Will This Ever End? We Keep Marching . . . : Nuzhat Shahzadi

Seneca Falls, NY, convention (1848) is claimed to be the first suffragette movement organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Among the demands, the key was women’s right to vote in addition to educational and professional opportunities for women, married women’s right to control their wages and property.

In the UK, Emmeline Pankhurst organized the women’s suffragette movement which finally forced the British parliament to pass the Act of 1918 and 1928 in favor of women’s right to vote.

In Japan, activists Hiratsuka Raicho and Ichikawa Fusae kept fighting for women’s rights. Women got the right to vote in 1945.

Under the British colonial rule, some women were allowed to vote in provincial elections in India. Though the Government of India Act 1935 amended the eligibility of women voters, it maintained limitations––subject to property and income.

In 1932 Thai women were granted the right to vote––Thailand was the first among Asian countries to award suffrage to women.

Women keep marching for their rights, constantly, continuously even today in different parts of the world . . . I haven’t witnessed any major men’s groups’ marches fighting for their rights. Men’s rights movement (MRM) does exist––focuses on social issues, mainly. Many scholars view this as a backlash against feminism . . . It’s not a perfect world, Women and men do not always have a perfect Unions––however, both genders have vulnerabilities, experience pain, violence and sufferings. It’s hard to quantify . . .

. . . then there are universal marching against human rights violations: Black Life Matters, recent students uprising against autocracy in Bangladesh (resulted in the ousting of PM Hasina in 2024) . . . student-protests in Tiananmen Square (1989 . . .) against the authoritarian rule of the government in China . . . and many more . . .

Today (3 April) is the 30th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action (BPFA). The 4th world conference on women or the Beijing UN women’s conference in 1995 produced the BPFA––a historical global policy document on gender equality––it especially zeros in on equal rights of all women and girls, jobs, economy, political participation, peace, the environment, and ending violence against women. BPFA was adopted by 189 countries.

The UN Chronicle states: “The status of women has improved significantly since the first Beijing conference in 1995, yet there is still much work to be done to achieve true equality. Addressing the challenges facing women requires a multifaceted approach . . .” hmmm . . . we like to talk big, weave word-garlands . . . go round and round with soundbites, phrases and jargons-games till our expressions sound meaningless.

I attended the 1995 UN Women’s Conference in Beijing. At the time, UNICEF had housed me in Brac-Bangladesh to head the Meena Project (national part) with the aim to actively integrate it to promote girls’ rights through Brac’s grass-roots channels. Christian Clarke headed the regional part in ROSA.

Brac sponsored my travel. I joined a group of 5 Brac-professionals from the gender unit. We got two slots to present the Meena project at the conference (NGO Forum on Women, Huairou–– about 30,000 women participated) and to share how our/Brac’s work on gender was impacting the grass-roots communities, especially girls.

We arrived in Beijing after a long, tortuous-delayed flights, missed connections travel. There were women . . . everywhere . . . I have/had never seen so many women at a time, together . . . Travel weary, we waited for hours for the bus to take us to the venue, hotel. It was a hot humid day. Western journalists pestered us––tried to get us to bad mouth the organizers for mismanagement.

“Yes, we are tired, our bus isn’t here . . . but it’s a humongous conference . . . mistakes are bound to happen, “ I still remember what I said––I was ferociously optimistic, believed in our (women’s) collective power.

Waiting for the bus

Very soon we realized that in order to attract participants to our events, we would have to campaign. There were many parallel-competing sessions going on. The Secretary-General of the United Nations appointed Dr Yunus as a member of the International Advisory Group for the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing, China (1993-1995). Thousands queued outside his venue when he spoke.

“He’s our guy . . .” we laughed and didn’t join the madness.

Many participants asked us about Grameen Bank, Dr Yunus. We were too happy and proud to respond. The air of camaraderie bounced around.

Campaigning for our events

Nuzhat presents Meena

Sheepa presents Brac’s gender programs

In this conference Hilary Clinton (the then First Lady of America) declared: “Human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights."

By this time, we had made friends with several women’s groups. I attended a session on violence against women conducted by a group of Canadian women-activists and was invited to join as an honorary member of the multi-disciplinary curriculum that they were developing. I also made friends with a team of gay women and listened to their issues. The term “LGBTQ” wasn’t popularly used those days.

The hotel was great but vegetarian food was scarce. Meat was added in everything. I got addicted to ramen . . . or cup noodles––safe from meat and devoured them fearlessly.

Benazir Bhutto addressed the conference. When asked by journalists, she flatly lied about the genocide of Bengalees by the Pakistani forces: “I do not know what happened in 1971.”

Our conference sisters from multi-cultures informed us, were furious and organized a protest against Bhutto.

We had to embrace history at the Tiananmen Square––the birthplace of message of freedom in an autocratic society. We were awestruck . . . it was so excruciatingly powerful . . .

Tiananmen Square looms in the background (Nuzhat with water bottle)

Entire team at Tiananmen Square

We decided to take some time off from the non-stop conference to visit the great wall of China.

Off to the Great wall of China!

The Majestic great Wall!

We walked for long, uphill, about 4-5 miles? The total length of the wall is around 13, 171 . . .

Resting

We also visited the Ming tombs . . . so much history there!

Nuzhat at Ming Tombs

. . . and the forbidden city . . . a city/palaces full of concubines . . . over 3000 young women lived in this secluded city at a time, guarded by eunuchs along with the emperors of Ming and Qing dynasty (and their house holds). My heart saddened at the tragic fate of these women . . . The guards had to give up their precious body parts to become eunuchs––the emperors played it safe with all those beautiful, young concubines flooding the palace complex. When the city ceased to be the political center in 1912, the eunuchs were let go––all this while their body parts were preserved in glass boxes which were handed over to them when they finally departed. Many of the concubines returned to their families, many faced hardships.

The Forbidden City

The conference was coming to an end. We got invited to a dance party organized by Saudi women. They were so spontaneous––gyrated and bounced and moved with grace, and like hooligans. Purdah was forgotten! We laughingly joined them. Journalists were banned. Out of respect for these women, we refrained from photographing them.

Dancing with Saudi women.

On our way back to the hotel the night before we flew, it rained. We always carried umbrellas and had ditched our sandals for flip flops right after we arrived.

We danced in the rain . . .unabashed . . .

Dancing in the rain