Women & Gender Studies in Pakistani Universities

Women & Gender Studies in Pakistan

Women & Gender Studies in Pakistani Universities

In a Roundtable of Study Group on Gender Issues (SGGI) with Dr. S M Zaman a renowned educationist in the chair, Director General IPS, Khalid Rahman reiterated the underlying idea of SGGI saying that whole exercise was meant to understand and promote the discussion on gender related issues with indigenous value framework, social behaviors and requirements in mind. He also elucidated the belief and resolve of the group that a balanced and all-inclusive development of the society was possible only through strengthened family institution.

In a Roundtable of Study Group on Gender Issues (SGGI) with Dr. S M Zaman a renowned educationist in the chair, Director General IPS, Khalid Rahman reiterated the underlying idea of SGGI saying that whole exercise was meant to understand and promote the discussion on gender related issues with indigenous value framework, social behaviors and requirements in mind. He also elucidated the belief and resolve of the group that a balanced and all-inclusive development of the society is possible only through strengthened family institution.
Dr.Riffat HaqDr. Riffat Haq, Head Gender and Women Studies Department in Allama Iqbal Open university shared her thoughts and experiences on ‘Gender and Women Studies in Pakistan: A Case Study of AIOU’. Following are the major points discussed during the session.
The subject and related theories evolved in the West and are generally being understood from those perspectives. The subject is being taught in Pakistani universities on the same pattern and with almost the same contents as in Europe and other countries. While knowing various perspectives is important, absence of content in indigenous context and by indigenous writers makes the whole exercise less relevant to the society. Pakistani society has its own peculiarities and there is need to develop indigenous material on the subject in local socio-cultural context keeping in view the requirements, aspirations, nature and behaviors of people of Pakistan as well as the belief and value system of the society.
Dr. Haq not only urged to integrate gender concerns in established disciplines of social sciences but also proposed to introduce it as an optional subject at secondary, intermediate  and bachelor’s level. Although there is dearth of native writing and reliable statistics but courses need to be conceived with an indigenous perspective. To avoid labeling of Westernization on the discipline and bring in Islamic feminist discourse parallel with liberal, radical, conservative and secular, she emphasized her concern is to develop feminist standpoint with local cultural context, intellectual context and representing dimensions of contemporary thought and consciousness.
Identification and determination of scope and gravity of issues that constitute topics of study in this discipline should be based upon objective research and actual realization of ground realities.
Efforts in this regard should be focused to strengthening the institution of family, which is a pre-requisite for establishing a model society.
Islam provides solutions to the contemporary challenges and there is need to bring the feminist thought and struggle in its paradigm. This would help the women right activists in gaining immediate and larger support in the society.
 As an underlying concept it should be kept in mind that the status and respective roles of male and female in the social life are not same but this must not cause anyone to think that either of the two genders is superior or inferior to the other. They complement each other and thus two halves make one whole.
Women or gender studies departments in the universities need to work closely with other departments and especially with the Islamic studies and law departments to promote inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches. This will help in understanding the gender-related issues in socio-cultural context and devise pragmatic approach for reformation.
Even in our society there are different shades of opinion on each issue despite the fact that they share a number of common features. All these shades should reflect in the indigenous discourse and agenda proposed to advance in achieving greater gender harmony should incorporate all such thought-sets.
A series of lectures may be conducted to articulate indigenous perspectives on topics of gender and women studies course.
 Concluding the session Dr. S M Zaman said that teaching the discipline in the national language would itself bring in the indigenous perspective; as foreign language brings the jargons and phraseology along with the meanings assigned to them in foreign society. The academics as well as the students discussing the issues of their concern in their own language would seek examples in their own lives and find the whole discourse a reflection of their real life.
There is a need to study different fields of knowledge in context of gender and highlight role of women in various fields of human activity. Number of examples of women taking active and essential part in developing and advancing human life even in non-traditional roles may be cited from our own tradition.  These need to be highlighted and it needs to be underscored that the society can be constructed so as to ensure enhanced participation of women in life without disintegrating the institution of family.
Thursday, May 21, 2009

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