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Pakistan has been facing innumerable
troubles, not entirely due to its own faults. The whole politics
of oil, the designs of Empire and the subservience of
Mullah-Military complex to the US designs have brought in lot of
misery in the region. Currently one is painfully witnessing the
plight of a young girl, Malala Yususzai, (Age 15) who is battling
for her life after she was shot twice by the Taliban. (October
2012) Her ‘crime’ has been that she dared to defy the Taliban
dictats and expressed her longing for education for herself, and
for the education of other girls. When Taliban became powerful in
Swat valley they shut down girls’ schools and women were banned
from social space till Pakistan got control over the area, but
still Taliban’s influence in the area did not vanish.
During this period Malala, a young girl, then aged 12, started
writing her diary for BBC Urdu, and later a film with her in the
center was made by New York Times, ‘A Class Dismissed’. She
emerged as the major voice of rebellion against the fundamentalist
assertiveness of Taliban, the reason for which she was shot by
them due to which she is currently struggling for her life.
Taliban like all fundamentalist streams uphold the oppressive
patriarchal values, where social space is a strict ‘no no’ for
women, who are supposed to take care of Kitchen, Children and
their life has to revolve around instructions of Mullahs. In the
transition from feudal society to the democratic norms, the major
change is that of caste/class and gender transformation. There is
no straightforward formula for this. In the countries where the
democratic revolutions were complete, the feudal norms of
caste-gender hierarchy were overthrown along with the rule of
Kings-Feudal elements.
In colonies the introduction of newer set of norms of modern
education, industrialization and the consequent changes in the
society did bring in social movements, enabling society to come
out of the grip of older set of values. The grip of older
dominating forces, kings-landlords, was not done away with totally
in most post colonial states. The newer classes, the
industrialists-workers-educated classes came up side by side with
the declining section of society, the feudal elements. The
declining sections did not disappear and so they tried to preserve
and assert their values and social norms under the garb of
religion, politics in the name of religion, what is popularly
referred to as communalism. As such it is abuse of religions’
identity to uphold and impose the norms of feudal society in the
newer language.
In colonies, particularly talking of Indian sub continent, the
subjugated sections of society, the low caste and the women had a
marathon struggle on hand to strive for equality and to come to
the social space, this struggle is not yet over despite sixty
years of Independence in the Indian part of the post partition
area, while in Pakistan the process has been slower and has seen a
massive reversal after the Zia ul Haq-Maulana Maududi regime. The
same got further worsened with the coming up of Mujahideen-Taliban-
Al Qaeda, a process supported or rather engineered by United
States and Saudi Arabia. The ideological use of Wahhabi version of
Islam to train Mujahedeen-Taliban interprets Islam in a backward
way to enslave the women and other weaker sections of society.
In India the trajectory has been parallel to some extent. As
fundamentalism, political assertion in the garb of fundamentals of
religion, rose in the West Asia-Pakistan, in India we see the rise
of communalism in the name of Hindu religion with parallel agenda,
which has pushed back the march of caste and gender towards
equality. During 19th century, Indian women had to face something
very close to what Malala and large section of girls-woman are
facing today in Taliban dominated area. Savitribai Phule, who
began the school for girls, had to face the wrath of the
conservative sections of society. As Malala has to hide the books
under her shawl, a woman named Rash Sundari Devi in Bengal had to
hide her longing for reading, as touching a printed paper was
regarded as sin. In her autobiography Aamar Jeevan (My Life) she
tells the challenges she faced as a woman who wanted to learn. She
learnt reading by picking up newspapers when men folk were not at
home. Lot of rumors were spread to stall education of girls. The
struggle of Pandita Rama bai, Anandi Gopal and many of their
contemporaries, to get education, was equally harrowing. Even
today girls’ education is lagging behind in its reach and
importance in large parts of the country.
In earlier part of 20th Century in United States when the social
transformation for caste (class) and gender began, the
conservative Christian groups opposed this social change by
bringing out ten small booklets called Fundamentals, which argued
against women and workers rights in the language of religion. It
is from these booklets that the term Fundamentalism emerged. The
fundamentalist tendencies have resurfaced world over during last
three decades or so, and have been promoted by the Imperialist
powers in West Asia in particular. Similarly when Hitler rampaged
the democracy in Germany in the name of Race, he dictated that the
life of women should revolve around Kitchen Church and Children.
Similar things, coated with sugary syrup are being beamed through
the Television serials in India, where the unending Saas bhi Kabhi
Bahu thi… serials dominate the television and give the message of
subordination of women. To add to the impact of these serials, the
Godmen, hordes of them who have mushroomed during this period,
talk of such norms in a refined language and they do have higher
acceptability and sanctity.
Pakistan society today is the victim of many phenomenons at the
same time. While US created the Frankenstein’s monster of
Taliban-Al Qaeda, today the same US-Nato wants to do away with
them through drone attacks. These drone attacks are hardly a
solution to the cancer which they have planted in this part of the
World. The large section of Pakistan society is realizing and
standing with the aspirations of Malala, knowing fully-well that
she does represent the longing of girls of her age. Most parents
in the region want their girls to be educated and wish them a
future of knowledge and enlightenment. Many a scholars of Islam
remind us that learning-education, both for men and women has a
high place in the teachings of Prophet, while there are many
others who draw from other sources to justify the shootings of
Malalas. There are peace rallies in Pakistan which are telling the
Talibans, ‘Bandukon Wale Darte hain Ek Nanhi Ladki se’ (Those with
guns are scared of of a little girl). This section also knows the
dilemmas of their country have roots in, the ideology from Saudi,
the machinations of CIA operating through the military mullah
complex.
The ‘Malala moment’ is a serious turning point for Pakistan. Which
way it wants to go, which way it can make space for itself? The
past cannot be changed. Today’s problems created by Taliban and
its clones need a serious engagement, a ‘do or die’ situation for
Pakistan’s democracy. The persistence of Taliban is a malignant
disease eating up its vitals. It needs to be put behind, this
ideology and this mindset has to be thrown in the dustbin of
history with total willpower, determination and efforts. Those in
the subcontinent need to hold their hands for democracy and
freedom from imperialist domination. We, in the region, need to
strive towards solidarity for a democratic South Asia to bury the
ideologies operating in the name of religion. We all need to stand
with the cause of Malala!
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