Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Introduction: Muslim Women, Agency and Resistance

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Muslim Women, Agency and Resistance Politics

  • 408 Accesses

Abstract

The chapter offers main arguments and the overall structure of the book.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    See Mahmoud in Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, 2005, p. 1, ʻWhile this question has led to serious attempts at integrating issues of sexual, racial, class, and national difference within feminist theory, questions regarding religious difference have remained relatively unexplored. The vexing relationship between feminism and religion is perhaps most manifest in discussions of Islam. This is due in part to the historically contentious relationship that Islamic societies have had with what has come to be called “the West,” but also due to the challenges that contemporary Islamist movements pose to secular-liberal politics of which feminism has been an integral (if critical) part. The suspicion with which many feminists tended to view Islamist movements only intensified in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks launched against the United States, and the immense groundswell of anti-Islamic sentiment that has followed since. If supporters of the Islamist movement were disliked before for their social conservatism and their rejection of liberal values (key among them “women’s freedom”), their now almost taken-for-granted association with terrorism has served to further reaffirm their status as agents of a dangerous irrationality.’

  2. 2.

    See Abu-Lughod in ‘Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others’, 2002, ʻI look first at the dangers of reifying culture, apparent in the tendencies to plaster neat cultural icons like the Muslim woman over messy historical and political dynamics.’

  3. 3.

    Kashmir refers to the Kashmir valley of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Area wise Kashmir valley is 15,948 km2 and has a population of 6.9 million according to the 2016 census of India.

  4. 4.

    See Urvashi Butalia, Speaking Peace: Women’s Voices from Kashmir, 2002.

  5. 5.

    The Dogra princely state of Kashmir disputed and divided into three parts under Indian, Pakistani and Chinese control. The line of control stands between Indian- and Pakistani-administered regions. Source: Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, University of Texas Library Online Catalogue 2003.

  6. 6.

    Kunan and Poshpor are twin villages in the northern district of Kuapwor, where, on 23 February 1991, a search operation was initiated by the Indian Army’s Rashtriya Rifle Regiment during which more than a hundred women of both the villages were gang-raped by the Indian soldiers.

  7. 7.

    The Gaew Kadal massacre is named after the Gaew Kadal bridge, where, on 21 January 1990, Indian paramilitary troopers opened fire on unarmed people killing at least fifty. According to the survivors, the death toll may have been as high as 280.

  8. 8.

    See Ayesha Ray, Kashmiri Women and the Politics of Identity, paper presented at the SHUR Final Conference on Human Rights and Civil Society, LUISS University, Rome, Italy, 4–5 June 2009.

  9. 9.

    See Manchanda, Women, War and Peace in South Asia: Beyond Victimhood to Agency. New Delhi: SAGE Publications, 2001.

  10. 10.

    See Sobhrajani, The Land I Dream Of: The Story of Kashmir’s Women. New Delhi: Hachette India, 2014, p. 2.

  11. 11.

    See Manchanda, ‘Kashmir’s Worse-Off Half: Women Are the Silent Sufferers in the War over Kashmir.’ Himal South Asian, 1999, p. 30.

  12. 12.

    See Seema Kazi, Between Democracy and Nation: Gender and Militarization in Kashmir. New Delhi: Women Unlimited (An Association of /kali for Women), 2009.

  13. 13.

    See Seyla Benhabib Benhabib, Seyla, ‘The Generalized and the Concrete Other: The Kohlberg Gilligan Controversy and Feminist Theory.’ Praxis International, 1985: 402–424.

  14. 14.

    See Catriona Mackenzie and Natalie Stoljar, Relational Autonomy: Feminist Perspective on Autonomy, Agency and the Social Self. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

  15. 15.

    See Lois McNay, Gender and Agency: Reconfiguring the Subject in Feminist and Social Theory. London: Polity Press, 2013.

  16. 16.

    See Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc., 1999.

Bibliography

  • Abu-Lughod, Lila. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others.” American Anthropologist, 2002: 783–790.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, Leila. A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, Khalid Bashir. Yatra: A Tradition Compromised. 21 July 2014. http://www.kashmirlife.net/yatra-a-tradition-compromised-issue20-vol06-62412/ (accessed 15 December 2014).

  • Allan, K. Conflict and Critical Theories. 10 June 2006. https://us.corwin.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/13636_Chapter7.pdf (accessed 5 June 2011).

  • Allport, Gordon. The Nature of Prejudice. New York: Anchor Books, 1958.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anand, Dibyesh. “China and India: Postcolonial Informal Empires in the Emerging Global Order”. Rethinking Marxism, 2011: 68–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anjum, Aaliya. “Wailing Woes”. Combat Law, Vol. 6, Issue 5, 2007: 6–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Banerjee, Paula. Women in Peace Politics. New Delhi: Sage Publications, India Pvt Ltd, 2008.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Barlas, Asma. Believing Women in Islam: Unreading the Patriarchal Interpretations of Qur’an. New York: University of Texas Press, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bazaz, P.N. Democracy through Intimidation and Terror: The Untold Story of Kashmir Politics. Lalchowk: Gulshan Books Publishing, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benhabib, Seyla. “The Generalized and the Concrete Other: The Kohlberg-Gilligan Controversy and Feminist Theory.” Praxis International, 1985: 402–424.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, Olivia, Jo Bexley and Kitty Warnock. Arms to Fight, Arms to Protect: Women Speak Out about Conflict. London: Panos Publications Ltd, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • deBergh Robinson, Cabeiri. Body of Victim, Body of Warrior; Refugee Families and Making of Kashmiri Jihadists. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bose, Sumantra. Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths of Peace. New York: Harvard University Press, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bullock, Katherine. Rethinking Muslim Women and Veil: Challenging Historical and Modern Stereotypes. London: The International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butalia, Urvashi. Speaking Peace: Women’s Voices from Kashmir. London: Zed Books Ltd, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Byrne, Bridget, Rachel Marcus and Tanya Powers-Stevens. Gender, Conflict and Development: Case Studies: Cambodia; Rwanda; Kosovo; Algeria; Somalia; Guatemala and Eritrea. Brighton: BRIDGE (Development-Gender), Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chatty, Dawn and Annika Rabo. Organizing Women: Formal and Informal Women’s Groups in the Middle East, a Cross-Cultural Perspective on Women. London and Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coomaraswamy, R. “A Question of Honour: Women, Ethnicity and Armed Conflict”. Lecture Delivered at the Third Minority Rights Lecture on 25 May at Hotel Intercontinental, Geneva, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daniyal, Shoaib. History Lesson: How ‘Bharat Mata’ Became the Code Word for a Theocratic Hindu State. 17 March 2016. https://scroll.in/article/805247/history-lessons-how-bharat-mata-became-the-code-word-for-a-theocratic-hindu-state (accessed 10 December 2017).

  • Dar, Hamidullah. The Fall of the Feudals? 18 June 2010. http://www.kashmirlife.net/the-fall-of-the-feudals-444/ (accessed 11 September 2011).

  • Dar, Huma. Of Power and Privilege: Faultlines in Upper-Caste/Class Indian Feminism. Berkeley, 29 November 2013. http://www.dalitweb.org/?p=2358

  • Davis, Nira Yuval. Gender and Nation (Politics and Culture Series). London: Sage Publications, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duschinski, Haley and Mona Bhan. “Introduction: Law Containing Violence: Critical Ethnographies”. The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, Vol. 49, 2017: 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • El Jack, Amani. Gender and Armed Conflict. Brighton: BRIDGE (Development-Gender), Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, D. Women of the Afghan War. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farman Ali, Rao. Kashmir Under the Shadow of Gun: Making of Alfatah. New Delhi: Uppal Publishing House, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallimore, R. “Militarism, Ethnicity and Sexual Violence in Rwandan Genocide”. Feminist Africa, Vol. 10, 2008: 9–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ganai, Naseer A. The Hoot. Monday, May 2009. http://thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=3860&mod=1&pg=1&sectionId=22 (accessed January Thursday, 2014). http://asu.thehoot.org/media-watch/media-practice/manufacturing-consent-3819.

  • Ganguly, Sumit. “Explaining the Kashmir Insurgency: Political Mobilization and Institutional Decay”. International Security, Vol. 21, Issue 2, 1996.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gania, Abdul Jabbar. Kashmir and National Conference Politics (1975–1980). Srinagar: Gulshan Books, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaser, Barney and Anselm Strauss. The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Chicago: Aldine Publication, 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gockhami, Abdul Jabbar. Politics of Plebiscite. Srinagar: Gulshan Publishers, 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goswami, Reeta. Baseline Report on Women in Armed Conflict Situations in India. Kuala Lumpur: International Women’s Rights Action Watch, Asia Pacific, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hashmi, S. “Conflict Victims: Abandoned and Forgotten. No Documentation or Official Figures Available”. peacewomen.org . 2007. http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/Kashmir/ConfictRapeVictims.html (accessed 12 July 2009). https://www.countercurrents.org/kashmir-hashmi310307.htm

  • Herath, Tamara. Women in Terrorism: Case of LTTE. New Delhi: Sage, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hesse-Biber, Sharlene Nagy. “Feminist Research: Exploring, Interrogating, and Transforming the Interconnections of Epistemology, Methodology, and Method”. In her Handbook of Feminist Research. London: Sage, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchinson, S. Nuer Dilemmas: Coping with Money, War and the State. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacob, Happymon. “Kashmir Insurgency, 20 Years After”. The Hindu, Op-ed. 2009. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article70073.ece?service=mobile (accessed 12 September 2012).

  • Jaleel, Muzamil. “How New Delhi Manages Kashmir”. Indian Express, 4 July 2013. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/how-new-delhi-manages-kashmir/ (accessed May 2014).

  • Kadivar, Mohsen. “An Introduction to Private/Public Debate in Islam”. Social Research, Vol. 70, Issue 3, 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kazi, Seema. Between Democracy and Nation: Gender and Militarization in Kashmir. New Delhi: Women Unlimited (An Association of Kali for Women), 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khan, Nyla. Islam, Women and Violence in Kashmir between India and Pakistan. New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. The Life of a Kashmiri Woman. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khataak, S. Afghan Women: Bombed to Be Liberated. Middle East Report, Middle East Research and Information Project, No. 122, 1998, 18–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohn, Margaret. Colonialism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2014. May 9, 2006; Substantive Revision Tuesday August 29, 2017. Accessed in May, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, Krishna. Women and Civil War: Impact and Organization. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, Deepa. Open Democracy. 4 December 2014. https://www.opendemocracy.net/deepa-kumar/imperialist-feminism-and-liberalism. Accessed December 2015.

  • Lawrence, Walter. The Valley of Kashmir. Srinagar: Chinar Publishing House, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ledesma, C. Militarization and Its Impact on Women. 25 November 2008. http://www.aprnet.org/women-stram/07workshoponwomen-and-war/354-militarization-and-its-impact-on-women (accessed 2 February 2010).

  • Leonhardt, Adrienne. Between Two Jailers: Women’s Experience During Colonialism, War and Independence in Algeria. Anthos, Vol. 5, Issue 1, 2013.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonoussi, Athena S. Encyclopedia of Nationalism. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd, Moya. Judith Butler: From Norms to Politics. First edition. New York: Polity Press, 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackenzie, Catriona and Natalie Stoljar. Relational Autonomy: Feminist Perspective on Autonomy, Agency and the Social Self. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNay, Lois. Gender and Agency: Reconfiguring the Subject in Feminist and Social Theory. London: Polity Press, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahmood, Saba. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malik, Inshah. “Muslim Women under the Impact on Ongoing Conflict in Kashmir: A Study Conducted in Northern District of Kupwara”. OPAC.tiss.edu . 11 June 2010. https://bit.ly/2JmQwuy (accessed 5 June 2015).

  • ———. “The Muslim Woman’s Struggle for Justice”. Seminar Magazine, 2013. Accessed June 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manchanda, Rita. “Kashmir’s Worse-Off Half: Women Are the Silent Sufferers in the War over Kashmir.” Himal South Asian, 1999: 30.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Women, War and Peace in South Asia: Beyond Victimhood to Agency. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marxist Internet Archive. “National Liberation Movement”. 27 April 2015. https://www.marxists.org/glossary/events/n/a.htm (accessed 1 April 2015).

  • Mernissi, Fatimeh. The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam. Abingdon: Perseus Books Publishing, L.L.C., 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, Paul and Rick Wilford. Politics in Northern Ireland. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muhigana, Christine, Sherrill Whittington and Rima Salah. The Impact of Conflict on Women and Girls in West and Central Africa and the UNICEF Response. UNICEF, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mushtaq, Samreen, Essar Batool, Ifra Butt, Munaza Rashid and Natasha Rather. Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora?: The Story of a Mass Rape (Zubaan Series on Sexual Violence and Impunity in South Asia). New Delhi: Zubaan Books, 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Navlakha, Gautam. “Internal Militarization: Blood on Tracks”. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 32, Issue 6, 1997: 299–306.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. “POTA: Freedom to Terrorize”. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 38, Issue 29, 2003: 38–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. “State of Jammu and Kashmir’s Economy”. Economic and Political Weekly, 2007: 34–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nayeem, Hameeda. “Unite, in Humanity”. Indian Express. 11 May 2006. http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/unite-in-humanity--------/4148/ (accessed 15 May 2012).

  • OCHR. “Situation of Human Rights in Kashmir: Developments in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir from June 2016 to April 2018, and General Human Rights Concerns in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan”. United Nations Human Rights, 14 June 2018. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IN/DevelopmentsInKashmirJune2016ToApril2018.pdf.

  • Özkirimli, Umut. Theories of Nationalism: A Critical Introduction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raghunath, Nilanjan. “Jammu and Kashmir: Competing Concepts of Nationalism”. Yale Journal, 2011: 44–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rahman, Jyoti. “Bollywood Caricatures”. 2004. http://www.himalmag.com/component/content/article/4140-bollywoods-caricatures.html (accessed 14 September 2012).

  • Rai, Mridu. Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights and the History of Kashmir. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ray, Ayesha. “Kashmiri Women and the Politics of Identity”. SHUR Final Conference on Human Rights. Rome: Luiss University, 2009, pp. 1–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Said, Edward W. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar, Mahua. Visible Histories, Disappearing Women: Producing Muslim Womanhood in Late Colonial Bengal. New Delhi: Zubaan Books, 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scanlon, H. “Militarization, Gender and Transitional Justice in Africa”. Feminist Africa, Vol. 10, 2008: 31–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, K. Kashmir: Another View. 2006. http://www.indiatogether.org/2006/may/ksh-kashview.htm (accessed July 2013).

  • Sluka, Jeff. “National Liberation Movements in Global Context”. http://tamilnation.co/conferences/cnfNZ96/jeffsluka.html 1996. Accessed on March 2015.

  • Snedden, Christopher. The Untold Story of People of the People of Azad Kashmir. London: C. Hurst & Co., 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sobhrajani, Manisha. The Land I Dream Of: The Story of Kashmir’s Women. New Delhi: Hachette India, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Subandrio, Hurustiati. “Indonesia’s Proclaimation of Independence.” Women’s International Club Journal, 1957: 295–296.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tambiah, Y. “Sexuality and Women’s Rights in Armed Conflict in Sri Lanka”. Sexuality Rights and Social Justice, 2004: 78–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verma, P.S. Jammu & Kashmir at the Political Crossroads. New Delhi: Vikas Publications, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wadsworth, Yoland. “What Is Feminist Research?” Boston: Wester New Mexico University, 2001. Article Published by Action Research Issues Association 1993. https://books.google.at/books?id=fopuAQAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%22Yoland+Wadsworth%22&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmtvKEhM7dAhWG_CoKHTAVA8gQ6AEIMDAB.

  • Walker, Achta. “Conflict and the Women of Chad”. Focus on Gender, Vol. 1, Issue 2, 1993: 10–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wax, E. “In Kashmir, Conflict’s Psychological Legacy”. The Washington Post, Foreign Service, 1 September 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yen, Lai Suat. The Women’s Rights Movement in Peninsular Malaysia from 1900–99: A Historical Analysis. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zia, Ather, Mona Bhan, Cynthia Mahmood and Haley Duschinski. “The Killable Kashmiri Body: The Life and Execution of Afzal Guru”. In Resisting Occupation in Kashmir, edited by Haley Duschinski, 103–128. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Inshah Malik

Authors
  1. Inshah Malik
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Malik, I. (2019). Introduction: Muslim Women, Agency and Resistance. In: Muslim Women, Agency and Resistance Politics. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95330-4_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation