Women’s Rights and Organization

The early years 1947 – 1958/ Efforts at organizing

The Prime Minister’s wife, Ra’ana Liaquat Ali, was the most outstanding woman who

formed a large number of women’s organizations and attended to many different areas that affect

women, especially welfare and legal reform. In 1948, she started the Women’s Voluntary

Service (WVS) which administered first aid to women, organized food distribution, dealt with

health problems and epidemics, collected clothing for the needy, and provided emotional and

moral support. The relief and welfare work was widely accepted as it was seen as an extension of

the nurturing role that women were traditionally expected to perform. Apart from being seen as a

maternal and domestic role, the work of WVS was voluntary with the result that it did not lead to

the kind of threat that women’s paid work poses.

However, the reaction to two other organizations set up by Ra’ana Liaquat Ali is a telling

indication of the deeply patriarchal and gendered nature of society. The societal reaction to the

setting up in 1949 of the Pakistan Women’s National Guard and Pakistan Women’s Naval

Reserve differed significantly from the response to the WVS which received support from the

government. The National Guard and Naval Reserve were set up in response to the war with

India and were respectively under the supervision of the army and navy, while Ra’ana Liaquat

Ali was the Chief Controller of both. This work brought women into contact with unrelated men,

so it was not just seen as ‘manly’ but also threatening.

These two organizations trained women in military tactics including signaling, coding,

marksmanship, use of weapons and defense. Upon criticism by conservatives, a dopatta was
added to their uniforms. However, the training of women for purposes that deviated from the

social and traditional norms, and their empowerment in what were believed to be masculine

pursuits, raised many eyebrows. This violation of the patriarchal public/ masculine and

private/feminine division was met with opprobrium and after Ra’ana Liaquat Ali left the country

to serve as ambassador to the Netherlands, these two outfits fizzled out.

Women were acceptable in the public sphere in so far as they conformed to a traditional

and conservative vision of housewives, mothers, welfare workers and service providers. The

absence of a feminist or women’s movement meant that the conservative lobby could overwhelm

the government over such measures. Nevertheless, Ra’ana Liaquat Ali was the first woman

ambassador of the country, and this appointment was not subjected to major criticism.

Based on the success of the Women’s Voluntary Service and the interest of a large

number of women, in 1949 Ra’ana Liaquat invited a hundred women to a meeting in Karachi and

from this was born the All-Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA) which, in the context of the

time, made invaluable contributions not only to welfare but also in the arena of legal reform.

APWA (All Pakistan Women’s Association)

APWA was a voluntary non-political organization open to all women over sixteen years

of age irrespective of class, caste, color or creed. The objectives were to be a welfare

organization for Pakistani women. It focused on creating educational, social and cultural

consciousness and improving the economic participation of women for national development.

Urban women from well to do classes joined and it became an acceptable avenue for women’s

activities outside the home. APWA opened girls’ schools, health centers and industrial homes,
and imparted sewing and related skills for incomegeneration. Most of its activities were

concentrated in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar with district and divisional headquarters in other

parts of the country.

APWA’s relationship with the government was one of mutual accommodation and co-

operation. It, therefore, received government funding as well as patronage. It was a non-

threatening organization because of the focus on welfare and development. Its main work was on

women’s education, development skills and incomegeneration. It opened schools, colleges,

industrial homes and organized meena bazaars to market the products of needy women.

Apart from welfare and development activities, APWA made forays into the political and

legal arenas. In 1953, APWA recommended ten reserved seats for women in the National and

Provincial Assemblies. In spite of a predominantly non-political and welfare approach, APWA

was not approved by religious clerics who chastised Raana Liaquat and others for not wearing

the veil. The Majlis-e-Ahrar, a right wing orthodox party, labeled them prostitutes. The Jamaat-e-

Islami (JI) and Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) also looked upon them with disapproval, despite

having opposed the very formation of Pakistan. The conflict and tension between the right-wing

religious lobbies and women’s rights campaigners goes way back in history, but at that point it

did not become an open battle as it did in later years.

Ra’ana Liaquat Ali, a tireless campaigner, initiated many other organizations and the time

period appears to be rich in terms of the sheer number of organizations of women that were

formed. In 1954, the Karachi Business and Professional Women’s Club was established to bring

professional women together on a platform and later it established branches in Lahore, Peshawar

and Rawalpindi. In 1956, the Federation of University Women was formed for women who did
not enter the workforce after obtaining university degrees. A Degree College for women in

Karachi was opened during that rich period which spawned a number of organizations for

women’s education and professional advancement.

Other Organizations

Most other organizations were formed with specific objectives including, the Family

Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP), The Pakistan Child Welfare C Council (PCWC), The

Pakistan Red Cross, The Pakistan Nurses Federation (PNF), The Housewives’ Association, Girl

Guides Association, and the International Women’s Club. There was growing social awareness

and each of these selected a specific area of expertise and worked on women’s social and

economic issues.

The Democratic Women’s Association (DWA) formed in 1948 was unique in that it

organized women at the political level and was established along Marxist principles. Led by the

Marxist activist, Tahira Mazhar Ali, the DWA worked with working class women in factories

and low-income areas, while focusing on political awareness and the creation of a socialist

society. The DWA wanted equal pay for equal work, educational opportunities for girls and

women, hostels and transport facilities for working women, crèches and nurseries at places of

work and expanded employment opportunities for women. It appealed to working class women

concerned for the emancipation of working classes and the creation of a socialist society. Its

work was confined to low-income areas and it did not mobilize many women from other classes;

however it is significant for being the only left wing women’s organization in the country. The

DWA was one of the most prominent organizations that staunchly opposed the military operation
in East Pakistan in 1971, and vociferously campaigned against the mass rape of Bangladeshi

women by the armed forces.

Some of the other organizations include the United Front for Women’s Rights (UFWA)

which was formed in 1955, and the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) that had

been working since 1899.

APWA’s warm and complementary relationship with the state continued through the era

of Ayub Khan’s military dictatorship. The Muslim Family Laws Ordinance (MFLO) of 1961,

which gave women a few rights with regard to marriage, the custody of children, divorce and

registration of marriages and divorces, was passed as a result of APWA’s efforts. It was basically

an attempt to discourage polygamy as the first wife’s written permission became necessary for a

husband’s second marriage. The recommendations of Justice Rashid Commission (mentioned

above) were not all embodied nonetheless some progress was made compared to before. Prior to

this, the Child Marriages Restraint Act of 1929 recommended fourteen years as the marriageable

age for girls, and the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act of 1939 defined the grounds on which

women could seek divorce, for example, cruelty and non-maintenance.

The Family Law Ordinance 1961

Although the MFLO of 1961 was by no means radical, and the punishment for the second

marriage was minor (an easily ignored small fine) with annulment not being an option, it was

nonetheless a small step in the direction of women’s rights. Such achievements were possible

because APWA did not challenge the military dictatorship which defined itself as benevolent,

moderate and modern. Even though the law was relatively weak, modest and moderate in

relation to expectations, it was vehemently opposed by the Ulema who spoke against it from

pulpits and condemned it as tampering with the Qura’an. Women retaliated by launching a

movement in support of the Family Laws Ordinance, and in Lahore Begum Nasim Jahan led a

march against the clerics which ended with the burning of the effigy of Maulana Abbas Ali

Khan, a virulent opponent, in front of the Punjab Assembly.

The absence of a vibrant women’s rights movement or feminist struggle was one of the

reasons that when Fatima Jinnah stood in the elections against Ayub Khan in 1965, he used the

Ulema to declare that a woman could not be the head of state in a Muslim country. Ayub Khan’s

accusations that Fatima Jinnah was an Indian and American agent, and an unfeminine and un-

motherly figure were not met with indignation and anger, unlike the effect of such accusations

against Benazir Bhutto decades later, when they were met with scorn, anger, and uproar.

Ironically, in an attempt to remove Ayub Khan and gain power, the Jamaat-e-Islami supported

Fatima Jinnah and radically altered its earlier position that women could not become heads of

state in an Islamic country.

Women’s Organizations

There was a proliferation of women’s organizations in the 1960s and 1970s, some

concerned with welfare, others with economic and professional aims, and still others based on

economic empowerment. Some of these include the Behbud Association formed in 1967 for

social welfare and income-generation activities, and the exclusive Soroptimist Club, also

established in 1967, which worked with women in senior managerial and administrative

positions. The women’s organizations worked together co-operatively and many had the same

members on their boards, for example, Miriam Habib, the first recognized woman journalist in

Pakistan, served on the executive boards of many organizations. The shared visions and common

concerns led to a great deal of mutual interaction and collaboration.

The Politicization of Women

Ayub Khan’s regime ended in 1968 after massive street protests against his dictatorship.

However, power was grabbed by another military dictator, Yahya Khan during whose tenure

national elections were held and won convincingly by the Awami League, a party based in East

Pakistan. However, the West Pakistani civil and military rulers failed to transfer power and

initiated a military operation in East Pakistan which ended in 1971 with the secession of the

province which became Bangladesh. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that had won the general

election of 1970 in West Pakistan assumed power in 1972. The transformations in the state and

reconfiguration of power did not change the relationship with women’s groups and the mutual

accommodation and collaboration of the Ayub era continued during the brief period of

democracy.

In the 1970 elections, it was widely believed that women, for the first time, voted

independently of their male kin on account of being attracted by Bhutto’s rhetoric of equality and

justice for the oppressed. Nasim Jahan, a founder member of PPP, mobilized educated women in

Lahore as in other cities and spread the PPP ideas in various localities and neighborhoods.

Women, who had participated in PPP election campaigns, became a part of PPP’s mohalla

committees. Women from low-income areas as well as educated middle class were drawn to the

dream of a just and socialist society. Nasim Wali Khan was the first woman to win the election

on a general seat but did not take oath as many of the parties seeking provincial autonomy were
labeled ‘traitors’ by the PPP government, and the National Awami Party government in

Balochistan was dismissed. In spite of such undemocratic measures, the PPP government was

regarded as more womenfriendly than its predecessors.

In 1972 the PPP formed a constitution-making committee which had two women, Nasim

Jahan and Ashraf Abbasi. The 1973 Constitution gave more rights to women than in the past.

Article 25 of rights declared that every citizen was equal before law and Article 25 (2) said there

would be no discrimination based on sex alone. Article 27 of fundamental stated that there would

be no discrimination on the basis of race, religion, caste or sex for appointment in the service of

Pakistan. Article 32 of the Basic Principles of State Policy guaranteed reservation of seats for

women, and article 35 stipulated that the state shall protect marriage, family and mother and

child. The constitution was unanimously ratified in the Assembly and later Article 228 was

amended to accept the principle of at least one woman member on the proposed Council on

Islamic Ideology. In spite of women’s efforts, however, the idea of female suffrage for reserved

seats for women was rejected, both in the constitution committee and the National Assembly.

In the 1973 constitution women continued to be indirectly elected members of the

Assemblies. The PPP government took other measures to raise women’s status and a cell was set

up to evaluate the status of women. Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali was made Governor of Sindh and

Kaniz Yousaf was made the Vice-Chancellor of a university. Begum Ashraf Abbasi was elected

as the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and all government services were opened to

women through administrative reforms in 1972. Women could enter the services from which

they were hitherto debarred, such as the Foreign Service and management groups. Women could

now be Prime Minister, Governor or

entrants and the first ever women Foreign Service cadre came into being.

In 1975, the International Women’s Year (IWY) was launched. The Prime Minister’s

wife, Nusrat Bhutto, went to Mexico to represent Pakistan and signed the Mexico Declaration.

Following this, a semi-autonomous Pakistan Women’s Institute was set up in Lahore to mark the

IWY. In 1976, a thirteen-member Women’s Rights Committee was set up chaired by Yahya

Bakhtiar, the first Attorney General of Pakistan. It included nine women some of whom had

been pressing for a commission to determine the status of women to make recommendations to

improve their situation. This demand was mainly pushed by Nasim Jahan, Miriam Habib,

Rashida Patel and Zari Sarfraz. The commission’s task was to consider and formulate proposals

for law reforms to improve the social and economic conditions of women. It presented its

proposals on law reforms in July 1976 and made recommendations shortly after. However, it was

neither ratified nor implemented and never made public.

The PPP set up a Women’s Wing under Nusrat Bhutto and provincial wings were formed

which educated women in the philosophy of Marxism and socialism. The women’s wing held

elections leading to the emergence of new leadership from among the middle class and low-

income groups. Various trade unions and students’ organizations emerged and were aligned with

the PPP. During the PPP tenure, APWA continued to work without interference and the United

Front for Women’s Rights was revived to struggle for women’s reserved seats through female

suffrage but fizzled out when this endeavor failed.

Women’s Organizations
 In the 1970s, women’s organizations such as Shirkat Gah, Aurat Foundation and the

Women’s Front arose. The Women’s Front, based in Lahore, was a small group of aggressive

and radical Left-wing Punjab University students, but it petered out after the students graduated

and moved on. This group contested union elections and won both seats for women and

organized chapters in other cities such as Sargodha and Multan. Their slogan was, ‘women and

politics are one.’ Aurat, based in Islamabad, was composed of Left-wing university teachers and

students and worked in lowincome neighborhoods for the depressed classes. The organization

brought out a newsletter which focused on the class struggle and wrote about male domination.

However, lack of funding and human resources meant that it could not be sustained. Some

members of the organization later founded the Aurat Foundation which focused on a range of

women’s issues. Several organizations for women began to emerge in various cities, however

some became pivotal in launching an active and vibrant women’s movement.

Shirkat Gah was also established in the 1970s and became central during subsequent

decades as the Women Action Forum emerged from this organization. The idea arose from the

International Women’s Year and in 1976, educated urban middle class women formed Shirkat

Gah as a publication and resource center for women. It promoted the social and economic

development of women and carried out research and ‘consciousnessraising’ activities. Shirkat

Gah set up a women’s hostel and day-care centers for working women.

Beginning from the post-partition period to the end of the PPP’s rule in 1977 through a

military coup, the relationship of the women’s movement with the nascent state remained devoid

of conflict and confrontation. The governments, whether civil or military, supported the women’s

organizations in so far as they remained within the confines of traditional norms and engaged in
welfare work. The women’s organizations remained concerned with women’s economic uplift,

development and consciousness-raising and did not offer political resistance. They gained a few

rights and concessions from both the civilian and military governments with which the

relationship was characterized by collaboration and mutual accommodation.

The women’s organizations of the time did not challenge the legitimacy of the military

government or its attitude towards Fatima Jinnah. Similarly, they failed to question or resist the

Islamist provisions of the 1973 constitution, the lesser status of non-Muslim citizens, the

declaration of Islam as the state religion, and the forcing out of Ahmadis from the pale of Islam

in 1974. These steps and other measures, such as the banning of alcohol and gambling, the

declaration of Friday as the weekly holiday, all done to appease the religious lobby, set the stage

for the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) movement against Bhutto which culminated with

military takeover and aggressive Islamization. The women’s organizations operating at that time

appear to have been quiescent and willing to ignore the larger questions of democracy and justice

as long as women received a few rights. However, the few rights that they achieved during the

Ayub and Bhutto periods were also subjected to continual challenge from the religious orthodoxy

bent upon taking Pakistan in a theocratic direction from its inception. These efforts gained

momentum in the ensuing period of General Zia-ul-Haq’s military rule when the orthodoxy

gained ascendancy thereby rudely awakening women’s groups into mobilizing to defend the few

rights they had won.

The year 1979 was a watershed in the history of Pakistan as well as globally. The

orthodox revolution in neighboring Iran, and the Soviet Union incursion into Afghanistan,

foreshadowed massive reconfigurations of power globally, along with the radical reconstruction

of the state in Pakistan. Pakistan became the frontline state in the Cold War contest between

competing imperialisms in Afghanistan. While the Soviet imperialism was based on a communist

perspective, the competing US one sought an ally in a specific version of Islam to fight against

‘ungodly’ communism.

For the Pakistani military dictator Zia-ul-Haq, who had seized power in an illegal coup in

1977, the Cold War competing imperialisms provided a perfect opportunity to gain legitimacy by

wrapping himself in an Islamic garb. The Islamization agenda that had been initiated by Bhutto’s

‘Islamic Socialism’ was now intensified. Zia proceeded straightaway to Islamize Pakistan based

on the Deobandi/Wahabi version derived from Jamaat-e- Islami and Saudi Arabian articulations

of Islam. Radical changes were made in the school curricula, educational policies, the media and

the judiciary to strengthen the tenuous Islamic credentials of the regime. Harsh punishments,

such as flogging and stoning to death, were borrowed from the Saudi model and journalists as

well as lawyers were not spared in the drive to ‘cleanse’ society of all the evils of socialism that

Bhutto had propagated. Only the economy was exempted from socalled Islamization as it was

based on an international fiscal system in which interest had to be paid. However, Zakat, Ushr

and Islamic banking forms were introduced to justify the resort to religion.
 General Zia’s Islamization drive was not confined to the public sphere as he wanted to

restructure and regulate the private one also. Salaat Committees were constituted to ensure that

people prayed regularly and observed other Islamic injunctions. With a relentless focus on piety

in the private sphere and control over the personal lives of citizens, an inordinate amount of

attention fell upon women who were seen as the repositories of culture, religion and tradition.

The veil and the four walls were emphasized, piety in dress codes was imposed by vigilantes

operating in the public sphere, and violence was used to ensure compliance with official

measures.

The entire legal structure was reconstructed to institutionalize discrimination against

women and non-Muslim citizens. A number of discriminatory laws including the Hudood

Ordinance of 1979, the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance and the Law of Evidence of 1984 were

promulgated. The Qisas and Diyat law privatized the crime of murder and saved the perpetrators

of ‘honor killing’. The Law of Evidence reduced women’s testimony in a court of law to half that

of men. In 1983, the Ansari Report of the Council of Islamic Ideology recommended that

women’s participation in politics should be limited to nominated women over the age of fifty. In

1985, the Shariat Bill (9th Amendment) threatened to abolish the Family Laws Ordinance of

1961.

In the early years, women belonging to various organizations watched with incredulity

the spate of laws and measures to control and order their lives in accordance General Zia’s vision

of religion. There were dress code restrictions, coupled with restrictions on participation in

spectator sports, and enhanced segregation with a proposal for a separate women’s university.

By that time, a new generation of middle class women, which had studied in western universities
and was exposed to the feminist movements in those countries, had entered the workforce in

various fields. They were seriously perturbed over the continuous attacks on a relatively tolerant

and diverse culture of previous decades. Dr. Israr’s lectures on a TV show in which he advocated

the exit of women from the economy, threatened the loss of livelihood of a large number of

women who worked at universities and other places.

However, it was the Fehmida and Allah Bux case, filed under the Zina Ordinance (one of

the five Hudood Ordinances) that motivated women to protect and preserve the few rights they

had achieved in the two previous dispensations. From that point on, the relationship between

women and the state transformed radically from the mutual accommodation of the earlier

decades to conflict, confrontation and contestation.

The Zina Ordinance of 1979 conflated adultery with rape and erased the distinction

between them. This law made it virtually impossible to prove rape and, upon failure to prove it,

the woman was transformed into the culprit while the rapist went scot-free. The punishment for

adultery was stoning to death. The harsh punishments in the name of Islam mobilized the women

into taking action. Following the year of its promulgation, a large number of rural and urban

women from the economically marginalized groups were booked under false cases of Hudood

and languished in jails for years.

Creation of Women Action Forum (WAF)

In 1981, a group of women met in Shirkat Gah Karachi and formed the Women Action

Forum (WAF). In a short span of time, there were chapters in Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar.

For the next decade, WAF became the face of the women’s movement in Pakistan, although the
Sindhiani Tehreek in Sindh was a radical organization which used direct action as a method to

fight not only the military regime but also patriarchy as articulated in interior Sindh.19 WAF used

picketing, demonstrations, processions, rallies, signature campaigns, consciousnessraising,

telegrams, writing and other strategies to register protest and oppose the regime’s draconian

measures. Each chapter functioned somewhat differently, depending upon the local context and

ethnic mix, nevertheless WAF fought against the discrimination in law, spectator sports,

educational segregation, media regulations, dress codes, and the steady march towards a

theocratic state.

In 1983, when the Pakistan Women Lawyers gave a call to march to the High Court with a

petition against the then proposed Law of Evidence, a large number of WAF members joined the

demonstration and were batoncharged and tear-gassed on the Mall Lahore. WAF’s profile was

raised internationally and it made headlines in the national press as well as the international

media. Subsequently, there was no turning back and WAF frequently resorted to pickets,

demonstrations and protest rallies. The resistance to military rule and fundamentalism was not

mounted only through the traditional methods of protest but also manifested itself in cultural

forms such as poetry, literature, music, dance, theatre, films, art and painting. Kishwar Naheed’s

Hum Gunahgar Aurtain (We Sinful Women) and Fehmida Riaz’s poem Chaadar Aur

Chaardivari (the veil and four walls) became anthems for the movement, along with Habib

Jalib’s famous poem read out at the February 12, 1983 demonstration in Lahore. The work of

Salima Hashmi in painting, Madeeha Gauhar in theatre, Sheema Kirmani in dance and theatre,

Sabiha Sumar in filmmaking, Sherry Rehman in journalism, Attiya Dawood and Azra Abbas in

poetry, and Zahida Hina and Khalida Hussain in Urdu literature testifies to the multi-dimensional

nature of the resistance.

WAF platform led to some of the most seething debates over strategy, aims and goals. At one

point the debates led to a split in the Lahore chapter which was resolved after an acrimonious

public controversy. The main debates in the WAF movement were the following: 1) Secular or

religious framework; 2) focus on feminist issues only or larger ones that have an impact upon

women; 3) a broad feminist approach or a narrow one on women’s rights. There were three

other debates which were of less import as they had more to do with functioning and terminology

than an ideological disagreement. These include 1) nonhierarchical functioning versus a

hierarchical structure; 2) non-political versus a political orientation, and 3) Open versus closed

membership. It is important to lay out the main contours of these debates within the socio-

political context of the time.

Secular versus a Religious Framework Initially, WAF had no clear position on Islam

although several of the founding members were secular and socialist in personal orientation.

However, since WAF was a lobby cum pressure group consisting of individuals and

organizations, there was wide variation in beliefs and sentiments. Many of the members were

believers, while some were practicing Muslims. WAF, as a platform was diverse, therefore

ambivalent with regard to Islam. Islam was a class-based issue as women from the urban lower

middle classes were relatively more conservative and religious.

The regime was justifying its measures by invoking its preferred version of Islam which

was being imposed uniformly on all sects and all citizens. Hence the laws were made to appear

divine and not open to challenge. Some of the members felt that that WAF would have to

engage with Islam as it was being relentlessly imposed. Additionally, it was felt that women
from the lower middle and conservative classes had to be mobilized, since it appeared to become

a matter of the word of God versus the word of women.21

In 1983, WAF Lahore used the strategy of inviting religious clerics who espoused liberal

interpretations of religion and rejected the official state version being imposed across the board.

This pragmatism was merely a strategy since many of the women in their personal lives had a

secular outlook. Some of the members believed that the regime had to be contested and resisted

on its own turf with competing interpretations. There was a need to emphasize that what

constituted ‘true’ Islam was ultimately a matter of interpretation. Additionally, as Mumtaz and

Shaheed pointed out, a large number of customs, traditions and cultural practices which in fact

violated Islamic injunctions were being justified by recourse to Islam.22 It was, therefore, vital to

sift culture, tradition and custom from religion. It was necessary to separate other versions of

Islam from the homogenized singular one emanating from the regime. Furthermore, it was

argued that WAF would have to function within the social, political and ideological context of

the country and ideologies, such as secularism, would alienate the more conservative element

within the movement.

Opposed to this perspective was the one forwarded by secular and socialist women within

the movement, who argued that the strategic use of Islamic arguments would become self-

defeating as women would be ‘playing on the mullahs’ wicket’. There were differing shades of

opinion among the more secular women, which ranged from a strong belief in the human rights

framework to those who envisioned a socialist society. However, liberal feminism was the

dominant strand as the human rights discourse seemed less threatening than socialist or

communist ideas.
 Those on the secular side of the debate argued that the country does not have a singular

and monolithic reality; rather there were multiple realities and Islam constituted only one of

those realities. Beyond religion, there was ethnicity, class, caste, gender and linguistic and

regional identities. The majority of the people were not so focused on the supposed danger to

Islam as on bread and butter issues. In any case, there was no threat to religion as Pakistan was

an overwhelmingly Muslim country with a miniscule minority, especially after the break-up of

the country in 1971. The minorities could never become equal citizens as long as the state

remained defined by one religion, especially a monolithic interpretation of it. There was a

palpable fear that if WAF framed its arguments within a religious framework, it would not be

able to emerge from it. For every liberal and modernist cleric, there were scores whose

interpretation was fundamentalist, orthodox and literal.

However, there were all kinds of complications as there have not been movements, such

as the Reformation, in Islam since there is no Church from which to separate the state. In western

countries, secularization has a long history going back to the Renaissance, Reformation,

Enlightenment, urbanization, industrialization and capitalism.23 The secularization of Christianity

was steeped in social, political and ideological movements and did not arise suddenly. In post-

colonial states like Pakistan a modern secular democratic state had to be constructed from

scratch. Another conundrum for the women’s movement was that while feminism is premised on

the idea that the personal is political, secularism separates the personal from the political because

it separates the private from the public. It bans religion into the private sphere (usually

associated with women) while making the public masculine sphere of politics and commerce free

of religious constraints. For feminists, it is contradictory to assert that the personal is political
while simultaneously demanding a secular state.After a long and obstreperous debate which

lasted into the early 1990s, WAF declared that it stands for a democratic and secular state.
References:

 Saigol, R. (2016). Feminism and the Women’s Movement in Pakistan Actors,

Debates, and Strategies. Islamabad: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.