The Passive Voice

Published in 'The Friday Times' [TFT]
May 25-31, 2007

By Fariha Rashed
'Maawaan Noo Na Satao' is an interactive exercise that is meant to create awareness about the issue of violence against women. It was performed by the Interactive Resource Centre [IRC] as a theatre performance, followed by an interactive session on preventing violence against women. The event was specifically held on the occasion of Mother’s Day this year. The White Ribbon Campaign and FCC Rotaract Club organized the afternoon at Sinclair Hall, Forman Christian College [FCC], Lahore. GTZ must be commended for funding such educational events.

The hall seated a packed crowd of 700 students, faculty and staff members. Surprisingly, the event started on time. It began with the beautifully synchronized playing of a tabla and a flute. I thought this was an ingenious way to allow a rowdy crowd of students in uniforms to settle down in their seats and relax. As told to us by Mr. Amen Jaffar, Advisor, FCC Rotaract Club, the performance was put up to encourage all of us to learn a lesson. The crusade is an effort to educate both men and women about women’s rights. The White Ribbon Campaign takes up volunteers and offers summer internship programs to anyone interested in joining in to help forward the cause.

As the show was about to begin, an IRC performer took to the stage and explained the format of the performance. Since it was an interactive play, the actors brought forward an issue, acted it out, and later invited people from the audience to come on stage and complete the story. Completing the story would of course in essence mean that the audience was giving the solution to the problem highlighted through the performance.

The story discussed a woman who was beaten and abused by all the men in her family --- her husband, her brothers and her sons. What IRC did was leave the woman’s story behind for awhile and instead gave us a peak into each one of the men’s lives. As we witnessed the husband going to work as a laborer and being ill-treated by his boss; the brothers making money off of gambling and getting into all kinds of trouble; and finally the sons being beaten by the teacher in class as a means of punishment, we realize the reason for each one of their frustrations. Unfortunately, it is the woman who suffers their wrath at home as they unleash their aggravations upon her.

Throughout the performance the actor playing the abused woman interacted directly with the audience, asking them questions pertaining to her plight. By the end of it, a scenario had been presented to us, yet no solution had been offered. One by one young audience members went on stage and gave their opinions as to how the situation could be resolved and what they thought of violence against women. A few very interesting remarks and observations were made. A question was posed as to whether kids who are beaten at school should leave and stop studying. The audience was quick to disapprove. A teacher of FCC took to the stage at this point and agreed that beating students was acceptable because according to him, the teacher knows best how to make a child listen. When asked to take the place of the kid being beaten in the play, the teacher did so and still stuck to his guns. “If I did something wrong as a student, I should be hit”, he said as the crowd booed him off stage. Another audience member brought it to everyone’s notice that it is not only the girls who are suppressed and ill treated at childhood. Boys are sent to off to work at very tender ages and huge responsibilities are put on their shoulders. Yet another person pointed out that at least boys have a right to speak out against any injustice done to them; girls have no such rights in our society. A few girls felt that if they were ever beaten or abused they wouldn’t take it. They would go to court and divorce their husbands. Loud cheering and clapping resounded through the hall as these thoughts were expressed. However, immediately someone raised the question as to whether our society would accept such a step taken by a woman. Would it be easy for her to walk into a court and file for divorce? To this, the audience became double minded and one girl admitted that it is not an easy step for women and the only solution is to educate men and teach them how to respect women. She pointed out correctly that women are only respected by men so long as they stay within the four walls of their homes and stay obedient. Although change would be slow in coming, the audience felt that we should at least try. They believed that awareness programs such as the IRC performance would help immensely. Also, it was noted that every family has its own policies regarding education for their children, and whether it is necessary at all.

At this point a young man came on stage and provided us with a perfect example of certain factions of society, mostly men, who are in complete denial regarding the issue of violence against women. “Women are not as violated as you portrayed them to be through your performance”, he said. He goes on to state, very optimistically, that even if there are problems, there are matching solutions. However, he failed to pin-point what these solutions might be. “Bardasht kee had hoti hai” shouted a young lady as she grabbed the mike from another student. She stressed that the education of men with regard to how they should treat women should have been enforced from day one. She raised a pertinent question; how long will women run? A daring your man admitted on stage that men should sit down and think about how to behave with the opposite sex.

On the whole the event was a brilliant success. A very important issue was presented to the youth in an intelligent manner. The message got across to them clearly and they were provoked into actually ‘thinking’. For a society where social theatre is not yet recognized and accepted as a good form of ‘entertainment with a message’, the IRC did an excellent job. They must continue to perform interactively in various schools and colleges around Pakistan, as these young minds are the ones that need to be fueled to bring about change.