She Who Speaks In A Man's Court

By Adv Misbah Shan

From the earliest reaches of my memory, I have wanted to be a voice for women who believed they had none. When I first expressed my desire to become an advocate, I was met not with encouragement, but caution. Men around me urged me to choose anything but litigation warning me that it would be difficult for women to practice, as the system was built around the convenience of men.

However, I did not let that deter me from pursuing what I truly wanted to.

Years later, when I sought to intern at a litigation chamber, the same warnings returned this time dressed as concern. I was told of male advocates who worked into the wee hours of the night, meeting clients and preparing for their cases, which was something women could not do, due to the time that we live in (for obvious reasons they are not responsible for).

Yet again, I refused to let that deter me.

After a few years, when I graduated at the top of my class and appeared for my first interview at a senior advocate’s chamber, I was told by the senior-most associate of the chambers that there was no work-life balance only long hours that stretched into nights, weekends, and holidays. When I hesitated, I was ushered in to meet the head of the chamber. Without pause, he told me that if I had such apprehensions, litigation was not for me. After all, he added, I would likely marry, have a family, and find it even harder to continue in a few years.

Again, I refused to let that deter me.

Then, I began my practice in a chamber that did not see my gender as a limitation. But the courtroom told a different story. Women rarely occupied even a fraction of the space often no more than ten percent, me being that ten percent on several such occasions. On other occasions, I stood to argue only to be shouted down by male advocates, their voices rising over mine, unchecked the bench refusing to admonish such behaviour.

These moments have unsettled me. But they have also steeled me.

They have pushed me to claim space where I was told none existed to stand, to speak, and to persist. Because I am not alone. I have seen lady advocates few in our field, but formidable refuse to yield, refuse to be silenced, and refuse to accept the limits imposed upon them.

And in doing so, they have not just been arguing cases they are proving, every day, that when she speaks, in a man’s court, she will be heard, for it is no longer a man’s court.