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June 23, 2002
REVIEWS: Looking for the sunshine
“Nasty, brutish and short” Thomas Hobbes’ memorable lines could well refer to the lives of many women living in the developing world. According to a World Bank report on Pakistan one in every 38 woman dies of pregnancy related causes, while only 62 per cent girls are enrolled in schools (compared to 80 per cent boys). Limited education, poor health and denied access to resources depress women’s quality of life, and hinder the economic growth of a country. May be Simone de Beauvoir is right after all, for many women are relegated to the position of “The second sex” (in fact they could be “The secondary sex”).
The first step towards improving their conditions is to understand their lives, dreams and tribulations. In Walls within walls, Anita Weiss, a professor of International Studies at Oregon, attempts to study the life histories of working women of the Old City of Lahore. Primarily using indepth interviews, she explores the lives of twelve women. These women worked either formally or informally and brought earning for their families. The data obtained are not only statistical facts and figures but also portraits of women of flesh and blood. They breathe, live, suffer and, most importantly, manage to convey their innermost thoughts and aspirations.
According to Weiss’s survey, women earn “usually less than seventy per cent of what the men earn for the same kind of full time work”. Economically, they contribute not only to the households but also to the country — in both the cases their contributions are unacknowledged and their empowerment level remains dismally low.
Each of the twelve women Weiss interviewed is a representative of many more voiceless, faceless beings (however, the problem of ‘reductionist fallacies’, where evidence based on individuals is used to draw conclusions about a group, has to be watched out for). Hasina is not alone in her plight when she says, “In the beginning he [her husband] used to complain that... I haven’t brought much dowry....When I was seven months pregnant with my first son, he beat me on my left forehead with a stick and I needed stitches.”
The problems narrated by these women, of poverty borne and hardship endured, are something many people would have heard before. These cases should not breed contempt but concern.
Weiss has divided Wall within walls into five chapters. The first chapter gives a brief introduction to the Walled City, while the second provides the life histories of the women and the third looks at their labour. Then there are conversations with the women about their images of power, visions of freedom and ways of survival. The final chapter looks at their future hopes, dreams and aspirations.
An interesting thought that comes up during the reading of this book is the notion these women, mostly living in the confines of their home, have about freedom they have or would like to possess. In The republic, Socrates in his allegory of the caves asked Glaucon if a person has lived in a cave all of his life would he/she know that there was a sun outside? And even if they managed to step out of the cave, they wouldn’t be able to grasp the significance of their action, to look at the sun or to enjoy its presence for “...when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him.”
In a different situation, mentioned by Prof Dr Jung, a group of soldiers after remaining in hiding in dark and isolated places for long refused to leave the dungeon for unknown fear. Same is the situation on the women’s part. Dr Martina Homer, an experimental psychologist at the University of Michigan, calls it ‘will to fail’ on the part of women.
Although Socrates postulated the hypothesis in theological garb, the analogy holds true about the women Weiss interviewed — living a veiled existence in a walled city. Some of the women interviewed, despite their economic difficulties would not like to go out to work. One respondent, Amina, subscribed to the view that women who have to go out to work lose all respect. “There is no izzat in being a bank teller either. If she has to work besides men, that’s not good...Really, no work that a woman has to do outside the house can be good.”
Another woman says, ‘burqa’ should be worn as too much of a figure can be seen through the ‘chaddar’. The cultural conditioning and the notion of ‘izzat’ intrinsically linked with a woman’s freedom, her movements outside of the house, or the clothes that she wears, work as a means of mental cohesion. It also serves as a tool of exploitation — by men in their households as well as by the society. As they work from their homes, and have limited interaction with the outside world, they earn appreciably less than men for the same task.
Trying to understand the thoughts, dreams or struggles of a group of people is an arduous task, full of pitfalls. Critics argue that the whole process is extremely subjective. As with an ideographic approach the results become difficult to replicate and the efforts are occasionally labelled ‘unscientific’. Nevertheless, when the interviewer immerses herself in a group of people and through indepth interviews tries to draw out their thoughts, the data generated is rich with insights into the human nature.
Such is the case with Walls within walls, which allows the reader an opportunity to look at and try to understand what life is like for working women living in the Old City of Lahore. These narrations evoke a reality that needs to be confronted if Pakistan wants to achieve any semblance of progress.
Walls within walls: life histories of working women in the Old City of Lahore
By Anita Weiss
Oxford University Press, 5 Bangalore Town, Sharae Faisal, Karachi-75350
Tel: 021-4529025.
Email: ouppak@theoffice.net
ISBN 0-19-579761-2
201pp. Rs525
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