Women play central roles in protests in South Asia, experience gender discrimination
Women play central roles in protests in South Asia, experience gender discrimination
The fears of young women
"As soon as it was 12 noon, I thought: 'It will be too late, it will be too late, it will be too late," she reported. "This is a constant voice in my head." On the way home in an e-rickshaw, a group of men stopped the vehicle and surrounded it as they were shouting and harassing them. Ghosh didn't know if she could trust the driver and held the kitchen knife that she had brought with her to defend it. The driver finally managed to drive away and brought her home safely.
The challenge to move at night
instead of the perspective of thousands of women on the streets to be encouraged to protest, Ghosh thought: "How can we get the night back if it never belonged to us from the start?" Several other protesters also reported intimidation and harassment from men who disturbed the demonstration and told them they should go home.
This event was part of an increasing participation and leadership role of women in protests in South Asia, as activists and organizers emphasize. However, a gender -specific counter reaction to this wave, which tactics, which obviously aim to suppress female resistance, is also remarkable.
instruments of oppression
"Women have always been involved in protests in countries such as India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, but the difference is that they are increasingly taking on leadership roles and are the main actors," said Heather Barr, deputy director of the women's rights department of Human Rights Watch.
"In Afghanistan, for example, the only social resistance that the Taliban currently faces is that of women." Since the Kabuls case in 2021, women have seen how their rights, including the latest restrictions on their Voices in public.
an alarming picture
In India, rape is reported every 17 minutes, as the government statistics show. After a woman was raped and murdered on board a bus in 2012, the country was outraged and after a wave of massive protests, some changes to the rape laws were made. Nevertheless, women in India suffer sexual harassment every day, as Ghosh notes.
In Bangladesh, a student and political activist, Nazi Jannat, also sees herself exposed to daily harassment. She fears that the situation will not improve soon: "If you go on the street, you always have the feeling that eyes are resting on you, whether in a busy market or on an abandoned street." According to Deann Uyangoda, a protective coordinator in Asia-Pacific for the NGO Front Line Defenders, the role of women was becoming increasingly clear when shaping these protest dreams and in the organization and mobilization.
face of resistance
In Pakistan, Sammi Deen Baloch is one of the women who fight at the forefront. She was only 10 when her father, a doctor, was violently disappearing from the hospital in 2009. She has been fighting for his return since childhood and is now one of the faces of the movement against forced disappearance in Balochistan.
The less populated province, Pakistan's largest, is rich in natural resources and home of the strategically important Gwadar port. However, the agitated region also home to some of the most marginalized people in Pakistan who claim to be persecuted by the government as well as military and paramilitary forces.
In September alone, 43 cases forced to let disappear in Balochistan were reported, said the Human Rights Council of Balochistan in October.
confrontation and resistance
From November to January, around 200 women, together with children and some men, marched from Balochistan to Islamabad to protest against the murder of 24-year-old civilian Balaach Mola Bakshsh, who, as the protesters claim, was murdered by the authorities after his violent disappearance. When they arrived in the capital, the police claimed that they reacted with water cannons while the cold of winter was still tightening the situation.
"We have to protect ourselves," Akbar Nasir Khan, the police chief of Islamabad, told reporters when the protesters rejected the violence of the police. The women protested in Islamabad for almost a month, while monitoring cameras were installed around the protesting location and a highly male -dominated police presence was observed. Many women in Islamic facial veils or headscarves found this a clear attempt to use their modesty against them, said Baloch.
"We decide to wear a hijab or Nikab is an important sign of respect for us," said Baloch. "In our culture, women are always treated with a certain degree of dignity, and so we choose to present ourselves." During the sit-in, Baloch had to appear in front of TV cameras without covering her face after fake pictures were spread by her on social media.
monitoring and intimidation
The surveillance is another means of oppression that is used against the protesters. Baloch is used to being persecuted everywhere by men, both in civilian clothes and uniforms. "You want you to feel that you are being watched constantly," she said.
uyangoda reported that guns against the modesty of women or interventions in their privacy in South Asia are a recurring topic. Khadijah Shah, a fashion designer, experienced a similar fate that was one of the most prominent voices against the Former Prime Minister Imran Khan became last year during the protests. After months of political turbulence, Khan was arrested as prime minister for multiple accusations of corruption after his dismissal. The argument is still up to date.
threats and harassment
The counter -reactions were not long in coming. "My photo was divided everywhere, there were people who called up the police for rape and said I should be skinned alive," Shah recalled. She spent about eight months in prison before she was released against the deposit, with several charges being raised against her for participating in the protests. One of the worst intimidation tactics that she had to finish was threats to her family. She faced the authorities after the protests because they had arrested their father and brother.
"I think it is much easier to threaten the family of a woman because a male family member in patriarchal societies could believe that he can take control of a female member of his family," said Barr, adding that the threats themselves are "real and frightening".
a way forward
Earlier this summer Bangladesh was bangladesch from student protests , who were able to end 15 years of autocratic rule by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Jannat explained that many women, including her, played a leading role. "People are more willing to follow women, and more women are also confident enough to take the lead, regardless of what their family or society says," she added.
However, the participation was not without challenges. Many women who protested did so without family support. "I have a very close girlfriend, I saw the fear in her eyes that she would experience many setbacks if her family found out that she was involved in the protest," said Jannat. "This is a very common scenario."
"Many defenders bear loads and have responsibilities towards their communities and families," said Uyangoda. "Many defenders are supervisors, but I think human rights defenders may do this disproportionately." Nevertheless, they preferred to fight at the forefront. "We were at the top of the protests, our male comrades pushed forward because we thought that the paramilitary forces might hesitate to beat us," added Jannat.
But her gender did not protect them to the extent that they had hoped, and several protesting, including women, were attacked with trouble bumps during a march by the University of Dhaka in July. According to Uyangoda, all protesters have to take care of violence, but the women's defenders are also confronted with a constant "fear of sexual violence".
hope and perspective
Although Barr pays recognition to the female protesters who brought about changes in Bangladesh, she questions whether this can be reverse in the future. "How much voice will women have in the upcoming government remains to be seen, but we have to go from tokenistic individual representation to a collective representation," said Barr.
According to Uyangoda, the activists from the region are justified for this. "There will always be visible people in a movement. There are many other women behind these women, there are men, there are young people there." Barr sees a mixture of concern and hope. "Worldwide we are in an alarming phase in which it seems as if democracy decreases and authoritarianism increases. The attack on women's rights and LGBT rights is a central component of this plan," she said.
"But we see incredibly strong protest movements of women around the world ... they strengthen themselves instead of softening." Ghosh, Baloch, Shah and Jannat have one thing in common: Despite the counter -reactions they have experienced, they are only encouraged to continue to fight for their rights. "If not now, when?" asked Jannat. "I knew that this was an important moment for our nation and I had to get up, no matter what consequences it would have."