Gender Disparities: Islamization and State Discourses in Pakistan

Abstract

Gender disparities and inequalities are the significant traits of state and society in Pakistan, where religion largely manifests the social identity of women. The construction of social identity on religious paradigm further specifies the restraining role of women in political and economic sphere which makes them vulnerable to discrimination of various kinds and victims of violence as they lack voices in decision making processes despite forming more than half of the population of the state. This paper aims to highlight the role of Islamization in Pakistan as a state discourse, making religion a central theme of policy making by various governments and regimes. This primarily augmented the existing gender disparities and undermined the women’s status. This research is an endeavour to enrich the understanding of gender disparities and its relation with symbolic and concrete notions of Islamization resulting in paradoxical development for women in Pakistan. This study argues that the Islamization process did not aim to disempower women and the prime focus of the process was the political intent of legitimacy, although Islamization of politics led to commence such laws and policies which radically shaped the gender inequalities in Pakistan as an outcome. This paper attempts to explain the course by which politics and religion are intimately infused and this would help to explain the politicization of gender and restrictive laws related to women for fostering the patriarchal ideology in Pakistan.