Farzana Bari (

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

: فرزانہ باری, born 7 March 1957) is a Pakistani

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

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 (QAU), founded as the University of Islamabad, is a public research university in Islamabad, Pakistan. Founded as the University of Islamabad in 1967, it was initially dedicated to postgraduate study, but later expande ...

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

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 The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, 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 (, ''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 groups who ...

s and pleads in favor of looser Islamic rules regarding

women's rights in Pakistan A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or Adolescence, adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functi ...

. 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) is a non-commercial public radio station licensed to Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States. Established in 1957, the station serves parts of northeastern Arkansas, southeastern Missouri and western Tennes ...

) 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 of Pakistan, also referred to as ''Aiwān-ē-Zairīñ'', is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, with the upper house being the Senate of Pakistan, Senate. As of 2023, the National Assem ...

outlawed

honor killing An honor killing (American English), ''honour killing'' (Commonwealth English), or ''shame killing'' is a type of murder in which a person, usually a woman or girl, is killed by or at the behest of male members of their family or their male ...

, 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.

Politics

Bari also served as a senior leader and vice president of

Awami Workers Party The Awami Workers Party () 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 under the banner of a democratic and soc ...

(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 '' Lakson Group'' media group. It is Pakistan's only internationally affiliated newspaper in a partnership with the '' Intern ...

'' and ''

Daily Times Pakistan The ''Daily Times'' (''DT'') is an English-language newspaper that is simultaneously published from Lahore and Islamabad. The ''Daily Times'' is considered a left-leaning newspaper that promotes liberal and secular ideas. It is a member of th ...

''. *''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 critics of religions 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