(Yoshie) Not necessarily. As feminisms and environmentalisms are
contradictory social phenomena, they can go left or right or middle-of-the-road. Some versions of feminism and environmentalism are congenial to religious fundamentalism, and vice versa; other versions of feminism and environmentalism are now integral to liberal imperialism, and vice versa; yet other versions are compatible with Marxism and other kinds of left-wing theory and practice. Here's a case of Vandana Shiva -- a noted feminist environmentalist -- and the Bharatiya Janata Party: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fighting for women in Pakistan Politician seeks to raise status of her gender Juliette Terzieff, Chronicle Foreign Service Tuesday, November 12, 2002 ©2002 San Francisco Chronicle.
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/11/12/MN174736.DTL
Lahore, Pakistan -- Armed with a cell phone, a briefcase and a head scarf, Raheel Qazi is one of 60 women elected to the new National Assembly. And although her hair will be covered, her voice will be heard loud and clear.
The 37-year-old daughter of fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami Party leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed says she will embark on a singular mission -- to elevate the status of women within the Islamic model and spearhead efforts to convince skeptical Pakistanis and Westerners that religious conservatism is not synonymous with oppression.
"Many people outside the Muslim world do not see the difference between moderate Muslims and extremists," said Qazi, who represents a coalition of six religious parties known as the United Action Forum (UAF). "And the truth is: Observance does not equal terror."
In the National Assembly, which is scheduled to convene Friday for the first time since 1999, Qazi says she will work to reform the controversial Hudood ordinances -- Islamic laws that demand the testimony of four male witnesses for a rape conviction. Islamic scholars argue that the requirement is needed because a guilty conviction requires capital punishment.
"These are the laws of God, but the implementation is all screwy," said Qazi, in reference to women who charge rape and are often imprisoned for having extramarital sex, also punishable under the Hudood laws.
As a member of her party's Women's Commission, Qazi has visited dozens of jails over the last decade, chronicling the plight of women wrongly accused.
"Since hundreds of innocent women are suffering in our jails," said Qazi, "we have to review and reform the law."
Qazi says female United Action Forum deputies will also seek to reform domestic abuse laws that basically allow men to beat their wives without fear of arrest, reinstate the rights of women to inherit property and receive an equitable divorce settlement, and end honor killings and child marriages.
"These things are not Islamic," Qazi insisted. "Men and women were created to operate as a unit, respecting and cooperating with each other."
Sitting in the drawing room of her Lahore home, the cherub-faced mother of two represents the softer side of the United Action Forum, which won unprecedented gains in last month's national elections on an anti-American platform. Their victory sent shock waves throughout Western capitals.
The coalition is now the parliament's third-largest bloc and has total control over the legislature in the Northwest Frontier Province along the border with Afghanistan.
Since the election, speculation has been raised that the United Action Forum will ban cable television and coed institutions and implement strict Muslim law. Forum activists have already removed sexually suggestive movie posters from video rental stores in the northwest province and have encouraged theater owners there to stop showing movies from India and the United States.
"I used to wake up every morning knowing that I enjoy the same kind of freedom as women in the West, but now I am afraid," said Samina Rasool, a student at Lahore's Punjab University. "I do not want to live in fear of being rebuked, slapped and forced into doing something that I don't like."
Such sentiment has prompted the United Action Forum to launch an ambitious public relations campaign to mollify fears and further the chances of their candidate for prime minister, Falzur Rehman, who heads Pakistan's largest religious party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam.
"There is nothing to be afraid of," said Qazi.
And some political analysts agree.
"These people have been in politics for decades, and they know the game," said Ayesha Haroon, editor of the national daily the Nation. "They are savvy enough to know how hard, and where, to push. The leadership understands the confines of operating on a world stage."
With her painted toenails, high-heel shoes and easygoing manner, Qazi paints a comforting picture of a modern, intelligent and educated spokeswoman for the Islamic cause.
But some analysts say she will have trouble convincing United Action Forum detractors.
Rehman and many other prominent Forum leaders are supporters of the brand of Islam practiced by Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, and they publicly oppose President Pervez Musharraf's alliance with the U.S.-led war on terror, branding him a stooge of Washington. They also want an end to U.S.-Pakistani searches for Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in Pakistan.
More recently, Qazi's father, the firebrand Ahmed, unleashed a hailstorm of criticism after he told a gathering of women in Peshawar that coed education would be abolished. He spoke from behind a curtain so they couldn't see him.
"Coed education is not the issue, education is the issue," said Qazi in defense of her father. "Many women in the frontier are kept from schools because their families don't want them educated (with boys). We will ensure women have proper access to exclusively female institutions."
Nasreen Baig, principal of the Jamaat-i-Islami-financed Baithak School in Lahore, whose 450 male and female students study together, says the furor over education is fueled by Western media propaganda and corrupt politicians.
"Education for women is enshrined in Islam," she said. "Not only do we have nothing against educating girls, we actively encourage their participation by including illiterate mothers in the teaching programs."
Meanwhile, at a meeting of female legislators in the Northwest Frontier Province provincial assembly last week, United Action Forum members pledged to encourage their colleagues to cover themselves with the head-to-toe burqa, but insist it will not be mandatory.
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle. Page A - 8