Hello Pervaiz,

To be honest, I enjoyed meeting people more than the seminar itself.
I do admire the efforts that went into the organization of the program and reading the papers. I can see the amount of work each one of you did. It was also heartening to listen to the views of the intellectuals. While I am not at all against holding such discussions, the topic, women’s lib is really not one of my favorite topics. I feel there are more important issues, such as liberation from ignorance and illiteracy for genders, liberation from superstitions for both genders and liberation from poverty, finally the liberation from our inner wild sadist instincts. Sure, education itself will enlighten the minds and MAY lead to much improvement of the situation. Each of these problems, illiteracy, poverty and superstitions are interconnected and cannot be handled separately. Even when we have dealt with these issues and have acquired best of the education, overcome the menaces of poverty and superstitions, we are not done. What we face now is the worst of all, the POWER issue. What we see now is that it is not the issue of gender but the problem is that of POWER. Whoever has power become the oppressor and the other oppressed. Again every thing is interwoven and not so straightforward. Education is good for opening up the mind but at the same time can be abused in the Power struggle. Humanists tried to come forward to improve the quality of life by coming forth with laws and their implementation to the best to their abilities at various occasions in different forms, such as, Abraham, Mosses, Christ, Mohammad, Ahmad (Qadiani), Aga Khan, Aristotle, Ramchander, Krishan, Marx, Mao and many more. Unfortunately none of the philosophy was free of drawbacks. Every single theory reflected the human nature itself, a mix of good and bad. It is a whole package. Then we feel that it is the reflection of Nature, the good and bad. Even God doesn’t come alone, we see a “Shaitan” there. Perhaps that is why we appreciate the good better, in the presence of bad.

However, the most interesting part is this contradiction is that the MAN (both man and woman) is wonderful. We all come as a package of good and bad depending how much we have conquered the bad in us. As Khalid Sohail also pointed out in his talk that he has to often struggle with the bad inside him. In fact we all have to do that. The different extent of conquering the bad inside by different individuals leads to variety. We are different, touched by different incidences, motivated by different philosophies; try to tread the path we think is the best. Variety is the spice of life and makes it colorful. It would have been uninteresting if all were alike.

Women’s lib in particularly in the so called “Islamic zones” is something that needs immediate attention but the only solution is education, education of mind, for both women and men. As Sohail said we can do only what we can do. If time had allowed, my question to him would have been, he saw his sister not being able to complete her graduation with resent, did he impart or try to impart this thought to her sister? Did he influence her sister not to repeat the same thing to her daughter in turn?

Here I must mention that Ismaeelis, due to the mental education of that sect, do believe in equal education of daughters and sons and they do insist that they are Muslims.

Again, education does not solve all the problems. What would you say of child abuse? Sexual abuse of little children, both girls and boys is equally condemned. Divorce affects equally both man and woman and their offspring’s daughters and sons equally.

Woman lib is an old topic, at least as old as I am and I am not young. However, when we see the problem is the classic writings of Ismat Chughtai, Manto, Virginia Wolf, Bronte sisters, it is more effective than discussing it per se. The writers can exchange and share their views through their stories of real life in a better way. However, this is my view only. Apart from this view, I did like Dr. Maroussia Ahmed's (that is how I understood her name, please correct me) talk, very nice presentation. Dr. Basharat’s presentation was something I did not at all agree with rather I find it did not at all support the women lib. Sabuhi Ansari’s talk fairly, reflected the inner bitterness towards the injustices. I do admire the open mindedness of Najeeb Kazmi and Fatemullah and hope their wives and daughters will benefit from them. Sohail, it was very good, starting with his own experiences, interesting stories captured the attention of the audience then he walked all us through the paves of mind. A clear message let us do what we can do at the individual level.

I hope that you take this criticism positively and not personally.

Thanks for asking for my views.

Best wishes

Darakhshanda