ON comparing this year’s LLF from the previous years, one thing stands out in prominence. This year, there were a number of sessions dedicated to feminist concerns. A wide range of female writers from across the globe shared their views on the social, political and cultural aspects of women and the lives they lead. All of these sessions garnered a huge interest among the audience.

The session ‘Fifty Shades of Feminism’ borrowed its title from a book of essays by Lisa Appignanesi. One of the editors of the book, Rachel Holmes, was present as a panellist along with Shobhaa De, Yasmine El Rashidi and Muneeza Shamsie, and the session was moderated by Nilofer Bakhtiar. Compiled and published in response to an infamous novel that promoted a convoluted perspective on gender roles and sexuality, Fifty Shades of Feminism gained popularity and invigorated the feminist movement across the globe.

During the start of the session, Shamsie quoted examples of her mother and her grandmother who explored their take on life through writing memoirs. They were housewives who believed in equality regardless of gender, and raised children to think and act in the same way. Rashidi shed light on the struggle of women in the Middle East during the political upheaval of the Arab Spring.

De highlighted the importance of ‘choice’ for women unrestrained by socio-political dynamics. According to her, “Freedom shouldn’t have gender attached to it. A girl child is not aware of the restraints she’ll have to face when she will grow up.” She further cited the example of the recent Delhi elections and pointed out that despite the occurrence of the tragic 2012 Delhi gang rape, the political narrative of the elections excluded women: “There is still not a single woman in the recently formed cabinet of Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi. Generally, men are the custodians of power in our societies and some of them are ‘kind’ enough to share it with women.” De further added that “it is not a bar of chocolate that men can give women; women should inherently have the power of decisions regarding their lives.” According to her, women cannot be empowered socially, unless they are empowered financially: “Without an income to call your own, you cannot have a mind of your own”.

With large numbers of women entering the workforce, De believes that the tide is already turning. For her women are becoming more assertive and are unwilling to let any crime committed against them go unreported. “The problem, however, lies in the attitude of the police. Legislation alone cannot help. It is deeply distressing that the police do not register cases of domestic violence. Somehow, they consider domestic violence not a crime, or at least not as grave a crime as others worthy of their attention.”

Bakhtiar questioned Holmes on her claim that patriarchy can be eliminated by 2040 to which Holmes insisted that she was quite serious about her claim, pointing out this is a complete possibility if a certain percentage of women in every society do not succumb to patriarchal values. For example, if 37 per cent of women in Britain refuse to marry or have children, the whole nation can break the consistent cycle of patriarchal structure. According to Holmes, “feminism is a political cause and sacrifices have to be made for political causes”.

Moni Mohsin had a session dedicated to the Butterfly series, moderated by Saba Imtiaz. Mohsin, the ever-so-popular author of the series, not only shared anecdotes on the various aspects of her writing but also read out certain parts of her book. Her witty renditions from the book had the audience in fits of laughter. Originally Mohsin wrote humorous columns in The Friday Times from 2007 to 2013 and her novels take the columns further. The protagonist, i.e. Butterfly, is a shallow socialite from Lahore, with a touch of innocence that is admired by the readers. She doesn’t care about the realities of the world happening around her, and is merely concerned with scandalous parties, shopping malls, glamorous attires and petty issues of her mundane life. Her language is an “amalgamation” of subcontinent English and colloquial Urdu.

One question that particularly intrigued Moni’s audience was who the character of Butterfly is based on, and Imtiaz began the discussion by asking this very question. According to Mohsin, although several people around her think that she has based this character on some of their friends, she has no hesitation to admit that the character is truly based on her own self: “When you have to write, you have to be truthful. You have to access the dark places inside you. I sometimes resent my friends or feel envious. I channel these emotions into the character of Butterfly.”

Mohsin has used humour and satire to probe into the lifestyles and thinking patterns of the elite class in Pakistan, and she proudly insists that there has been a long tradition of satire in Urdu literature — from Akbar Allahabadi, Hasrat Mohani and Ibn-e-Insha to Salima and Shoaib Hashmi, Anwar Maqsood, Moin Akhtar, and Farooq Qaiser of Uncle Sargam fame.

In contemporary fiction, she praised Mohammed Hanif’s A Case of Exploding Mangoes as political satire at its best. Through satire, Mohsin believes, she has been able to communicate the political disconnect of the elite class, particularly the ‘socialites’, from the problems of the masses. However, the worsening condition of law and order has even Butterfly worried. According to Mohsin, the sociopolitical scenario is becoming harder to comment on through the prism of humour and satire. Tragedies like the Peshawar school attack and the murder of Salmaan Taseer, says Mohsin, leave you with a depressing silence and you cannot muster the courage to make light of it.

The session ‘When a Woman and Mountains Meet’ (Aisha Khan and Nadeem Ahmed with Khaled Ahmed) was a fascinating account of the adventurous campaign undertaken by Khan, CEO at Mountain and Glacier Protection Organisation (MGPO), a welfare non-profit organisation working to safeguard the natural environment of the northern areas of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir. Also, it focuses on the elevation of the quality of life of the residents of the area and improvement in tourism facilities.

Khan’s passion for the mountain ranges of Karakoram and Himalayas led her to start a campaign for the endurance of the natural habitat. Despite a slow start, the session culminated with many mesmerising and captivating details of the passionate endeavours of Khan. It highlighted her achievements primarily focusing on the water management system, mountain clean-up campaign and social inclusion of women in welfare projects undertaken by MGPO. She also praised the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund for sponsoring this unthinkable initiative. Training sessions were started for capacity building of the organisation members, particularly women. The session ended with a slideshow of photographs of the development work completed so far and the impact Khan and her organisation made was felt with the rapturous applause.