Gender Politics and Performance in South Asia

Tehrik-e-Niswan, founded in 1979 by Sheema Kermani, strives to empower women in Pakistan and improve their status through the use of drama and the performing arts. Tehrik held a conference in Karachi December 2010 aimed at rethinking issues of gender, performance and politics in South Asia. The present volume is the outcome of this conference and is based on the papers presented.

In Pakistan today, a scholarly challenge exists to represent the multiple layers of Pakistan’s history in order to bring the country out of the security studies/Islamic threat model that has become the paradigm within which Pakistan Studies are constantly placed.

The book expresses various aspects of the social impact of the arts: How culture brings people together and leads to harmony and cohesion, counters violence and aggressive attitudes and urges people to reflect and think. Through this exercise, the contributors of this book address an important gap in the study of South Asia in general and Pakistan in particular. The book demonstrates how within the South Asian milieu, the cultural forms such as theatre, dance, music, film, or the fine arts have been used to advocate for gender and class equity, women’s rights and the rights of the marginalised. It explores how cultural forms and performances interrofate the constructions of identity, class and religious affiliation.