Gulalai Ismail has drawn international attention since she fled Pakistan in September and sought asylum in the US after the Pakistani military labelled serious charges of sedition, inciting treason and defaming state institutions against her. The 32-year-old social activist is a vocal supporter of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement.
Gulalai symbolises the resistance of Pashtun women, who claim to have been oppressed and harassed by the Pakistani state for ages now. The establishment in Pakistan is allegedly using the tribes of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as war fodder and the women are affected the most. Gulalai got involved in the cause of women rights at the age of 16, when she saw how women were treated in Pakistani society, especially those living in the conflict zones that were controlled largely by the military.
Gulalai heads the human rights NGOs ‘Aware Girls’ and 'Seeds of Peace’. Recently, her father, Mohammad Ismail, was arrested. It was a ploy of the Pakistan army to coerce her to return and face charges, she claims. As Mohammad Ismail, a professor, languishes in a jail in Peshawar, the cries for his release are getting louder. THE WEEK spoke exclusively to Gulalai Ismail in Brooklyn, US.
Q. How difficult is it for a woman to raise her voice against human rights violations, especially in a society like Pakistan?
It is much more challenging because as a woman, I have to fight at multiple levels. Though it’s true that the life of women is getting better in Pakistan, with new legislations to protect women rights, at the community level, there is still lack of acceptability for women leaders, especially if you don’t appease the patriarchy and are secular in your politics. Religious extremism has also made lives of women much more difficult in Pakistan. So as a woman, I am fighting against patriarchal culture, religious extremism and a militarised state all at once.
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Do you feel the establishment is more perturbed because a woman is standing against them?
Yes, they are scared. I think it is the office-bearers in Pakistan’s security agencies who are scared of me, and they try to intimidate me in every possible manner. The office-bearers of security agencies fear me and my voice. Their ego is hurt because they claim to be the best agencies in the world. Since they have failed to arrest and torture me, now they are torturing my parents. They are afraid of strong women: Women who refuse to be cowed down and who refuse to stop their struggle for democracy and peace.
Your father has recently been arrested and is in custody. Are you worried about the safety of your family?
The authorities are harassing my father, professor Ismail, as they could not lay their hands on me. Yes, he was abducted just outside the Peshawar high court and later, only under international pressure, was presented before the magistrate. He has been accused of hate speech and speaking against institutions of the government.
In July, both my parents were booked in another case under the anti-terrorism laws of Pakistan, being accused of taking money from India for terrorism in Pakistan. I and my parents faced allegations of financial terrorism. We were accused of taking money from India for distributing among terrorist organisations in Pakistan. But my parents applied for bail in the court before the arrest. When the state failed to arrest my parents through that case, a new malicious case was made against my father. This case was framed against him to arrest him.
It was a fake and malicious case, but the purpose was to coerce my parents and me into silence. My father is a seasoned human rights activist and has always spoken for peace and democracy. When we worked in Pakistan for democracy and women rights, we are accused of being Indian agents; we are accused of working for R&AW, CIA and NDS (Afghanistan’s intelligence agency). The most painful thing is when you work for human rights of your own country and you are accused of working for the vested interests of other countries.
By “they”, do you mean the Pakistan government or the military establishment?
Pakistan’s military establishment are the 'deep state', a state within the state. They control resources of the country, they control politics of the country and they control the government and have failed miserably in fighting terrorism. The Taliban are again fomenting insurgency in the erstwhile tribal areas of Pakistan: They throw pamphlets threatening people not to spy for the army. Target killings and abductions are rising. The security situation is deteriorating in the erstwhile tribal areas, but Pakistan's security agencies are fighting against human rights activists, instead of fighting the Taliban.
It’s very clear that stronger democracy will mean a stronger Pakistan and lesser interference of the Pakistan military in politics, which will be detrimental for their control over the resources of Pakistan and for their proxy war in the region. That’s why they are after every voice that supports democracy in Pakistan including my elderly father.