Virtual Islam & Transnational Networks

Religious discourses; and Diaspora Networks of Pakistani Women

Pakistani women have been discussed from a variety of perspectives – depending on the context; class; ethnicity; rural/urban location and research interests of scholars and researchers. The emerging themes range from victim hood; subjectivity; subordination; existing patriarchal norms; prevailing religious discourses and discriminatory nature of laws.

This paper would discuss the current situation, within the context of women’s social status and existing legal frameworks defining and redefining their public/private role. This paper argues that women are actively involved in a new form of religious conservatism – for the purpose of this paper I intend to use the term “transnational fundamentalism” since the emerging scenario links the local and global conservatives. These women are active agents of conservatives; assuming new roles through these religious paradigms, not mere conformists of a radical religious view but are interpreters of religious discourses. These women even reinterpreting fundamentalist’s agendas and are instrumental in dissemination of a particular orthodox view, forging alliance through new technologies – E-learning; Audio material and internet classes for religious education.

This paper attempts to explore the lives of Pakistani women, analysing the role of religious associations and movements to negotiate private and public space through religious performance and participation in movements such as Tableeghi Jamat & Al-Huda. The paper relies heavily on numerous formal and informal discussions with women exploring their experiences largely ignored in mainstream debates.

Dr Tahmina Rashid

Tahmina Rashid is the Program Director, International Development in the School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning at RMIT. Her research interests include Gender & Development; Human Rights; Muslims women in Diaspora and identity Politics. She has previously worked in rural areas in Pakistan exploring the linkage between feminist organisations and poor urban/rural women. She has also worked in urban slums in Dhaka examining the impact of micro-credit on state citizen relationship. Currently she is working with cotton picking women in Pakistan, looking at the hazards of working in cotton field, community sustainability and empowerment issues. She regularly writes on issues of her interest, and is the author of, Contested Representations: Punjabi Women in Feminist Debates in Pakistan, Oxford University Press, 2006.