Exploring Muslim femininity
Reviewed by Rajesh Kumar Aggarwal

The Pakistan Project: A Feminist Perspective on Nation and Identity
by Rubina Saigol, Women Unlimited. Pages 357. Rs 650

State-sponsored religious fundamentalism had serious, detrimental and lasting consequences for all sections of society, more so from a feminine perspective, in Pakistan. The initial chapters give a historical perspective on cultural nationalism and lists the views of four Pakistani scholars on Muslim womanhood and manhood. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan's speeches on women's education and training reflect immense nationalist anxiety and ‘schizophrenic’ splits.

He opined that there is no fun of teaching geography to women which is required for a person active in public world of commerce, trade or politics, and war. He was anxious to contain women within the domestic realm and, more specifically, within the roles of mothers, wives and daughters. The view is man is the sun whose rays will fall on woman.

Woman is characterised by the Earth, who cannot produce but can only receive those rays. Dipty Nazeer Ahmad's Meerat-ul-Uroos (The Bride's Mirror) reveals a detailed elaboration of what a good Muslim woman and a bad Muslim woman will look like. He feels it is a terrible mistake if a woman considers herself equal to man. Contrary to Sir Syed's views, he advocated the need to teach history, geography and other secular subjects relating to public sphere, for he believed that an educated and enlightened mother is not only a better mother but also a better homemaker.

He connected the running of a home with the running of a state and was extremely impressed with notions of order, organisation, precise administration and methodical management.

Likewise, while discussing the construction of Muslim manhood, Akbar Allahabadi attributes women's emergence from purdah and entry into the public sphere to male weakness and the inability of Muslim men to preserve the moral fibre of the nation. Allama Iqbal feels that the masculinity appears to have existed in the past and has been lost mainly due to loss of control over women's sexuality, purdah and activity.

Citing examples for the school civics textbooks, the author shows how citizenship is historically been conceptualised in masculine terms, and is caught between the normalising forces of modernity and the essential forces of nationalism and exclusion of women. Similarly, the field reflections from Lahore and Peshawar defended unequal treatment to women's education if it contradicts the patriarchies.

Boundaries of Consciousness, citing examples from school textbooks in Pakistan, illustrates how nationalism is falsely portrayed among the young minds which results in children being socialised into believing in otherness, hate, enmity and the need to defend the honour of the nation. The chapter Imagining Enemies reveals how all other religions (Hindus, Christians, Jews and Sikhs) and sub-group such as Bengalis are portrayed as tricksters, cheats, liars, conspirators and schemers in the school textbooks in Pakistan. The chapter on Partition of the Self explores how women relate to the forging of new identities in a complex negotiation, which involves accommodation, assimilation, rejection, interrogation, resistance and capitulation to the dominant constructions of identity.

Islamized Identities reveals passing of a series of laws, which were highly detrimental to the status of women. The last chapter, Against All Odds examines some of the principal strategies employed by the women's movements to counter sundry forms of state and societal fundamentalism and to access the degree of productivity of such strategies. On the whole, the book makes for an interesting read. It explores Muslim femininity in a broad, holistic framework and points out the role of religious fundamentalism in limiting the role of women in a nation's development.

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