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Fahad Desmukh
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For
several years, Pakistan has been facing a separatist insurgency by
ethno-nationalist rebels belonging to the Baloch ethnic group. The guerrillas
in the southwest province of Balochistan have become increasingly daring with
their attacks. Two weeks ago, they shocked the rest of Pakistan by destroying
the historic residence of Pakistan’s founding father Mohammed Ali Jinnah in the
town of Ziarat.
Balochistan
is one of the most underdeveloped regions in Pakistan, and has traditionally
had a heavily male-dominated patriarchal society. Women have rarely had a role
in public life. But things have been changing recently, as increasing numbers
of women are taking up active and leading roles in the Baloch nationalist
movement.
One such
women is Zarina Baloch. When her cousin was found murdered in February, it was
a turning point in her life. Balock’s cousin, Sangat Sana, was a young
political activist who supported the idea of Balochistan’s secession from
Pakistan. He had been missing for two years before his mutilated body was
found.
“I was
in Karachi when I heard the news that the mutilated body has been found in
Turbat. I don’t have words. What can I do?” she says. “I heard there is a
protest by BHRO the next day, so I have to join that protest and I joined. I even
spoke to many news channels and told them that my brother has been killed. I
got his mutilated body.”
Zarina
Baloch was a high school student then, and it was the first time she became
politically active. Since then, attending protest rallies and sit-ins has
become a part of her daily routine.
She
attended a recent protest rally in front of the Karachi Press Club, with other
women, young and old. They’re all wearing traditional Balochi dresses with
intricate colorful embroidery, and most of their faces are covered with veils.
And at
the back of the rally are a handful of men straggling along, and hardly as
involved in the protest as the women.
“Shame
on the United Nation’s silence!” the protest leader chants. “Where are you UN?”
This
protest is about what is known in Pakistan as the “missing persons” issue.
In
recent years, hundreds of young Baloch men – especially Baloch separatist
activists – have “disappeared.” Their bodies have sometimes forcefully
disappeared.
The dead
bodies of many of the missing people have been found days, months or years
later, often dumped on the roadside bearing signs of mutilation. Human rights
organizations point the finger at the military and intelligence agencies.
Baloch
nationalists have complained for decades of ethnic discrimination and
exploitation by the Pakistani state. But the recent state-sponsored violence
has pushed the movement in a new direction. What started as a demand for more
rights has turned into a movement for outright secession.
And
increasingly, women like Zarina are playing more active roles in that movement.
Mama
Qadeer Baloch heads a rights group called Voice for Baloch Missing Persons. He
helped organize this protest rally.
“Baloch
society has traditionally been heavily segregated,” he says. “Women rarely
leave the home, and when they do it is only for education. But ever since this
barbarity of abducting and killing, and military operations started, women
whose husbands, brothers, or father have been abducted have started taking to
the street to raise their voices in protest.”
Maybe
the most prominent female among the Baloch separatists is 29-year-old Karima
Baloch. She is the vice-chair of the Baloch Students Organization. In 2009, she
was tried in absentia by an anti-terrorist court for sedition. Officials
accused her of defiling a Pakistani flag during a protest. She was sentenced to
three years prison and is still on the run from authorities.
“And that’s
what’s so striking,” she says. “In a region where women are for the most part
neither seen nor heard, they are now not just silent supporters of the
separatist movement: they’ve become its leaders.”
And while
Baloch women are very active in Baloch political activism and organizing, there
are no confirmed reports yet of women joining the armed struggle as fighters.
But some suggest that time is not far off. It may happen eventually.
Dr. Allah Nazar
Baloch is regarded as the Che Guevara of Balochistan. He’s a
gynecologist-turned-guerrilla commander. He’s now leading the armed rebellion
in the mountains of Balochistan. He spoke to a student conference a few years
ago.
I appeal to my sisters. If in Palestine, Leila
Khaled can pick up arms then can’t my sisters do the same? They should play
Leila Khaled’s role. If the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher can govern over Great
Britain, if Tansu Ciller can govern Turkey, if Indira Gandhi can govern India,
then don’t my sisters have the same talent and capability? They should play
their role because this is the demand of the times. History is not written just
for men. Both men and women make up the history of any nation.
In the
speech, Nazar Baloch cites female revolutionaries from around the world. He
exhorts Balock women to heed their example and join the guerrilla movement.
The idea
of women joining the guerrillas has entered the public imagination. And Nazar
Balock isn’t the only one putting out that message.
A recent
Balochi-language feature film called “Jageen” glorifies the Baloch insurgency.
It valorizes the insurgents and vilifies the Pakistani military.
Near the
end of the film, the outnumbered rebels find themselves outnumbered and want to
surrender. However, a female character calls them cowards for wanting to
surrender and says she’ll take up arms and fight for the cause if the men are
unwilling. In a kind of “Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid” ending, the band
of rebels hold out against the military for three more days before being
killed.
Naela
Quadri used to be an assistant professor at the University of Balochistan and
is now one of the most prominent female political activists from Balochistan.
At one
point, she was hounded by authorities and had to go into hiding. She’s been in
exile in Afghanistan since 2010, where she heads the World Baloch Women’s
Forum.
“In one
month there were nine military raids on my home to arrest me,” she says. “Our
children were living in hidden places. For five years in Balochistan we were
not able to live together as a family. My mother was very sick and my family
needed me but all the time I was hiding hear and there and work. It was the
first time in Baloch history that a girl was active in politics. Before me
there was no one. Many cases were filed against me in different courts.”
Quadri
says her nationalist struggle isn’t just about changing politics in
Balochistan. It’s aiming for a deeper change in Baloch society. She describes
how supportive her parents were when she took her first steps into Baloch
politics in her student days.
“In the
other parts of the world, women go for shopping, for education, for jobs,” she
says. “But in Baloch society we live in a tribal society where mobility for
women is very strict. Here this grand involvement of women in nationalist
movement in freedom movement means a lot.
Protester
Zarina Baloch agrees.
“It was
the first time in Baloch history that a girl was active in Baloch politics,”
she says. “Before me there was no one. My mother and father told me: It’s a big
responsibility you are taking on your shoulders. You will make way for millions
of Baloch women to participate in politics after you, or you will close the
doors for a century.”
She
knows she, too, is likely a marked woman. But she says, essentially, that it’s
a question of, “if not me then who?” As in, who will fight for the rights of
Baloch people and of Baloch women?
“Some of
my family they scared,” says Baloch. “They say, ‘Hey a girl what are you going
to do?’ I say ‘I have to do’ because I have to do something for my nation. I
have to do something for my father for my brother. If today I will not do then
the time will come that I will be killed by Pakistan army. I will weep that
what did I do in my whole life.”
For
Naela Quadri, it’s as though she paved the way for many other young women to
follow in her footsteps and enter Baloch politics. Quadri insists that for the
nationalist movement in Balochistan to succeed, it must also bring about a
change in gender relations in society.
“Most of
the time for any other nation, it may be easier for women to go out, in other
parts of the world, women go for shopping, for education, for jobs,” says
Quadri. “But in Baloch society it is tribal, where mobility for women is very
strict. Here this grand involvement of women in nationalist movement in freedom
movement means a lot. It means many chains of patriarchy, breaking many chains
of slavery. It’s not just slavery from Pakistan. Slavery from the patriarchal
chains also.”
That may
be the case, but protester Zarina Baloch says her involvement is fundamentally
an existential question.
“Some of
my family, they scared,” she says. “They say, ‘Hey a girl what are you going to
do?’ I say I have to do. ‘Why you are stopping me?’ I say to my families. If you
will stop me, next is yours. I say this is the good things. I have to do
something for my family. I have to do something for my father for my brother.
If today I will not do then tomorrow the time will come that I will be killed
by Pakistan. I will weep that what did I do in my whole life.
