Baloch Women’s Forum (BWF) organized a one-day seminar in Kharan on International Women’s Day. The event attracted people from different walks of life, mainly women, who took part in various activities such as a panel discussion, speech, poems, tableau performances, book stalls, and more.
The participants discussed the role of women in creating and maintaining healthy societies. They also shared the challenges faced by the Baloch women in a session where BWF’s organizers Shili Baloch and Haneefa Baloch joined them.
The program started with the Baloch national anthem by Gohar Noor Baloch and a research paper on the Baloch women by Dr. Sumaiyya Baloch. Children performed a two-part tableau. The first part depicted, through graphical charts, Baloch women’s role in society before the ‘occupation’. These featured women like Mehnaaz, Hani, Banri, Chagli, Mayi Bibo, Gul Bibi, and Seemak, among others. The second part showed the ‘post-occupation’ plight of the Baloch women, their economic and social exploitation, and their struggle for the release of their missing relatives.
In the panel discussion, Muslim Shafi Baloch, FJ Faizi Baloch, and Dr. Sumaiyya Baloch talked about the role of women in Baloch nationalism, while Gohar Noor Baloch and Aamir Baloch recited poetry. The event also had several stalls run by women.
In the concluding segment of the seminar, the participants addressed the audience, saying that a movement cannot succeed without women’s participation. They said that movements that lacked women’s involvement failed miserably.
They said that some people in Baloch society think that women are weak and sensitive and they cannot do anything without the help of men. They said that this mindset is imposed on us by the Pakistani state. They said that the state is scared that if the Baloch women join the Baloch national movement, the state would be doomed, so it is spreading misogynistic ideas in the Baloch society.