PESHAWAR: In Pakhtun belt between Pakistan and Afghanistan, there is a need to engage men in gender justice and girls’ education as they have been keeping girls from education and development.

“Men as gatekeepers mean that as long as they are not engaged and involved, the gate won’t open. Men in our patriarchal society would keep women behind closed doors,” says Aamir Jamal, associate professor of University of Calgary, Canada, while speaking at the review of his book here at Institute of Management Sciences, Hayatabad, on Tuesday.

The book titled ‘The Gatekeepers - Engaging Pashtun Men for Gender Justice and Girls’ Education’ was published by the Iqbal Institute for Research and Dialogue.

Says men in patriarchal society keep women behind closed doors

In the book based on his PhD thesis, the author said he had challenged the Western notions of women empowerment and development.

He challenged western notion about Pakhtun women as oppressed third world women saying he believed and even met strong Pakhtun women in many villages, who used the Holy Quran to challenge men in issues like inheritance.

Aamir Jamal explained how all in all the talk about gender justice ‘men’ was something that was missing.

”The Pakhtun man was missing. We are blaming men but we never asked what is going on in his mind. Why a father who loves his daughter feels protective and doesn’t want to send his daughter to school,” he said.

As a Pakhtun researcher, Aamir Jamal said he came to know how women empowerment and such terms used in the West were taken by men as a challenge to their authority and honour.

“Men do have dominance in our religio-patriarchal society. Then why not engage with them so their mindset is changed and ways open up for women’s education and equality. Sometime it is honour code or culture and at times, men use both to keep this gate of development closed for women.”

Giving examples from his own life as a Pakhtun man, Aamir Jamal said his mother was a great inspiration for him as she raised four sons and also got education. He said it was quite unjust that women like her never got appreciated by the families especially men.

The professor went on explaining why it was important to engage with men, earn their trust and involve them than challenging them to let the girls or daughters get education or ensure gender justice in a household.

He also blamed conflict and war to have damaged good cultural values.

“Pakhtun men and women have seen war and conflict and have been affected. In such situation, men feel more protective of the girls and don’t trust women rights based nongovernmental organisations and look upon them as foreign funded agents or invaders than angels of mercy. Only religious non-governmental organisations doing charity work are welcomed by the people affected by war.

“Women are the first victims of the conflict. Women are abused for the honour of men. There is a need for engaging with men. Making him ally would help open the gates for gender justice,” said Aamir Jamal.

The rigid interpretation of the religion about rights of women has also created gender injustice and religious scholars needed to be engaged so that they would explain rights of women, he said.

Engaging imams or religious scholars, material or evidences from the Holy Quran can help achieve gender justice in Pakhtun society. Culture was also not static and it changed and so was the Pakhtun culture changing too, said Aamir Jamal.

He said researches had shown that children didn’t develop rational thinking in an abusive and unjust home, so men needed to be engaged.

Students of IMS, who had read the book also shared their review of the book and appreciated that a book was written on the issues familiar to all Pakhtun and some recommendations were given to involve men in bringing gender justice and promote girls’ education.

Student Saba Gul said while some recommendation regarding the girls’ education were good, one wondered how practical steps would be possible in providing facilities and faculty to school when the ‘Taliban mentality’ persisted and schools were burnt down.

Another student, Abera Khattak, said she as a Pakhtun girl was familiar with barriers to the girls’ education and gender justice, and appreciated that book as it not only discussed the issues but also pointed out problems and their solutions.

Shahabuddin, another student, did not agree that when male Pakhtun leaders like Bacha Khan existed who propagated the girls’ education, Pakhtunwali was cited as a reason that forced men to protect their honour and not send their girls out to schools.

He said it might be men’s own narrow thinking and Pakhtunwali was not to blame.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2018