Banok Karima: the Baloch Leila Khaled

By Malik Siraj Akbar


The Frontier Corps (FC) injured several political activists and one journalist in Turbat district on Friday in a clash in front of headquarters of Mekran Scouts in a sit-in that demanded the release of a freshly arrested Baloch writer and his son in Thump area.

According to the details, hundreds of Baloch women hailing from four towns of Turbat staged a sit-in in front of the district headquarter of the Mekran Scouts, a wing of the Frontier Corps (FC), to condemn the raid and subsequent arrest of a prominent Balochi language writer Ali Jan Quomi and his son Mujahid Quomi.

The raid had taken place in Thump area at Sehri times after the killing of two personnel of the Frontier Corps in an attack by the activists of the Baloch Republican Army (BRA) in the same area. The attack on the FC team had also killed one of the attackers, Mir Jan Meeral, who was identified as a renowned Balochi language poet.

Karima Baloch, who led the rally, told this writer that the Baloch women had taken out a peaceful demonstration in front of the FC headquarters in Turbat to condemn the raid on the house of Quomi who had been shifted to an unknown location along with his young son.

Over the years, Karima Baloch has emerged as the Leila Khaled of Balochistan. On June 3, 2009, an anti terrorist court sentenced her for three years and imposed a penalty of 150 thousand Pakistani rupees under section 123,124 of Pakistan’s law. She rose as a steadfast face of resistance in the Baloch movement after actively campaigning for the release of all missing persons in Balochistan along with the female leaders of Baloch Women’s Panel. In fact, the Baloch Women’s Panel comprises of women from Balochistan whose relatives went “missing’’ during the military regime of Pervez Musharraf. They are still striving to get their beloved relatives resurfaced.

Restrictions and punishments have not deterred the spirit of Karima Banok as she mobilized the women of Thump to come on the streets to protest the arrest of a Balochi language writer and his son.

I must confess that Mand is the land of brave Baloch daughters. Its daughters have impressively brightened the name of this small Pak-Iran border town. For some Zubida Jalal, the former federal education minister and a current member of Pakistan’s National Assembly, and for the revolutionaries Banok Karima Baloch are role models. History cannot overlook both these brave daughters of Mand who rose from middle class families and got themselves recognized across the country and internationally. Mind you, the Zubida Jalal who remarkably impressed me is the one who ran a school for Baloch girls in her highly backward area, not the one who consolidated the hands of a military dictator who killed hundreds of people in Balochistan.

Karima Baloch and Zubida surely harbor divergent views and have conflicting destinations. What I see common in both of them is the steadfast pursuance of their mission for their own people. They accomplished such goals which even many Baloch men could not do so.

“We were annoyed over the manhandling of Baloch women by the FC during the raid on the house of Ali Jan. We did not provoke the FC officials but pressed them to meet our demands. However, the FC men resorted to baton charge, shelling and use of clubs against all the protestors,” Karima told me on the phone

According to her, the arrest Balochi writer, who is also a government teacher, was a patient of diabetes and had recently retuned to his home town after getting treated in Karachi. However, he had to go back to Karachi on August 11 for further medical check-up. While the FC has handed Ali to the local police, the whereabouts of his son are unknown.

According to eyewitnesses, several women and children fell unconscious after teargas was used by the FC. A 14-year old girl was shifted to hospital for immediate medical treatment after she fell unconscious.

“The people of our area are tired of the constant harassment by the Frontier Corps and the Anti-Terrorist Force. They are increasing their deployment in the area and causing problems for the masses without any justification,” she complained, adding that the forces had recently unleashed a military operation in the Pak-Iran border town of Mand with the help of Iranian army and helicopters.

“The Iranian officials are also engaged in the military operation. Several eyewitnesses have told us that the officials busy in the operation spoke Persian which shows that the operation in the area is being conducted jointly by the Pakistani and Iranian forces,” alleged Karima, who was recently convicted by a Quetta-court of treason for delivering anti-Pakistan speeches.

A spokesman for the FC contradicted Karima Baloch’s allegations that the opening of tear gases on the protestors was unprovoked. Murtaza Baig, the spokesman, said the FC had to resort to tear gas shelling only when the women attempted to enter inside the FC camp from gate number three. He denied the reports that any female protestor had been injured in the clash.

During the clash between the FC personnel and female protestors, a local journalist Irshad Akhtar was badly beaten up by the FC personnel and his video camera was snatched by the authorities.

“I was performing my duty as a reporter-cum-cameraman when the FC personnel started to beat me. They dragged me and wanted to take me inside their camp until the protesting women intervened and helped to save me. I was left with many injuries,” Akhtar told scribe. He complained that the FC authorities had refused to return his camera which included the images and video clips of the protest demonstration.

Meanwhile, a journalists’ body in Turbat has strongly condemned the torture of Akhtar and preventing him from performing his duty. The journalists’ organization in Turbat demanded the return of the camera of Akhtar and asked the FC to apologize for its attitude towards journalists who become victims while performing their official duty.

Karami Baloch, the leader of the rally, confirmed with Daily Times that the journalist was beaten more brutally than the protestors.

Situation in Turbat district remained completely tense after the clash between women and the FC as the entire bazaar remained shut and traffic in the area remained thinner than the usual days.

Baloch Sister (Part 1)

Baloch Sister (Part 2)

Baloch Sister (Part 2)

Baloch Woman's Interview with BBC Urdu Radio Program

Mental harassment of Baloch women

By Parveen Naz

Balochistan is the largest but poorest part of Pakistan. The basic facilities of life are not available to the richest province of Pakistan. Education ratio is very low. Especially, very few women avail educational facilities. As a result, women rarely get employment opportunities to become socially and economically empowered.

In the last ten years, the political movement in the province has created opportunities for Baloch women. They have also been enabled tthem to participate in the political movement and other national activities. Very few ladies in Balochistan are empowered and not only know about their rights but also working for the welfare of other Baloch woman and human beings. Nosheen Qambrani is one such Baloch woman.

Nosheen is the daughter of prominent writer and intellectual of Balochistan, Nadir Qambrani, who returned his presidential award in protest to the military operation launched in Balochistan during Pervez Musharaf’s repressive military regime. Nosheen is also a well known poet in Balochistan. She did her masters in English literature from university of Balochsitan. She has a lot of experience in social field.

On the basis of her vast experience, South Asian Partnership Program (SAPP) offered her the designation of Provincial Coordinator. She was serving here more then 2 years; when in the last of 2008 SAPP arranged a training workshop at Lahore, the capital of Punjab, Nosheen organized a group of young Baloch activists for participation. According to some of the participants who attended the training program in Lahore, they were ridiculed by their hosts in Lahore over wearing their traditional suit and the Punjabi member of SAPP added to their affront.

This soon caused a controversy inside the organization. Some Baloch youngsters, who felt offended, wrote a couple of pieces on this issue on their return to Pakistan. SAPP’s management assumed that these write-ups were the brainchild of Nosheen Qambrani because she has nationalistic inclinations and works for the rights of the Baloch people.

In the meanwhile, some non-Baloch colleagues of Nosheen wrote letters to sensitive government intelligence agency complaining that Nosheen is a militant Baloch who is secretly working as a commander of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and she is using the assets of the organization to assist the Baloch militants.

Believing these false allegations, the management of SAPP decided to dismiss her and the case went to the secrete intelligence agency. It was sheer harassment of courageous, educated Baloch woman whom her opponents did not to see progress in her organizations. When they did find other means to get her expelled from her organization, they cooked up a story and branded her as a militant activist. Nosheen’s is not the only story. Scores of Baloch youths, males and females, are losing their jobs with their respective organizations on the basis of similar false charges.

As the propaganda against Nosheen intensified, she had to go through severe mental pain as it was the same time when she become the mother of a cute baby. It is very easy to point out that women do not come out of their homes and perform jobs but given Nosheen’s tale, one needs to understand what issues of harassment Baloch women actually face. Imagin the level of betrayal: While Nosheen went on maternity leave, her organization decided to unceremoniously dismiss her.

Later on, an official of the same agency told Noahseen, “ We know you have a little baby. So be a mother not a revolutionary”. In spite of having her fired from her job, the government functionaries keep still regularly observing her activities and disturb her personal life. They threaten her husband and relatives too. As a last resort, Nosheen was compelled to leave Balochistan and shift abroad last year.

Given these circumstances, one wonders how Baloch women can have a social life or do jobs as the influence of the state intelligence agencies has crossed all limits of decency. They do not tolerate educated Baloch women who have dissenting political views. As long as such cases of harassment take place against Baloch women, the world must know what basically is wrong with the women of Balochistan who are so thinly represented in different organizations.

http://thebalochhal.com/2010/05/mental-harassment-of-baloch-women/

State of women in Balochistan

State of women in Balochistan
Thursday, April 17, 2008
by Sanaullah Baloch

In spite of being commonly liberal, politically conscious, and culturally well-endowed, resource-rich Balochistan is Pakistan's least-developed province with high rates of infant and maternal mortality, poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition.

Although are suffering due to the inflexible culture, customs and practices throughout Pakistan women, there is a larger story to tell about the state-sponsored discrimination against women in Balochistan.

From the beginning Islamabad has outrageously tried to cover up its ill-conceived and discriminatory policies by blaming the Baloch themselves for their appalling state. However, facts and findings on health, education, communication, political empowerment and economic development clearly indicate that human development in Balochistan has been deliberately ignored by successive central governments, to gain strategic benefits out of the vast and geostrategic location of the province and its immense resources. Women are discriminated against in the country at large. But in Balochistan they are discriminated against by state. They have no access to enabling opportunities required for the empowerment of women in any modern and civilised society.

Under Article 25 of the Constitution, and of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), women are entitled to a number of economic and social rights, such as rights to food, social security, housing, education, an adequate standard of living, and healthcare. But policy commitments have hardly been translated in to practice.

The endless military operation, internal displacement, disappearances, intimidation and the prolonged Baloch-Islamabad conflict are hitting hard the already deprived women in the province. Central government discriminatory policy is not only resulting in slowdown of gender empowerment but its effecting overall social and economic development process in province.

The most devastating consequence of underdevelopment in any society is a high fatality rate. Balochistan has highest infant and maternal mortality ratio (MMR), compared to that many Asian and African underdeveloped countries. For example, the MMR in Karachi is 281 compared to 673 in rural Balochistan. Pakistan's chief planning health officer told IRIN in June 2007 that "the maternal mortality ratio is 650 per 100,000 live births in Balochistan - nearly two times the national average,".

The increasing rate of preventable maternal mortality is a symptom of the larger social injustice of discrimination against women and violation of women's human rights. Thousands of avoidable maternal deaths each year indicate the government's unfaithfulness to domestic and international laws. The expert has indicated the basic lack of safe drinking water and sanitation as major cause of infant and maternal mortality in the province. The Pakistan Living Standard Measurement Survey (PSLM), 2004-5, identifies sharp a interprovincial disparity with regard to access to safe drinking water. Reports state that 52 per cent of the population in Balochistan uses wells and open ponds for drinking water, compared to three per cent in Punjab, 13 per cent in Sindh and 35 per cent in NWFP. Balochistan's women played a vital political and human rights role during the current conflict in the province. The Baloch Women's Panel very bravely organised a number of protests, rallies and sit-ins in front of the press clubs in Quetta, Karachi and Turbat against arbitrary arrests and for the release of missing Baloch activists.

Despite being a signatory of major international conventions, Islamabad continues to ignore the basic rights of women to education in Balochistan. Planned discrimination remains to deprive the majority of girls the right to knowledge in Balochistan.

Access to all levels of education is crucial to empowering women and girls to participate in economic, social and political life of their societies. Education unlocks a woman's potential, and is accompanied by improvements in health, nutrition, and well-being of their families. The PSLM survey reported alarming regional disparity in education sector. According to the survey only 27 per cent of the students in Balochistan complete primary or higher education, compare to 64 per cent in Punjab. The increasing dropout rate is due to the unavailability of middle- and high schools.

Islamabad is totally inactive and ignorant about the need to reduce or remove the interprovincial gender disparity and bring the neglected women of Balochistan at par with rest of the provinces. Interprovincial gender inequality in employment sector is unspeakable. According to State Bank of Pakistan's 2005-06 report Balochistan and the NWFP have the highest rate of female unemployment rate of 27 per cent and 29 per cent, compared to seven per cent and 20 per cent for Punjab and Sindh.

A large number of women's vocational and training centres in Punjab make women more capable and confident to qualify for market jobs. Punjab has 111 women's vocational institutes, however Balochistan has only one. Due to the lack of girls' schools in the province only 23 per cent rural girls are lucky enough to be enrolled in primary as compared to 47 per cent in rural Punjab. In fact, acute poverty at the margin appeared to be hitting hardest at women. As long as women's access to healthcare, education, and training remain limited, prospects for improved social status of female population will remains bleak.

The Social Policy Development Centre 2005 report discovered that the percentage of the population living in a high degree of deprivation stands at 88 per cent in Balochistan, 51 per cent in the NWFP, 49 per cent in Sindh and 25 per cent in Punjab. According to poverty-related reports the percentage of the population living below the poverty line stands at 63 per cent in Balochistan, 26 per cent in Punjab, 29 per cent in the NWFP and 38 per cent in Sindh.

No development policy could succeed unless it is based on the needs and participation of people in the process. In Balochistan's case, what people need is socio-economic development, political empowerment, clean drinking water, electricity, practical education, basic health facilities, proper roads and infrastructure connecting rural towns to the main centres. But central government is doing the opposite. The Baloch are subject to extreme discrimination. No state in the present era singles out its citizen on the basis of region and ethnicity. The regime in Islamabad must respect Baloch rights and stop its systematic discriminatory policies.