On misogny and puritanism against women, music and dance in PAT and PTI’s sit-ins in Islamabad

Ayaz Amir

Boys and girls dance in the PTI rallies in Constitution Avenue, fume the clerics of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam led by Pakistan’s leading political acrobat, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, with his uncanny ability to be part of every power setup no matter what its colour or stripes. What should the boys and girls do instead? Attend tutorials in suicide bombing? Study how to make the most of diesel permits, the word diesel forever associated with the Maulana’s name?

What hypocrites are we dealing with here? On a TV talk show I had the misfortune to be part of, Senator Hafiz Hamdullah of the same party described the PTI ongoing rallies as a nightclub show. I looked up in surprise and asked the maulana that as a man of the cloth how did he know what a nightclub was? Had he ever been in one? Smirking, he gave no answer.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman has described the dharnas as an onslaught of ‘western culture’. At least he is being original, no one taking this line before. His problem is simple. Imran Khan’s PTI is now a power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where in happier times the Maulana stood tall and imposing. He doesn’t like this one bit. Hence his anger.

Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman who as head of the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee never fails to send the entire nation into fits of laughter as he squints into the telescope to see whether the Eid moon has arisen, has also denounced the PTI rallies. If he had come out in the PTI’s support, that would have been something to worry about.

We should understand this phenomenon. No self-respecting maulvi true to his calling can abide the spectacle of men and women enjoying themselves. Their stuff is hellfire and denunciation, not singing and dancing. And they have a problem with women. For some reason rooted deep in their understanding of theology, they want to keep them under lock and key. Venus has never been more triumphant than in the morbid nightmares of the ulema.

And it is not just the PTI rallies which they find so galling. Close by on the same Constitution Avenue is the massive sit-in of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek led by Allama Tahirul Qadri in which women, matrons and young girls, are to be found in great numbers. The PTI folk come and go, the PTI amphitheatre, for it looks like that, looking empty in the mornings but filling up in the evening. The thousands who are in the PAT sit-in have been camped there, facing great hardships, ever since the march from Lahore. Their discipline and dedication to their cause are something to be seen.

And Allama Qadri in speech after speech talks of gender equality and equal opportunities for women and even for minorities. For the typical maulvi subscribing to, say, Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Takfiri Deobandi brand of Islam, this is subversive stuff, alien to all that in his narrow understanding of the faith he has believed in. No wonder hardline maulvis can barely contain their anger against both Imran Khan and the Allama.

– See more at: https://lubp.net/archives/321499?

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Dance, dance revolution
Sarwat Ali August 31, 2014 Leave a comment

How politics is being tarred by the brush of deep seated prejudice against certain artistic devices

There have been multiple reactions to the political rallies, demonstrations and the sit-ins held both by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT). But the one constant pointed out and condemned by most from all sides of the political spectrum has been about the style adopted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in particular.
They have all focused on dance and so have cast the entire politic protest as being very frivolous. Thus, it can be argued that the political protest or the dharna became non-serious affairs because physical bodily movement was used. Similarly the presence of a large number of women, young women and those not from the slums, too initially evoked surprise, and then gradually the pleasant reaction turned into banter before it started to get nastier.
As if not to be kept out the Pakistan Awami Tehreek also organised a qawwali in the dharna; those media men monopolising the talk shows were initially baffled by this form included in the protest before they started to ridicule it on the basis that no serious political movement could make music its vehicle of dissent.
It may be said at the very outset that the writer has no sympathy with the political stand taken by the Pakistan Tekreek-e-Insaaf and the politics of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek in substance. But it is only surprising that the criticism from the other parties instead of being on substance — and there is plenty of meat in it to feed on — has unfortunately spilt over to mannerism and style. Politics at hand is being tarred by the brush of deep seated prejudice against certain artistic devices.
The reaction to music, dance and women is a reflection of the deep seated bias that this society at least the middle classes in this society have about the performing arts. Within no time people jump in their assumption from the practice to the practitioner and then feel great upliftment in slotting them. If they happen to be women then the slotting is easier done, and the case is rested through a said condemnation or an unsaid castigation through leery expressions and all knowing smiles.
Some of the most vibrant or intensely political movements have made dance their mode of expression, a protest or a style of defiance.
People find it difficult to come out or break the stereotype or a stock impression but find great solace in reaffirming a stated position. Some of the women politicians and commentators unfortunately were the most vocal, seeing their gender on the streets shunning inhibition to enjoy the street party. If nothing else their envy may have turned into a grouse.
In the psyche is embedded the image, the oft drummed view or an estimation that this society has nourished its norms with. Whenever any physical movement is seen, it is considered as an expression of leh o lab and hence enticing, — alluring and so frivolous as not to be worthy of adequate attention. Not meant to be taken seriously, it is merely light heartedness and a means of unwinding.
Some of the most vibrant or intensely political movements have made dance their mode of expression, a protest or a style of defiance. The most notable being the African National Congress. Dance accompanies it even now in both formal and informal occasions. One of the first gestures to be made by Nelson Mandela after he was released was the raised fist and then steps of the dance which had become the signature tune of movement/emblem of the African National Movement.
But people will say that all that may be integral to the African culture or acceptable in their daily lives but that does not mean it is universally applicable. People will say that what is right in Africa is not right in Pakistan, and the protest or the expression has to be culturally specific and acceptable.
Such narrow reading and acceptance of culture has been the bane of our society. The prejudice was rampant in alienating the Bengalis from the mainstream cultural expression of a united Pakistan. People came back from East Pakistan vexed to take a stated position of the Bengali society being too influenced by Hindu Culture. The acceptance of music and dance as part of everyday culture could not be digested by the Punjabi Pathan Inc and had to be denounced as the other.
The artistic devices are being used or employed in society all the time. It is music as in recitation of a text, the national anthem, a taranna or a slogan that is repeated, chanted or uttered in a charged fashion facilitated by versification.
The usual method of livening up a political rally or to make it an embedded memory, the slogan or the narra is endemic.

http://tns.thenews.com.pk/dance-dance-revolution-of-pti/#.VAwfFvldWSo

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Dharna dances — a parliamentary debate?
By Abdul Majeed Abid

In my opinion, one can disagree with the ‘dharnistas’ on dozens of accounts, without any mention of the term ‘vulgarity’. In Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s opinion, not so.

Yesterday, the JUI-F chief again invoked the ‘fahashi’ argument against men and women dancing at the Azadi march. And it wasn’t even a talk show this time; he was standing inside the Parliament House.

Some people went to the extent of filing a petition against the dharna’s ‘vulgarity’, which the Islamabad High Court thankfully rejected.

Who is to decide what does or does not constitute ‘vulgarity’ anyway? It’s a subjective notion, one lying ‘in the eyes of the beholder’.

The concept of ‘vulgarity’ is important only in bigoted, misogynist societies such as Pakistan.

People suffering from this mental state are shocked at the very sight of anything that’s not conforming to traditional norms.

For them, just seeing a woman outside her home is shocking enough; and any dress or activity which falls outside the purview of their self-styled moral values, is thought to be invoking the devil itself.

Such incidents, unfortunately, are hardly rare in Pakistan. Women are regularly harassed and punished by men for so much as talking to a man outside the house. It is these baser tendencies which lead to bigger evils like honour-killings and acid crimes.

Unlike most civilised societies, the concept of personal space is non-existent in our society. One can find people decrying vulgarity for a-dime-a-dozen in our alleys (and parliaments, as it appears).

I’m sure a major reason for that is the absence of entertainment places and the reluctance to travel abroad. Parks, waterways, cinemas, clubs, theatres, quality book-shops or similar places for public assembly are few and far between in even our major cities.

Instead, what we have is a multitude of gaudy shopping malls, ever increasing in number. The absence of genuine entertainment has resulted in stagnation and negative thinking.

In that, it is nigh impossible to broaden one’s horizons and explore the sheer diversity of values and ethics, which other people live with. Already no one from other countries is willing to come to our country and we no longer see any tourists on our roads.

The party-like environment in these dharnas proves that there is a desperate need for the government to increase entertainment opportunities for the masses. Based on anecdotal evidence, most of the dharnistas come to the late-night ‘festivals’ to enjoy and have some fun.

Read on: ‘Azadi’ March brings entertainment

If the youth, tired and sick of political theatrics, wants to dance to some music, why does that twist the knickers of our ‘moral guardians’? If women, who form half the population of this country, want to be a part of the political process, why does that fire up the mullahs?

Whatever the female workers of PTI do in their spare time should be of any concern to anyone; not to mention it is outright disgusting for anyone to allege them of obscenity.

In my humble opinion, this country needs more of social change than a political one.

This change should be against narrow mindsets. Right now, no political party seems interested at all in that cause.

I hope that Imran Khan will not remain silent on this moral and mental decline and will start a practical movement to eradicate this hypocritical mindset because the first requirement to ‘change the system’ is to ‘change the national mindset’.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1128777