20 June 2004	Sunday	01 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

PESHAWAR, June 19: Women writers in the NWFP must play their role in getting rid of a docile and fear-bound image presently portrayed in the regional and Urdu literature, members of the Women Writer's Forum say.

They were speaking during a discussion on the 'Portrayal of women in literature' organized by the Aurat Foundation in collaboration with the Peshawar Press Club. A large number of prose writers and poets and members of the media participated.

Participants focused on the oppression and discrimination against women in society more than the role of women in literature as writers and as characters of novels, poems and short stories.

Atiya Hidayatullah, president of the Women Writers' Forum, said that the forum had been formed to seek out talented literary women in the NWFP.

"There is a need to stop portraying women as a downtrodden section of society in literature. The stereotypical characterization of oppressed women in literature should be replaced with a more aware character, fighting for her social rights," Ms Hidayatullah said.

Ms Sofia, a member of the forum, held women themselves responsible for their plight.

"As a mother, woman starts discriminating among her male and female children, sensitizing girls to discrimination from a very early age," she said.

"Highlighting women's problems in prose and poetry can help bring about a change in social attitudes," Mrs Mubashir, a prose writer and a teacher, said.

She said that women in both the West and the East were oppressed but their tales of miseries were not going to bring about any change, instead women should make a stand for their rights.

Nasir Ali Syed and Sajjad Babar were of the view that women themselves had played a role in the portrayal of women as the weaker lot of the society.

They said that women writers and poets like Ismat Chughtai, Amarta Pretam, Quratul Ain, Zaitoon Bano, Parveen Shakir, Ada Jaffery, Khalida Hussain, Khadija Mastoor, Nisar Aziz Butt and others had expressed their sensitivity to the women's issues through their writings.

Yousaf Reja Chishti said that apart from physiological differences, women were no different from men intellectually.

"Media can play a positive role in portraying women's multi- dimensional roles in literature and society. It is more of an issue of human rights than gender-based rights presently being advocated by some groups", said president of the Peshawar Press Club.