Patriarchal Societies and the Women who Govern Them

By: Summer Yasmin

Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan: 3 developing nations, each with their own triumphant and equally as turbulent history. On the global canvas these countries don’t paint a very progressive picture of women’s rights and opportunities. They are socially, religiously and culturally patriarchal societies. Although some facets in them may adhere to a different philosophy, by and large male dominance is the way of things in every present institution. So it is nothing short of ironic that all three of these nations have either had, have or may have a female president.

Of all subcontinents in the world, South Asia is home to the most number of female leaders. The late Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, current Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina Wajed and future presidential hopeful Fawzia Koofi in Afghanistan are intriguing chapters in the stories of each of these nations. These women can be called the past, present and future faces representing a millions strong population of South Asian women. But what do they mean to the men who elect them, support them, oppose them, threaten them, criticize them and ultimately are led by them?

Benazir Bhutto can easily be typed as one of the most high profile women leaders in the world’s political history. Harvard and Oxford educated she was the protégé of her infamous father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, prime minister of Pakistan in the early 1970’s. Although she entered politics hesitantly, there is no doubt that being raised in a political powerhouse paved the way for her emergence as a beacon of change. She held the leadership of Pakistan not once, but twice from 1988 to 1996, a period of time characterized by moments of glorious success mixed with turbulent downfalls. She was twice dismissed from leadership, accused of corruption and even jailed for 5 years in solitary confinement while her own father was executed. Throughout her time as Pakistan’s prime minister the presence of her husband, Asif Zardari in her affairs remained a strong source of controversy as well. Even though Bhutto was a powerful and brilliant woman on her own merit, she was unable to separate her image from that of the men in her life, and ultimately suffered the consequences. Perhaps if she had been looked as a stand-alone candidate her volatile political career may have been different, even allowing her the forum to push the kinds of changes she represented by virtue of simply being who she was as an individual.

Like Bhutto, Sheikh Hasina Wajed has also held office twice, and is currently the prime minister of Bangladesh. Also, like Bhutto she is the daughter of the founding father and first prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Another woman born and brought up in politics, Sheikh Hasina was a natural activist. During the Bangladeshi Liberation war in 1971 she was held under house arrest and ultimately experienced the assignation of her entire family on August 15, 1975. She became president of the Bangladeshi Awami League in 1981, was in and out of detection during the 1980’s and eventually became an instrumental component in the movement against military rule in Bangladesh. Hasina’s political career has also been marked by drastic fluctuations in support and opposition. She suffered a land slide defeat in 2001, was accused of extortion and arrested only to celebrate a land slide victory in the 2008 elections. Although Hasina’s reign has been challenged on moral and political grounds, she has still managed to carve an exclusive place for herself, separate from her paternal lineage, however it has not saved her from experiencing the overwhelming challenges of holding office in a young, unstable and oft changing nation with a traditional cultural stratum.

Perhaps following in the footsteps of Bhutto and Hasina is Fawzia Koofi. Born in Afghanistan into a polygamous family, she was the first and only girl in her house hold to be educated. Koofi’s deceased father was also an MP, possibly being the source of inspiration leading to her future political endeavors. However Koofi has a somewhat different feel to her as compared to her Pakistani and Bangladeshi counter parts. She comes across as much less fierce but equally as determined and brave, a characteristic that may end up working well to her advantage. With less inherited political power, she almost comes across as a grass roots activist; a women who has a place at the table not because her family owns it but because she simply insists on being there. Originally a worker with UNICEF, Fawzia Koofi became an out spoken women’s rights advocate working closely with various humanitarian groups. This in itself was enough to illicit threats on her life and those of her family, namely her two daughters. In her novel “Letters To My Daughters” published in 2011 Koofi says “Today I am going on political business to Faizabad and Darwaz. I hope I will come back soon and see you again, but I have to say that perhaps I will not.” Since she has started campaigning to become Present Hamid Karzai’s successor by 2014, the violence against her has significantly escalated. “It’s a very difficult life for a woman, to be a woman alone in Afghanistan, to be a mother, to be a single mother and to be a woman politician,” she said. Fawia Koofi is an interesting combination of the traditional and progressive, more so then Bhutto and Hasina. It remains to be seen if this will benefit or restrict in her bid for presidency.

Although Bhutto, Hasina and Koofi all have distinctly different personas their stories merge over the hardships they have endured to exist as strong, ambitious women in a man’s world. For women who have had to invest much time and energy into simply staying alive and afloat in their turbulent worlds, how much is actually left of them at the end of the day to go about the business of governing a nation? What these women could achieve if allowed to work without the constant threats and controversies is a staggering thought. The reality is that regardless of how capable and deserving they may be, their presidencies will not likely reflect their true potential because they will always be bogged down by sociocultural baggage, wasting their vital time and resources. A leader, whether male or female, is only as good as the systems within which they must function but in countries where patriarchy is the cultural norm, female candidates pose a unique challenge, both for themselves and for the men who have to come to terms with them.