Women in SAARC writers meet have the last word

Women in SAARC writers meet have the last word
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, MAY 1: The fact that the segment on women's writers was reserved at the end of the SAARC Writers Conference and the fact that it was "the best so far" was a comment on gender issues and marginalisation. But, somehow, sharing the pain and the anguish in an air-conditioned room filled with fellow sympathisers, gives one that cathartic release. And so it was at the India International Centre, on Sunday.

The women's session had a wide range of speakers from the confident and articulate Fahmida Riaz of Pakistan to the feisty Hindi novelist Mridula Garg, the mild but firm voice of Selina Hossain of Bangladesh to the dramatic Dr Anamika and finally, one who said that the audience would have to go back hundreds of years to be where she is, Ashi Kunzang Choden Roder from Bhutan.

They were asked to speak about their shared metaphors and dreams which Fahmida totally debunked with: "I don't know if it is a shared metaphor or dream, but it is a shared nightmare." She was referring to the collective anguish of the Partition and of other hate killings in the region.

What did amuse the audience was the reference to a shared metaphor which was common to men in the South Asian region - "the twirling of moustaches" or the male perception of honour. This, said Riyaz, was responsible for the fate of raped women in Bangladesh, honour killings in Pakistan and others. So, she concluded by saying that: "Reality does not need to be metaphorised, it needs to be changed!"

Solina Hossain from Bangladesh, a writer of 22 novels, called for a more active role for writers in politics. Denouncing the role of communal violence, she said that Islam should stand for "I shall love all men", which the gathering highly approved of. Hossain had something in common with Dr Anamika in that they both thought that the home inspired metaphors for women writers: "I have written about the chapatti as a world."

Hindi writer Mridula Garg mentioned some metaphors which have developed over the years. For instance, over the years the metaphor for mother had transcended to include even men or any figure that is a nurturer. Also, the guilt syndrome which was exploited by all writers till recently to such an extent that "most women married it seems, not men but guilt". The deconstruction of that idea took place in the 70s to give rise to the woman as a sexual being.

Ashi Kunzang Choden Roder illustrated that however suppressed women may be, they still found expression in some way, be it in their woven textiles or the songs they sung.

The three-day conference ended with the writers adopting a `New Delhi Declaration' for achieving peace and building bridges of understanding in the region. The writers decided to fight censorship and seek social justice as a pre-requisite for peace. The conference decided to institute a SAARC Literary Award. The first award will be presented at the second conference in February next year.

The declaration, drafted by Khushwant Singh, also seeks regular exchange of writers, flow of literature from one country to the other, writers-in-residence and interactions between creative writing faculties of universities in the region.

A website on South Asian writing will be created for more awareness about the writers and to make their works available. Anthologies of outstanding contemporary writings from the region will also be published regularly.

If one wanted to mingle with some of the who's who of the literary world, then the two-day conference was the place to be. Gulzar, Krishna Sobti, Mahasweta Devi, Amrita Pritam, Ahmad Faraz from Pakistan and a host of other talents from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal - they had all participated in sessions which promoted an insight into the diverse cultures.