Gender Perspective to Conflict Coverage: The Role of Women Media persons1

By Maheen Adil Rashdi

Status of women in Pakistani Society

The status of Pakistani women is rather difficult to explain in a nutshell as there remains a great polarization because of the disparity in the different strata of society. Whereas women have been great achievers in fields of academia, sciences etc, there are those also who continue to be at a disadvantage and discriminated against. While in schools, colleges and even professional arenas it is now mostly women who get distinctions by beating their male counterparts on equal grounds, violence against women in communities and in the custody of law enforcement agencies continues to rise. But though, male domination in some cases has stripped women in smaller communities of all basic rights including the right to choose their marriage partner, there are those who have exceeded even Western standards of achievements. We can proudly claim to have one of the top architects in Pakistan as a woman. We have had top journalists as women and we have even had a woman Head of State. In fact it is interesting to note that South Asia can claim to have the highest number of women leaders – a claim no other region can make.

Areas of conflict in Pakistan

Areas of social conflict in Pakistan where gender bias prevails – are many.
The abhorrent custom of [so-called] ‘honour killings’; prevalent in the feudal areas is a shameful fact for Pakistan. These killings are carried out by men who assume that their wives, daughters or sisters have in some way contravened norms relating to the behaviour of women, which reflect on and damage a man's "honour". The fact that it is used to settle more mercenary disputes among rival men goes without saying.
What supports this contemptible custom in some way, is the Hudood Ordinance which has remained the ignoble thorn in our justice system, whence it was appended by a power hungry Head of State to use as a lever to gain political control.

History has recorded many sordid episodes, which tell the tale of the victimization of women with little or no means. Some of the most mentioned cases include a 13-year-old girl’s tale who was raped and made pregnant by an uncle and his son, and sentenced to a hundred lashes -- later reduced to 15 lashes because of her age. That was in 1980. As recent as May 2002, the case of Zafran Bibi from Kohat [in the Northwest Frontier province of Pakistan] made international headlines and the infamy of the Hudood Ordinance gave the foreign press enough spice to malign Islamic extremism at a time when Islamic fundamentalism was under heavy fire anyway. Zafran Bibi was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in a case, which was initially reported by her as rape at the hands of a neighbour.

The Western Press happily sensationalizes our ‘pagan’ customs and simply because of our inability for rational dialogue, the laws persist.
Recently I visited the women’s jail in Karachi for a report I was working on and I spoke to some of the inmates whose stories though recorded different series of events had one stark resemblance- they were ‘allegedly’ framed by men to achieve their powerful motives. Some whose husbands were killed in a family feud were made scapegoats by the in laws and are now serving sentences for a crime, they say they did not commit. Out of 241 inmates 69 are under trial prisoners booked for zina – that is illicit sex.
However, the Law Reforms Order, 2006 has seen the release of many of theses female prisoners from 55 jails all over Pakistan. But, unfortunately, this ruling which included release and offer of legal aid and protection to the women prisoners, even now does not accord a clear cut decree to the women arrested in cases of rape, nor has justice been defined for other so called honour crimes.
The 1973 Constitution of Pakistan grants equal rights and status to women in Pakistan. But in regions ruled by the Lords of the land there still exits the rule that women are not supposed/allowed to do certain things.
In the local bodies’ election held in 2001 in most North Western areas of Pakistan women were not only prevented from filing their election papers but also barred from casting their vote. In one constituency in Lower Dir, out of 204 seats reserved for women in the 34 union councils, 196 remained vacant, as only eight women managed to file their nomination papers.
It was declared by the rulers of the land that all religious rites of women candidates and voters including marriage ceremonies and funeral rites would be boycotted. Going a step further to ensure submission, these leaders declared that this ban would also extend to the families of all such women who violated the agreement against the participation of women in the elections.

Pakistan has also remained a transit country for the trafficking of women for domestic labour, forced marriage and prostitution. This form of slavery is organized by crime networks that span South Asia. Some women, both local and trafficked, are killed if they refuse to earn money in prostitution, while some are forced into prostitution by their husbands. This is one area which critically needs to be looked into since these women are most at a disadvantage, dealing with people whose ways are alien and a system which they have no clue about. Half of them don’t even know what they are doing in prison.


State of media and women in the media

Media is one profession, where the number of women has prominently risen. They have significantly changed attitudes of society concerning the pre-determined role of women by male chauvinists and have pointed out the injustices that women are going through. Though the status of media in Pakistan has traversed a rocky road because of the continuous political upheavals and successive Martial Laws where rulers have attempted to muzzle the press to establish their supremacy, Pakistani journalists, writers, editors and most press persons have striven against all odds to maintain the sanctity of the written word. I can say with conviction, that the little accountability that has been there throughout the army or civilian dictatorial rules has been the result of conscientious journalists working against all odds to uphold the truth. The present government of General Pervez Musharraf has more or less tolerated criticism and in fact even acted positively after media reports have exposed any event. Recent cases include that of Shaista Almani, who married a man of her choice from a different tribe against her family’s wishes and suffered humiliation from her own as well as her husband’s family. In fact her husband was forced to publicly divorce her under his own family’s pressure. The media took up the story of young Shaista and soon her cause became the cause of every politician who, because of the media blitz, wanted to go on record as her benefactor and supporter of women’s rights. She was offered every kind of support from the government and her case was registered and soon she was being offered police job, a house etc. According to last reports she was to be re-united with her husband who gave another statement that he was forcibly made to pronounce the divorce. This is just one recent example. There are many such cases where media with the support of local NGOs have helped the cause of suffering women.
And what is most commendable is that despite the technical constraints we have in Pakistan and in which most media persons have to operate, despite the added struggle against gender bias that female journalists have to deal with at work, women have established a niche for themselves. With violence and discrimination against women forming the social fabric of this patriarchal society, reporting on issues becomes a double-edged sword. Will the revelation of facts help the victim or make her more vulnerable to abuse by the society – is the question I would term as most important while reporting. Our role as journalists, editors and reporters should be to concentrate purely on facts. As mentioned earlier, being a patriarchal society, women are looked upon as inferior and not able to do all that men can do. Hence at times it is difficult to make inroads into conflict areas which are termed no man’s land. But women in Pakistan have turned out to be rather fearless and have made more of a mark in the field of journalism than men.

General reporting standards
Being a developing nation and having suffered years of suppression because of the continuous political upheavals, has innately made publishers somewhat cautious in Pakistan and as such our aggression in no way compares to that of the Western Press.
Nevertheless, at present, perhaps we are enjoying a freedom which we never had as electronic channels too have opened up locally and carry out many fearless investigative stories which do not tow governmental line. This kind of exposure was at one time unheard of in Pakistan where only the National News network spoke on behalf of the government. So with a freer hand accorded to the media, reporting level (especially in electronic media) has improved and investigative journalism has also increased in the daily newspapers (that used to be an exclusive domain of monthlies like Herald and Newsline).
The recent tragedy of the murder of two little girls in Karachi in which police officers were involved is one example of the important role the media played not only in highlighting the atrocious crime but in urging law enforcing agencies to take immediate and strict actions against the culprits. The ceaseless reports and news stories coming in every day were responsible for the notice taken by the government officials at all levels. But newspaper reporting quality still need to rise; now the access to information is often denied because of inadequate infrastructure (conveyance, equipment, correct investigative techniques etc.) and hence stories often are not up to the mark.

Gender sensitive reporting in Pakistan

Male journalists in our part of the world tend to sensationalize crimes against women which in my opinion is a crime in itself. In the case of gender reporting, judgements are often passed on the victims before the truth comes to light. And in our society once a woman’s name is sullied, her reputation cannot be redeemed. This is the most sensitive aspect of gender reporting in our part and one of the main reasons why crimes against women are not even registered at the police station by the victim or her family.

Ours is an orthodox society and sexual crimes involving women end up stigmatising a woman for life. In the rural areas where the Landlords reign and where crimes against women continue unabated, hardly any report is lodged. In such regions even domestic violence rate is high but that is also an aspect never reported. In fact even in the upper class strata (win which also domestic violence prevails) neither are the reports filed nor do the reports make it to the media network.
The main reason for keeping the crime a secret – even by the well wishers of the survivors – is that the media will take up the story and sensationalize the episode and do more harm than good.
This aspect of gender reporting is one which has baffled many worthy reporters and editors and it remains a challenge as to how best to approach such a situation in which only the guilty are brought to book and no further harm is suffered by the survivor. It is up to the media women not to let the survivor feel more vulnerable and to enable her to speak up against a common crime like domestic violence, which contributes to a high percentage of female death rates in Pakistan.
All that sometimes makes its way to the press is, ‘Woman dies after sustaining burns from a stove that burst’ and that’s the end of the story. Women in the lower class households are often killed this way under the smallest pretext – for not bringing enough dowry, for not producing a son, for not allowing the man to marry again, or any other such absurd reason.

The way forward

I feel that the greatest threat that media reporting is facing is the shadow of extremism which is also a major threat to the world of free media, not just Pakistan. Fixed perceptions need to be broken out of and pre-determined judgements never be allowed to cloud the quality of reportage.
As a Muslim I feel that given the widespread anti-Islamism unleashed particularly after 9/11, we now have a much more intricate conflict at hand in which we have to live in a world which sees Muslims as the ‘enemy’. From barbaric, fanatic, violent and militant to being inhuman, every negative implication is now freely being ascribed to Muslims by almost all western societies. And the root cause of this defamation lies in extremism which the West is inadvertently resorting to. This face of extremism that defiles truth by putting a colour to it is akin to a crime. What is also happening is that like many other ‘neo-political’ trends, the trend of ‘embedded’ reporters as witnessed during the Iraq War is also becoming fast an accepted deviation from the principles of journalism and news reporting. Spreading to our region it has now become a norm that during Press Conferences held for sensitive issues, only ‘certain reporters’ are allowed questions which are ‘pre-approved’ by the ‘concerned authority’. I would state this to be the height of ‘adulteration’ of honest journalism. And this is a stigma all honest media persons have to fight against. We cannot let any one nation’s policy to give Freedom of the Press and the citizen’s right to Free Information such a bizarre twist.
The lethargy of the silent majority, which believes in total honesty but which still does not fight against this form of extremism is not helping the cause of quality journalism. This apathy is not only giving enemies of peace more leeway to manoeuvre but it is enabling them to be heard above us.
It is imperative that positive moves are adopted by International forums like these where professionals like us pledge support. In our region we all desperately need to incorporate liberal values of freedom and peace for all and condemn violence of every nature – particularly against women. And as such everyone has a role to play.

An ideal society cannot exist until there is justice for all. But there is very little justice in this world of ours where unjust wars are being fought and vicious crimes are being committed all the time and hence, the role of media, in this more than unjust world of today is to incorporate liberal values of freedom, debate & consensus and peace. Hence as a whole, if the media bands together to support these values and raise a voice to condemn violence of every nature – particularly against women – we would have played a major role in the present day, to change the future of the world!


Maheen A. Rashdi is Karachi based freelance journalist