PAKISTANI WOMEN ARE NOT SUBMISSIVE !

Most colourful women

From the opening session of the World social forum, tone is given: women are present in large numbers and they do not hesitate in raising their voices. In the crowd, Laila Dossa, Kenyan by birth and a Pakistani by adoption, chairperson of an association for deaf people, and Samina Peerzada, famous Pakistani director and major activist for human rights, speak for a long time about the idea foreigners usually have of their country and of women’s conditions. According to them, the status of Pakistani women is overridden and many efforts have to be made so that their rights are respected and their voices heard, but things have been changing, as proves the important presence of women from the opening of WSF.

These spontaneous exchanges are even more significant since in this country their words are often ignored or even forbidden in public and occasions to express themselves are infrequent. On the grandstand, many women contribute, including the Brazilian Moema Miranda, the Indian Nirmala Deshpanday, the Ecuadorian Irene León or else the Pakistani Asma Jahangir, chairperson of the Human Rights Committee of Pakistan, who underscored the importance of respect of democracy and rights, especially women’s rights. She has also insisted on the necessity to establish fraternal links beyond the frontiers of Pakistan; every citizen should have the right to freely start relationships with his neighbours.

For the six days of the forum, many groups of women marched in the paths of the Kashmir Road Sport Complex, such as the Women in Black, movement who organises silent marches or vigils in opposition to violence and injustice, armed conflicts and militarization. A mobilisation just as visible outside the forum: women were very present among some 10 000 participants of the International Firsherfolk Convention in the small port of Ibrahim Hyderi.

Colourful, talkative, expressive, smiling, dynamic, these are the images that will remain of Pakistani women. They have been undoubtedly very active during this meeting and have taken advantage of it to exchange and debate freely with women from other continents (sometimes even using an improvised sign language!). Now their challenge is to manage maintaining over the long term this collective alliance of women activists to strengthen their status and rights.

Frères des Hommes

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