By: Sher Zada
In today’s fast-paced world, where politics is the pivot of discussion not only in the political spheres, i.e., parliaments, academia, and public spaces but our routine familial environment is also led by such discussion, especially in the current era of social media use. However, historically women in Pakistan have not been given enough freedom to participate in politics not only by actively taking part in contesting in the elections but they are also barred from their right to vote, although the constitution of Pakistan has clearly stated that if any constituency has less than ten percent women vote the election will be considered as null. Nevertheless, the situation of violence in politics against women is the same as in previous times.
Violence against Women is not a new issue in Pakistan, from the very beginning the societal norms in Pakistan always favored the masculine segment and privileged them with extraordinary dominance, which they have been exercising against their female counterparts in every sphere since the incarnation of this country. The country that came into being based on religious ideology or the ideology of two nations theory witnessed uncountable sacrifices of women in every sphere including politics, Fatima Jinnah, Rana Liaquat Ali Khan (spouse of the first premier Liaquat Ali Khan), Begum Abdullah Haroon, Begum Ghulam Hidayatullah, Jehan Ara-Shahnawaz, Wiqar-un -Nisa Noon, Begum Tassaduq Hussain, Begum Shaista Ikram Ullah the first elected member of Pakistan constitutional assembly and many more well-reckoned examples who put their political contributions since the inception of Pakistan in 1947. While in the early eighty and till 2007 we have an example of Benazir Bhutto the first elected woman prime minister in the political history of Pakistan. However, despite making key contributions by women in Pakistani politics, they are passing through challenges, and threats in the historically male-dominated political sphere since Pakistan’s inception.
The dominant cultural and social barriers are the most effective factors that restrict women from taking part in politics. Violence against women during elections is a serious issue with long-term consequences for women’s participation in politics and public life. Many women in Pakistan are unable to vote. These include cultural and societal hurdles, a lack of information and resources, as well as physical threats and violence. Women are underrepresented in leadership positions and have restricted access to power and influence. As a result, violence against women in elections inhibits women’s equal participation in the democratic process, whether as voters, candidates, polling agents, or elected officials. Coercion and harassment are among the most common kinds of electoral violence experienced by women. This can take several forms, including physical threats, verbal abuse, and harassment in cyberspaces. These strategies are regularly used to discourage women from participating in the electoral process and to sway their votes in favor of specific candidates. In addition to intimidation and harassment, Pakistani women experience physical abuse during elections. This may include attacks on polling stations, damage to campaign materials, and physical assaults on politicians and voters. These acts of violence not only disrupt the election process and threaten the integrity of the vote, but they also have long-term consequences for the protection and security of women in our community.
The violence against women in politics has not stopped yet, in 2016 The then defense minister Khawaja Asif affiliated with Pakistan Muslim League (N) used offensive remarks against (PTI) MNA Shireen Mazari during a National Assembly (NA) session on Wednesday, calling her “Someone! make this tractor trolley keep quiet” when she and some other lawmakers protested to his speech on load-shedding during Ramazan. Again Mr. Asif passed another derogatory remark “Make her voice more feminine,” he said, beside him, another member of parliament murmured to government benches to say “Keep quiet, aunty.” However, when Mazari herself and her fellow politicians stood from the opposition benches in protest and argued with the speaker’s decision ask to Mr. Asif to apologize for his negative and derogatory language against the woman parliamentarian, he was reluctant to do this and said: “I am not going to apologize, they can do whatever they want.” The incidents of violence against women in political spheres are a growing phenomenon as other forms of violence against women in Pakistan .
After the recent elections of 2024, on February 28, during the first session of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly, another incident of political violence against women was observed when the PTI supporters not only threw a (lota) water cistern and shoe at Sobia Shahid, a woman member of the KP provincial assembly affiliated with PML-N but also passed vulgar remarks against her characters by chanting “lota hai, lota hai” and used other defaming sentences against her.
There are various cases of hurdles and hardships for women political activists, who suffered violence and are continuously faced in their political journey to raise voices for basic human and democratic rights in Pakistan. Afiya Zia, a researcher, activist, and author of the book “Faith and Feminism in Pakistan”, reveals that while women have been actively engaging in political struggles for years, much of their motivation and energy is directed toward the uncountable cases of violence against them. The same is the story of Gohar, who herself has been actively participating in protests since the beginning of her political career, contends that since military dictator Ziaul Haq, she has been threatened, harassed and her party membership revoked her political positions many times which she had deserved. She remarks about politics in Pakistan as male-dominated and controlled. Where there always is very little space and reception of women in politics. Women have to work twice as hard to be accepted as leaders as compared to their male counterparts. These unpleasant and tragic episodes of violence against women depict that despite the valued enthusiasm and bravery women’s journey into politics again has not been an easy job. At every stop, they face challenges and harassment to merely have their voices heard within or outside political circles in Pakistan. Gohar considers patriarchy, tribalism, conservatism, and the extension of Talibanization as state policy have made the political environment toxic and hazardous for women in politics, which deter women’s participation in politics.
On May 9, 2023, the former prime minister Imran Khan’s arrest on corruption charges erupted violent protests across the whole of Pakistan, where the activists of Pakistan Terhik-e-Insaf (PTI) and mostly the key party members spurred a massive protest and were broadly accused of vandalizing military buildings, including Pakistan’s army headquarters, the military base in the city of Rawalpindi. Since then, authorities have been targeting PTI officials and supporters including men and women, committed to punishing those responsible for the unrest. The PTI female supporters claim that the government used the unrest to create a hostile environment for women in politics, aimed at restricting women who believe that charges against the former prime minister who encourages women’s participation in politics, are baseless.
The killing of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007 demonstrates violence in politics involving a female politician. The first and two times female prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan after a long period of exile to run for the 2008 elections due to a power-sharing agreement with General Pervez Musharraf then-President, she barely survived a murder attempt, when she was returning after a political rally, that unfortunately caused killing more than 130 people. However, after surviving the first attack in Karachi, she was killed during the second attack in the form of a heavy explosion during a political campaign in Rawalpindi. Bhutto herself had accused the government of a plot to assassinate her as early as two months before, however, this is a general overview that her assassination was a plotted strategy to silence the voice in politics.
The violence against women in the arena of politics is embedded as deeply as other forms of violence in Pakistani society, where women are thought to be confined to the traditionally assigned chores, such as rearing children, preparing meals, washing dishes and clothes, etc. Pakistan’s parliament has far 20% of women representation as compared to male members. However, the hurdles and barriers to women’s participation in actual politics are still abundant, women are far behind their size (52%) in the total population (241.49 m) of Pakistan. There is an immense need for the groundwork for political activists especially male who believes in democratic ethics, to mobilize the policies of the state and society both to challenge the traditionally stagnant ethos, that development cannot be achieved while excluding such a large proportion of our population. Likewise, the devised policies to counter the violence against women in politics should be implemented in reality, so that women can freely raise their voices in politics and bring forward the problems they are faced with.
About the writer:
Sher Zada
The writer is a Doctoral Scholar of Political Science at the International Islamic University Indonesia, Depok. Indonesia
can be reached at sher.khanbtimes@gmail.com