Feminism and Nationalism in Cold War East Pakistan

Abstract

Every independent nation is paying special attention to the progress of women. It is not possible for a country that does not have a women’s movement to undergo extensive improvement. […] The women of our country are lagging behind those of other countries. […] There are many reasons for this, of which the lack of education is one. East Bengal is an agricultural land. […] The climate of organisation that prevails in the cities is lacking in the countryside. For this reason, the majority of the people of our country cannot become immediately familiar with the changes of the times. Women are further oppressed because they are at the back of the group […]. Pakistan needs a women’s movement. Poverty, poor health, illiteracy, and unemployment, these are the root problems of our country. Alongside our men, we too must work tirelessly to solve these problems. (Begum 2006: 925-6) This excerpt is taken from an editorial in the Bengali women’s magazine Begum, published on 23 March 1952. The piece goes on to cite examples of women’s groups and women’s meetings in the Arab world and in London as sources of inspiration for working “to improve women’s rights, rural education, and social moral standards” (Begum 2006: 926). The timing and the content of this statement raise several interesting points. Just a month earlier, women’s and human rights activist and former US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had arrived in Karachi, Pakistan, for a seven-day visit as a guest of the All-Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA). At the airport, Roosevelt was greeted by “thousands of cheering Pakistanis, many of them riding elaborately decorated camel carts” that were, according to the New York Times, “something of a Karachi trademark” (James 1952a: 2).