[The News, Friday, October 22, 1999]

WHEN WOMEN SPEAK OUT [in Pakistan]
By Omar Asghar Khan

They help us meet our basic needs and have made us aware of our rights.
We condemn the totally unfounded allegations made by certain maulvis and
vested interests against Sungi * accusing it of promoting obscenity and
un-Islamic values. Vested interests are resorting to such tactics as
they are threatened by the platform Sungi provides to unite
disadvantaged groups," reads a resolution of August 5, 1999 signed by
more than 40 rural women in the Kaghan Valley. This resolution responds
to an ongoing malicious campaign against Sungi stirred up by certain
religious leaders and vested interests since June 1999. Similar
resolutions from many rural women and men have been received from
different parts of Hazara.

The bold positions taken by women and male activists against powerful
vested interests in the face of retaliation and the unequivocal support
expressed for progressive public interest organisations are significant
and encouraging. Powerful retrogressive forces have consistently
resisted attempts made by activists to raise issues of equity, fair
distribution of resources and equal opportunities for women and men. In
recurring campaigns to discredit such efforts, orthodox elements allege
promotion of un-Islamic values and vulgarity. They are projected as
violating cultural norms and promoting western values.

Often such maligning campaigns against public interest organisations are
a front for grievances that have little to do with women or their
status. Fearful that rights-based advocacy will lead to a loss of their
control over resources and services, vested interests attempt to stir up
popular resentment against these organisations by concocting tales of
vulgarity and perceived violation of cultural and religious values. They
propagate the popular perception of women as symbols of honour and
strongly resist any attempt to change women's traditional role.

In the struggle to maintain the status quo the nexus between various
power holders becomes apparent. In the recent campaign against Sungi in
the Kaghan Valley the key actors are a couple of religious leaders, the
timber mafia, certain political elements and a section of the local
media. They represent the traditional power bloc, protecting and serving
each other's interests. The government's inability to take effective
measures to stop the hate mongering of this bloc only emboldens these
elements.

In the power games played by the elite, women are usually passive
spectators. They have little say in campaigns that claim to protect
their honour. But many rural women in NWFP have chosen to break this
silence. "Sungi has shown us how to be self-reliant. Working
collectively in collaboration with Sungi we have solved many local
problemsÖit has also given us economic options to improve our income.
But most importantly Sungi has united us so that we think and act
collectively," said the confident and articulate general secretary of
the Anjuman-e-Khawateen in rural Kaghan.

The Anjuman-e-Khawateen was established in late 1997 making it a
relatively recent collective. "Initially only a few women were
interested in joining our organisation But gradually as women saw its
usefulness many others joined. We now have over 40 members," recounted
the general secretary of the organisation. In this village women took
the initiative to contact Sungi seeking their assistance to form an
organisation and begin development work. Their success inspired local
men to form their own organisation following the lead of women from the
same village.

But such organisations in rural Pakistan rarely take totally independent
initiatives. Drawing on the strong information network that is a
distinctive feature of rural areas, these organisations are influenced
by adjacent villages. Sungi's gradually deepening partnerships with
around 130 villages in NWFP is an effective trust building measure. But
scale alone is insufficient to inspire confidence. The quality of the
partnership between local communities and an outside organisation like
Sungi is what really counts.

These village organisations are gradually coming together in the form of
area coordinating councils and coalitions. They are connected with
regional and national NGOs, the press and other progressive elements in
civil society. Collectively these emerging alliances present a viable
antidote to the manipulation of religion by the traditional power bloc.
Their numbers are still small and their initiatives are few. But the
potential of these rapidly growing village organisations is immense.

The need to support these emerging alliances of deprived and
marginalised groups becomes more acute in the face of religious
extremism, intolerance and militancy. Interestingly in the NWFP the
progressive and retrogressive forces appear to be working at the same
time. While the so-called Pakistani Taliban forcibly impose their own
perceptions of morality, women in the province are taking stands against
entrenched power holders.

"We are not afraid of the maulvis. We know the corrupt practices of
these self-proclaimed custodians of Islam. They are the ones that are
un-Islamic not Sungi," said a member of the women's village committee in
Paras, a village in the Kaghan Valley. "We know our religion better than
these self-styled religious leaders. Islam has given us rights which no
one can take away from us--the right to be treated fairly, equitably and
with respect is what Islam preaches. We will not allow them to
misinterpret Islam and bring Sungi into disrepute," stated an activist
of a women's organisation in Sari Bandi, a remote village in the valley.

Such statements by women who have had to experience the vilification
campaign of vested interests, were unheard of until they started getting
organised in small village committees a few years ago. To a large extent
the women have been supported in their efforts to organise by the men in
the Kaghan Valley.

This process of resistance to vested interests has been accompanied by a
dialogue with the religious leaders, which has created spaces for the
marginalised and dispossessed to articulate an agenda for social,
economic and political change. At another level the marginalised and
dispossessed have also engaged the local elites, be it within civil
society or the government, so as to sensitise them to the concerns and
needs of disadvantaged groups especially women. These engagements have
not only created critical linkages but has led to greater confidence
amongst both women and men who hitherto have not been able to stand up
for their rights and entitlements.

Even at the risk of being harmed by vested interests these men and women
have acquired new skills to negotiate with the power elite on the one
hand and mobilise other members of the community on the other hand. This
process has created a momentum that is resisting the onslaught of
bigotry, militancy and intolerance that is fast taking roots
in a society and a region that is inflicted by deprivation, injustice
and violence.

[ * Sungi is one of Pakistan's best known NGO's]