Why We Can’t Wait
Revisiting the monumental text on racial justice in America and how it can help us better understand the Women’s oppression and movement for equal rights in Pakistan
2021 witnessed the fourth Aurat March in Pakistan and not much seems to have changed since its inception in 2018. In fact the slurs, euphemistically called critiques, the demonisation and rejection by the vast strata of society seems to have increased the polarisation between the marchers and those opposing them. A disturbing binary has been introduced between religious propriety and what is happening in the march. Hiding behind their keyboards and protected by religion, the comments by self professed moralists dont refrain from rape and death threats. Religion is used to furhter legitimise and perpetuate rape culture by deeming any woman not living up to paksitani-muslim moral standards, a whore. Removing her humanity eases their conscience and facilitates the vilification and violation of her being and body. However hypocrtical, paradoxical and bigoted such weaponisation of religion may be, it poses a problem which women activists who live and work in Pakistani society must face and address.
After participating in the march I returned home with new hope. The collective experience of men and women of all classes coming together to fight violence against women and stand by each other was liberating and empowering. But once I returned home and opened my social media accounts I was greatly disturbed. I saw pictures of our performance at the march blasted all over the internet with the most vile and hateful comments one can imagine. While I was disappointed at how everything had been distorted and misappropriated I also understood that any resistance to the current structure had to be subversive. It also reaffirmed my belief that society is only trained to see women as sexualised objects, they are at the same time charming and threatening. As Simone says society can only understand women as sexualised objects of desire or in the role of a seductress. Or in a third instance elevate her to mother and saint the purest of all but not as human, never as a human.
As always when running from the world I sought refuge in reading. Fortunately the book I picked up was Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King, it comforted me and helped me cope and come to terms with the situation. I was surprised by how a book on black rights activism published in the mid-twentieth century can be a source of inspiration and guidance for feminist activism in todays Paksitan. I came to the realisation that In additon to our lived experiences as paksitani-muslim-feminist-activists we must also consult and reflect on the historical civil rights struggles of the past by other oppressed groups to improve our own strategy of resistance. To know that it might be crazy but it is not impossible. If being doubly triply marginalized african americans can unite and defeat the institution of segregation then women in Pakistan too can fight institutionalised sexism. If our black sisters being triply marginalised can fight for their rights and win them so can we. For so long we have been treated as chattel that when we demand our humanity we are labelled as wanting to be men, to be fighting against gods injunctions, to be whores and anarchists and the harbinger of earthquakes and the day of judgement. All of this seems plausible and logical but not the fact that a woman too is human and should not be denied basic human rights. The book taught me that we must reclaim religion. God is just and fair so how can he stand for the structure as it is? How can he be on the side of rapists, child molesters, acid throwers, daughter murderers and wife beaters? Why have we let these bigots take away from us our biggest source of comfort and strength. We must do away with patriarchal interpretations and reclaim God.
A remarkably profound and insightful book in which Martin Luther King (MLK) traces the trajectory of events which occurred during the Civil Rights Movements (CRM). Its focus is mainly on the city of Birmingham where the historical battle for racial justice against the tyrannical reign of the segregationist Bull Connor was fought and its subsequent culmination in the abolishment of segregation in 1964. The book also explains the ideology of non violence behind it and helps form a deeper understanding of the political and organizational tactics employed in the non violence movement. It further illustrates the practicalities of resistance politics, the hurdles that impeded the civil rights movements and how they were overcome.
Addiotionally it serves as a practical guidebook for community organizers and activists by teaching basics of mobilizing as well as organizing and instrumentalizing uncertainty and unpredictability to aid and further your cause. Successfully translating ideology into an organized movement is a phenomenal feat, a skill all activists seek to acquire.
Personally, I found myself drawing parallels between the oppression and struggles of blacks in America and the oppression and struggles of women in Pakistan. The current women’s movement faces a lot of the same problems, the politics within the movement and in its interaction with the state and civil society also closely resemble the patterns present in the CRM organisations of 60s. The debates that occur within Women’s Action Forum, Tehreek e Niswan, Women Democratic Front and Women’s Collective regarding aims, methodology, pace and technology of resistance echo those of the ones N.A.A.C.P, A.C.H.R and S.C.L.C.
‘There is no tactical theory so neat that a revolutionary struggle for a share of power can be won merely by pressing a row of buttons. Human beings with all their faults and strengths constitute the mechanism of a social movement. They must make mistakes and learn from them, make more mistakes and learn anew. They must taste defeat as well as success and discover how to live with each. Time and action are the teachers’
The prejudice, bias and exploitation entrenched in Pakistani society often legitimized by patriarchal interpretations of Islam or passed of as, now discredited, naturalistic explanations are distressingly siimilar to those present in the times of CRM which ingrained in people a sense of inferiority of blacks. Many blacks themselves internalized this inferiority and refused to fight for themselves because they did not believe they were worth fighting for. Not much different from how women in Pakistan have internalized their inferiority, their otherisation and their secondary status and role compared to men. Such beliefs were then reinforced by consistently depriving them of the resources and opportunities to be able to improve their situation and by closing all avenues of social mobility. This created a toxic cycle which fuelled this self fulfilling prophecy. As women are excluded from participating in decision making in the family or regarding their own lives, they grow up to have decision anxiety and having no experience of their own, adopt secondary opinions and views of the men in their lives. Later on given freedom or opportunity to exity. Why We Can’t Wait is a timeless marvel and a selfless gift. I have highlighted, marked and scribbled all over the margins and will keep referring back to it whenever I find myself on the verge of giving up, in need of inspiration or simple practical advice. There are times when it feels frustrating and giving up seems to be the only option, MLK and his books show that all great struggles had to go through emotional vicissitudes that we feel at an individual and collective level. decide for themselves they find themselves paralysed by indecision. The ‘result’ of exclusion is then used to label them and justified as the ‘cause’ of the exclusion. When translated into law these misogynistic beliefs have horrible consequences for women such as the testimony of one woman weighing half that of a man, denying her the right to own property and placing her at a disadvantage in inheritance.
Pakistani women are dehumanized by restricting womanhood to only one of its attributes ‘femininity’ as the blacks were reduced to ‘incivility’. Blacks were presented as dumbed down species, which needed the patronization and wisdom of the wise white man not unlike Pakistani women who are shown to be weak, defenceless, in need of protection from the Pakistani man. The Pakistani drama industry makes a mockery of womanhood, as minstrel shows did of Blacks. It constantly reinforces ‘helplessness’ and ‘victimisation’ in women. Although there are exceptions they are few and far apart. This occurs to an extent where being a woman becomes an inauthentic exhausting performance.
‘Punishment for any form of resistance or complaint about his condition could range from mutilation to death’
As MLK reminds us in the book that most blacks found themselves putting on a show for their white masters, trying to embody the attributes that would conform to the white ideal of a black person. An appeasing attitude which would put at ease the white man and placate the insecurity that arises out of guilt and unjust oppression of a people.
‘In Connors Birmingham’ the silent password was fear. It was a fear not only on the part of black oppressed but also in the hearts of the white oppressors, guilt was part of their fear.’
Then there is the dilemma of the moderate supporters, the friends who shun extremism and impatience and advocate moderation and compromise in seeking and demanding basic human rights. The damage done by those women who are blinded by their privilege and happen to be beneficiaries of the patriarchal structures. The argument they put forward is often that my husband/father/brother are all very nice and I do not want any more freedom. It is not about the goodness or badness of men, rather, despite that why should a structure be so abled as to grant one party extensive rights over the life and property of the other. Why leave it to chance and pray for the men in our lives to be good to be able exercise our freedoms? Instead why not change the structure where if the men are good all is well and if not then the vast majority of women who end up with bad men can be insured.
Martin Luther King addresses with wit and wisdom the micro and macro aggressions by the state and various attempts to quell any resistance. The arguments remain lucid despite their intricacy and complexity. It is a must read for community organizers and feminists activists in todays Pakistan.
