cultural activities) it identifies short, medium, and long-term actions that political parties can take to show not only support for women’s rights, but for larger rights within Pakistan as these are necessary to secure women’s rights. Important themes that surface throughout the report are to rein- state some system of local governance (which the PPP government had dismantled soon after taking office in 2008) as this has inadver- tently harmed women, to create new legislation to ensure women’s rights in such arenas as agricultural workers and the depiction of women in the media, and to improve sex-disaggregated data col- lection in multiple fields to know what is actually the situation of women. It makes note of Pakistan’s failures to achieve its commitments to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 in poverty alleviation and in health and population. What is particularly stunning about the report is its comprehensiveness in every field it addresses, leaving political parties with no means to say they didn’t know what they could advocate to advance women’s rights. In preparation for the May 2013 election, the Aurat Foundation then conducted extensive surveys of nine political parties’ manifestos that included information on their stances on women’s political participation and inclusion. They had already made recommendations, discussed above, to various political parties; now was the time to see if the political parties had responded to and incorporated any of the suggestions. The ten areas compared were: women’s economic empowerment; women’s political participation; gender equality/equity; passing of particular laws; international instruments regarding women’s rights; education for girls/women; healthcare for women; reproductive rights; police protection; and gender-based violence/violence against women. The secular Awami National Party (ANP) headquartered in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa scored “thumbs up” in all ten areas; the only orthodox Islamist party included in the survey, the Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI), scored only one “thumbs up,” in gender equality/equity.28 There are also two intangible successes that the Aurat Foundation has achieved. The first is, in Simi Kamaal’s words, that the Aurat Foundation has “kept the fires burning” over the years, struggling to Progressive Women’s NGOs’ Interpretations 93 create, as Naeem Mirza sees it, “an environment for human empowerment.” The Aurat Foundation has stayed in the fray, never letting down its guard as it sought to promote global rights for women in Pakistan. Second, the Aurat Foundation’s regional offices are deeply tied in with provincial governments. As such, there is a greater pos- sibility than ever before that their suggestions may well be implemented at the local level.

Pushing Women’s Rights Further: Additional Issues of Concern to Women’s Rights NGOs

For all of their accomplishments, members of progressive women’s rights NGOs consider that the wide range of issues that still need to be addressed are indeed sobering. While it seems the Government of Pakistan had already accomplished numerous legal and policy changes, these groups consider there remains so much more that must be done. Concerns exist, too, about the shift in government priorities in the wake of the PML-N government’s victory in the national elections in May 2013. Thus far, after the abundant legislation passed in the previous two administrations to promote women’s rights in Pakistan, nothing substantial has been proposed under the new Nawaz Sharif government. An important arena where Shirkat Gah has been active to “push the envelope further” is in advocating for women’s sexual and reproductive rights, which has hardly made it onto any government agenda. It released an extensive report addressing what needs to be done to adequately address MDG 5 and improve maternal health. Based on field studies throughout Pakistan conducted in 2010, it first identifies the challenges to addressing maternal mortality in Pakistan and then offers specific solutions. It identifies that,

the defining factors for positive reproductive health outcomes were socio-economic status, education and to a lesser extent, residence in an urban centre. 29

Indeed, pervasive poverty emerges as one of the greatest determi- nants of utilization of health services, followed by lack of services, transportation problems, and illiteracy. Additional factors include 94 Interpreting Islam lack of female decision-making authority, violence, social and cultural discrimination, the physical burden of work, and a poor diet. 30 The report links unsafe abortions, local perceptions of and information about family planning services, and other factors such as early marriage as affecting maternal deaths. Based on these findings, Shirkat Gah developed a number of Policy Briefs making explicit recommendations to provincial departments of Education, Health, Population Welfare, and Women Development. These range from the seemingly more philosophical goal of developing an “integrated approach to women’s reproductive health that factors in women’s rights, poverty, education and employment” to such pragmatic efforts such as increasing the minimum age of marriage to 18 years, promoting domestic violence legislation and its implementation at the provincial level to ensure reproductive health and rights of women, making birth registrations manda- tory so as to determine a girl’s age at the time of marriage, ensuring girls’ education by enforcing Article 25-A of the Constitution, and restructuring relevant provincial-level departments in the wake of the 18th Constitutional Amendment that devolved responsibility to the provinces. 31 On an even more comprehensive level, Shirkat Gah made a joint submission to the UN Human Rights Council in association with Pakistan’s 2012 Universal Periodic Review (UPR), in collaboration with nine other Pakistani NGOs. The UPR’s general focus was on women’s rights and the existing challenges in their promotion and protection. 32 Shirkat Gah used this opportunity as a way to commu- nicate with the Government of Pakistan from an international platform, encouraging the state to move further on a number of issues. Table 4.1 shows some of the most salient recommendations Shirkat Gah actively lobbied for that the UPR Working Group subsequently adopted, and the countries that endorsed the recommendations. These encourage women’s greater representation in electoral and political processes, administrative and legal support to address violence against women and establish viable support structures, abolish discriminatory laws, address gaps and gender biases in books and training materials, and establish a minimum age of marriage of 18 for females in Pakistan. These do not differ greatly from the Aurat Foundation’s future goals, although the latter incorporates greater emphasis on institutional transformations. Today, the Aurat Foundation’s greatest Table 4.1 Shirkat Gah Recommendations Adopted during the UPR Working Group (2012) 1

Shirkat Gah Recommendation Relevant Concluding Observation Countries

Increase women’s seats in the Ensure equal political participation and withdraw reservations to United Kingdom of Parliament and Provincial Assemblies Articles 3 and 25 of the ICCPR as these reservations remain critical to Great Britain and to 33%. ensure equality rights of women and men and equal opportunities. Northern Ireland Ensure implementation of existing Continue strengthening women’s rights through enactment of Palestine legislation and develop requisite relevant necessary laws while providing necessary administrative and Uruguay rules under laws where required. institutional mechanisms. Continue strengthening legislation for the Mechanisms for effective enforcement elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and steadily Japan of new legislation should be implement and further enhance measures to address discrimination Jordan developed with Standard Operational and violence against women. Continue developing the institutional Chad Procedures. framework with respect to the promotion and protection of human rights. Take necessary measures to end harmful traditional practices against women, sexual harassment in public and work places, and domestic violence. All line departments and Continue providing and improving human rights education and Uganda implementing agencies be given proper training for judicial and law enforcement officials, and for all officials Democratic People’s orientation on laws related to the involved in the implementation of the related human rights law and Republic of Korea protection of women against various legislation. Continue organizing awareness educational courses on forms of violence. human rights including training on equality between women and men, Malaysia and on women’s rights. Train law enforcement personnel on gender Libyan Arab sensitivity and equality. Jamahiriya Slovakia Laws that are discriminatory toward Promote the repeal of all legal and administrative provisions remaining, Mexico women to be abolished, including the which discriminate against women and girls. provisions of Qisas and Diyat and the Law of Inheritance. Continued Table 4.1 Continued

Shirkat Gah Recommendation Relevant Concluding Observation Countries Legislation to be enacted on issues of Enact provincial legislation on domestic violence as well as an Sweden domestic violence and a standardized increased number of support structures for women at the provincial Myanmar minimum age of marriage for both level. Sustain the positive momentum in upgrading laws and males and females. institutions particularly regarding the rights of women and children. Establish new and strengthen existing Enact provincial legislation on domestic violence as well as an increased Sweden support structures for victims of number of support structures for women at the provincial level. Continue Singapore violence. to enhance efforts to protect women, children, and other vulnerable groups against discrimination and violence and create mechanisms to Switzerland protect and support victims of sexual or gender violence. Put in place Slovenia effective monitoring and reporting mechanisms and ensure the reporting Egypt and investigation of cases of violence against women. Address gaps and gender biases in Review public school curricula to eliminate prejudice. Include human Germany educational/ professional textbooks and rights education in school curriculum. Holy See training curricula for the advancement of a gender-sensitive and rights-based Palestine approach toward public service. The government should take effective Ensure that women are not submitted to illegal parallel judicial Italy measures against all informal dispute systems. Decriminalize adultery and nonmarital consensual sex and Czech Republic resolution mechanisms that perpetrate ensure punishment for all perpetrators of this violence and calls to it and perpetuate violence against including by members and leaders of jirgas . women. Standardization of age of marriage at Take effective measure to prevent forced or early marriage, particularly Austria 18 years for females and males. in view of ending rape, sexual exploitation, and forced conversions of scheduled caste girls.

1 Shirkat Gah Women’s Rights in Pakistan: Status and Challenges Stakeholders Joint Submission to UN Human Rights Council: Pakistan’s Universal Periodic Review— 14 th Session October 2012: 21–28. Progressive Women’s NGOs’ Interpretations 97 concern is building on the functionality of institutional mechanisms. After the passage of the 18th Amendment and the devolution of many offices, the federal Ministry for Women’s Development was closed down, as were the respective Standing Committees in the Senate and National Assembly. There was no longer any national parliamentary oversight of women’s rights issues. Initially, there was a sense of relief that at least the federal Ministry for Human Rights still existed. As it hadn’t been devolved, it would still be responsible for some dimensions of women’s and children’s rights, including the reports to CEDAW, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and could facilitate getting added responsibilities and power to the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW). However, after the election of the PML-N government in the May 2013 elections, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif merged the Human Rights Ministry with the Ministry of Law, Justice & Human Rights. The result was the human rights part is now just a vetting group within the strong Law Ministry. Aurat Foundation staff considers that the latter is the gatekeeper of the dominant ideology of Pakistan, which does not support the empowerment of women. The Aurat Foundation would like to see the National Commission on the Status of Women take on the role of being the national machinery to ensure the empowerment of women, so there is an institutional entity responsible for this. As of this time, however, it neither has the mandate nor the influence to do so. Until such national machinery exists again, the Aurat Foundation is concerned that the federal government doesn’t hear women’s viewpoints from anywhere. Associated with this is the concern of the lack, overall, of anything having been developed in Pakistan under any policy framework. The Aurat Foundation wants this to become a national priority, to address this public policy failure by placing institutional mechanisms within a policy framework. Indeed, in the absence of institutional mechanisms, who is the custodian of public policies on women? They consider that women had struggled to get the federal Ministry for Women’s Development established by looking at a number of models existing in other countries. The Aurat Foundation has since demanded the restoration of the federal Ministry for Women’s Development, but the present government won’t do that. So now they’re asking for the restoration of the Human Rights Ministry. The Gender Reform Action Plan (GRAP) ended in 2011 and again, 98 Interpreting Islam this created a major void as there was no longer a government entity responsible for such work. Finally, they hope to maintain the momentum that has occurred with women’s reserved seats and other forms of quotas to hold constituency-based elections. Along with this wish list of what else needs to be done to promote women’s empowerment is the Aurat Foundation’s recognition that there remain untouched domains, things they haven’t even begun to do but hope to address in the future. An important dimension is expanding what has been done to promote the economic empowerment of women. They consider that the time has come to move forward with livelihood income generation projects that are sustainable and incorporate viable business programs. Most of the training programs that are being developed lack job placement; women are trained, but then don’t know how to secure jobs. They are also trying to help create institutional changes within the government- sponsored Benazir Income Support Program to incorporate education and livelihoods. Aurat Foundation leaders consider that it is now time to link poverty alleviation programs with service delivery programs, but this must occur within a rights-based framework to have a transformational effect. Another issue that has recently emerged is the concept of “old age homes.” The Aurat Foundation acknowledges that it has become difficult within Pakistan’s social economy to bring elderly parents into their married children’s homes, especially in cities. The Aurat Foundation has experience in running shelters, and now they’d like to move forward and build senior citizen homes. They are attempt- ing to do so through private-public partnerships as well as building linkages with community service delivery groups. When Aurat Foundation personnel were pressed about what else needs to be done, the list became endless, and they shared the following wish list of what else they want to promote,

● Legal literacy: Implementation of law is not possible without legal literacy. Only high-level lawyers even know about most of the legislation that has been passed. Need to develop ways of educating judges, lawyers and community activists about women’s legal rights. ● Domestic violence: while federal legislation has now been passed, the need today is to get the provinces to implement it. Progressive Women’s NGOs’ Interpretations 99

● Further promote women’s participation in governance and vot- ing: try to enhance and bring out leadership qualities in women through training, provision of information, and other ways of building capacity.

A final arena is again an intangible one, to “shift perceptions, realizations and practice from women to gender.” 33 The Aurat Foundation is working to include greater numbers of men in the struggle for women’s rights on the grounds that only by incorporat- ing men can positive changes be realized. This chapter has elaborated on the kinds of women’s rights issues prioritized by this group, progressive women’s NGOs, as seen in the activities of two representative organizations, Shirkat Gah and the Aurat Foundation. They are consistent with most of those found in the global arena, are situated within a rights-based framework, and are eminently secular in orientation. The struggle to interpret rights for women is based on trying to figure out how to actualize global mandates to promote women’s empowerment, and religion only fits in as a social context. We will find in the next two chapters, which explore orthodox Islamist interpretations of women’s rights and the even more extreme example of the Swat Taliban’s interpretations of women’s rights, that even the starting points of the discussion are dramatically different.