08/03/2026
In colonial societies, oppression is not enforced only through state power; it permeates the mind, culture, and everyday life. In a society like Pakistan, oppression of women is an extension of this colonial-capitalist structure. Whether it is a brick kiln laborer, a factory worker, a peasant, or a domestic worker, women’s labor is rendered invisible. For example, a woman working at a brick kiln shapes bricks from morning to evening, yet her wages are often recorded under her husband’s name. A factory girl stands at a machine for ten to twelve hours, yet she is not fully compensated for overtime. A rural peasant woman sows seeds and harvests crops, yet the land titles are not in her name. A domestic woman spends her entire day cooking, cleaning, and caring for children, yet her labor is not recognized as work. She is placed at the bottom of the economic hierarchy, even though the entire system depends on her.
Mao said that women hold up half the sky, but half the sky can only be free when the whole society is liberated from class chains. The question of women is not to be treated as separate or merely based on identity; it is produced by semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. Women in agriculture are deprived of land because ownership is controlled by landlord and capitalist classes. If a husband dies in a village, a woman must fight her own family’s men for land rights. Factory women work for low wages because a profit-driven system exploits their cheap labor. They come home to cook and care for younger siblings or children. Domestic women’s unpaid labor fuels the capitalist economy as free energy. If they fall ill for a day, the whole household stops, yet there is no wage or social recognition for their work.
Neoliberal free markets have forced women outside the home but given them double slavery: work outside while still managing the household. Media, cosmetics, and fashion industries commodify women’s bodies for profit. Television ads often link women to beauty or kitchen work, and if they are shown as employed, the message still implies that the household responsibility remains theirs. Colonial mentality forces the local population to see itself through a certain lens; here, too, women are made to measure their worth by the mirror of the market. Their political identity is dissolved into beauty, shopping, and consumerism.
In Pakistan, much of feminism has been confined within NGO structures. Funding and project culture have reduced women’s issues to paper reports. Seminars are often held in hotels in major cities, yet the brick kiln worker or rural peasant woman is absent. The language is English, and the issues remain confined to reports. This is the “comprador” layer: a local elite linked to the global capitalist system, rendering popular movements ineffective. As a result, the voice of the working-class woman has been largely excluded from the central narrative.
Maoist feminism offers an alternative. In China’s revolutionary struggle, women’s liberation was tied to agrarian revolution and class struggle. In Vietnam, women participated in armed and political struggles against imperialism. In Nepal, rural women joined guerrilla units and popular organizations. In all these cases, women were not mere victims; they became active revolutionary forces.
Our position is clear. The primary enemy of women is the imperialist-capitalist system, which exploits them through local landlords and state structures. Freedom will not come through legal reforms or performative equality alone. True liberation will come only when labor, land, and state power are under the control of the working class.
The aim of the Working Women’s Front is to remove women from charity-based or project-based politics and link them to public and revolutionary politics. It seeks to give factory, farm, brick kiln, and university women a common platform. If factory women organize to demand higher wages or village women unite for water and land rights, that is genuine political action. It politicizes domestic labor and cultivates leadership from the ground up, rather than imposing it from above.
The process of liberation transforms the individual. Women’s participation does not only change society; it also gives them new political consciousness. Therefore, without class struggle, women’s freedom remains incomplete.
