A panel of some of the most eminent women came up to the forefront in Asr’s Day Two of its celebratory conference on women in struggle together.

Zahida Hina, Neelum Hussain, Kishwar Naheed, Fatima Hasan and Sheen Farrukh related their experiences of the various phases of life.

“When I started out as a poet, all medium and idioms belonged to men,” said Kishwar Naheed wittily.

“They all said the form of ghazal meant a man speaking to a woman; so who is this woman who has come forward to talk to men? Thank God Fehmida Riaz soon came.”

With Riaz, who came up with a controversial poem, ‘Lao Apna Haath’, men were left shocked. Parveen Shakir with her romantic poetry was easily accepted, says Naheed.

“You see if a woman stays within the given ‘boundaries’ of society, she is said to be good. If she speaks out or asks questions or challenges the status quo she is regarded as rude and unruly, and a bad influence of other women. I was one of the latter.”

Other important women who stood out in poetry were Fatima Hassan and Nasreen Anjum Bhatti. Often women had to change their names or put in their initials only to pass the censor board. Later the censor board was cheated upon and original names were used just before printing.

“Soon some men began to write about women too. Unfortunately today, when men write about women, it is mostly about their mothers, as if that is the only woman they must express themselves about and the only form of woman seen,” she said.

Fatima Hasan said that Kishwar Naheed and Fehmida Riaz had set the stage for women many feminists did not understand where to exactly go.

Fatima Hasan said it was men who “allowed” a woman to behave or express in a certain way. “I thought this has to change,” she said. As she comes down to the present day and age, Fatima Hassan says she is happy to see that women are not silent anymore.

Zahida Hina said that the very first woman who was published in Urdu literature was Rasheedatun Nisa in 1881. She wrote about themes in her novels and writings including economic independence, equality etc.

“It is surprising the boldness that a woman of that era had,” said Hina. “Several women followed with a diversity of themes like romance, politics, society, economy and individuality and this whole aspect showed that they were struggling to tell people that we are living, breathing people, with identities who must be heard,” she said.

Even before A Hameed, the genre of gothic novel was introduced by Ms Abdul Qadir. Ismat Chughtai came up with controversial themes about lesbianism and rebels – women who were not accepted in society. About Quratulain Hyder once a teacher in a university stated that all the men together cannot compare with this one woman alone. Other women who were also remembered were Bano Qudsia, Altaf Fatima, Khalida Hussain, Nisar Aziz Butt, Nasira Sharma, Salma Awan, Bushra Aijaz, Neelum Ahmed Bashir, Hajra Masroor, Saeeda Gazdar, Nighat Hasan, Firdous Haider and Atiya Dawood.

Sheen Farrukh said women remained active in the media, theatre and poetry.

“At one time the only place where we could speak out was the Karachi Press Club,” she said. “Unfortunately, that place has been taken over by Jamiat and has been reduced to a hub of conservatism,” Sheen who worked in Akhbar-e-Khawateen said.

In her association with the Women’s Action Forum she says that an official from the National Press Trust labeled them as ‘a group of westernized women who were corrupting other women’.

“In the entire South Asian region, women’s issues do not sell, unless they are sensationalized. This is especially so in the countries’ vernacular languages. In Pakistan three main languages rule the roost in print media: Urdu, English and Sindhi. But while Sindhi is much freer and English is the best when it comes to women’s issues, Urdu papers are the worst. Also there are hardly any working women in these newspapers to highlight their own issues.”

Sheen concluded that because media houses were literally bought by certain parties or even institutions, media in Pakistan, contrary to public belief, was still not free.

Speaking about her work as a publisher and translator of feminist literature Neelum Hussain of Simorgh said, “I was impressed upon deeply by cultures of the west and the east, both of which I have been familiar with. That coupled with stories of partition, of which I have intense nostalgia led me to translate the novel “Aangun” by Khadija Masroor, and then followed by Zaheda Hina’s “Majrooh Na Raha, Pari Na Rahi”. Another book ‘Chalta Musafir’ also affected me greatly, which was about a feudal household in Bihar and was a very painful story.” — Xari Jalil