‘New Vulnerabilities’ of Muslim Women in the Age of Terror: The Case of the Red Mosque Siege in Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract

I introduce the notion ‘new vulnerabilities’ mainly to represent post 9/11 dilemmas faced by women (in this instance, Muslim women), and propose wider recognition and analysis of ‘new vulnerabilities’ within development and gender studies. Militant or jihadist Islamism has become a critical element in the contemporary political and sociological milieu, influencing individual and collective human life as never before. I warn that Muslim women's political agency is being increasingly co‐opted towards militant Islamism, at times getting subsumed under terrorism. By deliberating upon the case of Jami'a Hafsa, Islamabad (2007), I have pushed for a need to understand the nature and trajectory of Muslim women's political agency and recognize the regrettable turn it has taken. I maintain that enabling Muslim women to own, define and appropriate their agency for achieving goals that are progressive, and centre around principles of human development and pacifism, is far more important than favouring their proxy acts in militant Islamism, and terrorism in the name of women's agentic potential. In contemporary Muslim societies, there is an urgent need to reclaim the role of women's political agency as contemplated within the realms of human development.