by Naila Inayat and Cdra B
When Kashmala Tariq first walked into the national parliament in 2002, she made heads turn. She was one was one amongst dozens of other female parliamentarians who had been elected on women’s reserved seats. Suddenly, the whole complexion of the parliament, which earlier used to be, more or less, a men’s debating club, changed. It was more colorful and vibrant. It smelled of female fragrance. Politics was no more for the old and aged. It had new blood and prettier faces.
But in the gleaming halls and corridors of the parliament, power can be intoxicating. Powerful politicians, buoyed by their electoral wins and filled with hubris of wealth and influence, often forget the weight of responsibility. Everything seems within reach. In the new parliament, some politicians thought that their new colleagues were also within their grasp.
There were unwelcoming advances. There were backhanded invitations. But such behavior, has never been publicly debated and bubbles to surface only when the reputation of some female parliamentarians is questioned.
“Being a parliamentarian I faced harassment at every level,” Kashmala Tariq, the former member of parliament, said in an interview. “But I never showed any soft corner towards harassers and always snubbed them. They started terming me rude, having bad manners.”
“When I joined parliament, our male colleagues were not used to working with women. This resulted in getting comments like how we were looking on a certain day,” Kashmala says. “They were in the habit of passing unwanted comments, taunts and showed behavior of an offensive nature,” Kashmala said. “It forced us either to ignore them or to snub them. Do you have any other option?,” she asked.
“Such behavior can not only be just called as their habit to deal women,” Kashmala says. “It is the act of harassment that creates an environment in which a woman feel uneasy and difficulty to perform her duties.
“Even if someone is admiring a woman who never wants to talk to that person, it is harassment,” she said.
“I faced harassment few times,” said Rubina Saadat Qaimkhani, a former member of the national assembly. “Whenever I faced unwanted comments, I snubbed the person immediately,” she said.
[ Read full story in the print copy. PIQUE is available at book stores all over Pakistan]
