Over the last month, in order not to be Islamophobic, a line was surreptiously moved. The proposition that women should be confined to the home and kept out of higher education stopped being an outrage to be dismantled in public and became a “perspective” to be weighed.

Silence on the right of a woman to leave her own house, and called the silence respect. A space loud for one liberty and mute on another has not been even-handed; it has been captured. That is the moment the emperor lost his clothes and the courtiers agreed not to mention it.

How a country starts eating halal

RNJ consistently brings up Nassim Taleb’s seminal piece on “The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority.”

A society does not turn to halal or kosher food because the majority converts. It turns because a small, inflexible minority will eat only one way, the flexible majority does not greatly mind, and it is cheaper for the caterer to feed everyone the strict diet than to run two kitchens. The intolerant minority sets the menu for all. Taleb called it the dictatorship of the small minority, and he was right that the most intolerant party, not the most numerous, decides the rule.

This is what happened to our comment section, and it is the smaller copy of what happened to Pakistan. A vocal faction that will not bend establishes the terms and to object to it is to be rude to your hosts.

Restricting a woman’s right to pursue higher education

Are we are tarring a nation with one man’s words? Q did not call for banning women from education. He called for severely restricting it, through quotas and the withdrawal of public funding, on the reasoning that most women in lecture halls are squandering a fertility they owe to children.

It is the drawing-room translation of an arrangement already in force across much of Pakistan. His opinion is the polite, exportable form of a structure that tens of millions of women already live inside.

Elites will continue educating their womenfolk

The Ashraf families would never accept for their own daughters what they prescribe for everyone else’s.

We sat beside one such table a moment ago. The Pakistani elite, in Karachi and in London alike, has done something that earns a cold sort of admiration: it has persuaded a population to feel the confiscation of its women’s liberty as devotion, and to hear the naming of that confiscation as blasphemy.

The men defending the arrangement here are not defending a constraint they themselves endure. They are defending a culture, upheld by women, whom they will never meet.

Patheticstan?

Barely half of Pakistani women can read and write. In the tribal areas the figure for women falls below ten percent. Pakistan carries the second largest population of out-of-school children on earth, after Nigeria, and keeps its girls out at a higher rate than its boys.

Across much of the country a woman cannot move from one place to another without a male relative to transport her, not as a courtesy but as a condition of her safety and her name.

None of this is a slander against Pakistani women. It is the footprint of a structure pressed onto them. We are describing what is done to people, not what they are.

Islam?

Then comes the defence that absorbs all the others: this is simply Islam, and a Muslim society is bound to arrive here.

Take Iran. It is more clerical than Pakistan, governed by jurists, and it enforces a veil Pakistan has never imposed. By the Islam theory it should sit at or below Pakistan on every measure of a woman’s life. It does the reverse. Iranian women are the majority of the country’s university students and outscore the men on entry and in the hall, and female youth literacy runs near ninety-nine percent against Pakistan’s barely-half.

The detail that closes the case is this. The Iranian clergy grew so alarmed at women out-graduating men that they imposed quotas and barred women from whole faculties to hold them back, and the women stayed the majority regardless.

Hold the religion constant and vary only the policy, and the outcomes part completely. The variable was never piety. It is whether the state and the family will let a woman build a self they cannot later repossess. Iran spent decades trying to cap a rising tide of educated women and could not reverse it. Pakistan arranged matters so the tide never came in.

The verdict

We will use the word K warned us was colonial. A structure that confiscates the liberty of half its members at birth, by choice and not by necessity, and trains them to call the theft holiness, is primitive. The word falls on the arrangement, not on the people held inside it, and the arrangement has earned it. Conservative, traditional, devout: these are the camouflage the structure wears, and we decline to hand it the camouflage.

Kabir’s closing defence is that a country cannot be so backward if a woman may run it, and he offers Benazir Bhutto and Maryam Nawaz. They prove the reverse. They are daughters of dynasties, and a structure that crowns a Bhutto’s daughter while leaving half its women unlettered has not raised women. It has raised a handful of surnames, which purchase their own women an exemption from the rule that still binds the rest. That is the engine of our last essay restated, the few ruling the many, in a sari this time.

Mera Jism, Meri Marzi

One slogan gathers the rest. The Aurat March marches under “mera jism, meri marzi,” my body, my choice, and K clarified, that the Urdu jism carries a sexual charge the English “body” lacks, so the country hears a demand for licence where the marchers make a claim to selfhood. Grant the mistranslation entire.

It changes nothing, because even were a woman demanding the right to sleep with whomever she chooses, she is owed it. An adult answers for their sexual life to herself and to her maker, to no committee, absent a marriage or a contract they entered freely of their own accord.

A culture is not weighed by its skyline or its arsenal. It is weighed by whether it lets its adults govern their own destinies & bodies.

How to deal with an Ugly Idea

We let Q’s argument stand in the thread, because a space that cannot look an ugly idea in the face cannot defeat it, and the Commentariat took it apart far more thoroughly than deletion would have. But letting an argument stand is not the same as letting it set the tone.

We spent two months so careful not to wound the faith that we forgot to defend the women, and the Female Admin Team now holds the gender threads for exactly that reason: so that the next time the intolerant minority reaches for the menu, the pen is in the hand of someone with skin in the question.

The patriarchy survives empires. We said so ourselves. Let us at least make certain it does not survive on our good manners.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s average number of children per woman has dropped sharply from 3.61 in 2023 to 3.19 in 2024, reflecting shifting fertility patterns. By comparison, India’s rate declined more modestly from 2.14 to 2.12.

Why women in South Asia are aging faster than in Europe, US

Those are not marginal adjustments. That is acceleration. For decades, Pakistan was treated as a demographic outlier. India fell below replacement. Bangladesh stabilised. Iran collapsed to European levels. Turkey dropped. The Gulf states hollowed out. Pakistan remained “young.” That youth dividend now looks fragile.

Economic Pressures

The fertility transition is no longer creeping. It is sprinting. The familiar explanation is economic pressure. Urban housing costs more. Education lasts longer. Children are expensive. Women delay marriage. This is all true but incomplete. The deeper shift is cultural. Modernity changes how individuals see time.

Rural Norms

In agrarian societies, children are labour, security, and continuity. In urban societies, children are choice. Once children become a choice rather than a necessity, fertility becomes elastic. It bends downward.

Social Media

The internet accelerates this. Television weakened traditional authority in the last generation. Social media dissolves it in this one. When a young woman in Lahore or Karachi lives in the same symbolic world as a woman in London or Dubai, her horizon changes. She does not compare herself to her grandmother. She compares herself to her global peer group.

Rationalising Fertility in a Religious Setting

Spacing children becomes normal. Having fewer children becomes rational. Delaying marriage becomes acceptable. Self-actualisation competes with reproduction. This is not about ideology. It is about incentives. Religion does not immunise societies against this shift. Iran’s fertility rate fell below replacement decades ago. Turkey’s has dropped steadily. Even parts of the Gulf now rely heavily on migrant labour because native fertility is weak. These are not secular European societies. They are Muslim-majority states with strong religious frameworks. The pattern persists.

Theology and Feminism

The common denominator is not theology. It is urbanisation, education, and female labour participation. Modern economies reward mobility, not embeddedness. They reward credentials, not kinship networks. The extended family dissolves into the nuclear household. The nuclear household struggles under financial and psychological strain. Child-rearing, once collective, becomes private and expensive. Under those conditions, fertility falls. There is also a quieter truth. The language of “empowerment” and the language of “family duty” now compete in the same mind. When identity shifts from communal continuity to individual fulfilment, fertility adjusts accordingly. It is not necessarily selfishness. It is a reordering of priorities.

The dramatic drops are hard to reverse

Pakistan’s drop from 3.61 to 3.19 in a single year suggests that the transition is no longer theoretical. If the trend continues, Pakistan will approach replacement faster than expected. Once a country approaches replacement, reversal becomes difficult. Europe has learned this. East Asia has learned it more painfully.

Is low fertility, forever?

This raises a harder question. Is low fertility a problem, or merely a phase? Wealthy societies struggle with ageing populations, shrinking workforces, and strained pension systems. Young societies struggle with unemployment and instability. There is no perfect equilibrium. What is clear is this: no civilisation has proven immune to modern demographic forces. Not Europe. Not East Asia. Not Muslim-majority states. Not South Asia. The demographic exception was always temporary. The deeper debate is not whether fertility will fall. It is whether societies can redesign family structures to survive modernity. The nuclear model is fragile. The extended model is difficult to sustain in urban life. Without collective support systems, fertility will continue to drift downward. Modernity atomises. Children require solidarity. That tension will define the next generation more than ideology ever will.

“I have in fact met some. In person. Ran into a lovely couple while on vacay in Guatemala. Excellent conversation along a 2 hour shared shuttle ride. Shia muslims from Baltistan – he took great pains to indicate that his community is not like the average Pakistani, and that in his biradari they are proud to educate their daughters and wives, have them take the lead in public lives. Both his daughters were young med students.

The tragedy for Pakistan is that such actual liberals with modern outlooks wisely avoid taking public positions. They don’t want to get lynched. Hence the domination by the nutters and fringe on the right continues. Leading to mis-categorization of the right-wing as “the center”.”

The above praises a “liberal” Shia couple from Baltistan for educating their daughters and living modern lives, contrasting them with “the average Pakistani,” portrayed as a backward, anti-education fanatic. This framing is not just lazy; it’s offensive.

It reflects a deeply colonial hangover: the idea that modernity is rare in Pakistan, that deviation from presumed fanaticism is a revelation. But let’s be clear, Pakistanis, like people anywhere else, are ambitious, aspirational, and complex. Medical colleges are oversubscribed. Education is highly prized. And many people, devout or not, are navigating life with dignity, values, and a deep desire to move forward; not just materially, but spiritually and ethically.

Politics of Projection

Just because a population is not obsessed with hyper-capitalism doesn’t mean it is “backward.” It may simply mean it has not surrendered entirely to the logic that everything must be monetized. That’s not regression; it might be restraint. In a world where the only metric that seems to matter is money, resisting that tide is itself a kind of wisdom.

This kind of patronizing liberalism, one that exoticizes progressive Muslims as rare exceptions, isn’t harmless. It feeds into a narrative that justifies erasure: of language, culture, self-rule, and civilizational continuity. South Asians speaking in English, debating one another with colonial grammars, is not a mark of modernity, it is a symptom of displacement. The Global South doesn’t need to be saved. We need to be seen, on our own terms.

You can also support the podcast as a patron (the primary benefit now is that you get the podcasts considerably earlier than everyone else…).

This week we have a twofer about education in Pakistan. In part one we talked to Dr Sohail Naqvi about higher education, and in this episode Omar and Zachary talk to Professor Tahir Andrabi. Tahir is the Stedman-Sumner Professor of Economics at Pomona College and is currently working as the founding dean of the school of education at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. He has a professional interest in primary education and public policy and has written extensively on these topics. He shares his views about primary education in Pakistan. I was especially taken by his observation that the 10th grade examination (the “Matriculation” examination) in Pakistan is one of the reasons why primary education in Pakistan is so sub-par. And that the entire colonial era educational system is meant to identify “winners” (the top 1 % of the students) instead of meeting the needs of the majority of students (the modal student in Pakistan is headed for failure). His points about educated girls having sparked a revolution in (private) primary education in the rural areas, and lax enforcement being the reason (onerous and useless) state regulation of education has done relatively little damage in Pakistan, are also spot on. I hope we get Dr Andrabi on again to discuss some of these topics in greater detail.

We would definitely appreciate more positive reviews. Many of you listen to us, but don’t leave any reviews!

…
The first step towards emancipation begins with the freedom to vote and to speak (and India is an imperfect example of these principles as applied to the real world). Gradually there would be an increase in awareness of rights (and responsibilities) as citizens, of which the right to education must rank first along with roti, kapda and makaan. A few, new Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkars will need to come forward to arise and awake their communities (because other communities/castes will not care if they are left behind).

We sincerely hope that Rekha and her fellow sisters will take the non-violent revolution forward. We need many more voices in support of education (and against child marriage). Parents must be convinced to raise daughters as equal to sons. We want all the fundamentalists (of all colors and stripes) to back off. As women progress, we are sure that they will lead the country forward to a better place.
……

What is common among Malala Yousafzai, Anne Frank, Hellen Keller and 16-year-old Rekha Kalindi from Purulia in West Bengal?

…….

Link: thehindu.com/kolkata/bengal-girl-joins-malala-in-dutch-book

….
regards

Top Lines:    
[Obvious things that still need to be said out loud] Some Muslims here think it is OK to burn churches or temples because
they believe that Christians and Buddhists are wrong. But actually they
are the ones that are wrong.

[Harsh but true] I can say that an uneducated girl is worthless.  

[Food for thought for western liberals] Our father
told us to pray day and night for the liberation of Timbuktu. Our
prayers were answered when the French came.

[Our thoughts in a nutshell] When I grow up, I want
to be free … to wear what I like, to move about without restrictions, be
able to drive a scooter, go to work, be independent and not be stuck at
home. I think that can only come if I and all the girls in Pakistan get
education.  

[This is where change must happen] Some parents marry off their daughters even while they’re in school
as a way of reducing their burden, or because they don’t want the girls
getting big ideas about the future.  

[You go girl]  If I was one of them, the only thing I
would think about after I was released would be revenge. That would make
me do so many things, even kill someone maybe. 

We searched online so she could read the story and when she finished
the one about the Boko Haram leader she was like: “This man is insane.
It’s inhumane.”

And,
you know, it is also heartbreaking for me that Muslims can get really
wrong ideas about our God. They are giving Islam a bad name. It’s not
just Boko Haram, but al-Qaida too. 
They use our religion to justify
abducting schoolgirls and being terrorists.

I think they have
misconceptions about Islam. Sometimes it happens here in Indonesia too. 

Some Muslims here think it is OK to burn churches or temples because
they believe that Christians and Buddhists are wrong. But actually they
are the ones that are wrong.
 In the holy book, the Qur’an, it says that we should not discriminate against people.

A girl must get a schooling because she can build herself and be
independent. An educated girl can do good to her parents and her
children in future. I can say that an uneducated girl is worthless.

Going to school is important to me because I want to be chief
prosecutor of the international criminal court, like Fatou Bensouda. We
need more justice in Africa.

My
school was closed for nearly two years when the jihadists occupied
Timbuktu. They used the school as a firing range and chopped up the
desks for firewood.

The men who have taken the Nigerian
schoolgirls are the same types as we had here. You cannot called them
Muslims. They are just criminals. We had thought they were nice people
but what we saw went far beyond the limits of Islam. They raped and beat
girls. There were unwanted pregnancies. If they saw a girl who was not
properly dressed they would take her away to the prison. I never went to
their prison but I heard there was a mattress in the prison with a
blanket and a mosquito net, and when they had finished with the girl
they would send her home. People thought she had been imprisoned but
actually she had been raped.

My father, who is a Marabout
[traditional Muslim preacher, considered heretical by fundamentalists],
made me and my four sisters stay at home. We did household chores and
read the Qur’an. If we went out it was for quick errands, never after
dark. We had to wear those big veils that they imposed on us. 

Our father
told us to pray day and night for the liberation of Timbuktu. Our
prayers were answered when the French came.

School is important
but even in peacetime we do not have the equipment and means – like
electricity or computers – to study to high standards. During the
occupation, one of my teachers organised secret lessons at his house. He
was very brave because he taught girls and boys together. But he had to
stop after the jihadists came to his house one day.

We went back
to school in November last year but my school has only six teachers and
more than 1,000 pupils. A few weeks before we went back to school there
was a suicide car bombing on the army barracks just 100 metres from
Bahadou. Flying debris punched a hole in the roof. It was them again.

We
are still frightened. Even now there are regular rumours that a
jihadist pick-up has been seen or whatever. When that happens we are all
sent home.

It is easier to be a boy than a girl. Many girls get
married really young. If they want to continue to go to school they have
to defy their husbands. That is a sin so you would not do it. Marriage
is a gift from God but if you are a girl you must resist it for as long
as possible.

I dream of being a doctor when I grow up so I must study. In the
Pashtun community to which I belong, even today, many girls my age are
not allowed to study. I feel lucky to have parents who work hard so I
can. I think education can bring about change in the mindset of the
people, hopefully in the next generations.

When I grow up, I want
to be free … to wear what I like, to move about without restrictions, be
able to drive a scooter, go to work, be independent and not be stuck at
home. I think that can only come if I and all the girls in Pakistan get
education. We will be stronger and have a more powerful voice and the
government will then have to pay heed. I think if I continue my
education I can be whatever I want.

I really wish Pakistan could
be a more women-friendly place where perpetrators are punished for their
crimes, especially those who do bad things to girls – like rape. I
recently saw on television how a girl set herself on fire after the
police set the accused free.

It is lack of education that has led
to the way our society views a girl – just someone who needs to be
married off. Even girls, once they reach my age, begin to think of
marriage. Little do they or their parents know the value of a girl.

To think of an army of men kidnapping so many girls, it’s horrific.

What
would their parents be going through? I just shudder to think if I were
in their place. Even if some people hate girls going to schools, I
don’t feel scared. 

 I know the Taliban think seeking western education is
against Islam, but they are so wrong. How can any form of education be
harmful? In any case we are taught Islamiyat [Islamic teachings] in
school.

After what happened to Malala [Yousafzai], I know they can
attack me or anyone they take a dislike to, but I don’t quite feel
scared or threatened.

Many people say having sons is luckier and
that daughters are a burden but that is not the case in my home. I love
cricket and want to be a cricketer too. I play in school and I don’t
think it’s a sport only for boys. 

I would love to play cricket on the
street like boys in my neighborhood do. I envy them but that is just
not a done thing here, at least not in my neighborhood and that is when
I feel being a girl is a disadvantage in Pakistan.

We go to school and come back peacefully. But the biggest difference is
the uncertainty of our dreams. A lot of my classmates have been married
off. Some parents marry off their daughters even while they’re in school
as a way of reducing their burden, or because they don’t want the girls
getting big ideas about the future. Some husbands don’t allow their
wives to continue going to school. The problem is this: you don’t know
when this marriage is coming. You don’t know when your education might
be cut short. For most women, marriage cuts education short, whereas
boys are allowed to go to university.

My sisters, except one who is a dentist, all went abroad for their
university. My uncles told my mother: ‘You are a non-Muslim, you became a
Christian, because your girls are studying abroad.’ But my mother
doesn’t care what people say. She is proud of us and my school [School
of Leadership Afghanistan]. And I am really proud of my mother. My
father died when I was one and she raised and educated us all on her
own.

I think of those girls who were kidnapped, how much
pressure they must be under. 
 If I was one of them, the only thing I
would think about after I was released would be revenge. That would make
me do so many things, even kill someone maybe.
…..

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/08/muslim-girls-react-nigeria-kidnapping
…..
regards

If all this does not suggest end of times, what does? Where is the outrage?? Apparently according to the (white) liberals (of the Guardian) the outrage should be directed at the Nigerian state for not having spread the (oil) wealth around (which is fine in our opinion), however, equally they suggest that Boko Harams’ approach “makes sense” and the goal of enforcing Sharia is “not an unreasonable position.”

It is beyond us to work out a therapy for this specific condition (liberalitis) but we humbly suggest that Simon Allison talks to the dad who is on record saying that he is willing to die so that his daughter may live. It may help focus the mind.

The attack on the school was also particularly symbolic. The name
Boko Haram loosely translates as ‘Western education is forbidden’, and
the group encourages parents to send their children to Islamic schools
instead. The attack on the school in Borno is a punishment and a warning
to those who disobey.  

This approach makes sense, in a strange, twisted
way: it is at schools that children are inculcated with the theoretical
values of the state – in Nigeria’s case, a commitment to secular,
liberal democracy – and it is these values against which Boko Haram
fights, wanting to replace them with a strict commitment to Islamic
Sharia law.

This is not an unreasonable position. The Nigerian state has, by and
large, failed its population. It may be awash in oil wealth, but none of
that trickles down into the population which has yet to see much in the
way of material benefits from an independent Nigeria. Who wouldn’t be
looking for an alternative?

…..
The parents of some of
the girls abducted from a school in north-east Nigeria have headed into
the forest in a desperate search for their daughters.

More than 100 schoolgirls were taken by suspected Islamist
militants on Monday night. The military said on Wednesday that most of
the girls had escaped.

However, local officials and parents said more than 100 were still missing.


It is thought Islamist militant group Boko Haram took the girls to forested areas near the Cameroonian border.



The attack on the school in Chibok, a remote part of Borno
state, happened late on Monday. Gunmen reportedly stormed the school and
ordered the students onto lorries.

On Thursday, Asabe Kwambura, principal of the school where the girls
were abducted, told journalists that the report from the military was
“not true” and that only 14 of the 129 kidnapped girls had escaped.

Parents of the girls have told the BBC that more than 100
girls are still missing. The girls are believed to be being held in the
Sambisa forest in north-east Nigeria.

One father told the BBC he was willing to die in the forest in the attempt to free his daughter.
…..
Link (1): http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/17/boko-haram-will-keep-killing-and-nigerias-leaders-are-powerless
Link (2): http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27069675
……
regards

Still it makes no sense to deny education, the girls are no longer in a mood to accept anyway. Why not encourage (secular) marriage across barriers- just like Sharukh and Gauri Khan (and Saif/Kareena and Amir/Kiran and Salman/???). These folks after all are the true idols worshiped by the new generation. They should use more of their star power for encouraging education. Amir already does a lot of public good with Satyameva Jayate, then again he is special.

In West Bengal there were at least 10 muslim families (and
five tribal ones) in the news last year, where the girls were about to be forced into
under-age marriages and displayed astounding bravery by calling in the social service.

The calls to the police followed the same script and articulated the same plea: Kaku ami aro portey chai (uncle, we want to keep on studying). These girls know full well that education is the golden ticket out of a lifetime of servitude.

It is heartening to note that girls are refusing to be door-mats anymore (which is what the various personal laws would like to impose on them) and are also taking advantage of (free) educational opportunities in far greater numbers than the men.  

Even if the promised reservations materialize for muslims (as promised by many parties, including the Congress) it appears as if the girls will continue to jump ahead of the boys. This is a potential (social) time-bomb in the making.  

However if the emancipation of muslim women triggers a grass-roots movement for reforming of gender inequities that would be a blessing in disguise.  If and when this happens it will be truly deserving of the moniker of a “silent revolution” (see below).

This phenomena is across the board amongst all weaker communities and will (must) eventually lead to a breakdown in caste barriers (guardians will just not be able to put up enough barriers between educated youngsters).

In the case of religion however there is less reason for optimism. A Hindu girl may marry into a muslim family (after conversion) but this will not be acceptable for muslim girls.
…..
City
match-maker, Shahid Farooqui, has been faced with an unusual problem of
late: of ‘over qualified’ brides-to-be. Though his bag is teaming with
profiles of several eligible women from the Muslim community between 23
and 35 years of age, he has been struggling to get many of them a
perfect match. Reason? All these girls are armed with
graduate/post-graduate degrees (M Sc, B Ed, M Tech or even B Tech) now a
trend, almost unheard of until a few years ago. As a result, Farooqui
says, it’s become a herculean task to find these educated women, equally
qualified grooms.

But
nonetheless, educationists are happy with the trend, with those like
just-retired professor of Osmania University, B S Rao, even terming this
rise in women education as a “silent revolution” – a stark contrast to
the feelings of Farooqui who confesses to be reeling under “bad
business”.
regards

Isha (name changed) told TOI that she always wanted to study but as soon
as she turned 15, her parents decided to marry her off. In December,
they told her that they had fixed a match for her and she must get ready
for marriage.

“I am
relived and happy that the marriage did not take place. But I am worried
for my parents. I do not want them go through any kind of trouble. I
hope they are not jailed. The marriage did not take place so they have
not committed any crime. I want them to be let off,” said the girl.       

regards