Pakistani Women

The different chapters cover an entire range of localities, from rural to urban settings, and from small town to Diaspora. Most of the chapters are driven by ethnographic data, while some are more theoretical. Yet despite all this diversity of time, place and approach, a number of cross cutting themes come out in these chapters, themes that play a critical role in encouraging the reader to recognise the similarity and diversity of Pakistani women's experiences within a culture made up of a variety of ideologies that are often in conflict with each other. A dearth of knowledge exists about Pakistani women; knowledge that adequately represents the diversity found amongst women in this part of South Asia, and that is able to capture the rich details of their lives. While there may be many cross cutting themes in their lives-by virtue of being citizens of the same nation and hence being exposed to a particular history, power structures, and customs-there is also immense variation based on where they are placed in terms of rural-urban setting, ethnic background, class affiliation, social structures, and so on. This volume attempts to capture some of that diversity in the spirit of moving away from the homogenous images of Pakistani women that grace their representation in much of the world.