Reclaiming the public sphere

Women on Wheels campaign amounts to women challenging en masse the public-private divide

I often recall, with nostalgia, the freedom, excitement and the rush I used to get when racing on my bicycle in my teens through the streets near our home, always trailing behind my brother and the German shepherd who ran in competition with us. To think that cycling in Lahore a decade later (and a decade older) would be as pleasurable may have been naive. But I did not expect it to be so different. Dressed appropriately in ‘sufficiently covering’ garb, I decided to join a group of cycling enthusiasts (men and women) on one of their weekly excursions through town. We rode those few kilometres to the tune of catcalls and jibes. I felt self-conscious, inhibited and shamed, and did not return to the street with my bicycle.

Yet, a particularly powerful image that went viral on social media and the internet recently painted a different and more encouraging picture of the women travelling on the streets of this metropolis. A group of 150 women dressed in orange rallied triumphantly through Lahore, in visible jubilance, as part of the provincial government’s Women on Wheels campaign. Much has been made of the government’s initiative, and rightfully so. Commentators have hailed the rally as a crucial step towards women’s mobility, independence and access to the labour market, and thereby their empowerment. I have commented on the importance of women’s mobility, both from a socioeconomic and human rights perspective, in an earlier column written for this paper. What is particularly significant about the Women on Wheels campaign is that it amounts to women challenging en masse the public-private divide, and their exclusion from the former. Those 150 women rallied for a simple purpose and a critical message: women occupy and must claim their rightful place on the street and in the public sphere.

Amartya Sen coined the term “missing women” to explain the imbalance in the ratio of male to female populations in Asian countries. The typical Pakistani thoroughfare also reflects such an imbalance. Women are missing from the streets of Lahore, and it is only with a sense of apprehension and timidity that many venture out. A majority of them have, at some point, been victims of harassment. The street dynamic in other countries of our region is, however, different. Women are visible and integral participants of the street scene in Delhi, Kathmandu and Thimpu. I have seen women there driving rickshaws or riding bicycles, scooters and motorcycles with manifest self-assurance, generally without bother from leering eyes, sexual jibes or stalking.

Why is the scenario on the streets of Lahore or other major cities of Pakistan so different? Does the particular play of religious conservatism and patriarchy in our society provide an explanation? Probably, yes. But it is also important to note that neither of these factors is unknown to the societies I have referred to above, and in fact, continue to play an important role in social relationships. Even otherwise, a change in these determinant factors is likely to be a long drawn-out process. As a member of the chief minister’s team has rightly put, women themselves will have to command an attitudinal shift towards acceptance of the female participant on the street by venturing onto it in such large numbers that their presence is no longer seen by men or society generally, as an anomaly.

The onus then lies on the shoulders of Pakistani women, who must brave into the public realm, refusing to let social hostilities unnerve their resolve. This is a heavy burden. Women will require familial approval, which may not be forthcoming in all cases. Government support will be an obvious help. But the government must do much more than organise campaigns of the nature it did recently or provide scooters at subsidised rates. The government must ensure the safety and security of the female participants on the street through effective policing and enforcement, apprehending those guilty of harassment under relevant laws. The success of the Women on Wheels campaign depends both on the government and on women’s conviction to join the rush on the street — out of need or pleasure — on their bicycles, cars, rickshaws or scooters.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2016.

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