‘Women’s struggle has not been in vain’

Book documenting lives of feminists launched.

LAHORE:

Farida Shaheed’s book Great Ancestors - Women Claiming Rights in Muslim Context was launched by the Oxford University Press in collaboration with Shirkat Gah on Friday.

Speaking at the launch, Shaheed said, “The idea of gender roles evolved through clans and tribes to unify communities under the Muslim Ummah.”

Shaheed said she had studied the lives of women from the past. She said she hoped the book would encourage more women to pursue their dreams.

She said Great Ancestors provides biographical accounts of the lives of 55 women.

“A few non-Muslim women from Muslim empires have also been included,” she said.”I want to stress how women react differently to societies around them, whether they are Muslim, Christian, Hindu, agnostic or atheist.”

She said collective identities were increasingly used to fragment women’s movements.

She said the works of feminists should be acknowledged and celebrated.

She said men in Muslim societies had increasingly become misogynistic. She said women were their silent victims.

Shaheed said she had tried to highlight how strong women engaged in struggle for their rights in the past.

She said from the early stages of Islam to mid-20th century, women’s struggle for rights had emerged as a consistent movement in history.

She said there was a perception that women were weak and could be easily oppressed.

Shaheed said she had tried to provide a different perspective, and show how, women’s struggles had not been in vain.

The event was attended by people from various walks of life.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2013.