Women empowerment and the crisis of good governance in South Punjab

Partner Institutes
Royal Holloway College, University of London	Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan

Project brief:

17-year-old Shakorwan Bibi woke up feeling feverish on the morning of July 19^th, 2010. Having been unwell for the past few days, she decided to visit the local hospital in her hometown Dera Ghazi Khan for a check-up. Little did she know that this simple decision would cost her her life. On her return home, she was brutally stabbed to death by her father who thought his daughter had defamed the family’s honour by allowing a doctor to examine her.

Such outrageous cases of violence against women are, unfortunately, a common occurrence in Pakistan. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 675 females were murdered for honour during the first nine months of 2011. Given their treatment as second class citizens in this male-dominated society, it is impossible for them to speak out and take action against such injustices.

Royal Holloway College, University of London and Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, Pakistan have collaborated to provide women a voice and make them active participants of the political process. The underlying belief of the researchers is that unless women are given due representation at the local level, they will remain incapable of protecting their rights.

The aim of this project is to address the marginalisation of women in Pakistani society, something which was seemingly addressed by the state in 2001 in terms of providing them with substantial representation (33%) in political institutions operating at the level of union council, tehsil (sub-division) and district. Within this political framework, women were to be realised as an agent of change through the acquisition of political power, which was to be functional through the devolution of power structures. This study will evaluate the performance of local government institutions and parallel power structures to see how far the status of women has been bolstered and whether their lot has improved.

The researchers will work with non-governmental agencies operating in the area so that the academic output can be translated into practical results. Training and capacity building is a major output and five optional courses will be developed by faculty from Bradford University.

Bahauddin Zakariya University plans to implement gender research at the post graduate level and train its faculty members in gender-related issues through exchange programmes with the Royal Holloway College. This will create a team of researchers and academics who have the sensitivity and the expertise to tackle local customs that perpetuate violence against women while providing counselling to victims who often have no one to turn to.

Lessons learnt:

• The Pakistani team has been provided the opportunity to interact with esteemed UK social scientists and historians. This experience with political figures (male & female) active within UK local councils brought to the knowledge of the visiting team that assertiveness of women for their rights could come through their self-awareness and as well by the complementary role of power structures through which services are dispensed.
• The UK team, meanwhile, has gained a better understanding of the various challenges and constraints that relate to the empowerment of women in south Punjab and how local researchers need to organise their teams in order to carry out projects in relation to this issue.

Challenges faced:

• The main challenge relates to Pakistan’s current political circumstances that mean that people from the UK may feel worried about travelling to Pakistan. However, the December 2011 visit of the UK team went smoothly.
• The aspect of field research is proving laborious due to the non-cooperative attitude of some of the staff members and local councillors involved in some of the union councils.

The impact/benefits of the project:

• The empirical study and research being conduced by students and faculty has brought local stakeholders within the framework of informal discourse to discuss, share knowledge and learn about the effects of the operational barriers and cultural constraints that have hindered women from becoming active agents of social change.
• This project will eventually produce a much clearer idea of the kinds of pressures operating at the level of local representative councils to inhibit or encourage female participation. The data collected will help identify the kinds of initiatives required to enhance female participation at this level.

Key contacts:

Dr.Sarah Ansari, Royal Holloway College, University of London

s.ansari@rhul.ac.uk, www.rhul.ac.uk/

Dr. Azra Asghar Ali, Bahauddin Zakariya University

azraasg@yahoo.co.uk, www.bzu.edu.pk/