Zabed Hasnain Chowdhury\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIn Afghanistan, for example, the only social resistance the Taliban is currently facing is from women.\u201d <\/p>\n
Since the 2021 fall of Kabul to the Taliban, women have seen their rights restricted across the board, including recent restrictions on their voices in public. <\/p>\n
While misogyny and marginalization afflict women\u2019s lives the world over, conservative social attitudes to gender can be particularly pronounced in South Asia. <\/p>\n
In India, a rape is reported every 17 minutes, government data shows. In 2012 when a woman was raped and murdered on a bus, the nation was outraged and after a massive wave of protests there were some amendments to rape laws. Yet women in India experience sexual harassment daily, says Ghosh. <\/p>\n
In Bangladesh, women deal with daily harassment, says Nazifa Jannat, a student and political activist. And she doesn\u2019t see this improving anytime soon. \u201cWhen you\u2019re walking on the road you constantly feel eyes on you, whether it\u2019s a busy market or a deserted road,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
According to Deanne Uyangoda, protection coordinator in Asia Pacific for NGO Front Line Defenders, while women have always been integral to protest movements in South Asia, \u201ctheir role in co-creating those spaces and in organizing, mobilizing building trust and building framing of why these protests are happening\u201d has become more pronounced. <\/p>\n
In Pakistan, one woman leading the charge is Sammi Deen Baloch. <\/p>\n
She was 10 when her doctor father was forcibly disappeared from the hospital where he was working in 2009, she said. Having participated in the fight for his return since childhood, she is now one of the faces of the movement against enforced disappearances in Balochistan. <\/p>\n
The sparsely populated province, Pakistan\u2019s largest, is rich in natural resources and home to the strategically important Gwadar port. But the restive region is also home to some of Pakistan\u2019s most marginalized people, who say they face persecution from the government, as well as military and paramilitary forces in the region. <\/p>\n
In September alone, 43 cases of enforced disappearances were reported in Balochistan, the Human Rights Council of Balochistan said in October. <\/p>\n
In 2016, Baloch herself was forcibly disappeared by Pakistan\u2019s intelligence agency and held in captivity for seven days, she said. She had no idea where she was, and could not tell night from day. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile talking to me they were saying that as you know you are 18 years old, you are young, so you know what can happen to you. By saying these things they wanted to make being a woman a weakness,\u201d she said, adding that the threat of sexual violence was implicit. <\/p>\n
Such threats \u201care deployed much more against women than men, as is sexual violence itself,\u201d said Barr. <\/p>\n
From November to January this year around 200 women, along with children and some men, marched from Balochistan to Islamabad to protest the killing of 24-year-old civilian Balaach Mola Bakshsh, who they said had been killed by authorities after being forcibly disappeared. <\/p>\n
When they reached the capital, they said police responded with water cannons, the sting of which was worsened by the frigid winter temperatures. <\/p>\n
Islamabad police at the time denied that there were women or children in the crowd and said officers refrained from using force for six hours. \u201cBut when force was used against the police, we had to move to protect ourselves,\u201d Akbar Nasir Khan, the inspector general of Islamabad police, told reporters. Protesters denied initiating the violence. <\/p>\n
As the women camped out in Islamabad for nearly a month from late December, cameras were installed around the protest site, with a heavily male police and military presence. For women wearing Islamic face coverings or headscarves, many felt this was a clear attempt at weaponizing their modesty against them, said Baloch. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe choose to wear a hijab or a niqab, for us it\u2019s an important sign of respect\u2026 in our culture women are always treated with a level of dignity and this is how we choose to present ourselves,\u201d Baloch said. <\/p>\n
During the sit-in, Baloch found herself having to appear in front of TV cameras with her face uncovered. Until then, she would always wear a niqab or mask on camera, but after fabricated pictures of her spread on social media, she had to take off her face covering. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor women, one of the first things they do is character assassination. So I took the decision to show my face because I did not want to let them think this was my weakness,\u201d Baloch said. <\/p>\n
Surveillance is another tool of repression used liberally against protesters. Baloch is used to being followed everywhere by men, both in plain clothes and in uniform. \u201cThey want to make you feel like you are constantly being watched, that you\u2019re on their radar,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Uyangoda said weaponizing women\u2019s modesty against them or encroachments on their privacy is a recurring theme in South Asia. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been instances where they have turned up in your house at, let\u2019s say, early hours in the morning, male officers in remote areas, you know, videoing you while you are still in whatever state of dress you are in,\u201d she said, recalling several such instances reported to her by activists in the region. <\/p>\n
A similar experience befell Khadijah Shah, a fashion designer turned activist who was among the most prominent voices against the arrest of Pakistan\u2019s former Prime Minister Imran Khan during protests in May last year. Khan was arrested on multiple charges of corruption following months of political turmoil after his ouster as prime minister. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s still a live issue. On Tuesday, security forces launched a night-time operation to disperse thousands of Khan supporters led by his wife Bushra Bibi, after the crowd broke through barricades and gathered in Islamabad demanding his release. <\/p>\n
When Shah first heard of the protests last year, she was quick to join them. She has always felt the need to speak up, she said, having first attended protests as a young girl with her grandfather, a former chief of army staff. <\/p>\n
Abuse and threats<\/h2>\n
The backlash was swift and vocal. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy photo was shared everywhere, there were people calling for my rape by the police and saying I should be skinned alive,\u201d Shah recalled. <\/p>\n
Shah spent about eight months in jail before being released on bail, with multiple cases filed against her for participation in the protests. <\/p>\n
She said one of the worst intimidation tactics she had to contend with was threats against her family. She turned herself in after the protests because authorities detained her father and brother. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s much easier to threaten the family of a woman because, in patriarchal societies, a male family member might feel that he can exercise control over a female member of his family,\u201d Barr said, adding the threats themselves were also \u201creal and frightening.\u201d <\/p>\n
Earlier this summer Bangladesh was transformed by student-led protests that snowballed into bringing down 15 years of rule by increasingly autocratic Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. <\/p>\n
According to student-protester Jannat, while women have previously participated in protests in Bangladesh, this time many women, including her, played a leadership role. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are more willing to follow women, and more women are also confident enough to assume leadership, irrespective of what her family or society has to say about it,\u201d Jannat said. <\/p>\n
Doing so was not without its challenges. In many cases women who participated did so without familial support. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have a very close friend, I saw fear in her eyes that if her family got to know that she is involved in the protest she will face many setbacks,\u201d Jannat said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a very common scenario.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cMany defenders carry burdens, carry responsibilities to their communities, to their families,\u201d Uyangoda said. \u201cMany defenders are caregivers, but women human rights defenders, I think may be disproportionately so.\u201d <\/p>\n
Yet on the streets, they did not shy away from the front lines. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were on the front lines of the protests, our male comrades would push us in the front and we believed that perhaps the paramilitary would be hesitant to hit us,\u201d Jannat said. <\/p>\n
However, their gender did not protect them in the way that they thought it would and several protesters, including women, were baton-charged during a march from Dhaka University in July. <\/p>\n
According to Uyangoda while all protesters have to be wary of violence, women defenders also deal with a constant \u201cfear of sexualized violence.\u201d <\/p>\n
Although Barr credits the female protesters who brought about a change in Bangladesh, she questions if this will translate into greater political representation and rights for women going forward. <\/p>\n
\u201cHow much of a voice will women have in the upcoming government remains to be seen but we need to move away from tokenistic individual representation to collective representation,\u201d Barr said. <\/p>\n
According to Uyangoda, the activists emerging from the region are pushing for exactly that. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere will always be, in a movement, people who are visible. Behind these women, there are other women. There are many other women. There are men, there are youth.\u201d <\/p>\n
Barr sees a mixture of concern and hope. <\/p>\n
\u201cGlobally we\u2019re in a pretty alarming space in terms of what feels like declining democracy and rising authoritarianism and the attack on women\u2019s rights and LGBT rights are a central part of that playbook,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut we are seeing incredibly powerful protest movements from women around the world\u2026 they\u2019re amping up not backing down.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ghosh, Baloch, Shah and Jannat all have that in common. Despite the backlash they\u2019ve faced, they\u2019re only emboldened to continue to fight for their rights. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf not now, then when?\u201d Jannat said. \u201cI knew that this was an important moment for our nation and I had to stand up, no matter the consequences.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n
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