Resumo de Women In South Asia

Women in South Asia
The film focuses on specific gender-related issues in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, such as violence against females at work and at home, family pressure to produce boys, acid attacks and karo kari, says Shanaz Ramzi

Following in her father?s footsteps, Aisha Gazdar has made it her mission to document issues of social significance affecting our part of the world. Her recent production, Another world is possible: CEDAW in South Asia, which highlights the status of women in the region, is a commendable effort that dispassionately presents the facts as it is ? without trying to either glorify or gain sympathy for the South Asian womenfolk in any way.

The film focuses on specific gender-related issues in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, such as violence against women at work, at home and while commuting, marital rape, family pressure to produce boys, acid attacks, karo kari and so on.

At the same time, it also brings to the fore the high rate of female literacy in Sri Lanka, the boldness of women in Bangladesh; one village woman is shown disdainfully scoffing at men who indulge in eve-teasing and even announcing to the interviewer that she is perfectly capable of teasing the men back; emancipation of women in Mumbai; they are shown driving their motor-bikes, and the fact that five South Asian countries have had women prime ministers.

The film also explores the many favourable and unfavourable laws concerning women promulgated in the South Asian countries, such as acid attack being made punishable by death in Bangladesh; the ambiguity of the Hudood laws because of which a large number of women are languishing in Pakistani jails, and the banned jirgas that continue to pass sentences on karis.

The recent screening of the documentary was followed by brief speeches by retired Justice Majida Rizvi, Chairperson National Commission on the Status of Women, Anis Haroon, resident director, Aurat Foundation and Nafisa Shah, nazim district Khairpur 2001-2005, who summed up the film. As she briefly put it, ?The film has a rich diverse narrative and makes for extensive footage in the South Asian context. It makes no value judgments and depicts women as they are, cutting across classes, boundaries and religions. At the same time, it is not a pessimistic portrayal.?

As Shah rightly pointed out, the film inadvertently raises many questions ? why are women violated and discriminated against? Who is responsible for this behaviour? Although all five countries have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) so far, only Nepal has used CEDAW to change its laws.

Bangladesh took a stand and formulated as well as implemented laws against acid burning, while India has taken action against female infanticide at birth. Pakistan, on the other hand, hasn?t even managed to change its existing discriminatory laws against women, let alone create new ones. It is futile to blame culture for the negative socio-cultural practices prevailing in our country, for in reality it is our faulty law system that allows such customs the leeway to be practised with impunity.

One hopes that films like this one will open the eyes of the government to the unjust tribal customs that are being allowed to prevail in the country.

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