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#Pakistan - Women during the pandemic

Rafia Zakaria

ONE year ago, the world ran on different rules. The rhythm of day was different, the management of time was different, people behaved differently and were scared of different things. One custom of that bygone pre-pandemic world was the division of male and female work and space.

In Pakistan, where the number of females in the workforce is below 30 per cent, women mostly stayed at home and men went to work. When the men left in the morning, the women turned to the repetitive tasks of washing and cooking that make a household run efficiently.

All of this changed when the pandemic hit. Men began to stay at home either because they lost their job or because their employer wanted them to work from home. The small respite that their wives and mothers and sisters had during the day when men did not dominate and demand this or that was taken away from the women. As men stayed home day after day, they required waiting on, a cup of tea now, a meal prepared fresh not just for dinner but also for lunch. They dirtied dishes and created a mess.

Schools also closed and the children too made their own demands, their own messes, trapped as they were in the home. Pakistani women thus were caught in a 24/7 cycle of work, trying to sate appetites, calm tempers and maintain harmony in an uncertain and constrained world.

The constant presence of men and the absence of any external outlet for women have created a pressure-cooker situation.

Women everywhere are the primary casualties of the coronavirus pandemic, having had to pay the price whether or not they were infected with the virus. Data from around the world substantiates this truth. In China, peer-reviewed studies reveal a 300pc increase in violence against women. In Lebanon, there has been a 45pc increase in violence against women. In the United Kingdom, violence against women has doubled from the 10-year average. Similar increases in violence have also been reported in Germany and Tunisia. Next door in India, the onset of the pandemic has led to at least a 21pc increase in violence against women.

The statistics quoted here are all from peer-reviewed studies in journals. It is very likely that the situation is far worse than what is being reported. In Pakistan, social workers and those who work in shelters and in other facilities that attend to abused women, report an exponential increase. The constant presence of men and the absence of any external outlet for women have created a pressure-cooker situation.

In much of the country, women have to ask male permission to leave the home even for essential tasks; now going out and getting any kind of respite from violence has become completely impossible. Visits from family members and meeting others at family occasions (which used to function as a means to ensure that women were not being maltreated) have ceased, giving abusive men carte blanche to do whatever they want to the women at home.

The situation of working women is just as bad. Those who have been told to work from home find that no one in the household seems to understand that they have to attend to work duties during work hours. These women find themselves forced to watch children and also be available for Zoom calls or other work interactions. Many others, like the 250,000 American women who were let go of by their employers in January 2021, have just lost their jobs and their income. The pandemic has set them years behind their male counterparts in career advancement.

The meaning of all these statistics is that in the post-pandemic world women will be at an even greater disadvantage than they were before it started. Those Pakistani working women who have either been fired or have had to quit their jobs because of the pandemic may not be able to return to work after it is over. The ability to bring in an income plays a huge role in the power women wield in their households; the lost earning potential, therefore will reduce their ability to make decisions in the household and to protect their own rights. This resection of women from the workforce is likely to have society-wide effects where cultural mores that keep women out of the workplace will be strengthened.

None of these realities are being talked about in Pakistan. This past International Women’s Day, a television channel hosted a conservative female social worker who could not stop talking about how the pandemic was a blessing in disguise because it permitted families to spend quality time with each other. Some in government have also propagated this kind of fantasy because very few, if any, efforts have been made to collect statistics about exactly how many women are being abused. Nor has there been any work done to provide additional resources to shelters and legal aid cells who are trying to help these women. Instead, the ludicrous fantasy that imagines families living together without any conflict and without women waiting on everyone else all the time, has been nursed and propagated.

Pakistan needs to wake up. The women of the country cannot be expected to shoulder all the burden of housekeeping, childcare, studies and work from home. Vaccinations are now available for the Covid-19 virus but no pre-emptive solution is present for a society and a world that has just been heaping the entire burden of a terrible and catastrophic event on its women. Men must be held answerable for the cruelty and selfishness they have exhibited this past year, attitudes that they have never questioned or considered. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and indeed that is what has happened to many Pakistani males who stand and watch and live their lives, oblivious to the burdens and abuse they heap on Pakistani women.

#Pakistan - The Punjab debacle

Another day and another conundrum for Usman Buzdar, Punjab’s Chief Minister. If not for speculations erupting within his party ranks about his status, he is under fire as a part of the so-called establishment’s mega plan to bring change in Punjab. As PM Imran Khan continues to find grounds to maintain the Rajanpur Sardar, the poor man spends most days fighting the target on his back.

On Saturday, PML-N had blasted away at Zardari’s under-the-table manipulation. Had there remained any hope for even a faint vestige of the grand alliance, the PPP could have rebuffed extending any such offer in the clearest of words. But notorious for his political stunts, Mr Zardari is taking the current events as an excellent opportunity to unravel his Machiavellian talent. Spilling out to his homeboys that he had finally secured an in with the establishment has been the unkindest cut of all. Now, his top brass is busy defending their plans for going forward with a no-confidence motion. From PPP’s Punjab General Secretary to prominent senator, Sherry Rehman, everyone is now pointing guns at PML-N for preferring to retain the Buzdar government. Though a minor player in Punjab, the PPP is counting on support from parties like the PML-N and PML-Q. While it only has seven members in the house, a joint resolution (by denting the treasury coalition) would have the required teeth to show Buzdar the door. However, the much-touted plan to install the Chaudhrys of Gujrat on the Lahore throne is not likely to sit well with the PML-N. Only time will tell whether Noonians would muster enough might to impress the behind-the-scenes custodians. Yet, the ongoing war of words would only get uglier in the coming days. No qualms about that!

Already, Jiyalas are castigating Maryam for “washing PDM’s dirty line in public.” There has been a great tumult over the “regrettable” use of the word “selected” to describe PPP’s rise to power. Mariyam, in turn, should have been more mindful of her tone in her press conference. Surely, she cannot be naive enough to forget what had gone down in Punjab in the 80s. The outright manner in which PML-N was used to usurp the Bhutto legacy in Punjab during the dictatorship of General Zia is deeply-embedded in the annals of history. No matter how sweet the bonhomie may have seemed between arch-rivals, the brief stint has, surely, run its miserable course. Sindhi nationalism now appears determined to lead the Punjabi lions out of politics altogether. The ball is in Sharifs’ court. Whether they are ready to burn all boats for survival or will continue sitting like lame ducks would spell the new chapter in Pakistani politics!

It is quite unfortunate that all quarters have decided to spring to action at a time when the entire world is buckling under the merciless third wave of coronavirus. When Pakistan needed a coherent fighting strategy for some miraculous way out of the pandemic, our single-point agenda seems to be pulling the chair back for our own gains. Quite sad, but nothing out-of-the-ordinary for a class of politicians obsessed with power games!

https://dailytimes.com.pk/739921/the-punjab-debacle/

Pakistan’s National Education Policy Discriminates Against Religious Minorities

 According to Asia News, The Working Group for Inclusive Education (WGIE) and the Center for Social Justice (CSJ) held a meeting on March 20 to discuss solutions for Pakistan’s low education standards and religious discrimination before the launch of the new National Education Policy (NEP).

Pakistan will implement the NEP in the near future. It is a new policy that “provides for compulsory Islamiat (Islamic studies) for all students of all faiths. This will drive many non-Muslim primary school pupils to drop out,” says Abdul Hameed Nayyar, an experienced educator in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s NEP pushes for a religious-based society, where Muslim-focused materials are mandatory starting in first grade. Non-Muslim students will not be allowed to study from the Quaran, and teachers will separate them from Muslim students. Religious discrimination will further set back non-Muslim students from an already low national literacy standard. 

https://www.persecution.org/2021/03/23/pakistans-national-education-policy-discriminates-religious-minorities/

Should Pakistan apologize to Bangladesh for the 1971 war?

Islamabad and Dhaka have signaled hopes to improve bilateral relations. But experts warn Pakistan must issue an apology for atrocities committed during Bangladesh's war of independence for there to be any real progress.

Relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh have been strained since the 1971 independence war in which Bangladeshi nationalists broke away from what was then West Pakistan. Around 3 million people lost their lives during Bangladesh's fight for independence.

But this month, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis witnessed an unprecedented move between the leaders of the two countries.

Last Friday, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on her country's 50th anniversary of independence, inviting her to Pakistan for a visit.

"On my own behalf, and on behalf of the government and people of Pakistan, I have the great pleasure in extending our felicitations on the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of Bangladesh," Khan wrote in a letter, which has been hailed as an attempt to bring Islamabad and Dhaka closer together.

Also last week, Sheikh Hasina sent a letter of congratulations to Khan on Pakistan Republic Day, which marks the Lahore Resolution. The resolution, also known as the Pakistan Resolution, was passed on March 23, 1940 and celebrates a major milestone in Pakistan's struggle to become an independent state.

Calls to Pakistan to issue apology

The legacy of Bangladesh's independence war has tainted relations between the two Muslim-majority South Asian countries for years.

Author Anam Zakaria commended the recent reconciliation efforts by both the Pakistani and Bangladeshi governments, but stressed that if either country wants to make any "meaningful strides," Pakistan must "acknowledge the violence of 1971 as well as the political, economic and cultural discrimination prior to Bangladesh's birth."

According to Zakaria, "owning up to the past" and issuing a formal apology for war crimes committed in 1971 will allow the two countries to "deepen" diplomatic and economic relations.

"Half a century later, Pakistan has not owned its past. Textbooks, museum exhibits and mainstream narratives continue to distort and erase history and a selective remembering and forgetting of the past has been institutionalized by the state," she told DW.

"The denial and minimizing of violence 50 years on is deeply painful for Bangladeshi survivors and their families. Pakistan's acknowledgement is critical…Nations cannot simply erase their history and move on. Our past will continue to haunt our present unless we engage deeply and learn from it," she added.

For Ali Riaz, a political science professor at Illinois State University, recent engagements between Dhaka and Islamabad may be described as "ice-breaking" but that real progress also "hinges on Pakistan's unconditional apology for the 1971 war."

"A better relationship requires Pakistan's initiative to address the 1971 war, especially the genocide perpetrated by the army," he said. "Unconditional public apology from Pakistan is long overdue … No nation can move forward without confronting its dark past." However, Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, doesn't feels optimistic about the current state of political affairs between the two countries. "This is a very complex and sensitive issue …I suspect that bilateral relations would have to be in a far better place than they are now in order for Islamabad to believe it has the political space to take such a major step," he said.

The relationship between Dhaka and Islamabad seemed bleak in recent years. In 2016, a row over the execution of an Islamist leader in Bangladesh led to an all-out diplomatic spat between the two countries, with both sides summoning each other's ambassadors.

Pakistan said the country was "deeply saddened" by the execution of top Islamist party leader Mir Quasem Ali for suspected war crimes, prompting Dhaka to accuse Islamabad of interfering in its internal affairs. Small steps toward strengthening ties, economic cooperation But Riaz thinks Khan's decision to congratulate Bangladesh on its golden jubilee of independence last week indicates a willingness to restrengthen ties.

"In recent months, overtures from both countries indicate that they are trying to set aside their differences of the past decade. A telephone call from the Pakistani prime minister to his Bangladeshi counterpart last summer, for example, indicated that Pakistan is interested in turning the page," Riaz told DW.

"The Bangladesh government has appropriately reciprocated in recent months … these are positive signs," Riaz said.

Bangladesh and Pakistan both indicate "a willingness to strengthen relations," Kugelman told DW, adding that Pakistan has been turning to its neighbors in the hopes of increased regional interconnectivity and economic activity.

"For Islamabad, there is a motivation to increase ties with more of its neighbors to promote greater commercial cooperation — part of an intended broader Pakistani foreign policy reset meant to focus more on economic relations," he said.

Looking to the future, Kugelman said there is scope to increase trade.

"Economic cooperation is a logical space for stepped-up collaboration. It's a relatively safe space that can help build trust and goodwill for deeper cooperation in other areas," he said.

Kugelman said that although Bangladesh-India relations having grown considerably under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there have been some setbacks over New Delhi's policies that some in Bangladesh consider to be discriminatory against Muslims. "This gives Pakistan another opening, to try to capitalize on these tensions and strengthen its relations with Bangladesh," he added.

https://www.dw.com/en/should-pakistan-apologize-to-bangladesh-for-the-1971-war/a-57051549