Speaker Profile: Dr Tahmina Rashid

Tahmina Rashid is the Program Director, International Development in the School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning at RMIT. Her research interests include Gender & Development; Human Rights; Muslims women in Diaspora and identity Politics. She has previously worked in rural areas in Pakistan exploring the linkage between feminist organisations and poor urban/rural women, Her Geographical Reserach Interest is South Asia. She has previously worked in urban slums in Dhaka examining the impact of micro-credit on state citizen relationship. Currently she is working with cotton picking women in Pakistan, looking at the hazards of working in cotton field, community sustainability and empowerment issues. She regularly writes on issues of her interest, and is the author of, Contested Representations: Punjabi Women in Feminist Debates in Pakistan, Oxford University Press, 2006.

ABSTRACT

Radicalisation of civil society: A Case study of Pakistan

The history of Pakistan’s civil society is fraught with the role played by religion / politicisation of religion that can be traced back to the nationalist struggle in the early 20th century. Irrespective of diverse religious rituals and practices among Pakistani Muslims, religion remained a uniting force albeit for a brief period after 1947. The break-up of Pakistan in 1971 was a blow to the Islamic/religious identity of Pakistan. In subsequent years the civil regime led by Z. A. Bhutto tried to revive religious identity, nonetheless it was the military regime of Zia that laid the foundation of radicalisation of civil society. Zia not only introduced Islamic laws but distorted the political rhetoric to an extent that a whole generation was indoctrinated into an Islamic mindset. Paradoxically this generation is not schooled in madrassas but are the product of public School system and have been programmed to assert religious identity. Current turmoil is an expression of this trend that was in vogue for quite sometime especially evident after (9/11) 2001. This overt ritualism and piety has taken a new form - public display of religiosity and joining of ‘apolitical’ dawah groups, this paper would explore the role played by these groups in the radicalisation of civil society and its implications for the future of civil society in Pakistan.