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/