In conversation with Fatimah Ihsan
As part of the wider study on Work, Women and Violence in South Asia, over the last few months Fatimah Ihsan and her team of researchers have been carrying out interviews with women from the following different economic backgrounds in Pakistan:
- Home-based workers living in both urban and peri-urban areas of Lahore (Gulberg Town and Shadipura, respectively) who are part of the Home-Based Workers Network. The majority of work in Gulberg Town consists of badge-making, stitching, packaging and making food to be sold by another member of the household. Women in Shadipura are mostly involved in stitching pants and adda work (bridal embroidery).
- Entrepreneurs and middle class professional women living and working in and around Lahore and Islamabad. The women are engaged in a variety of professions from civil service, medicine and teaching, as well as employed in companies some of which are signed up to sex discrimination legislation.
The team is in the process of transcribing and analysing the findings from the interviews, and the results will soon be available. In the meantime, I caught up with Fatimah and we talked about some of the preliminary impressions she has from the study. Her reflections focussed on three themes
- The conceptual understanding of violence
- The choices and compulsions that the social and economic context offers
- The types of responses to violence that women from different economic strata could take
This blog briefly explores each of these themes
Understanding what forms violence can take
Interestingly perceptions of what constitutes violence varies between these two social groups. The women who considered themselves ‘middle class’ tended to view violence as something physical but which didn’t tend to happen in their social class, or at least it was not readily acknowledged or discussed. For example, one woman who worked in a gym saw physical violence as being overweight and something being done to oneself. Although they spoke of tensions in relationships with husbands and employers they didn’t necessarily think of violence as something psychological.
Violence was mentioned by all Home-based workers (HBW) interviewees as part of life and ranged from sexual violence to physical and psychological abuse. It was not just from husband to the wife, but also from the woman to her children, the in-laws to the wife, and even the wife to her mother-in-law. The perception of violence that comes across from the interviews with the HBWs was that physical violence was expected as ‘it is okay for men to do what they are doing’, and it is accepted as ‘what a husband does’ and at times ‘deserved’. They felt more psychologically damaged by verbal abuse. The HBWs live in shanty towns where homes are very near to each other, so this type of violence was viewed as shaming as others can hear the abuse.
Choice or compulsion?
A theme that came up repeatedly in our conversation was the huge difference it makes depending on whether you have a real choice or feel compelled to do something. This plays out in different ways in the dynamics connecting work and violence.
Women earning a good salary, had developed self-confidence both in terms of decision making and how they carried themselves. Women in this category often see work as something they want to do – it is a choice they are making that provides them with economic empowerment and they can also draw on their education. Domestic conflicts arise for example when ambitions of working husbands and wives collide, and tensions occur for example in relation to who’s responsibility it is to look after children, with one husband seeing this very much as the woman’s responsibility even after a long day in the workplace.
For the HBWs the perception was that to work or not to work was a compulsion. If they had a choice they would prefer not to work but the women were compelled by circumstances and the need to feed family or children. In the communities where they lived there was lack of local access to water and health services and money was needed for transport. If the woman was divorced or widowed, or the husband was a drug addict or not working, she would have no option but to work. For the women who work the money does not change much and does not transform their situation – they still need microfinance loans. Women in this situation complained of mental strain and also physical strain due to the tedious and repetitive nature of the work.
Whilst violence in the home was not clearly linked to earning or the HBWs work there were some cases where women felt compelled ‘not to work’ as this threatened the husband’s masculinity and one woman who was looking for work outside her home faced harassment. Conversely there were also a few cases where husbands had compelled their wives to do ‘forced prostitution’. There were also safety or protection issues. One woman reported trying to go out to work but was consistently harassed at the workplace. After probing, women reported that previously when they had worked outside their homes, they were under increased scrutiny and judgment from their relatives and neighbours and also faced sexual harassment on the way to work.
Responses to violence
So, when faced by violence of different kinds how do the women in these different groups respond? Once again there are significant differences in terms of the choices women had and the things they feel compelled to accept depend on their social context.
Those employed in large corporate organisations had recourse to sexual harassment enquiry committees set up to comply with legislation. The interviews with employers and employees revealed some contrasting examples of how men harass women in the workplace and instances of women misusing the law.
The entrepreneurs and professional women earning a reasonable salary viewed leaving an abusive situation as an option, and there were some examples of this. It is clearly never easy, and threats can arise from other family members. Conversely family can help greatly, and in one example a woman who divorced her husband was encouraged by her parents to get more training and another degree and this led to her to opening a successful restaurant.
For women in the lower economic category employment opportunities are very limited, as most have very little education ranging from completely illiterate to up to class 10 at most. The meagre sum earned (as either supplemental income or as the sole bread winner) was not enough to help them leave a situation that was abusive or violent and when and if they did, they did so without depending on economic security. A couple of women interviewed left their abusive husbands and/or in-laws without having the economic means to be independent – they ended up going back to their parents’ houses and becoming HBWs. However many parents tell their daughters not to come back ‘unless it’s your dead body’! They have to make the marriage work, or it’s a seen as a shame on the family.
Despite their different Pashtun and Punjabi ethnic backgrounds most of the HBWs in the communities the teams visited managed to provide some support to each other and amidst the difficult circumstances there was a lot of teasing and humour evident alongside the tears and suffering.