Faculty Research
HASINA GUL: A Pakistani Poet Lifts Her Voice Against Violent Extremism In the context of working on her latest book project, “Countering Violent Extremism in Pakistan: Local Actions, Local Voices,” UO professor Anita Weiss interviewed a female poet who dares to break social barriers in a region where payback can be harsh. by Anita Weiss, Professor Department of International Studies
V
iolent extremism has manifest in myriad ways over the past two decades in Pakistan, and local people in Pakistan are left questioning the causes behind it. This violence often emerges from religious extremism, which both causes and reflects cataclysmic chasms between different constituencies, destroying social cohesion in its wake. In response, while the Pakistan state and military have sought to counter this extremism through different strategies, I argue in this research project that it is the myriad ways that local people in Pakistan are responding to lessen the violence and recapture indigenous cultural identity that promises more effective longterm outcomes. They are engaging in various kinds of social negotiations and actions whether by creating NGOs like Karachi’s The Second Floor (T2F) that provides a venue for local people to have a voice, the rejuvenation of indigenous forms of music such
Hasina Gul at home in Mardan, January 2017 / photograph by Anita Weiss.
in Winter 2017 (January-March), I began my fieldwork in earnest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Mardan, Charsadda and Peshawar) and in Karachi. I will be returning to Pakistan in late September 2017 – mid-March 2018 on a Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Award to conduct field research throughout Punjab (beginning in Lahore, then venturing out to Sargodha, Jhang, Faisalabad, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, and elsewhere) and then in “Pakistan recently bestowed on her its highest civilian award... Upper Sindh. I intend to use the final month in Pakistan to return to Khyber in recognition of her poetry.” Pakhtunkhwa to see an initiative undertaken by Khwendo Kor, a women’s NGO as playing the rubab, promoting long-term incentives to encourbased in Peshawar, to rebuild social relations in a village near age participation and self-reliance by the Orangi Pilot Project, or the cultural values and peace studies curriculum championed Nowshera from the ground up to promote gender, class and sectarby the Bacha Khan Education Foundation schools in Khyber ian equity, and visit other areas. I also hope to visit Baluchistan, if possible, as well. Pakhtunkhwa. I began brainstorming with scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and others about my ideas for this research while in Islamabad during the summer of 2015, and began conducting interviews at schools and with poets in Swat with then incoming graduate student, Aneela Adnan, in August 2016. During my Research Leave 20 October 2017
I met Hasina Gul, who uses poetry as a way to counter violent extremism, in Mardan in January. She has broken social barriers as this is a domain, especially in Pakhtun society, dominated by men. She sees herself as a symbol of resistance today. When she began writing poetry, it was about love and romance but that was