WOMEN POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN TRADITIONAL ASIAN SOCIETIES: A CASE STUDY OF BEGUM NASIM WALI KHAN BY HASSINA BASHIR DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWAR SESSION: 2011 – 2012 1 WOMEN POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN TRADITIONAL ASIAN SOCIETIES: A CASE STUDY OF BEGUM NASIM WALI KHAN Thesis submitted to the Department of Political Science, University of Peshawar, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Award of the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWAR SEPTEMBER, 2019 2 ABSTRACT In traditional Asian societies, women still face impediments in different fields of their lives including politics. Such hurdles obstruct them to attain top political leadership positions. Despite these obstacles, Asian societies have experienced some notable women political leaders, who not only acquired political leadership positions but sustained these positions successfully for extended period of time. Likewise, the rise of a woman political leader, Nasim Wali Khan in a traditional Pukhtun society is an intriguing matter to explore. Various theoretical studies contest how political leaders emerge and sustain their positions. These theoretical explanations shift their focus from factors such as personal traits, situations, charisma and skills. However, this study extensively borrows from theories based on premises that situation and skills matter most when it comes to attainment or retainment of political leadership. This research is based on primary data gathered from a variety of respondents through semi-structured interviews, along with analysis of selected speeches; this research explores the course to political leadership followed by Nasim Wali Khan. The existing literature proposes that Asian women political leaders acquire leadership position because of the support of their illustrious families and political exigency. This study goes beyond such an argument and argues that women political leaders do not attain and retain leadership positions just because of the political background of their families but also because these women adroitly use various skills which they acquire through political apprenticeship and their involvement in active politics. Likewise, Nasim Wali Khan exhibited specific leadership skills which empowered her to establish a space for herself in the political sphere. Though crisis situations mobilized her to proceed in politics, Nasim Wali Khan skilfully adopted appropriate course of actions to neutralize and overcome various hurdles. Consequently, she won considerable popular support and admiration from her political peers. i TABLE OF CONTENTS S.No. Topic Page No. Abstract i Acknowledgements iv INTRODUCTION 1 Research Objectives 14 Research Questions Significance 14 Methodology 15 Experience of my field Work 18 Limitations of the Study 20 Structure of the thesis 21 Chapter – 1 1. THEORETICAL DEBATES ABOUT POLITICAL LEADERSHIP 23 1.1 Leaders as ‗Great-Men‘ 23 1.2 Charismatic Leadership 24 1.3 Leadership as a Trait 26 1.4 Transactional Leadership 27 1.5 Transformational Leadership 29 1.6 Situational Leadership 32 1.7 Leadership Require Skills 37 1.8 Theoretical Framework 42 1.9 Conclusion 44 Chapter – 2 2. THE CAREER PATH OF ASIAN WOMEN LEADERS: AN 45 EXPLORATION OF WOMEN’ POLITICAL STRUGGLE Profiles of Women Political Leaders: An Over View 47 2.1 Sirimavo Bandaranaike (Sri Lanka) 47 2.2 Chandrika Kumaratunga (Sri Lanka) 49 2.3 Indira Gandhi (India) 51 2.4 Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan) 53 2.5 Begum Khalida Zia(Bangladesh) 56 2.6 Sheikh Hasina Wajid (Bangladesh) 58 2.7 Corazon Aquino (Philippines) 59 2.8 The Rise of Women Political Leader: Critical Analysis 61 2.9 Conclusion 66 ii Chapter – 3 3. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL STATUS OF PUKHTUN WOMEN 67 Social Stratification of the Pukhtun society 69 Pukhtunwali: An Unwritten Code of Conduct 71 Islam and Pukhtunwali 74 Impediments to Women Progress 76 3.1 Religious and Economic Structures 76 3.2 Socio- cultural impediments faced by the Pukhtun women 82 3.3 Political Impediments 87 3.4 Extremism as an obstacle to Women‘s Political Participation 90 3.5 Political Role of Pakhtun Women 93 3.6 Conclusion 97 Chapter – 4 4. POLITICAL OPPRESSION, VICTIMIZATION AND THE RISE OF 99 NASIM WALI KHAN AS A POLITICAL LEADER Situational Analysis: Circumstances surrounding the rise of Nasim Wali Khan as 99 a Political Leader 4.1 Political Resistance to an Autocratic Government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto 99 4.2 Identity Crises: Nasim Wali Khan being a Pakhtun Woman 114 4.3 Conclusion 123 Chapter – 5 124 5. POLITICAL APPRENTICESHIP AND WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN A 124 PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY: NASIM WALI KHAN’S POLITICAL STRUGGLE THROUGH ACQUIRED SKILLS 5.1 Political Acumen of Nasim Wali Khan 126 5.2 Persuasive Oratory Skills of Nasim Wali Khan 134 5.3 Efficient Decision Making 142 5.4 Social astuteness of Nasim Wali Khan 149 5.5 Exceptional Confidence of Nasim Wali Khan 156 5.6 Conclusion 162 6. CONCLUSION 164 7. Bibliography 169 8. Appendix 207 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT All praises to Almighty Allah who enabled me to complete this research work. The odyssey of this research work was not easy to be completed without the guidance, support and contribution of many people. First of all, my deep gratitude goes to my research supervisor Dr. Muhammad Ayub Jan(Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Peshawar). His intellectual supervision, support and help would have made this work possible. I would like to thank Dr. Sami Raza and my colleague Mohammad Sajjad, who assisted me at different stages of this research work. I am also grateful to my interview respondents who gave me their precious time from their busy schedule and shared their personal experiences with me. All my interview respondents have appreciated my work. I would like to mention the names of Sir Sami-ur- Rehman (lawyer) and my elder sister Saima Bashir (lawyer) and Fayaz Khan (lawyer) who provided me the contact numbers of majority of my interview respondents including Begum Nasim Wali Khan, Sir Latif Afridi, Amir Haider Khan Hoti and Farid Tofan. They arranged my interviews with them as well. I am also grateful to Sir Hayat Roghani, who made possible my access to the Bacha Khan Markaz library. The main part of my data collection became possible only after I found the old magazines and newspapers in the Markaz Library. Needless to say, this research work could not have been possible without the support and encouragement of my family members. I am happy to express my special gratitude to my father Bashir Ahmad, my elder sister Saima Bashir and my younger brother Aamir Bashir who stood by me. Their priceless help and support encouraged me to complete my research work. They also took care of my children during my research work. My brother accompanied me during interviews and also helped me in the collection of relevant material. I would like to mention the name of my (late) mother Ilfam Bibi, though she is no more with me, but still I feel that her prayers are with me in every step of my life. My greatest debt is to my husband, Muhammad Abid, who has shown remarkable support to me. I would like to mention the names of my three children; Fatima Abid, Owais Karni and Ayesha Abid who never distracted me from my research work rather they helped each other in their school work for the purpose to minimize my work burden. Without their cooperation and support, I could never have spent the years doing the work I did. Their cooperative attitudes are behind every word of this work. iv INTRODUCTION Societies where patriarchal structures are still intact, women are not considered capable to make decisions and to lead. In such societies, they continue to experience significant discrimination related to their participation in public affairs. It is partly because, women are thought of as more attentive to the personal relations of family. Therefore, they are considered to be best suited at homes. In traditional male dominated societies, gender based roles are speficied and men and women are required to obey them otherwise they will face social censure. Mostly, in traditional societies, women are considered unfit to give testimony and are forbidden to take any sort of social and economic responsibility. Likewise, public spheres are considered to be the males‘ domain. Presence of women in the public domain is undesirable. Their participation is considered to be stigma for the honour of family and community. The norms and values of these societies bar women from the matters related to autonomy, public responsibility, judgement and leadership. Thus, women are deprived from various authoritative roles in the society. Though in traditional societies the status of women is alarming, nonetheless, South Asian region saw prominent women political leaders. They opted for leadership positions in crises situations. They faced hurdles in their political struggle but confronted the turbulent situation in a manner which further paved their way to proceed. Likewise, Nasim Wali Khan is one among these notable women political leaders from a traditional society of Pakistan. The political family background is considered to be a facilitating factor for the attaining and retaining of prominent political leadership positions. But, the question is how a woman of the traditional society attained and sustained political leadership position in the presence of such hurdles? How she overcame such hurdles? This research addresses such questions. It argues that the political background of Nasim Wali Khan‘s family is not the exclusive contributing factor for achieving the leadership position. One needs to see wheather other factos i.e political exigency and leadership skills have played any role in rise of Nasim Wali Khan as a political leader. Moreover, the discussion on the world wide trends in gender inequality is crucial for the purpose to understand the impediments, which obstruct their (women) way to proceed in public sphere.