Pakistanis are programmed to be sexist

The parliamentarians did not respond sensibly to sexist comments made by Khwaja Asif on the floor of the assembly

Last week, parliamentarians in general and women parliamentarians in particular failed to rise to the occasion by not responding sensibly to sexist comments made by the Federal Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Asif on the floor of the assembly.

The minister, amidst a debate on load shedding during Ramazan, pointed at the protesting Chief Whip of Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf Shireen Mazari and said, “someone make this tractor trolley keep quiet.” He did not stop there and made another derogatory remark on her voice. “It will be better if you first transform your masculine voice into a more feminine one.”

The minister’s recently uncalled remarks for Mazari are a manifestation of the harsh treatment often meted out to her by the ruling party for her vocal and articulate criticism on matters of public concern. It is only pertinent to think that Asif and likes, when run out of arguments, resort to hurling insults and personal attacks to either men or women.



However, the kind of backlash one would expect from a gathering of this stature, generally believed to stand for and uphold the standards of equality anywhere, was nowhere to be found.

What irks one is the kind of mum attitude of female law makers of the ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League. Despite existence of a body named the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) for discussing such matters, most of them refrained from coming together and demanding an appropriate apology.

In this regard, the first Secretary General of the caucus Dr Nafisa Shah reminded the parliamentarians of the very purpose and essence of institutionalisation of this committee in the last PPP government. Dr Shah also pointed out the recent lack of interest shown by women parliamentarians, particularly from PML-N, in addressing downright sexist behaviour in the house is compelling others to withdraw from the caucus.

Shockingly, the PML-N fire brand, self-proclaimed women rights activist Marvi Memon reportedly commented she would take it as a compliment if her voice was compared to a man’s. A few other female lawmakers also opined women should ‘behave befittingly’. And this right here is internalised sexism: women condemning other women for not behaving in a ‘womanly manner’.



There are per se different mannerisms for both the sexes, men politicians and women politicians. Hence, to accept and highlight these differences is not just acceptable but commendable as those who think along these lines has been programmed to be sexist throughout their processes of socialisation. Boys and girls grow up listening to a bombardment of sexist messages. They hear women are stupid, emotional, careless, intellectually challenged and incapable of delivering.

What transpires from these lifelong trailing assortment of messages are two sexist programs. One for the boys who grow up to believe many of the messages are true and therefore, treat women accordingly. They think their divine duty is to protect and perpetuate these beliefs, upholding the honour of masculinity.

Consequently, the second programming is done automatically where the same messages get glued to girls’ minds resulting in internalised sexism. They are programmed and coached into believing many of these lies and then, behave accordingly. In fact, they also demonstrate visible traits of horizontal hostility – the term used by feminists since the 1970s to describe infighting or factionalism, within the women's movement – when they condemn other women on the same pretexts of not behaving ‘womanly’. They constantly question themselves and look for an approving nod from the society.

The internalisation of such messages results in development of sexist vocabularies and scripts that later mature to become that little voice in people’s heads. Women, who listen to it, not only question themselves but also keep comparing themselves to the other and the better masculine version of the human being.



The most dangerous thing about an internalised set of sexist beliefs is one is not even aware and takes part, only later to be excused for just a slip of tongue. It is so covert that the perpetuator hardly realises it. Thus, a sexist system is maintained through generations by firmly believing in lies and stereotypes followed by prescribed roles and reactions.

It would be better if next time we watch our sexist programming before we even think of telling someone we know ‘drives like a man’. As for the National Assembly, being the representative of the people of Pakistan, only showed the world as a nation we are not bothered about the dignity of our colleagues, we are sexist and discriminate on such basis.

Samina Qureshi is an assistant professor at the department of Mass Communication in the University of Karachi and a freelance development practitioner. She tweets @saminaqureshi_