✨ The Weight of Trauma: Colombia & Pakistan 🇨🇴 🇵🇰
Raw & Real with Ebrahim 🎙️💬
Colombia and Pakistan_ different coins, same sides
Improvement is not the same as healing. Trauma does not merely evaporate with every incremental betterment. Indeed, trauma deserves tending to through introspection in its own right. Without this, the wounds of trauma persist much like an infected wound. Without this, antidotes will never be found. This is the unfortunate quasi-reality of Colombia and Pakistan..
Two nations of intense wealth and poverty. Of colourful cultural abundance and violent tragedy. Both seem acquiescent to the long-term symptoms of the conflicts they endured. In Colombia, this was the infamous era of drug trade during the 1970s-90s, combined with the rise of Marxist guerrilla groups. And in Pakistan, it was being known as a “safe haven” for fundamentalist terrorists, becoming a frontline state in America’s war on terror. Both countries are currently past their worst time, with significantly reduced reported levels of terrorism and crime in recent years. This is mainly caused by the 2016 FARC peace treaty in Colombia and counterterrorism operations in Pakistan that significantly weakened terrorist organisations such as Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP). Even still, it is painfully apparent that there is neglect towards resolving fundamental issues that have either been caused by or further propagated by the conflicts. I am going to focus on gender dynamics.
There is a common consensus among most contemporary social scientists that in order for societies to blossom and mature economically and psychologically, the female demographic needs to be given the environment to flourish and reach their potential. Without which, it is not just the women that suffer from stunted growth, rather the nation as a whole.
Starting with Colombia, exposure to conflict has reportedly led to an increase in violence within households. Whilst both men and women have been recipients of this as well as instigators, women have been reported to be primary victims. Though this has manifested through various means since the conflicts, the deeper entrenchment of “aggressive manhood” is of special significance. The lack of basic physical and social security felt by Colombian men during the eras of conflict has been reported to mean that their behaviour changed accordingly, with a form of hegemonic masculinity inculcated within them promoting more violence as a means to assert and protect themselves.
So today they also hit me and stuff, but I, well, they tell me “pay attention or I’ll hit you or something.” And so hit me, hit me ‘cause honestly, I don’t feel anything.
This was said by a fourteen-year-old boy in a study by the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, where psychologists interviewed and deeply explored the psyche of teenage boys in Colombia, where they expressed the important consequences of the environment that children and adolescents are in during those impressionable years. Psychosocially this has significantly compromised the wellbeing of men and women alike.
Now it’s Pakistan’s turn. Studies have illustrated how far Pakistan is from shifting away from some of the destructive gender-related views propagated during periods of fundamentalism. This includes, much like Colombia, gender-related violence and the reinforcement of traditional gender norms.
A 2022 report by Bull World Health Organ asserted that “Violence by spouses and other male relatives against women is the most widespread form of violence in Pakistan”, with a study of women in Punjab, Pakistan (the largest province) indicating that 70-90% of women in marriages there have been subject to violence from their husbands. A rise in anti-women views spread through fundamentalism is a large contributor to this. A primary way they have spread is younger members of the population going to institutions such as fundamentalist madrassas (Islamic educational institutions) because of their ease of access and their ability to provide basic necessities such as food and shelter free of cost to, for the most part, children from impoverished backgrounds. These madrassas have often been left unchecked and unregulated by the state, meaning that those in charge of these institutions have had leeway to teach virtually anything they wanted to. It must be made clear that while madrassas themselves are by nature a fantastic thing that have greatly enriched societies they have been in, conflicts in Pakistan have meant a substantial proportion of them have been argued to be misteaching the Quranic word of God, often supporting a more toxic patriarchy. In the words of academic Iftikhar Ahmed, “a small number of militants exploit the politico-economic frustrations of the rest”. This influence on young minds has led to the acceptance of a toxic culture towards women in Pakistan.
Again, research has made it emphatic that, similar to Colombia, this rise in gender-based violence is also partly a result of post-traumatic stress. Psychologist Marukh Mustansar delved into this in her 2020 study on the need for post-conflict rehabilitation. She maintains that there has been neglect towards psychological recovery of Pakistanis in post-conflict zones. This, combined with the ever-increasing stress caused to an extent by the economic carnage resulting from those very conflicts, has further plunged many from those communities impacted by crises into more violent and depressive tendencies. It is therefore imperative for both nations to put more focus on the provision of mental health care, perhaps through rehabilitation services for those who so direly need it. This is one of the antidotes that will heal the wound.
Another way these countries have seen less gender development is the lack of autonomy of their women.
Again, physical insecurity in communities intensified the challenge of changing traditional gender norms in two already conservative societies. Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with families mutually agreeing that a parent should stay at home. The issue arises when those decisions are enforced through subjugation. Having decades of public firings, kidnappings, and other severe threats ingrained the notion of public spaces being a “man’s world” in both countries. While the initial impression may seem to many to be aimed at protecting them from danger, it is having consequences that compromise women’s personhood and consequently their wellbeing.
According to the World Bank, Colombia’s labour force participation rate among females was 51.4% in 2023, compared to 75.7% for males. The situation in Pakistan is even worse, being at 24% for women. Being subject to higher rates of harassment and physical threat, women are discouraged from making careers for themselves, thereby gaining social power through financial autonomy.
Back to the topic of stunted growth, this is clear evidence that these communities are not yet doing enough to lift their women. Perhaps if they did that and let women excel, society as a whole would benefit from the wider impact of women taking a hold of their own agency. There would be increased economic output, increasing the circular flow of incomes in economically deprived areas, for instance which would in time increase wealth levels of disadvantaged factions of societies. There is also the social aspect. With safer and happier women, you will have happier mothers, sisters and partners. This would increase the general wellbeing of these communities, with a move towards egalitarianism giving everyone a less toxic environment to live in.
So there you have it. Two countries on opposite sides of the globe, with completely different stories, yet facing the same societal injuries. Even still, it is not all bleak. Recent feminist movements, such as the “aurat marches” in Pakistan have sparked debate and awareness towards women’s safety and freedom. However, the point still stands that these step-by-step improvements will not be enough. The aforementioned wound is at risk of further penetration if that is the case. Rather, the governments within Colombia and Pakistan, as well as organisations within each country need to put emphasis on educating the children of their rights as well as helping foster support structures for both boys and girls so as to give them life direction. This could be through training them in trades and giving lessons on emotional well-being (much like the PSHE lessons in the UK). Moreover, resources need to be distributed towards the plethora of people who are yet to recover from having lived in the conflict and post-conflict era of these nations. With these changes in place, the societies of Colombia and Pakistan will not only heal but reach their potential and thrive. All they need are these antidotes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Farc guerrillas: last days of blood in Colombia
Browne, Amanda et al. “Risk and Refuge: Adolescent Boys' Experiences of Violence in "Post-Conflict" Colombia.” Journal of interpersonal violence vol. 36,19-20 (2021): 9393-9415. doi:10.1177/0886260519867150
Malik, I. H. Religious Minorities in Pakistan. Vol. 6, Minority Rights Group International, 2002.
Mustansar, Mahrukh. “ The Need for Post-Conflict Rehabilitation: A Psycho-Social Approach towards Curbing Extremism in Pakistan”. NUST Journal of International Peace & Stability, vol. 3, no. 2, July 2020, pp. 71-85, doi:10.37540/njips.v3i2.59.
Women hit the road in male-dominated Pakistan
Colombia | World Bank Gender Data Portal
Pakistani women demand bodily rights, gender equality – DW – 03/08/2020
In this episode Ebrahim takes a comparative approach between Columbia and Pakistan’s post conflict experiences. He is a student journalist with us on a placement organised with Department of War Studies, King’s College, London. This article was edited using Lex.page.
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