feminists-from-pakistan

"If God is merciful and just, do you think it would be the will of God that you should have no rights, that you should be beaten and brutalized and have no opportunity to study?"

"They have been an incredible host. They have achieved so much in gender equality. Again, we see some differences with them and they see some differences with us, but we've been always approaching this with them over the last year and a half that we've been having these discussions."

"“I am thrilled to join Women Deliver as President and CEO. I am an ardent feminist and have been working to advance the rights of girls and women, and to implement gender transformative initiatives, throughout my career. I am looking forward to continuing Women Deliver’s important role as a champion of gender equality advocates to realize the rights of all girls and women, not least their sexual and reproductive health and rights. This space is more important than ever to bridge the distance and disconnect that the world has faced over the last two years,”"

"“Where they would say, we are going to do this and I would say, oh gosh, I wouldn't and then we say, okay, I understand that's the direction you're going and I will disagree, but I will commit and we will do it together. I will say to their huge credit; they have done the same with us. We have said we are going to bring in global people from all over the world and they said, anyone is welcome a hundred percent we will give them visas."

"“Gender Equality cannot be achieved without free and open spaces. Spaces that are accessible, spaces that are inviting and inclusive. The Women Deliver Conference is one of those spaces. There are other spaces that need to be accessible for girls and women to live in while pursuing their goals. However, these spaces are often under the control of governments, families, and existing policies. To achieve gender equality it’s important that these spaces remain open and democratic, and remain respectful to every individual despite identity,”"

"A woman is any person who identifies as a woman, has been identified by others as a girl or a woman, and has the lived reality of what it is to be a girl or a woman. This is who we are including in our spaces and that is who we are trying to fight for,”"

"KP has yet to legislate about early marriages and domestic violence though Punjab and Sindh have already passed laws to stop domestic violence against women,”"

"PTI's parliamentary board does not have any representation of Hazaras," she said. "I was invited to the meeting but I [deliberately] did not go."

"All decisions of the party are being taken from Peshawar," she said, criticising the alleged lack of decentralisation in the PTI's decision-making."

"If the proportion of seats is considered then the Hazara region should get three seats, Peshawar should get six, the south region should get two seats and the Malakand region should be allotted three seats,"

"I never sold [my vote] for money and never intend to,"

"“We want to play an active role in the assembly. We will focus on the issues of the women and special persons,”"

"I should be given a seat in the cabinet. I want to work for the people of our province,” Momina Basit told The News. “I joined PTI in 2011. I played a key role in organising the women wings at tehsil and district levels in Hazara division. I also served as president of the party’s women wings at tehsil and division level,”"

"If we want to achieve what we want to achieve, we will often have to partner with and talk to people that we don't agree with on many things. Personally, I agree with very little that President Novák, believes in, espouses, or takes forward. I'm sure she agrees with very little that I believe in,"

"Not only do these (Blasphemy) laws have no religious standing in Islam, they are repugnant to the basic principles of justice, equality and human rights in addition to challenging the basic spirit of the Constitution of Pakistan which guarantees equal rights to all citizens."

""...Sirmed and Sayed tried to defend United States Embassy's decision to invite members of LGBT community to the event. ..... The comment section of this youtube video was brief but filled with hatred against Sirmed and Sayed...and Sirmed was called a "randi" (a prostitute) for defending gays and distorting the image of Islam."

"But - and alas, there is a but- I don't believe it is in Pakistan's best interest to be the country whose armed forces consume the largest percentage of national income of any military in the world.I don't believe it is in Pakistan's interest to adopt a policy of seeking 'strategic depth' by destabilizing it's neighbors.I don't believe it is in Pakistan's best interest to try to wrest Kashmir from India by fair means or foul.I don't believe it is in Pakistan's best interest to be the cradle and crucible of militant Islamist terrorism.I don't believe it's in Pakistan's best interest to be a country where no elected civilian government has ever served a full term. And I do believe that any Pakistani liberal worth the name (take a bow, Marvi Sirmed) should have no difficulty in agreeing with any of these propositions."

""" is an issue that is relevant to Pakistani women across all classes. When a woman is killed in the name of "honor," her body is attacked; when a woman is denied the right to choose her partner, her body and her choice are compromised; and when a woman faces domestic violence, her body is attacked. All other issues that our "Aurat March" (women's march) raised are equally important, but they all emanate from a deep-rooted misogyny in our society. Women do not have the agency over their own bodies and that is the main issue, in my opinion."

"“My body, my choice,” means that no society can wage their wars at the expense of a woman’s body. We ask the men not to use our bodies for their ghairat or honor. We ask them to stop killing us in the name of honor and give us the right to say no because we have the right to say no to anything that we don’t feel comfortable with......We must have the right to say that we can’t tolerate sexual harassment and to say no to decisions regarding our marriages by other [family members]. Our religion gives us the right to choose our life partner, so why not society?....Further, we have the right not to be judged on the basis of our physical appearance..."

"I, who standing at the crossroad, Wish to return to my curve. He, who’s stuck in the blood, Desires to live a bit more … With the wall the shadow might have become one, As the grieves are soothing in the ocean. Thou steal the sunshine even from the setting sun, I rather evade the little darkness of the dawn. And the weary star of the daybreak, When left all alone on the firmament, I regard that moment. Each passing day on this earth Does sever a part of my years."

"At the bosom of the heaven, The woe keeps on spinning the wheel. The Milestone accompanies for hours, But the journey doesn’t end anywhere. The night is ready to meet the dawn, But my distance is not yet over. My children’s misfortunes Have stained my clothes, And the aloneness continues to lick my blood. The straws I gather from the ridge of the suburb, The Sun transforms them into the woes. It’s the eyes, that caused my dreams to burn, I remain under the sneaky watch of my own coffin."

"I woke up that night to the screams of women. I don’t know when I’d fallen asleep, or passed out, but when I woke up, the manic, lost, women were all around me, walking, shambling. I remember that night, my first night in this asylum – I had retreated into the corner, into the shadows, and looked through the bars, bars that had been chained with many locks. The locks were like eyes: the eyes of a man’s vigilance. As I focused, the lock slowly extended to reveal the form of a man, a man sprawling on the bed: I thought of the violence of beds, of my marriage. The man on this bed was my husband – a man who used to beat me metal-blue to eliminate his fear of women. There were other ways of elimination: polishing his black boots and making them shine, washing his clothes, suspending them onto a hanging wire. And the starvation. And the rising lilt of his family’s voices: awaara. A cuss word, a slap – his marriage to me? – The violence of a mongering dog, his teeth digging into my flesh. His skin the color of a chameleon turned blue. Me? I was a churi, a glass bangle. The house? The impersonation of a ghetto. My agency, his anger. So I ran. I ran to a divorce, yes, and I reached my destination after six months of torture. But the six months led to psychosis. So my mother dragged me here, to this mental asylum. Then I woke up, that night, to the screams of women."

"He grabbed me. We got into a terrible fight. My verdict was given: “You will now be given an electric shock, Shagufta. We need to calm you down.” I tore away, and ran to the other side of the asylum, and on one of its walls, I wrote: “Nazi Camp.” He began grinning."

"This evening, I am being released. I sit in the courtyard of the Psychiatric Asylum and write this. Half an hour ago, the women bid me farewell; they gathered about me: we all began crying together in loud, mournful tones. The eye on the lock shut itself: the door was opened. They stood clinging to the bars, still crying. I turned and asked, perplexed: “Aren’t you happy for me girls? I’m finally free.” “No Sara Shagufta.” They spoke, almost in one voice. “Don’t you know? You’re now stepping into the real mental asylum.”"

"She awakens by the touch of the hunger, The snapping of the boughs, Yet two-draughts thirst more. God offers hunger, In how many flavours."