May 20, 2018
By Faima Bakar
Feminism needs to include women of colour, (click here) Muslim women, disabled women, sex workers, trans women, gay women, queer women, fat women, skinny women. It needs to cater to all women. The fact that the term ‘intersectional feminism’ exists proves that the general movement is often exclusive and largely white.
Mainstream, western feminism isn’t always intersectional. There are feminists who often don’t realise or can’t relate to the fact that for women of colour, of different faiths, abilities, it’s not just gender that they’re discriminated on.
Such women are affected by these circumstances professionally, socially and mentally, and yet don’t always receive the help and support that’s needed. Issues are all too often seen through white lenses and how they affect white women, such as the gender pay gap, sexual harassment, eating disorders, and everyday sexism. We don’t see many platforms which seek out Muslim women’s experiences of these topics. Think of the countless articles, research pieces, features that looked at sexual assault, post #MeToo; how many of those included Muslim women’s stories? Given the wide scope of women affected by sexual misconduct, there were definitely Muslim women who were affected, so why have we not heard any of their voices?....
Make no mistake, Pakistan has grasped the woman's movement and is outpacing the USA in liberating from old ideology and oppression. There is a great deal of oppression in the USA since the regressive movement begun with "W." Women in the USA today actually have less freedom than their predecessors of the 1960s.
Civil rights in general in the USA has taken a nosedive, including the disruptive nature of the Supreme Court's decision regarding the Voting Rights Act. In response to many of the adverse elections, there is some movement as seen in Pennsylvania to return "the vote" to the people rather than it being held hostage by a political party through Gerrymandering.
With that reality, in many ways the women of Pakistan are outpacing their American sisters, thanks to the dedication and perseverance of Malala Yousafzai.
May 8, 2018
By Sherish Wasif
The National Assembly (click here) on Tuesday passed the controversial ‘The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018 which aims at helping the marginalised community to get their rights but has some provisions which are declared as un-Islamic by certain quarters.
Prior to the voting on the bill, which aims to ‘provide for protection, relief and rehabilitation of rights of the transgender persons’, MNA Naeema Kishwer of Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam (JUI-F) said there are some serious flaws in the bill that need to be rectified.
She suggested that the bill should be referred to the standing committee for detailed review and deliberation. She also moved a motion and amendments to refer the bill to Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) and the standing committee but these suggestions were rejected....
