The real niche of women in our politics

It is not for the first time that a female politician parted ways with a political party on charges of patriarchy and misogyny. And it is not for the first time that a political party in Pakistan has been accused of exhibiting male-chauvinist approach. Pakistan’s history is rich in such incidents.

Today, we might be fighting for democracy and celebrating or lamenting the ouster of an elected premier. Yet we have not progressed an inch in the realm of civility. Ayesha Gulalai stepped in the race with virulent allegations against the chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Imran Khan, on August 1^st. On the one hand, she expounded how the given political party does not respect women workers, and on the other, she established how a ‘respectable’ woman worker could never be its member. Tagging her former fellows for being disreputable was, in actuality, as big a deal as Shireen Mazari’s rejoinder by inculpating Gulalai of being greedy for a party ticket. In the midst of blaming and defending a man, the dignity of woman is what got worsted that day.

And so was when Naz Baloch was rebuked for talking about how male chauvinism is dominating and women do not have a significant representation when it comes to making decisions and deciding policy matters. She was bound to comment on the fate of the remaining female party workers on hearing what Khan had to say about her after her departure. “It is good that she left, she was useless,” said Khan. “If this is what they thought about workers like us, who have worked tirelessly for them, if they can use such words for Naz Baloch today, I pity the women who are in PTI,” replied Baloch. Both won in validating their points, but dignity of women is what they lost in the name of politics.

Womanhood was also shamed when PTI’s Firdous Ashiq Awan found it thoughtful to disgrace PML-N’s Khawaja Asif by bringing up Kashmala Tariq’s name. And we saw her being pushed by her male colleague outside the Supreme Court after the Panama case verdict was announced when PTI leaders were fuelling up to face the media. Similar videos circulated on social media a few years ago when a prominent leader of the PPP was seen brushing his fellow woman leader’s breasts during a protest march.

Call it karma but this is exactly what happens when a woman is accustomed to dragging another woman to win a war originally waged against a man. Jumping into a marsh dirties oneself too. The splashes that spatter about include such fallouts as being called a “tractor-trolley” and “dumper”. All of this has happened in Pakistan and been preserved in history forever.

Just as what was done with Benazir Bhutto and Fatima Jinnah. It is sort of a legacy that our politicians and parliamentarians have inherited from the leaders of the past. Have we forgotten the moment when the renowned resident of Lal Haveli, Sheikh Rasheed, who is now a staunch advocate of ‘change’, bantered with Ms Bhutto for wearing a green shirt and white shalwar by remarking, “You look like a veritable parrot”? And yet another one when she was wisecracked by the same parliamentarian on wearing a yellow suit?

“They call her the Mother of the Nation, she should then at least behave like a mother,” are the words of the second president of Pakistan, Ayub Khan, who accused Jinnah of being pro-Indian and pro-American for the sake of winning 1965 elections. Her only crime was to challenge the self-proclaimed presidency of the dictator who was utilising state machinery and facilities even during the elections.

So, the list of the number of times our women get insulted and mocked by men and other women only seems to elongate in the forthcoming future, for the legislators themselves seem very much unwilling to change their ways. The real change would be, perhaps, to evolve our misogynistic mindset and that, too, indelibly. For now, the real niche of women in our politics is the one of which we have seen only a trailer in the past few days — horse-trading in the name of muliebrity.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2017.

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