Abstract
Jamaat-e-Islami Women in Pakistan is a close look at the women’s wing of a major political organization and movement. The Jamaat-e-Islami, which dates back to 1941, is a movement for institutionalizing a strict code of Islamic life. As Jamal argues, it is based on a version of Islam that is closer to Saudi Wahabi Islam than the more humanistic, and devotional, traditions of Islam that have flourished in South Asia historically. Thus, women’s support of this movement often perplexes Muslim and secular feminists, as it is perceived to be a major step backwards in terms of women’s rights.
As a Muslim feminist, Jamal approaches her subject with the same feeling of bewilderment about why a conservative movement like the Jamaat seems to be gaining momentum among women. However, as Jamal reveals through the course of her ethnography, the reality is far more complex than the neat dichotomous categories of secular/religious, traditional/modern, and forward/backward. She asserts, “Jamaat women’s project is ambiguously positioned between opening new spaces for the enactment of middle-class women’s economic and social aspirations and stifling the possibilities of practiced modes of spiritual and cultural expression that resonate with the vast majority of Muslim women and men in Pakistan” (p. 45).
The research is based on interviews, interactions, and observations from 2002 to 2008 with more than 50 Jamaat women—politicians, party workers, activists, parliamentarians, and supporters—in Lahore and Karachi. Jamal’s book, however, focuses primarily on 14 women who form the “key political and moral female leadership of the party/movement” (p. 38). Jamal’s attention throughout to her positionality as a Muslim feminist based in Canada would be of interest to students of feminist theory and praxis.
The book, divided into six chapters as well as an introduction and conclusion, is densely packed with detail—both historical and contemporary—about Pakistan and Pakistani/Indian subcontinent politics. Chapter one provides an overview of Islamic feminism in general, the relationship between secular feminists and Islamic feminists in Pakistan, and the historical background of women’s activism in Pakistan, especially during the period of Islamization under General Zia. Chapter two deals with the role of the religious/secular in politics in Pakistan. This chapter (like the entire book), relies heavily on postcolonial theory and includes a discussion of Jamaat women, their understanding of politics, and their motivations for being engaged in politics. Although initially staunchly opposed to participating in politics (except as supporters, protesters), Jamaat women changed their stance in 2002 when President Pervez Musharraf allocated special seats for women in local, provincial, and national elections. The Jamaat now considers politics to be a key part of religion and a way to establish religious order. Chapter three provides the reader with the often-overlooked history of Jamaat women and their roles in shaping the organization.
In chapter four, we learn that Jamaat women do not reject the label “modern.” In fact, their definition of modernity is congruent with Islam: “We have no problems with modernity, such as education, driving, employment, etc., but we have to make sure that it fits into our own ideology” (p. 161). This chapter also highlights the multiple views of modernity, as Jamaat women’s version of modernity is very different from the elite and upper-class versions of modernity, and thus also a source of alienation between these groups. The attention to class dynamics (Jamaat-e-Islami draws its support mostly from the middle and lower-middle class), cultural capital, and postcolonial politics makes this chapter one of the most sophisticated in the book. The next chapter extends the postcolonial lens from the previous chapter to analyze how the gender and development paradigm influences the current politics of gender in Pakistan. Jamaat women’s opposition to the gender and development agenda rings eerily of postcolonial theory as it criticizes the west of ongoing colonial domination of Muslims and adds a scathing critique of the elite for perpetuating their own privilege by ignoring class and feudalism-based inequalities. The last chapter highlights some alternative versions of political organizing and community identities in South Asia.
Jamal’s book, although probably not easy to navigate at the undergraduate level, provides a good example of nuanced and complex scholarship for graduate courses in gender, South Asia, Islam, religious movements, and globalization. Jamal skillfully argues that at the same time that Jamaat-e-Islami is opening new spaces for middle-class and lower-middle-class women in Pakistan, it is also “narrowing the possibilities of self and community construction that were available to South Asian Muslims through what one may call ‘customary’ Islam with its intercessionary practices, mystical dimensions, and humanist impulses” (p. 43). Her portrayal of Islam is one that successfully avoids the pitfalls in discussions of religion more generally and Islam more specifically, by portraying the multiplicity of meanings, understandings, and experiences of Islam in South Asia.