Guest post by AFIYA SHEHRBANO ZIA

The Islamia College in Karachi is the hub of the Islami Jamiat-e-Tulba (IJT) [1]. Last year, the nationalist banners displayed near the college to mark Pakistan Defense Day (6^th Sept), were strategically flanked by two complementary gendered messages. One such banner publicized the event (in Urdu) as ‘Hejab Numaaish’ (Parade of the Hejab – 4^th Sept) and below it, in English ran the claim ‘Hejab is My Right and Pride’. The other banner declared simply, ‘Afia[2] is our Pride’. Both messages are signifiers and comments on the re-visitation of the themes of religious and nationalist agendas, played out across the body politic of women, in a post 9/11-Pakistan.

This essay discusses the resurgence of a new form of religious nationalism and its impact on the narrative of gendered politics in Pakistan. It also examines the worth of a recent body of Pakistani scholarship[3]that opposes the misguidedness of liberal-secular resistance to religious politics. Instead, such academic work invests hope in something termed, ‘Islamist secularization’. Continue reading Engendering the Sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan: Afiya Shehrbano Zia →