The Women's Movement in Pakistan: Activism, Islam and Democracy

Description

The military rule of General Zia ul-Haq, former President of Pakistan, had significant political repercussions for the country. Islamization policies were far more pronounced and control over women became the key marker of the state's adherence to religious norms. Women's rights activists mobilized as a result, campaigning to reverse oppressive policies and redefine the relationship between state, society and Islam. Their calls for a liberal democracy led them to be targeted and suppressed. This book is a history of the modern women's movement in Pakistan. The research is based on documents from the Women's Action Forum archives, court judgments on relevant cases, as well as interviews with activists, lawyers and judges and analysis of newspapers and magazines. Ayesha Khan argues that the demand for a secular state and resistance to Islamization should not be misunderstood as Pakistani women sympathizing with a western agenda. Rather, their work is a crucial contribution to the evolution of the Pakistani state. The book outlines the discriminatory laws and policies that triggered domestic and international outcry, landmark cases of sexual violence that rallied women activists together and the important breakthroughs that enhanced women's rights. At a time when the women's movement in Pakistan is in danger of shrinking, this book highlights its historic significance and its continued relevance today.

Ayesha Khan is Senior Researcher at the Collective for Social Sciences Research in Karachi. She has been a journalist in international radio, local television and for newspapers and has also worked at various NGOs. She gained her BA in Philosophy at Yale University in 1987 and her MA in Area Studies at SOAS, University of London, in 1989. Her contributions have appeared in Feminism, Empowerment and Development, Thinking International Relations Differently and Interrogating Imperialism and in journals including Feminist Economics and the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association.

Provides valuable context to understand organising by, and for, Pakistani women. It is readable, teachable and deeply instructive for anyone seeking to better understand nation-states in the hands of conservative theocracy and its laws. * Women's History Review * The book's most valuable contribution goes beyond our understanding of WAFs role and influence in this politically-charged atmosphere, and lies in the in-depth account it presents of how [the] state of affairs - wherein women's basic rights to their body and their liberty came under attack - came to be ... This book is an important read for anyone interested in women's activism, social change, Islam and Pakistani politics. Suitable for academic use, its accessible style also makes it appropriate reading for a wider audience wishing to engage with these important issues. * Gender & Development * A comprehensive and nuanced account of the history of the Women's Action Forum ... A book that carefully charts the context and course of a social justice movement that rejected military rule and Islamisation can contribute to an understanding of why we stand at this juncture in Pakistan's history. * Bloomsbury Pakistan * A detailed and comprehensive history of women's activism in Pakistan. * Feminist Dissent *