The veil is hard to lift
Warwick, Ellen D.
THE VEIL IS HARD TO LIFT WOMEN'S PLACE IN PAKISTAN ELLEN D. WARWICK he first thing I noticed about Pakistan was the presence of crows and the absence of women. After a middle-of-the-night...
...Furthermore, I realized that unlike my husband, I had met the entire family, not just the male half...
...Far from being monolithic, purdah practices vary by country, region, class, and even within the lifespan of an individual...
...Many structures, especially in rural areas, are ramshackle and dilapidated with little equipment beyond blackboard and chalk...
...While predictions are hazardous, most likely a tiny elite group will press for change while the vast majority of women continue to accept restrictions they view as part of their faith, family life, and place in the world...
...Among those who make up the bulk of Pakistan's people, the rural poor, this protective attitude can have marked consequences for education...
...Most of the Pakistanis I meet are middle class...
...All three women had received some university training...
...Tell me," asked an acquaintance, "and please, I mean no disrespect...
...They point out that the very definition of what constitutes public space changes with class and geographical location...
...And how many women teach in your department...
...During a day of visiting schools in a town in the Northwest Frontier Province, I noticed that female teachers and administrators invariably lowered their eyes and covered the bottom half of their faces whenever we went out on the street...
...Others, like the late Islamic scholar Fazlur Rahmam, believe that the Qur'an advocates neither veil nor segregation of the sexes, but rather insists on sexual modesty...
...Out on the street I caught glimpses of uniformed school girls waiting at a bus stop and occasionally a woman strolled by accompanied by her husband or another female...
...Vanguard Books, Ltd., 1987) Khawar Mumtaz and Farida Shaheed discuss some of the anomalies that characterize purdah in their country...
...Married to a civil servant at a young age, the woman found herself at a dinner party where men were present...
...Yet, as any student of the Bible knows, general principles do not make clear what course of action should be followed in particular instances...
...From a root word meaning veil or curtain, it ELLEN D. WARWICK is a free-lance writer who has traveled widely in Pakistan, Egypt, Malaysia, and Indonesia.Her articles have appeared in the Radcliffe Quarterly, the Boston Globe, and Cobblestone, a history magazine for children...
...In this society, women should not be out on their own at any time, but particularly not after dark...
...I had gone in front of so many men, all these friends of my husband...
...Men on bicycles...
...If funds are scarce and improved facilities are needed, which will receive priority...
...letters from girls as well as boys were treasured...
...What then is the future of purdah in Pakistan...
...Soon after escorting us into the living room, he opened a door leading to the back part of the house and nodded me in...
...Such groups continue to protest the infamous Hudood Ordinance which punishes women for so-called sexual crimes while letting men go free...
...Some Pakistanis point out that educated women enjoy greater freedom than females of only a generation ago...
...Not only are they barely visible in positions of power, they are scarcely to be seen in more ordinary circumstances: clerking in a shop, acting as a secretary, or simply walking freely and unaccompanied down a busy street...
...The literacy rate for females hovers somewhere around 15 percent...
...So much depended on the point of view...
...They can actually deepen as governments strive to project a Muslim identity and avoid any show of undue Western influence...
...They are quick to point out that a substantial percentage of Pakistani teachers and medical doctors are women...
...See...
...Coupled with their strong commitment to family life, Pakistanis believe that daughters need constant supervision and protection, especially at the onset of puberty...
...Various female professional groups and a small but vocal feminist organization called Women's Action Forum exist...
...Recent statistics reveal that over 55 percent of boys in the appropriate age group are enrolled in primary school compared to 32 percent of the girls...
...You would like to meet the missus...
...The condition of school buildings themselves may affect female enrollment...
...If the West is any example, economic circumstances will force Pakistani women out into a more public life...
...We cover up to protect ourselves from men and because the Prophet, peace be upon him, told us to...
...women enter only if heavily veiled...
...I proceeded to an inner sitting room where his wife and sisters waited...
...When discussions move beyond that, however, requests for information often elicit defensive replies...
...But the news broadcasts have gained in popularity along with programming on consumer rights, the environment, arts, and fashion...
...Still, as the protest by would-be women drivers in Saudi Arabia earlier this year made clear, education and increased employment do not automatically translate into a lifting of purdah...
...Undoubtedly, religion affects the outlook of Pakistani women when venturing out into the larger world...
...For Pakistani women, leaving purdah will not be as easy as taking off a veil...
...I asked a U.S.-educated professor after she had described her classes at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad...
...Religion and custom are often so intertwined, one cannot tell which is exerting influence...
...The four of us had a marvelous visit, swapping stories about marriage customs and family life and somewhat gingerly explaining our respective attitudes about the role of women in society...
...Already, according to Rahman, upper-class families consider a woman's education when arranging marriages, seeing it as an indication of future earning power...
...A driver took her to school each day and her husband always accompanied her to market...
...464: Commonweal...
...My purdah was broken, my purdah that was my faith...
...They are warned they must not even think of attending university, are told to put the idea out of their heads...
...And though some commentators claim they are hired because they are more docile than men, increasing numbers of women are working in textile and pharmaceutical factories...
...neglect our families is especially prevalent...
...Some date the practice from the time of the Prophet Mohammed, others claim it did not take hold until the eighth century when a profligate ruling class began to hide their innumerable wives and concubines from public view...
...But is it true that in your country people put their elderly parents in institutions rather than take care of them...
...Men...
...I don't worry about being attacked so much as I fear harassment...
...These Britishers love their children even as we do...
...Most women were too busy to be out working, she snapped...
...Often a degree of purdah is accepted by even educated people as part of their culture...
...had to leave home when they were eighteen...
...Even girls from more affluent families are affected by protective attitudes...
...But the wild cards--in addition to the impact of television--are religion and leadership...
...Their parents worry that a woman educated on a mixed campus will bear a stigma because she has been exposed to male company...
...When compared with other developing countries, Pakistan commits a very low percentage of its GNP for education...
...Fazlur Rahman wrote candidly of this attitude: "But it must be admitted that for most Muslims the contemporary West--with its increasingly broken homes, abused children, and general socio-moral lawlessness 9 August 1991:463 of which sexual chaos is a component--hardly offers a model to be followed...
...The very manner in which the husband opened the door suggested that he was attempting to make a Western guest feel at home by allowing her into an otherwise private space...
...It is striking to visit a town and see very little girls playing freely, then realize that no older ones are in evidence...
...Daughters must be shielded so they can enter into good marriages and become good wives and mothers...
...Larger, more cosmopolitan cities such as Islamabad and Lahore have a freer atmosphere than smaller ones in the more conservative regions of Baluchistan and the Northwest Frontier Province...
...They were home taking care of their children as they should be...
...Whatever its current manifestations--seclusion, veiling, sexual segregation at school or work, rigidly defined gender roles--purdah practices spring from deeply held beliefs...
...In general, the higher the class of the woman, the fewer restrictions she faces...
...An upper-middle-class father admitted that his daughter wanted to become an engineer but he would not permit her to attend the university that granted that degree...
...As for working-class parents, one school principal reported that Pakistani men working abroad, such as in the Gulf, discovered new reasons for educating their daughters...
...That experience left me with conflicting emotions...
...And he should know what men are like...
...She would have to live in a hostel [dorm] and women who stay in hostels get a bad reputation...
...Purdah becomes a substitute for an otherwise unaffordable prestige, the veil coming to represent freedom, a socially acceptable way of going out in public yet remaining hidden...
...She may have been confused about my nationality, but her surprise at my maternal feelings was unmistakable...
...Most know that gender equality is an issue in the United States and realize that by American standards their country would be found wanting...
...Above all, I felt honored...
...Yet I couldn't help wonder: Had I been relegated to a back room or privileged to enter an inner sanctum...
...Sons may indeed interact with a larger world where reading and writing make a difference...
...They considered the situation an affront to the girls' modesty...
...Secondly, the men wanted to receive mail from home...
...Men on motorcycles...
...The report, prepared during General Mohammed Zia U1-Huq's Islamization program, rested its case for equality on the Qur'an...
...Administrators have reported that some parents were anxious for their daughters to receive schooling but refused to send them to buildings where there were no toilet facilities...
...For some, these can be status symbols...
...A first grade teacher living in Islamabad told me she never went out alone...
...What is certain is that the attitudes underlying purdah--ideas about social status, religion, and family life--are deeply rooted in specific cultural contexts and will not easily change...
...Purdah is the usual explanation given for the absence of women in public places...
...According to Women in the Worm Atlas (Simon and Schuster, 1986), females constitute less than 15 percent of the paid work force of Pakistan...
...Men on foot...
...Again, the problem of arranging a suitable marriage looms large...
...It would make it difficult to arrange a marriage later on...
...Benazir Bhutto notwithstanding, women do not play a large part in Pakistan's public life...
...hile widely accepted, purdah is not going unchallenged in Pakistan...
...Some of the most interesting developments will come at the level of policy and decision making...
...I have returned to Pakistan four times since that initial visit in 1988, traveling to cities, towns, and villages in each of the four provinces...
...Enrollments for both sexes fall dramatically after the first few years, but the dropout rate is especially high for girls...
...My first impression has not changed...
...It is our custom," they explained repeatedly...
...And who controlled the access, the husband or the wife and sisters...
...The "Report of the Pakistan Commission on the Status of Women" (1989) stated that exploitation and discrimination against women "have nothing to do with Islam" and are "clearly contrary to Quranic injunctions...
...Men behind the registration desk, men serving in the coffee shop, men working as "chambermaids...
...Statistics and personal testimony confirm my impressions...
...Pulling open the drapes, I looked down on one of the main streets of the capital city...
...one exclaimed...
...Most of its schools are sex-segregated...
...After a middle-of-the-night arrival in Islamabad and some catch-up sleep in a hotel, I awakened to the insistent cawing of birds...
...Her message was clear...
...He was a man himself...
...Women have fought for and gained a more equitable apportionment of admissions to medical school...
...She began to answer in a straightforward fashion, but soon became openly irritated...
...Even those with professional jobs face constraints most Western women would find intolerable...
...A group of women were delighted when I passed around snapshots of my children...
...The idea that we in the U.S...
...In any event, purdah has been a custom in South Asia for at least a thousand years...
...An hour later, when dinner was ready, I was brought back to the living room to eat at the first serving with the men...
...Working-class women, whose economic situation forces them out of the home, sometimes cover their faces as a sign of gentility...
...one was the principal of a girls' school...
...Worse--and this fear was more often implied than articulated--adopting a more open definition of women's roles would lead inevitably to the sort of corrupt society that we in the affluent West"enjoy...
...I tried to discern some underlying irony in her comment, but there was none, only simple acceptance...
...On farms where their labor is essential for survival, women work openly in the fields, yet in villages the bazaar area remains out of bounds...
...Since virtually all of Pakistani marriages are arranged, and since a young woman's reputation affects the selection of a partner, purdah becomes a type of social insurance...
...These were not simple village folk...
...Support for purdah will erode as more women move to cities, receive higher education, and enter the industrial work force...
...The sight of a woman alone was rare...
...She sat with her eyes down, overwhelmed: "I felt I was without faith, I had sinned...
...The former prime minister allowed CNN to be relayed into Pakistani homes...
...Physical seclusion and its outward sign, the veil, are not necessarily rejected by women...
...The protests by the religious Right over Benazir Bhutto's prime ministership suggest that what equality means in practice remains very much open to debate...
...First, the families left behind coped better on their own when members had some schooling...
...One little noted achievement of Benazir Bhutto could have a enormous impact on the status of women: cable TV news...
...others voice concern that a government influenced by religious fundamentalists is allowing hard-won women's rights to erode...
...Hanna Papanek, a social scientist, wrote a moving account of an older woman's remembrances of that fateful event...
...I'm afraid I'm going to assert my parental prerogatives and insist she become a teacher instead...
...In cities, the restrictions vary according to the class of the woman and the size of the place itself...
...A female Pakistani professor, educated both at home and in Europe, pointed out that many gifted young women are denied similar opportunities because of the perceived dangers involved...
...refers to the custom of secluding women and enforcing certain high standards of female modesty...
...While I might be perturbed by what I viewed as repression in Pakistani culture, she was every bit as critical of what she deemed license in the United States...
...Down in the lobby, the situation was no different...
...Men in cars, buses, and trucks...
...I'm a prisoner here once the sun goes down...
...It was as though one-half of the human race had disappeared...
...An educational administrator--a man who had lived and studied in Europe before his marriage--invited 462: Commonweal my husband and me to his home for dinner...
...Twice as many boys as girls finish elementary school...
...Some angry letters to the editor appeared complaining about the dangers posed for the Islamic way of life...
...Among the very poor the veil can be a sign that the family has become rich enough that its women no longer need to labor in the fields...
...R eligious belief plays a disputed role in the sequestering of women...
...The parents making the decisions regarding schooling do not act irrationally given their circumstances...
...An unmarried Pakistani woman working with an international agency in the capital said she could not leave her apartment at night...
...And what about wife-beating, rape, and child pornography in the U.S., what had I to say about that...
...In Women of Pakistan: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back...
...The boys' schools or the girls' schools...
...One prominent writer, Abul A'la Maududi, claims that purdah not only stands for some of the most important parts of the Islamic way of life, but that its commands come from the Qur'an itself...
...One woman tried to elaborate...
...A teen-age boy said he was glad he was not American since boys in the U.S...
...The role of so-called Islamic fundamentalists in places such as Egypt, Malaysia, and Iran shows that purdah practices do not automatically disappear as modernization occurs...
...Her answer referred to a theme that surfaced repeatedly: Pakistanis' fear that to concede on issues of feminine equality would be to lose an important part of their cultural identity, particularly family solidarity...
...I knew that when we finished, the leftovers would be gathered up for the women in the back room...
Vol. 118 • August 1991 • No. 14
