Step
towards unhealthy society
Zeba Zubairs article “Are
Separate, Varsities for Women Necessary”? was an eye opener. She and the “Muslim”
deserve to be commended for it.
It is indeed
unintelliglable to us, that just when men and women were beginning to shed off their
age-old inhibitions and getting used to each others presence outside domestic domains, the
clock is being put back to obliterate their achievement. In our social set-up the
universities were the best ground for the mutual emotional and intellectual growth of men
and women which our over-ripe dogmatic policy decision makers are proudly doing away with,
not releasing the end effect of it.
Separate
universities for women will have are again implications on the economic and professional
life of women by drastic cut on the choice of subjects and hence curtailment on their
freedom of participation in nation building activities.
Along with separate universities, there comes an
order to shroud female students in chadars. How is that going to help the males? All the I
can see is that both men and women will be made even more conscious and hence more
inhibited. They will develop more unhealthy curiosity. Instead of facing each other
confidently, the chadar will create a breed of stupid giggly females with uncalled for
precocity, swooning at the sight of a “donkey in pants”, and a breed of bulking
starved males staring mad at any “donkey in skirts”. To say that chadar on a
female will help the poor, weak male is sadly mistaken notion.
Whom are we
trying to save from whom? When are we going to grow up so that issues other than these
preoccupy our creativity energies and potential? With chadar as a symbol of segregation,
the only woman that a man will turn towards I s a prostitute. That will be his first and
last impression of a woman.
The trouble with us is that we are beginning from
the wrong end. We continue to harp on the Biblical theory that woman is created from man—a
play-thing and a toy for his loneliness. Unless we do away with such dehumanized stuff and
educate women on their human status, as matter of right , only then can we witness the
evolution of both men and women to greater dignified heights. But we are doing the
contrary.
Miss Shamsa
Sani, Lahore.
* *
* * *
[Towards
unhealthy society, “the Muslim”, Islamabad, July 28]
Miss Shamsa Sani’s
comments on unhealthy trends in society reminds me of my own childhood 40 years ago, which
is quite telling in this context. I was brought up in a big cosmopolitan town on the
sea-coast, where I went to school in a western dress, had bobbed up hair, played net-ball,
was the fastest sprinter in the school, climbed tress with easy dexterity and walked two
miles, along with y sister, to school.
When we visited
our ancestral home, we were looked upon as modern, free, westernized, call what you may.
But even as a child then I seem to sense that my contemporaries, cousins and neighbors
daughters who were segregated, help behind “purdah” in the zanana, wore chadar,
were terribly precautions and now that I recall they had a habit of peeping through the
windows and chicks giggling and ogling. Now I realize how innocent and simple I was
compared to their inhibited life and their consequent precocity.
I remember
reading a very similar account by Ismat Chughtai in one of her autobiographical sketches.
No wonder her life-long campaign ha been against inhibition. With this background it would
be quite an education to read Josh MaliHabadi’s autobiography where depicts through
his own personal experienced and escapades the life and behavior of the demure and coy
damsels living in the zanana where we were being pushed back. Or everything permissible as
long assist is behind the ‘purdah’?
Mrs.
Rahmutallah, Lahore.
* * *
* *
Today’s
Vital Issue,
“The
Muslim” Islamabad August 9
It is a greet pity that issues that
were decided and accepted, on principle at least, are being raked up all over again, namely, democracy and
purdah. I am concerned here more with the latter. What a waste of time debating this now, for I recall a violent debate that raged
during the post-independence days. Mainly what made it so poignant was that in its
background was the mass abduction and rape of Muslim women in East Punjab in particular
and the rest of India in general.
Were the
purdah-nasheen and helpless women prepared or even made aware of such diabolical forces
that make history? Why did the men even dare to enter Pakistan leaving their wives,
sisters and daughters behind? They should have stayed being and died fighting if they
really believed in chastity and purity. Such were the questions that assailed the women of
this new-born state of Pakistan, and they inevitably came to a certain conclusion.
They unhappily
concluded that it was not chastity and purity that mattered; what mattered was that they
were the “possession”. So what if the men had lost their property, they could
always acquire more through marriage.
This is not at
all. In relation the Muslim men started abducting and raping the non-Muslim women this
side of the border. Such is the hopeless fate of women on this earth. Even this does not
complete this ugly scenario of a male-dominated world.
This pious
society refused to claim the much suffering and forlorn women who were recovered from East
Punjab, so much so that they preferred to stay back with their Sikh and Hindu abductors.
After all this, we women do not want to me “talked at” about morality and
chastity. And by the way, how much security are we offered inside Pakistan by the
followers of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), who had laid down the following
touchstone of an ideal Islamic Society: “A woman traveling alone at night from Yemen
to Damascus should feel a complete sense of security.”
I agree with
Miss Shamsa Sani that ‘chadar’ inhibits the growth of women. I say this from
personal experience. When I was made to wear ‘burqa’ at 16, my personality
changed. I became nervous, frightened and jittery and obsessed with a sense of fear and
insecurity, while formerly I was just the reverse. I
am glad I had this experience, because I cant talk against it with conviction and passion.
Mr. Masood must first go through a similar experience to understand what I am talking
about. But he can never have this experience, because he is not a woman, and three in lies
the crux of the problem.
Mrs. Ayesha
Anwar, Lahore
* *
* * *
I do not know
why there is so much ballyhoo over the chadar issue. It is but obvious that women being
the only custodians of Islam, must not only wear the chadar but should also do away with
that dreadful custom of wearing high heals, lawns and viols. The lung is of peasant women
– a desperate attempt at imitating that western maxi by our rural class ifs
objectionable and must be banned. Women must wear additional coats for Haj and men must
not be given Haj-visas unless they grow a beard.
Mush that I feel
shy to mention, I have to point out the pants and jeans that our men wear must also be
banned; what to speak of the shots they wear for sports which must vanish at once from the
soil of this country, because they are highly provocative to females. Another thing: our
Army must get into shalwar-kameez. Imagine trousers! How dreadfully western. What about
the camel replacing the jeep with petrol so expensive.
I am convinced
that the most vital issue of the nation today is changing the dress of Pakistani women.
Eradication of poverty, corruption, sanity, floods, name what you may, are slogans and
must remain so, for it is the female dress only that lends identity and color to the
nation and not morals or discipline. –Shano, Kakul.
Segregation
of Sexes,
“The
Muslim” Islamabad, September 10
Mr. Fazal Abbas Mekan has been
terribly piques by mine and Mrs. Rehmatullah’s letters on separate universities for
women and the consequences of segregation of the sexes. It was not surprising that he has
warned us about the vices prevalent in the West due to free intermingling of the sexes and
co-education – last refuge of people like him when all other arguments fail. There
are certain queries here that arise which I hope Mr. Mekan and others will answer to put
the record straight.
First, talking
of vies, whether it is east or west, was there no vice at all before the intermingling of
the sexes? Today without blinking and eye, we talk about the universal and the oldest
profession in the world – prostitution. Who forced prostitution on women, and helped
it to survive through the centuries? Let me say that the existence of even one prostitute
is the degradation of the whole of womankind. So evil has always been there, or does evil
become known to men only when mothers, sisters and daughters throw it back on their faces
as the West is doing it? it is interesting to note that when Mr. Mekan talks about bounds
prescribed by Islam her refers to women’s behavior, not that of men.
Secondly, as
Mrs. Ayesha Anwar pointed out are men really concerned about their women as “possessions”
only?
Thirdly, in the
absence of any universally recognized objective point of reference, the pendulum of human
behavior is bound to swing from one extreme to the other. The inhibitions, the
monasticism, the ugliness of sex in Christianity has today resulted in the overthrow of
the church substituted by the method of trial and error. At this moment in history the
West foes not consider it wrong to have extra-marital relationship, or for that matter,
the validity of the institution of marriage itself is being questioned.
It is through
experience and intellectual conviction alone that some sort of balance will be achieved.
The intermixing of the sexes need not result in vice if there are strong, rational,
scientific convictions regarding sexual values. It seems I rate human beings higher than
perhaps Mr. Mekan does.
In the end I
would like to express my satisfaction that Mr. Mekan has at least advocated the fact that
females are not inferior to males and should not be looked down upon. To extract such a
statement from a man is quite an achievement for any society.
We are starting
from the wrong end—the “chador”. As long as the Biblical theory of Adam and
Eve remains an integral part of our literature and through, emphasizing the tale of a
woman as a plaything and toy for man, a woman will remain as such _ ‘chadar’ or
no ‘chadar”. Also, it should be noted that segregation inhibits not only the
women; it inhibits men as well.
Shamsa Sani,
Gulberg, Lahore.
Use of
Chadar,
“The
Pakistan Times” Lahore, Aug. 5
I vehemently disagree with Mr. Tahir
Majeed concerning the use of chadar, in the first place, the imposition of chador was not
welcomed by all the people of Iran; there was widespread discontent when it was first made
compulsory and, more recently, there has been a strong reaction against the use of veil.
Modesty is
certainly a desirable trait and dupatta should be worn with shalwar kameez. This does not
mean, however, that we should put ‘our women’ back into purdah. To do this would
be to deprive Pakistan of its greatest untapped resource: the intellect and talent of its
female citizens.
Views of this
sort reflect the insecuruities of the male
ego. One dear is that men will lose the dominant position they have held for so long. This
should not be feared, it should be welcomed. Another is that the liberation of women will
lead to the types of excesses we see in Western nations. Indeed, this need to be watched
carefully but again not with fear. We should have enough faith in Pakistani woman hood to
realize that dreading of burqa does not mean discarding of morality.
All fields of endeavor should be open to qualified
women. If some men lose positions to better trained or
more intelligent women, those individual men will be the losers. Pakistan, however, will
be the gainer.
Khudhal Ali
Khan, 56/T . Gulberg-III, Lahore.
in a
cosmopolitan community dress will vary necessarily. It is the height of folly to say that
all women should wear on particular type of dress. A bulky dress is neither a criterion of
modesty nor simplicity. Mental alertness, inner growth and intellectual discipline cannot
be measured from the dress a person wears.
Should men tell
women what to wear and how to wear? Let men keep their hands off and allow women to dress
as they think best. In a male-dominated society it is easy to be pre-occupied
unnecessarily about women’s dress and ignore conveniently the major requirements of
society such as intellectual, emotional and psychological growth. If women were to give
orders to men regarding the length, breadth and shape of their dress, would not they be
offered? Men have better and more important matters to worry about, matters that pertain
to their own growth.
B. Osmund,
Khushpur, Dist. Faisalabad.
* * * * *
Use of
Chadar,
“The
Pakistan Times” Lahore, Aug. 13
Letters have appeared in these
columns calling upon women to drape chadars and dupattas over their
shoulders. A number of reasons have been given for that. One worthy gentleman wrote that
the wearing of the chadar would add dignity to women and men would look at them
with more respect.
Let me point out
that women would much rather not have men’s respect based on such trivial
considerations. Dignity and respect are not to be determined by the wearing of any
particular dress; these are related to a person’s behavior, actions and characters
– at least a women’s! Society would set for itself a very superficial and low
standard if it saw dignity only in a man wearing an awami suit.
Emphasis should
be laid on hard work, the dignity of labor, helping one’s fellow men -- qualities which are essential for personal
satisfaction and on which a country’s progress, spirit and national character depend.
Nikhat Khan,
Shadman Colony, Lahore.
* * * ******************
Use of
Chadar,
“The
Pakistan Times” Lahore, Aug. 14
Men’s advice to women that they
use chadar is an unnecessary interference on the part of the male sex in a purely
personal affair of women. I agree with Mr. B. Osmund (Aug. 5), that men should “keep
their hands off and allow women to dress as they think best”. Mr. Tahir Majeed (July
28), who started this discussion, does not seem to be a regular reader of newspaper, as he
is unaware that chadar has already been made compulsory for college going girls in
Pakistan. Women who wish to wear burqas are not prevented from doing so; but it would be
too much to expect that all women would
follow that practice.
We are at a
stage where the country needs progress in every field; and progress comes through hard and
constant work. It is a pity that we are discussing what a women should or should not wear.
Moreover, it is
the height of close-mindedness to consider the wearing of chadar a criterion of
respectibility and modesty. There are many women who do not wear chador and are yet
respected and treated with great esteem. I wonder what qualities chador or burqa add to a
woman’s character.
Andaleeb
Aziez, Rawalpindi.