Contemporary Pakistan Research Articles

From a toy to a tool: the reception of Barbie and cultural ambiguity in contemporary Pakistan

Barbie (2023) garnered enormous international box office success, stirring arguments about women's empowerment in popular media and academic circles. This article investigates the challenging reception of Barbie in urban Pakistan, where its global success and partial screening ban sparked debates about cultural values and identity. The study investigates the socioeconomic, religious and gendered aspects of Pakistani audiences’ diverse reactions to the film. By analysing viewer reactions and the implications of the partial ban, the study offers insights into the subtle and often unclear processes by which culture and values are established. It reveals how negative perceptions of Barbie serve as markers of national identity, while acknowledging that some women find the film relatable and significant. This analysis contributes to scholarly discussions on the sociocultural impact of transnational media and the ongoing construction of cultural identities in Pakistan.

Extended Space as Disgrace: A Phenomenological Study of Rahat Khwaja’s Queerness in the Pakistani Movie Zindagi Tamasha

This phenomenological study reveals the societal backlash faced by Rahat Khwaja in the movie Zindagi Tamasha, highlighting broader implications for the acceptance of queer identities within Pakistan's socio-religious landscape. I, hereby, contend that Pakistan’s gender-based patriarchal society disregards and questions queerness, especially in religious personalities. Rationalising this study using Sara Ahmed’s queer phenomenological model of affect as contact with Gillian Rose’s visual methodologies, I examine the conundrums of gender performance in the patriarchal Pakistani society by significantly focusing on how Khwaja's dance performance challenges normative gender roles and problematises societal backlash on becoming a queer-oriented religious person. Nonetheless, his newly acquired queerness as rejection of the norms highlights the socio-religious dilemma of his existence. This study reflects on the problem of queer phenomenological belongingness and unbelongingness of Khwaja as a disoriented figure in the hetero-obsessed patriarchal society and the resultant challenges he faces due to the backlash on his dance performance while asserting his identity as a righteous masculine man. Although he refuses to apologise, this extended space becomes disgraceful for him, and recreates his marginalised position as a fat-belly dancer. By examining the societal reaction to Khwaja's performance, I underscore the complexities of queer identity politics in contemporary Pakistan, shedding light on both the challenges and resilience of individuals navigating cultural norms for adjustment. Keywords: Queer Phenomenology, Zindagi Tamasha, viral queer memes, disgrace, socio-religious shaming culture; Pakistani queer cinema, Rahat Khwaja

Print, Publish, Punish: The Qur’an and the Law from Colonial India to Contemporary Pakistan

Abstract This paper contributes a legal and a South Asian perspective to the emerging scholarship on the materiality of the Qur’an, exploring and analysing the development of the laws and regulations that protect the Qur’an as a sacred object against the risk desecration, defilement as well as heretical translations and interpretations. Starting with the enactment of Indian Penal Code, 1860 in colonial India and ending with amendments to the Punjab Holy Quran (Printing and Recording) Act, 2011 in 2022, this paper identifies multiple layers of statutes and regulations that accompany the life-cycle of the Qur’an from ‘cradle to grave’. In analysing the legal developments that have fused the object and the text of the Qurʾan into a legal entity that demands particular interpretations of Islam, this paper identifies an Islamic state doctrine that asks and expects the Pakistani state to protect and promote Islamic law and religion in an increasing number of contexts and occasions, the protection of the Qurʾan being only one of them.

Gender, Dissent and the Afterlives of the Pakistan Movement: Fatima Jinnah in the 1965 Elections

This article focuses on Fatima Jinnah’s politics in postcolonial Pakistan. Widely hailed as the ‘Mother of the Nation’ in contemporary Pakistan, Fatima Jinnah harbours immense symbolic significance. Her patriotism, however, came furiously under question when she campaigned against the military dictator Ayub Khan in the 1965 presidential election. Using unexplored Fatima Jinnah papers, this article reconstructs the story of the election. It argues that the figure of Fatima Jinnah needs to be firmly placed outside the reductive epithets of ‘mother’ and ‘sister’ to underscore her political agency. It unpacks her campaign to show how her advocacy for democracy contested Ayub Khan’s interpretation of Pakistan’s ideology. Ultimately, her politics of dissent saw her branded a traitor and became the battleground for questions of gender, Islam and political rights. This election deepens our understanding of women leaders in postcolonial Pakistan and South Asia.

Navigating Pakistan’s Religious, Social and Political Fault Lines in the 1980s: Contemporary Trends and Relevance

How do sociopolitical developments in the 1980s endure in contemporary Pakistan? The article answers this question across three dimensions: first, the religious, as witnessed in General Zia-ul-Haq’s weaponization of blasphemy laws that shaped the rise of a majoritarian political actor in the shape of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) in 2017. Second, the social, with Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamization laws denigrating the agency of women leading to their resolute mobilization in the 1980s and again in 2018 in the shape of the Aurat March and Aurat Azadi March movements. Finally, the political, where the military takeover in 1977 invited a counter-movement in the form of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) in 1981. In 2020, opposition parties formed the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) as a counterweight to the incumbent civil-military hybrid regime. The article concludes that Pakistan’s failure to improve on the religious, societal and political indicators lies at the core of its dishevelled polity.

Revolutionary Waves: A Comparative Exploration of Political Leadership and Governance during French Revolution and in Present-Day Pakistan

This academic article compares political leadership and governance between the French Revolution to contemporary Pakistan, a nation facing political issues. This study examines the historical revolutionary waves that swept France in the latter part of the 18th century and Pakistan's political dynamics to reveal the similarities and differences in authority and governance. We aim to illuminate the reasons that led to the rise of French Revolution leaders by analyzing a wide range of historical records, primary sources, and contemporary literature. We want to understand how these leaders' views and deeds shaped history. This analysis compares Pakistan's political scene and leaders' leadership styles. We will also examine these leaders' issues and their impact on governance and socioeconomic development. The analysis shows revolutionary fervor in both periods. These leaders inspired and mobilized the public. Our extensive research also shows significant differences in ideology, power consolidation strategies, and governance systems during the distinct times—this study illuminates leadership and governance's long-term effects. We can learn from history. This research contributes to understanding political leadership, governance, and societal results

Book Review: The ‘Ulama in Contemporary Pakistan: Contesting and Cultivating an Islamic Republic

Book Review: The ‘Ulama in Contemporary Pakistan: Contesting and Cultivating an Islamic Republic

Visions of the Islamic State

Proponents of reform in Islamic political thought and practice frequently describe the work of Fazlur Rahman, the twentieth-century modernist scholar of Islam, and his method of Qur’ānic interpretation as a source of intellectual and political rejuvenation for contemporary Muslims. This article describes the ethicist underpinnings and content of Fazlur Rahman’s democratic vision of the Islamic state, as expressed in his major writings of the 1960s, and contrasts that vision with other proposals for establishing an Islamic nomocracy in contemporary Pakistan. The context of state building fundamentally shaped Fazlur Rahman’s constitutional theory, and his arguments expressly repudiate the traditional, independent position of the religious elites or ‘ulamā’ and aim at absorbing them into the state apparatus. This article contributes to the literature by explicating in a systematic way Fazlur Rahman’s constitutional theory, clearly drawing the connection between the ethicist content of his double-movement hermeneutic with the statism of his vision of Islamic democracy. Fazlur Rahman’s theory fails to establish a framework for an Islamic nomocracy, posing a significant challenge for advocates of intellectual and constitutional reform who champion the ethicist approach.

“Show, Don’t Tell”: Pious Visual Culture in Pakistani Dramas

AbstractThis article explores how the Pakistan television drama industry mediates collective notions of piety through visual registers. Explicit religious discourse is tightly regulated in the industry, and producers themselves often disavow producing religious content. However, the leakiness of production practices generates religious visual idioms that are transparently circulated and taken up by audiences. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in Karachi with production teams in this culture industry, I argue that dramas are a central yet overlooked feature of religious publics’ formations in the digitalizing Pakistani mediascape. Focus on religious media in the anthropology of Islam has treated publics as mostly engaged with traditional sources of authority. Attending to scenes from three popular dramas—Meri Zaat Zarra-e-Benishan (2009), Shehr-e-Zaat (2012), and Khaani (2017)—elucidates how visuality is a central facet of how cross-media interactions enregister piety. Observations of cinematographic negotiations and reflections by creators on the ambiguity and efficacy of pious visuality contextualize how religious scenes in these productions come together. While the visuality of prayer scenes across these dramas emphasizes private personal piety, tracing how these images are scripted, depicted, and circulated online offers insights into how religious digital publics are shaped in contemporary Pakistan.

Oral History and the Textual Archive: Contemporary Pakistani Shi‘i ‘Ulama’s Recollections and Reflections on Politics and Sectarian Harmony

AbstractRecent scholarship on Pakistani Shi‘ism draws on a historical archive that it primarily textual: books, journal articles, pamphlets, etc. authored by Shi‘i ‘ulama and notables. However, as the field of oral history rightly asserts, the textual archive can never capture those historical facts that are only accessible through oral sources. This article at times challenges and at other points supplements and reinforces the textual archive through the creation of a new archive: an oral history archive based on multiple interviews with two leading Shi‘i ‘ulama in contemporary Pakistan. At the heart of these interviews lies the question of how these ‘ulama conceptualize and remember their country’s political past and assess their present, considering their minority status and sectarianism. Through undertaking the above-mentioned examination, this article inaugurates the use of oral history as central to scholarship on Shi‘i ‘ulama and underscores the importance of the study of this overlooked primary source.

Sectarian Intolerance in Pakistan

Islam provides a complete code of life. It respects the rights of the individual and balances them with the duties that one owes to society. As a result, Islam not only recognizes differing opinions but also gives them due respect. However, there are Muslims who deny this right, marking a critical point where religious extremism begins. Today Muslims are divided into many groups and sects. Instead of expressing joy and unity with their co-religionists under the spirit of the Ummah, some Muslims are bent on destroying their brothers through sectarianism. This problem has become particularly relevant in the case of contemporary Pakistan, where sectarianism has become a poison that threatens national unity. This analytical write-up discusses the reasons for sectarianism in Pakistan and outlines the external and internal elements that have influenced it. It also provides several suggestions and policy recommendations that will help prevent sectarianism.

Contesting the milad: Deobandis and Barelvis in British India and contemporary Pakistan

ABSTRACT This article examines Deobandi and Barelvi discourses on the milād, the celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, an important marker of Barelvi identity and a primary site of contestation. It argues that milād indicates a significant development in the discourses of conflict between the ‘ulamā (religious scholars) of the two traditions as they have moved from subtle debates into categorically oppositional ones in Pakistan. This includes diverging from the opinions of ‘ulamā of the past, given the present competitive context. The milād is a site, event, and ritual in which both groups of ‘ulamā situate themselves as orthodox lovers of the Prophet, and the other as disrespectful or bidatī, bringing innovations into Islam. This also shows Islam as a discursive tradition, as both the conflict on and the practices of milād find historical precedents to justify positions in the present, while demonstrating changes in emphasis, contestations, and perceptions of self and other over time. As a result, when the Deobandi and Barelvi traditions have come to oppose and embrace the milād, in almost absolute terms in Pakistan today, they are also demonstrating subtle but significant developments in South Asian Islam over the past century.

On the delusion of disobedience amid coloniality: location Pakistan

In this paper, I explore how the pervasive coloniality of mind in the Global South deludes popular aspirations to disobey Western systems and hegemony. Coloniality of mind includes binary thinking, instrumental thinking and seduction of the West that trap development and educational visions of Southern countries. Focusing on the case of contemporary Pakistan, I examine two education initiatives of the former Pakistan Tehreek i Insaf (PTI) government that aimed to challenge and change the prevailing education structures in the country: Al Qadir University, which promises to integrate religious and secular instruction in the realm of higher education; and the Single National Curriculum that was intended to eliminate education apartheid in the country. Drawing on the speeches of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his team members, and key policy documents, I try to make sense of the educational vision of the PTI government. I discuss how these apparently disobedient discourses are rooted in the very colonial knowledge and system that they aim to defy. I term this specific dilemma of the Southern countries the coloniality of disobedience. I emphasise that the struggles of epistemic disobedience in formerly colonised spaces must avoid the trap of coloniality to be able to enact independent decolonial futures.

Book Review: Mashal Saif, The ‘Ulama in Contemporary Pakistan: Contesting and Cultivating an Islamic Republic

Mashal Saif, The ‘Ulama in Contemporary Pakistan: Contesting and Cultivating an Islamic Republic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), xii +320 pp.

From Violent Victims to Emancipatory Agency of Peace: Exploring Female Jirga as Local Gendered Peace Formation and Community Peacebuilding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

For years, the insecurity and violence against women in many parts of Pakistan have magnified the danger of the prevalent worldview of strong and protective men. In contrast, women are weak and protected by men. Inevitable victimisation and powerless women are counterproductive since women are central to the community's household institution. This paper explores local community peacebuilding initiatives of women's first Jirga by a local activist Tabassum Adnan in Pakistan's Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Exploring women's Jirga as an agency of regional and gendered peace formation in a salient patriarchal Pakhtun worldview underscores women's security and gendered Peace perspective in recognising the need to consider the missing systemic and unpeaceful change and transformation in contemporary Pakistan and South Asia. Adopting qualitative methods of Feminist Peace research unravels the potential and pitfalls of how women can embark upon alternative dispute resolutions (ADR) when patriarchal conceptualisations of conflict resolution prevent their active participation. Findings show multidimensional links between local community peace and global systemic and peaceful transformation of international relations (IR). Recognising the transformative roles of women in overcoming GBV is a critical transnational shift from the past and minimal human rights protection of women to the present and maximal recognition of women as emancipatory agents of peace.

Coming of Age in Contemporary Pakistan: Influences of Gender and Poverty

Economic development is strongly connected to the longevity, growth and structure of country’s population [Bloom and Canning (2003)]. Pakistan currently has the largest cohort of young people in its history (25 million aged 15-24, Census 1998) that has serious implications for the provision of schooling, health services and adequate jobs. Therefore the well being of these valuable young cohorts is profoundly important for the social and economic development and prosperity of Pakistan [Population Council (2003)]. This demographic lift can promote economic lift-off [Bloom and Canning (2003)]. In fact, Pakistan will face dire consequences if this resource is not capitalised and young people remain uneducated and unskilled [Faizunnisa and Ikram (2003)]. Work is one of the key transitions in the lives of young people. It is an important marker of adulthood, with strong implications for a country’s social and economic development. Work depending on its nature and remuneration can be the most important factor shaping adult lives. Youth employment has many implications for the labour market, poorer households and for the youth themselves.

Development of Women’s Right to No-fault Judicial Divorce (Khul‘) in Pakistan

Pakistan is the first Muslim country, which recognized women’s unilateral right to no-fault judicial divorce (khul‘) under Islamic family law in 1959. In contemporary Pakistan, Muslim women have the unilateral right to dissolve their marriages through summary court procedure. This has been made possible because of the gradual changes in case law and procedural law stretching over more than half a century. Despite questioning the validity of state-enforced Islamic divorce law on the basis that it is not in line with classical Islamic law (sharī‘ah/fiqh), traditional ‘ulamā’ (religious scholars) accept the validity of court decrees of the dissolution of marriage based on khul‘. As a result, the validity of judicial khul‘ under Islamic law is well established in Pakistan. This shows that the judges of the superior courts act as final arbiters by determining the binding interpretation of the Qur’ān and sunnah and the same has been approved by the ‘ulamā’.

“We are not equal citizens in any respect”: citizenship education and the routinization of violence in the everyday lives of religious minority youth in Pakistan

ABSTRACT This article foregrounds religious minority youths’ subjective experiences of citizenship education in Pakistan to reflect on the relationship between educational curricula and religious exclusion. Drawing on narrative interviews with Hindu, Sikh, and Christian youth in the Punjab province, we demonstrate how sectarian constructions of national history and the paucity of positive representation in the curriculum inflict routinized forms of violence on minority youth and create an environment where anti-minority discriminations and prejudices can be justified. Youths’ narratives also reveal how they mobilize available institutional mechanisms to challenge these routine forms of violence and reinforce their commitment to an inclusive Pakistani identity. Reforms in citizenship education curricula are therefore urgently needed to address these concerns and promote an inclusive Pakistani identity. We situate our findings both in the historical context of contemporary Pakistan and the wider region of South Asia which has witnessed a rapid growth in exclusionary religious nationalisms.

Reflections on Islamisation and the Future of the Women’s Rights Movement in ‘Naya’ Pakistan

This paper examines how the Islamisation of education is likely to impact the future of the women’s rights movement in Pakistan. Recently, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI, or party for social justice) government introduced the Single National Curriculum (SNC), a reform of the education system that enhances the volume of Islamic Studies and wherein Urdu, the national language, is promoted as a parallel medium of instruction. The central argument of this paper is that such developments are regressive and that they could prove detrimental to the women’s rights movement. Historically, the formation of the Women’s Action Forum (1981) and its rising against Zia’s Islamic dictatorship (1983) remains one of the most memorable moments of the women’s rights movement in contemporary Pakistan’s history. But in the decades that followed, the movement began sagging and stumbling. The recent Women’s Marches are evidence that deep ideological divisions running within the movement are impeding the achievement of tangible goals. This is a critical juncture because the implementation of an Islamic curriculum will set off the process of the bottom-up Islamisation of society. Gradually, when everything shall be sorted out ‘according to Islam and Islamic principles’, a large chunk of women’s demands will be simply chucked away as un-Islamic, thus inadmissible. Pakistani society will likely become less tolerant than it is already and the few freedoms that women still enjoy shall be taken away one after the other. This is a gloomy scenario, but it is avoidable. Now could be the time for the movement to focus on defining attainable goals and pushing for the achievement and consolidation of women’s human rights. While the Islamisation of education appears like a potential threat to the movement now, activists might as well make of it an element that reinvigorates the movement from the inside and gives it a new direction and sense of purpose.

“A hazy world seen through smoke”: Threshold Effects in Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke

This article proposes to analyse Mohsin Hamid’s first novel Moth Smoke (2000) through the motif of the threshold. Moth Smoke tells the story of a crime and its judgment through a multiplicity of voices. The novel takes place in spring 1998, as Pakistan’s nuclear tests are about to be launched. In this novel, the notion of threshold unfolds thematically as an expression of Pakistani society’s inherent divisions. It can be both a hindrance and a starting point which echoes the representations of time and the rising tensions of the nuclear events. The anthropological notion of liminality (from limen, the threshold) accounts for the importance of initiation (Van Gennep 1909; Turner 1966) in representations of contemporary Pakistan. The novel resorts to a number of narrative thresholds, whether they stand between the novel and its reader (Genette 1997), or between different parts of the story, displaying Mohsin Hamid’s characteristic use of gaze-shifting and displacement.