Abstract
The relationship between women and the state in Pakistan has been both compelling and paradoxical. After nearly a decade of state-sponsored attempts at stifling women’s voices in the public arenas and pushing back the boundaries of their social visibility, Pakistan has become the first state in the Islamic world to have a woman prime minister. A state media which until yesterday poured scorn upon articulate and assertive women is today faithfully and respectfully projecting the voice and person of Benazir Bhutto. In so far as the role of women in Muslim societies has symbolic connotations, it is tempting to see Benazir Bhutto’s advent as something of a psychological ‘revolution’. A Western cartoonist hinted as much while portraying her in an impish mood asking a line of attendants veiled from head to toe: ‘How do you like your new outfits, Gentlemen?’1
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Cartoon entitled ‘The First Female Leader of a Muslim Nation takes Revenge’ by Tony Auth in the in the Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia), 18 November 1988.
Government of Pakistan, Report of the Pakistan Commission on the Status of Women (Islamabad: Government of Pakistan Press, 1986) p. 31.
cited in Sarfraz Hussain Mirza, Muslim Women’s Role in the Pakistan Movement (Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, second edition, 1981) p. 7 [emphasis added].
See Hanna Papenek, ‘Purdah: Separate Worlds and Symbolic Shelter’, in Hanna Papanek and Gail Minault (eds), Separate Worlds: Studies of Purdah in South Asia (Misouri: South Asia books, 1982) pp. 3–53.
Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi, Bihishti Zewar, in Urdu (Lahore: Taj Company, 1344 hijri [1923]).
See Barbara Daly Metcalf, Perfecting Woman: Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi’s Bihishti Zewar: a Partial Translation with Commentary (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).
See Gail Minault, ‘The Extended Family as Metaphor and the Expansion of Women’s Realm’, in Gail Minault (ed.), The Extended Family: Women and Political Participation in India and Pakistan (New Delhi: Chanakya Publications, 1981) p. 9.
Michelle Maskiell, ‘Social Change and Social Control: College-educated Punjabi Women, 1913–1960’, Modern Asian Studies 18 (1984) 2, pp. 9 and 25, fh. 38.
Javed Iqbal (ed.), Stray Reflections: A Note-Book of Allama Iqbal. (Lahore: Sh. Ghulam Ali and Sons, 1961) pp. 64–5,
cited in Sheila McDonough, ‘Metaphorsof Change in Early Iqbal’ in C. M. Nairn (ed.), Iqbal, Jinnah, and Pakistan: the Vision and the Reality (Syracuse: Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, 1979) p. 116.
This is apparent in the writings of both Begum Jahan Ara Shahnawaz, Father and Daughter: a Political Autobiography (Lahore: Nigarishat, 1971)
and Begum Shaista Akhtar Banu (Suhrawardy) Ikramullah, From Purdah to Parliament (London: Cresset Press, 1963).
Syed Sharif-ud-Din Pirzada, The Pakistan Resolution and the Historic Lahore Session (Karachi: Pakistan Publishers, 1968) p. 35
See Ayesha Jalal, The State of Martial Rule: the Origins of Pakistan’s Political Economy of Defence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), Ch. 6.
Government of Pakistan, Report of the Pakistan Pay Commission (Karachi: Government of Pakistan, 1949) p. 46.
Government of Pakistan, Constituent Assembly Debates (Karachi: Government of Pakistan, 1952) IX, 24 March 1951, pp. 216–17. (Henceforth CA.D., followed by volume, date and page number).
See Khawar Mumtaz and Farida Shaheed (eds), Women of Pakistan: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back? (London: Zed Press, 1987) p. 54
West Pakistan Government, The Muslim Family Law Ordinance, 1961 (Lahore: West Pakistan Press, 1968) section six.
Government of Pakistan, Pakistan Manpower Institute, Khalida Shah, ‘Women’s Participation in the Labour Force in Pakistan — a Macro Level Profile’, in Employment for Women in Pakistan (Islamabad: Government of Pakistan Press, 1983) p. 49.
Government of Pakistan, Pakistan Population Census (Karachi: Government of Pakistan Press, 1962), bulletin no. 4,
cited by M. Sabihuddin Baqai, ‘Some Considerations of the Impact of Education of Women on Development of Human Resources’, in Aquila Kiani (ed.), Sociology of Development in Pakistan (Karachi: Social Research Centre, University of Karachi, 1971) p. 65.
Mumtaz Ahmad, ‘Ideology, Power, and Protest: Toward Explaining Islamic Revivalism in Pakistan’ (Georgetown University; Centre for Stategic and International Studies, unpublished paper for a workshop on Islamic revivalism, 4 January 1983), pp. 18–19.
M. Sabihuddin Baqai, Changes in the Status and Roles of Women in Pakistan (An empirical study in Karachi Metropolitan Area) (Karachi: Department of Sociology, University of Karachi, 1976) pp. 15–24.
Shahnaz J. Rouse, ‘Women’s Movements in Contemporary Pakistan: Results and Prospects’ (University of Michigan, working paper no. 74, December 1984).
Government of Pakistan, Constitution Act of 1973 (Islamabad: Government of Pakistan Press, 1973) article 25 (1).
Government of Pakistan, Report of the Commission on Women’s Rights, in Urdu, in Musawat Siyasi Edition [Lahore], 20 August 1976.
Government of Pakistan, A Collection of the Islamic Laws (Islamabad: Government of Pakistan Press, 1980) Hudood Ordinance, 1979, VI, 1–9.
See Anita M. Weiss, ‘Women’s Position in Pakistan: Sociocultural Effects of Islamization’, Asian Survey, XXV (August 1985) 8, and Mumtaz and Shaheed (eds), Women in Pakistan, pp. 103–105.
see Michelle Maskiell, ‘The Effects of Islamization on Pakistani Women’s Lives, 1978–83’ (Madison: University of Wisconsin, paper prepared for the South Asia Conference, 1983).
Weiss, ‘Women’s Position in Pakistan’, Asian Survey, XXV (August 1985) 8, p. 872,
J. Henry Korson and Michelle Maskiell, ‘Islamization and Social Policy in Pakistan: the Constitutional Crisis and the Status of Women’, Asian Survey, XXV (June 1985) 6, p. 600.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1991 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jalal, A. (1991). The Convenience of Subservience: Women and the State of Pakistan. In: Kandiyoti, D. (eds) Women, Islam and the State. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21178-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21178-4_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-52696-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-21178-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)