Farzana Bari

Farzana Bari (Urdu: فرزانہ باری, born March 7, 1957) is a Pakistani feminist, human rights activist and academic who served as the director of the Gender Studies Department at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad Pakistan.[1][2][3]

Farzana Bari
فرزانہ باری
Born
Farzana Bari

March 07, 1957
NationalityPakistani
Alma materUniversity of Sussex, United Kingdom
Occupation(s)Academic, Ex-director Gender studies department Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad
Known forHuman Rights Activist, Feminist, Member Awami Workers Party

Career

Bari is a leading voice on issues of women's rights in Pakistan, with more than twenty five years of academic and professional experience in the field of gender studies. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Sociology from University of Sussex, United Kingdom, with a doctoral thesis on "Effects of Employment on the Status of Women within Family." She is also active in policy advice and advocacy on women's economic, political and social empowerment in society. She also did research on "Women’s Substantive Representation in Pakistani Politics."[4][5][6] She is founder of the first gender studies department in any university in Pakistan.[7]

Feminism/human rights activism

Farzana Bari is human rights activist who promotes justice and gender equality in Pakistan.[8][9] She militates against the male-dominated system of jirgas[10] and pleads in favor of looser Islamic rules regarding women's rights in Pakistan.[11][12]

In 2013, Bari estimated that at least eleven million women were not eligible to vote because authorities did not issued them the national identity card numbers.[13] In January 2014, she militated to reopen the Kohistan dancing video case where she claimed that the girls appearing in the video were then murdered after dancing at a wedding.[14][15][16][17][18] In August 2015, she spoke up about the 300 children sex slaves in Hussain Khan Wala Village (Kasu) forced to do sex videos from 2006 to 2014.[19] In May 2016, she strongly opposed the Islamic council's decision to make it legal for husbands to "slightly" beat up their wives, calling the council "decadent".[20]

Bari raised her voice against the honor killings of women in Pakistan.[21][22] In October 2016, as the National Assembly of Pakistan outlawed honor killing, Farzana Bari warned that this law could be bypassed as a judge has to decide first and foremost if a homicide is indeed a case of honor killing or not.[23][24][7]

Bari is a member of Women Democratic Front (WDF) which is a socialist democratic women's organization.[25][26] She organized Aurat March along with WDF members in 2018, 2019 and 2020.[27]

Politics

Bari also served as a senior leader and vice president of Awami Workers Party (AWP). She joined AWP since it was formed in 2012.[28][29][30][31] She was elected as women secretary AWP in party's third central congress held in Lahore on 12-13 March.[32]

Articles

Bari also wrote many articles as a columnist for The Express Tribune and Daily Times Pakistan.[33][34]

  • Women Parliamentarians: Challenging the Frontiers of Politics in Pakistan, March 2011[35]

References
  1. Dawn.com, Naveed Siddiqui (21 October 2016). "Kohistan video case: Girls declared alive by SC had actually been killed, says Bari". DAWN.COM.
  2. "Discrimination: For women in rural areas, healthcare not a basic right". The Express Tribune. 7 July 2013.
  3. Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche (9 November 2011). "Young Pakistani girls learn to speak up for their rights". DW.COM. DW.
  4. "Democracy, the Political and Social Movements in Europe and South Asia: An Intercontextual Dialogue" (PDF). German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
  5. "Call for greater role of women in politics". The Express Tribune. 31 August 2017.
  6. Zakaria, Rafia (21 September 2016). "The thorny question of quotas". DAWN.COM.
  7. "Brother found guilty of murdering Pakistani model in 'honor killing'". NBC News.
  8. Pakistan Liberation Movement interview with Dr. Farzana Bari. Vimeo. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  9. "WDF pays tribute to women who stood up against dictatorship". The Nation. 16 February 2020.
  10. Blind justice: Reforms can make jirgas more representative, Tribune.com.pk, 27 February 2014
  11. Pakistan clerics say women don't need to cover up, Enca.com, 20 October 2015
  12. "Decree controversy: Civil society activists seek abolition of CII". The Express Tribune. 14 March 2014.
  13. "Taliban, taboos bar millions of women from Pakistan vote". DAWN.COM. 25 April 2013.
  14. Rights activist Farzana Bari for reopening of Kohistan video case, Geo.tv, 29 January 2014
  15. Reporter, The Newspaper's Staff (7 April 2017). "SC asks Nadra to verify Kohistan girls' identity". DAWN.COM.
  16. "Dr. Farzana Bari accuses ANP leaders and KP police for protecting the people behind Kohistan killings". Daily Times. 2 April 2019.
  17. Bhatti, Haseeb (2 January 2019). "Girls in 2011 Kohistan video were killed, Supreme Court told". DAWN.COM.
  18. "Three Sentenced for Years-old 'Honor' Killings". Newsweek Pakistan. September 6, 2019.
  19. Luavut Zaid, INTERVIEW: ‘This has gone on for a long, long time’ –Dr Farzana Bari, Pakistantoday.com, 15 August 2015
  20. Tim Craig, Pakistani husbands can ‘lightly beat’ their wives, Islamic council says, Washingtonpost.com, 27 May 2016
  21. "Pakistani woman's body found by roadside after marriage deal goes awry". South China Morning Post. 16 July 2020.
  22. Raja, Katharine Houreld, Shafait (29 May 2014). "Pakistan PM: honor killing of pregnant woman was 'unacceptable'". Reuters.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. Pakistan unanimously passes legislation to try to stop 'honor killings', Pri.org, 6 October 2016
  24. "Afzal Kohistani: 'Honour killing' whistleblower shot dead". BBC News. 7 March 2019.
  25. "WDF holds two-day political school". Women Democratic Front. 23 June 2019.
  26. "Islamabad's Women's Day march was met with violent opposition from conservative agitators · Global Voices". Global Voices. 13 March 2020.
  27. Yasin, Aamir (11 March 2020). "Aurat March organisers demand judicial probe into Islamabad stone pelting incident". DAWN.COM.
  28. "Awami Workers Party: Interim leaders elected for new left party". The Express Tribune. 11 November 2012.
  29. "The Left way: AWP vows to struggle for 'real' change, egalitarian society". The Express Tribune. 28 September 2014.
  30. "Legitimising Misogyny". Newsline.
  31. "Court upholds life sentence for Baba Jan". The Friday Times. 17 June 2016.
  32. Reporter, The Newspaper's Staff (14 March 2022). "AWP vows to strive for socialist society". DAWN.COM.
  33. "dr.farzana.bari, Author at The Express Tribune". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  34. "Dr Farzana Bari Archives". Daily Times.
  35. "Women Parliamentarians". Retrieved 9 March 2016.
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