The World Sindhi Institute

Speech by Ruki Baloch

EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN AND BALOCH SOCIETY

Today Balochistan is going through turmoil as a result of Islamabad’s policy of militarization and marginalization of the indigenous populace. The social, economic and political effects of the ongoing military operation on the civil society are devastating, especially for women and children. One such case in point is the mass exodus of 84,000 internally displaced people from the war torn areas of Kohlu and Dera Bugti. According to UNESCO, among the thousands of displaced families, 26,000 women and 33,000 children are forced to live in refugee camps under sub-human conditions without proper shelter, food and medicine. So far 76 fatalities, mostly children, have been reported in these camps, scattered in the districts of Quetta, Nasirabad and Jaffarabad. Islamabad is in complete denial of the realities and has blocked all aid to these suffering people of Balochistan by international aid agencies.

Society and culture in Balochistan has gone through several phases in history and so has the status of Baloch women. It may be hard to believe for someone unfamiliar with the social history of Balochistan but there was a time when women played an active role as peace-makers during the tribal wars. Some women like Banari, sister of Chakar Khan, chief of Baloch tribes, led the Baloch tribal army in war against Delhi in late 15^th century and won the throne for Moghul emperor Humayun.

The secular nature of the primitive tribal structure was the source of gender equality in Balochistan for centuries before the arrival of the ‘puritan brand of Islam’ (Deobandi) and the British colonial rule. The religious orthodoxy preached gender discrimination, while the British changed the primitive tribal set-up of collective land ownership into a feudal control of the land owned by the chieftain. This religio-economic mix later on was inherited by Pakistan as state policy of control and exploitation based on ethnic, religious and gender bias.

The Zia-ul-Haq period in Pakistan saw the collaboration and rise of military-mullah power linked to the Afghanistan situation and constitutional changes against religious minorities and women. Thus the resultant Jehadi culture became a hallmark of terrorism and violence against women promoted by the military-mullah alliance destroying the very basis of human creativity, growth and democracy. Dr. Shazia Khalid became a victim to forces of darkness cultivated by decades of state policy.

Despite the hardships, women of Balochistan are fighting back the decadent system maintained by the state as a borrowed tool of oppression from their colonial masters. Never before in the modern history of Balochistan, there has been such an upsurge of political activism among women across Balochistan – from Quetta to the coast of Makran - struggle against military atrocities is transcending the gender barrier.

 Probably the Baloch women have found their inner Banari, leading the way to battles against the enemies of equality and freedom. Today the morally bankrupt state of Pakistan and its twin evils of theocracy and military autocracy are responsible for all the crimes committed against women. If a woman was more independent in the medieval Baloch society then what good is this so-called modern state of Pakistan?

We cannot turn the tide back in time but we can always make a choice about the future – the future belongs to freedom – freedom from the state that has generated ideological, political and social basis for gender bias, discrimination and crime against women. Today, women’s liberation in Balochistan is connected with the broader question of national emancipation of the people from the yolk of religious conservatism and military adventurism.

Liberated woman of Balochistan is the mother of a free nation.