Farzana Bari (

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

human rights activist A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing campai ...

and academic who served as the director of the Gender Studies Department at

Quaid-i-Azam University Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad ( ur, ; commonly referred to as QAU), founded as University of Islamabad, is a ranked 1 public research university in Islamabad, Pakistan. Founded as the University of Islamabad in 1967, it was initially dedi ...

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

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 , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, 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." She is founder of the first gender studies department in any university in Pakistan.

Feminism/human rights activism

Farzana Bari is human rights activist who promotes justice and gender equality in Pakistan. She militates against the male-dominated system of

jirga A jirga ( ps, جرګه, ''jərga'') is an assembly of leaders that makes decisions by consensus according to Pashtunwali, the Pashtun social code. It is conducted in order to settle disputes among the Pashtuns, but also by members of other ethnic ...

s and pleads in favor of looser Islamic rules regarding

women's rights in Pakistan A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardle ...

. 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. 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. In August 2015, she spoke up about the 300 children sex slaves in Hussain Khan Wala Village (

Kasu KASU (91.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is a non-commercial public radio station broadcasting a news-talk-music format. Licensed to Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States, it serves northeast Arkansas, southeast Missouri and West Tennessee with its analog sig ...

) forced to do sex videos from 2006 to 2014. 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". Bari raised her voice against the honor killings of women in Pakistan. In October 2016, as the

National Assembly of Pakistan The National Assembly ( ur, , translit=Aiwān-e-Zairīñ, , or ur, قومی اسمبلی, Romanization, romanized: ''Qaumi Assembly'') is the lower house, lower legislative house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, which al ...

outlawed

honor killing An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of t ...

, 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. Bari is a member of

Women Democratic Front Women Democratic Front (WDF) is an independent socialist-feminist organization based in Pakistan. It was founded in the federal capital Islamabad on March 8, 2018, by hundreds of delegates from Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. ...

(WDF) which is a socialist democratic women's organization. She organized

Aurat March The Aurat March ( ur, or , English: Women's March) is an annual socio-political demonstration in Pakistani cities such as Lahore, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Faisalabad, Multan, Quetta, Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar to observe International Women ...

along with WDF members in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Politics

Bari also served as a senior leader and vice president of

Awami Workers Party The Awami Workers Party ( ur, عوامی ورکرز پارٹی) is a left-wing socialist political party in Pakistan. The party seeks to unify the struggles of workers, peasants, students, women and ethnic and religious minorities in Pakistan und ...

(AWP). She joined AWP since it was formed in 2012. She was elected as women secretary AWP in party's third central congress held in Lahore on 12-13 March.

Articles

Bari also wrote many articles as a columnist for ''

The Express Tribune ''The Express Tribune'' is a daily English-language newspaper based in Pakistan. It is the flagship publication of the '' Daily Express'' media group. It is Pakistan's only internationally affiliated newspaper in a partnership with the ''Interna ...

'' and ''

Daily Times Pakistan The ''Daily Times'' (''DT'') is an English-language Pakistani newspaper. Launched on April 9, 2002, ''Daily Times'', is simultaneously published from Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. The newspaper was owned by Governor of Punjab and Pakistan Pe ...

''. *''Women Parliamentarians: Challenging the Frontiers of Politics in Pakistan'', March 2011

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bari, Farzana 1952 births Living people Pakistani democracy activists Pakistani human rights activists Pakistani feminists Pakistani women's rights activists Pakistani civil rights activists Pakistani secularists Academic staff of Quaid-i-Azam University Pakistani women activists Pakistani columnists Awami Workers Party politicians Pakistani women columnists Women civil rights activists Alumni of the University of Sussex