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 interpre- tation 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 empower- ment. 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 wom- en’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 activi- ties, 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 pro- gressive, highly educated, generally urban-based women’s rights advo- cates. 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 inter- pretations of women’s rights held by groups in this category. Both have also played important roles in establishing, running, and later elevat- ing the National Commission on the Status of Women. While each of the two NGOs has distinct priorities and activities, these two orga- nizations 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 interpreta- tion 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 frame- work. 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 dis- crimination 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, feu- dalism, 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 vio- lence, 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 dis- criminatory 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, opportuni- ties, and safeguards that have not made it onto any official agenda. We now turn to the key issues with which these NGOs are focus- ing 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, espe- cially 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 pol- icy, 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 activi- ties, 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 sustain- able development.