Non Liberated Baloch Women

The issue discussed is concentrated on social and cultural institutions that hinders the Baloch women from self development. This is about Iranian Balochistan.

Non-Liberated Baloch Women

By: Ahmad Reza Taheri

To begin with, several points must be noted. These points help us to clarify our thinking of the subject. Firstly, this paper is referred to the Balochistan of Iran. But, it has nothing to do with the State’s policies, rather it centers around the argument about those social traditions and religious institutions within the Sunni sect and their relations to women.
Second, obviously “Non-Liberated Women" is an issue which is not only confined to the Balochistan of Iran, rather this case is clearly observable in other parts of the country, as well as in other developing countries. Women are suffering more or less in these countries. In some communities higher degree of intensity, and in some others lower degree of intensity can be observed. And this degree of intensity can be determined by the role of religious institutions, social traditions, customs, and political climate. Thirdly, why I aimed at Balochistan of Iran? Because, it is my home land...

In this paper we shall have a short general description of the past say: 1940s, 1950s, and then our focus shall turn on the present with a critical view. That will lead to a discussion about relationship between man and woman, and in the end, we will discuss the process of over coming the existing fundamental obstacles to self-development of women.
Balochistan located in eastern part of Asia, north of Gulf peninsula occupied by three countries: Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. That part of Iran was incorporated in 1928 and known as Balochistan of Iran, and its capital is Zahedan.
Balochistan is a vast land. It is a Mullah dominated community. Social traditions and customs play a vital role in the lives of the people. Balochs are religious. They are simple in both heart and mind. Balcohs are hospitable and are distinguished in hospitality. They are patriotic and loyal. Balochs are brave, and are peaceful, however, as long as there is no apprehension of despotism and oppression. In this land, women are loyal and honest. They are hard workers and obedient to the law of their elders. They do not know much about the rules. They put up with and accept many things; things which are ambiguous.
Earlier on, Baloch women in Balochistan lived in a thoroughly male dominated society. Girls had to get married at an early age, and had no choice of their would be spouse. Girls and boys of the same clan would be engaged to each other at birth, and girls who were to be married had no rights to air their views. Any objection could lead to severe untoward repercussion. Once a girl was married, she passed from the authority of her father to that of her husband. Usually, girls and women neither were allowed to walk out alone nor allowed to face any strangers, which would meant violating the principles of their so-called privacy. They could not go to mosque for prayers. In some parts, women were only seen by their husbands and their nearest kin. Actually, they were men’s private property. Usually, a woman had no right to re-marry after her husband’s death, and had to remain as a widow. They could get easily divorced just by husband’s irrational will who could repeat the word “Divorce” just three times, So simple !

Women were not allowed to dress according to their own choices nor allowed to take part in decision making, and were confined to taking care of the houses and raising children…
This is a glimpse of our past. And the past is almost the reflection of the present. Even, today despite the changes, the above mentioned issues are tangible more or less in most parts of this land, especially in rural areas. Today girls can not dress according to their own tastes, and that case of divorce is still applicable in the same old manner. In some parts of this land, the freedom of facing the strangers is still an encroachment of the archaic moral principles, which the so-called modernity has not managed to break these shackles of brutality that have victimized the women for ages. Well, women in Balochistan roughly can be made to fall under two major divisions and each of these two divisions has its own subdivisions.

1)- Illiterate and uneducated women who are mostly above fifty. Over a long period of time they have taken the words of their men and learned from their mentors: how to live, and what is good and what is evil. These women usually are satisfied with their existing situation. They failed to educate themselves mainly due to lack of educational institutions and other related facilities. And, those who are under fifty again can be categorized in two parts, as follows:

a)- Those who are dissatisfied with their existing situation, but are totally unable to bring about a better way of life due to several factors, such as: lack of personal and domestic liberty; existing negative facets of social traditions, customs, and lack of education.

b)- There are others who strictly follow social traditions and customs and are susceptible to any order passes by the irrational elders. Usually, this group prefers to study at religious schools, rather than studying at non-religious institutions. These women possess a high degree of rigidity. A woman in this group can be made as a Muslim priestess.

2)- Literate and educated who are mostly university students. This is almost a recent phenomenon which started taking its birth in Balochistan. Women in this division can be divided into three sub-divisions, as under:

a)- There are many who are strictly religious and so are not free from prejudice and fanaticism. In this group education could not positively push them ahead. In fact, religion, culture, tradition, and customs would shape their opinions.

b)- There are moderate students who mostly come from moderate families. Here, it is quite possible that moderate families may remain the same, but their moderate daughters/girls may bring about new changes and adopt a new way of thinking.

c)- There are open-minded women who come from democratic families. This group is flexible and dynamic, and are very few in Balochistan. This group follows those positive aspects of their culture, tradition, and customs. Of course that women in this category may face threat and restrictions from other sections of the society. They enjoy more freedom than other previous mentioned-groups, but at the same time negative social traditions, customs, and extremism in religion considerably restrict their freedom.

It is interesting to note that even the most religious woman of today is not satisfied at heart with some certain and specific fixed commands, and reluctantly would accept them. One such issue is that case of divorce. They believe that it is not fair to repeat this word just three times and then get divorced by their husbands. Another case is that of polygamy. They are against polygamous. Truly speaking, no sane Muslim woman in the world is satisfied with this.

Today, in the very Balochistan there are women who realize that men have toyed with their destiny. Those girls of yesterday, are today’s mothers now. Some of these people feel that they have been misguided by the narrow-minded ideas of their mentors. So, they don’t want to repeat that same old story in the same old way. Today, in this land, there are women who think of their liberty in different terms now. They know that they have been enslaved; slave of those negative facets of their customs and traditions. These negative facets must be destroyed – why – because, they serve no useful purpose. That culture; tradition; and custom is useful which does not hinder the progress in life, otherwise that must be taken away.

Today, development in technology, communication, and information has waken the girls and women. This may be one important factor that made religious mentors to accept willy-nilly some inevitable minor changes, for example: as mentioned before, previously women were not allowed to go to mosque for prayers, but nowadays women in Balochistan are allowed to go to mosque for prayers, especially during the month of Ramadan. It is also worthwhile to mention that recently a woman led a mixed-gender Islamic Prayer Service Friday at Synod House in New York. Amina Wadud, a professor of Islamic Studies at Virginia Common Wealth University said: “ The service she was leading is only one aspect of emphasizing the belief in the reality that women are equal under Islam.” Many of the women in attendance were modestly dressed and in accordance with Islamic tradition, covered their hair with headscarf, but some others shunned the scarf and wore form fitting jeans or pants. Indeed, this act is a considerable move and can be seen as a major step for women. However, we should not forget that to most of Muslim religious leaders and Muslim men this act is against Islamic law. They argue that only men are empowered to lead other men in prayer. Anyway… let’s not go further, and let's get back to the question: Today, in Balochistan, girls are studying at various universities and educational institutions. However, among the important factors, Persian culture is one factor which has had a major positive impact on the lives of Baloch people, especially that class of younger generation, nevertheless, girls have slightly moved. Though development has taken its birth in Balochistan, but this development needs to travel a long time to get into shape. We should not forget that only a few number of women in this land are wide awake and the rest are under restrictions either from internal obstacles or from external obstacles. And, strictly speaking, one can conclude that women have remained almost unmoved and continue to suffer despite their educations.
From what has been said so far, one can clearly see the other side of the coin, where most of the degrading, humiliation and poor treatment in this land for women derived from the authoritarian men. I believe that, the main hurdle in the development of women has been the presence of narrow-minded ideas of men. These ideas basically formed within that dominated section which was pointed earlier. Its impact is clearly visible throughout Balochistan. This Sunni elite group’s slogan is that women are valuable creatures and they must be respected. Most of them believe: “ Why girls should go to school? What they want to do with their educations? Women do not need education from educational institutions, rather they better stay at home and look after house keeping etc. Our religion, culture and tradition do not allow girls to choose their future husbands, because it is not fair.” This is why, almost most marriages are still arranged.
“Girls and women must cover themselves. Because, it is compulsory. They must not be seen by others, because our religion and culture do not permit that. women have no rights to express their views. And, once they get married they have to obey their husbands, whether they are satisfied or not, at any case, they have to follow that given formality. A woman has no right to divorce her husband, but husband can easily divorce his wife by repeating the word “Divorce” just three times. Thus, divorce depends on husband’s will. Why freedom…!? They denounce liberty. They think liberty is absurd. Actually, they hold their own concept of liberty. Women must not take part in politics, because they are incapable of governing and guiding the nation. Because, they are irrational, and do not have that much capacity of reason. Politics is the job of men only. They believe that western talk of women’s emancipation is a disguised form of exploitation of their bodies, deprivation of their honor, and degradation of their souls. Western way of life is a dangerous disease and has grave consequences.”
These men want to maintain status quo, because they gain from it. They want to protect and enhance the power of their social and religious institutions. They try to preserve the establishment, respect the tradition, and conserve the age old social and religious institutions. They believe in inequality of man and woman, and treat women as the second class citizens. They oppose gradual changes, let alone radical changes. Thus, it results from the above that in Balochistan women are falling behind, because men are lagging behind. Women have no basic liberty, because men are sunk so low. Therefore, women’s freedom and development depends upon men’s development, and men’s development depends upon their ideas. Because, ideas are very important. Hegel says: “ every thing depends on ideas, if ideas change, then politics, economics, law, and society all would change. Ideas are the motor of history.”
Strict and unnecessary prejudice and narrow-mindedness must be thrown away – how – education is one such important way to deal with the crisis in Balochistan. By education, we do not mean only obtaining academic title, rank or grade given by university. Because, there are many Baloch people who hold university degrees in different ranks, nevertheless lack higher rational capacity, logic, and reason, and so move by their instinct and faith. Rather, by education, we mean: knowledge and ability, development of character and mental power, and all that which would lead to the possession of higher will and openness.
Women have had enough of men ignorance. They should come to their senses. As John Stuart Mill says: “ Individual should be left free to develop his/her own personality and there should not be interference in self-development as long as he/she does not harm others.” So, accordingly this should be applied in Balochistan for Baloch women… We can learn constructive lessons from our own past. We can also learn a lot from that western political thought which provides valuable lessons - lessons that must be learnt if the future is to be different. It is hard to predict the future. But, for all that we discussed, reforms regarding liberty of women would not come up for the time being. Because, it is not an immediate realization, and our community lacks that rational will. So, we have to wait for many years – why – because, this must grow. It must have natural and continuous growth.

This land needs a mental revolution, a complete change in thinking. We need to re-build our structure. For many years this structure has not been changed, and nor will change in the near future – why? New structure must spring from the course of event. Old structure can not be replaced overnight by the new one, because it is dangerous. It must be re-created naturally and evolutionary by the necessity of the time, and this would take its own long time. And, once new structure established, then changes would begin to take place in the society where women would be able to develop and flourish their own personalities, and would enjoy positive liberty without being disturbed by men.
Source

Primary Source -- interviews with the Baloch clerics and Baloch women in Balochistan of Iran (2003).