ISLAMABAD, July 4: Can a writer who generally chooses themes relating to women’s problems and their status in society as her/his themes be called a feminist or can this adjective be applied only to a person who declares herself/himself a Feminist with a capital F?

Discussions on these age-old questions arose when Khalida Hussain, a well-known Urdu short story-writer, protested against her being labelled a ‘feminist’ by Dr Ghazala Anwar, a scholar now based in New Zealand, in her lecture at a meeting organized by the Rohtas Gallery.

“I am an opponent of feminism, while Ghazala has introduced me as a feminist,” said Ms Hussain.

She had written on various phases of woman’s life in the light of her own experiences and observations, although these were linked with feminism as a movement to highlight women issues, Ms Hussain added.

Nevertheless, Ms Hussain thanked Dr Ghazala for illuminating aspects of her art which she had not known.

There was nothing new about a Pakistani intellectual waxing apologetic about a label that might denote some commitment beyond her ‘Wujood’ (entity). But, Dr Farzana Bari tried to allay whatever apprehensions the famous writer might have, saying that “feminism or any other ism, for that matter, was a mere framework for generalizing the connotations someone’s creativity and not necessarily a label”.

But, the more important question was whether an artist could dissociate himself from the universal implications of his/her creation even though it stemmed from particular experiences.

The former chairman of Academy of Letters, Iftikhar Arif, did not think that it was possible because even a single word written by a writer became immortal and became property of humanity at large.

But, it is a writer’s willingness to accept and associate with the universal import of his/her creation that distinguishes him/her between the likes of Faiz and Manto and other creators of literature.

As the concern for the survival of her own ‘Wujood’ is what triggers her to write, she has expressed the fear in her ‘Confession’ contained in her anthology ‘Darwazay’: ‘Whether a person would write something that would not go to waste is a matter of one’s fate’.

Earlier, Dr Ghazala, who obtained her Phd from Philadelphia University in Islamic Studies, said she started her quest for woman’s place in theology 10 years ago, but she found it absent.

But, even she appeared to be defensive when she said she did not identify herself as a feminist.

In response to a remark by Prof Khawaja Masud, she said one need not be a ‘Feminist’ in order to uphold women’s rights, just as one might subscribe to social revolution without necessarily labelling himself ‘Marxist’.

She, however, defined ‘feminism’ as the quest for human dignity of woman. What had fascinated her about Khalida’s stories was that she had written about various phases of woman’s life and how she got alienated from her body from childhood. Khalida had touched on these themes without being aware of their larger connotations and “that is why it is high literature”.

“You have left out love,” someone from the audience remarked. Love, she conceded, was one of the strongest human emotions, but its pre-requisite was equality.