Who is the woman behind Balochistan's protest movement?
In patriarchal Pakistan, it's highly unusual for a woman to wield much political power, but Mahrang Baloch has emerged as one of the most powerful figureheads in one of the country's largest protest movements.
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00:00She is an agent of chaos at the moment.
00:06I look at her as a very positive force.
00:10This is a battle for our survival, politics is a responsibility for us.
00:40The first reason for my participation in this movement is that I am a victim of the Baloch
00:46genocide policy.
00:47My father was abducted in 2006, released in 2009 and then abducted again after six months.
00:59In 2011, we received her body.
01:18Balochistan has witnessed and experienced a transformation in terms of leadership.
01:23Traditionally, Baloch women were not in a leading position, but as we have seen in Balochistan,
01:29the situation during the past 25 years, due to increasing disappearances and the targeting
01:38of men was more intense than with women.
01:43So, that's why I think probably Baloch women had no other choice because many of these
01:49women who are participating in these demonstrations, they are claiming that their men have been
01:54abducted and forcibly disappeared.
02:01During the dark days, military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq, these were women who
02:06came out.
02:07There was one women action forum in the early 1980s when women came out and protested against
02:16military dictatorship and against anti-women laws that General Zia-ul-Haq was introducing.
02:28She has inspired, I think, not hundreds, not thousands, but hundreds of thousands of women,
02:34not only in Balochistan, but I think she is emerging as a leading light for women in other
02:42provinces also.
02:47The press club has been locked.
03:12She is a courageous woman.
03:14In our society, we need more such courageous women who can come out, she is very articulate
03:19and of course, this is a very dangerous game because she might, God forbid, lose her life.
03:25We have seen there was previously Karima who even migrated, but even then she lost her life.
03:37Unfortunately, in our humble opinion, she is an agent of chaos at the moment, who wants
03:43to capitalize with regards to people's grievances, misgivings, state lapses, which need to be
03:50corrected, but the method with which is being chosen is not acceptable.
04:14Maharang Baloch needs to understand this as well, that for your own political agendas,
04:19you cannot put people's lives at risk, and if you do put people's lives at risk, then
04:24you will be held accountable for them.
04:26Loss of one precious life for a political agenda is unthinkable and should be untenable
04:33for any political movement and for any political leader.
04:43Every family in Balochistan wants their family members to lead a normal life, to study in
04:50their respective fields, to move forward and to lead a successful life, but for the past
04:5770 years, the Baloch National Movement in Balochistan has changed the priorities of
05:04many families.