Shadow Dynasties
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SHADOW DYNASTIES Studia Politica Tamperensis No. 14 ANU HIRSIAHO Shadow Dynasties Politics of Memory and Emotions in Pakistani Women’s Life-Writing Academic Dissertation in Political Science University of Tampere Department of Political Science and International Relations Tampere 2005 © Anu Hirsiaho Tampereen yliopisto Politiikan tutkimuksen laitos Department of Political Science and International Relations University of Tampere, Finland Studia Politica Tamperensis Editorial Board Jyrki Käkönen Mika Aaltola Vilho Harle Mikko Lahtinen Heikki Paloheimo Cover photo Anu Hirsiaho Cover design Marita Alanko Layout Marita Alanko Electronic dissertation Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis 425 ISBN 951-44-6265-3 ISSN 1456-954X http://acta.uta.f ISBN 951–44–6268–8 ISSN 0788–169X Cityoffset Oy, Tampere 2005 ”Sun of the World! Shed your illumination on us here; a strange light, like a shadow, has fallen on us.” Mirza Ghālib translated by Adrienne Rich1 1 Couplet in Ghazal XXI, in Ahmed (1971, 103). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Th e present study would never have materialised without the initial encouragement and intellectual support of Professor Kari Palonen and Tuija Parvikko at my alma mater, University of Jyväskylä. With- out them, I would not have become a researcher. At the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy I am also grateful to Profs. Pekka Korhonen and Marja Keränen for pushing me forward particularly during ”trying times”, and to Eeva Jokinen for profoundly introduc- ing me to Adrienne Rich’s idea of politics of location. To call Professor Ulla Vuorela a thesis supervisor would be an un- derstatement. She has been the pedagogical and spiritual earth-mother of the present project and everything else I have done for the past fi ve years and continue to do academically in the future. I should be hum- bled if any of Ulla’s wisdom has trickled down to these pages. Our long conversations home and away, on three continents, sustain my thinking far beyond a mere PhD thesis. Hearing her voice, my writing begins to resemble something like life-writing, which is never about isolated subjects but about interconnections and the positive synergy of encounters. Encounters that always begin something unexpected and end with laughter. Ulla’s Minna Project was the pleasant context in which we had a chance to learn from cross-disciplinary and -cultural translations. Th anks to ladies Saija Katila, Johanna Latvala, Susanne Dahlgren, Riina Isotalo, Mari Korpela, Satu Ranta-Tyrkkö, Tiina Kontinen, Lilli Hurnonen, Mari Takalo, Anne Matilainen and Nargis Akhter for your comments, ideas and friendship during endless lunches, dinners and sauna evenings. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 7 I am also deeply grateful to my supervisors, Professors Jukka Paastela and, again Tuija Parvikko, who patiently read the manuscript in its raw format and helped me bring the study, if not ”back”, at least closer to political science. Prof. Päivi Korvajärvi and everyone at the Department of Women’s Studies have been extremely supportive about the PhD process. Everyone attending the Political Science post- graduate seminar during the years 2003–5 have been receptive to and supportive of my rather far out argumentation. At the University of Tampere, I would also like to thank Laura Huttunen, Anna Rastas, Jari Aro, Liisa Rantalaiho, Betty Järvinen and Leena Eräsaari for great collegial spirit. In Lahore, I would not have been able to fi nd my way around without the initial guidance of Dr. Durre Ahmed and Sabih and Ri- itta ul-Masih. My greatest debt is to Saima Jasam of Heinrich Böll Foundation who accommodated me and showed to me in all respects ”excellent things in women”. For excellent introduction to the mul- tiple faces of Pakistani feminisms, I would like to thank Ferida Sher and Neelam Hussein of Simorgh Foundation, Madeeha Gauhar of Ajoka Th eatre, Farhana Sher of Kot Lakhpat School, Christèle and Farid and everyone attending and organising the ASR ”Making of Meaning” conference in March 2001. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to the now diasporic Mark family who once lived by the Ghālib Market and took me to the village of Clarkabad and the idyllic lower Himalayas, and never stopped fussing about my safety. Asher Anjum taught me how to haggle with rickshawallahs and I showed him how to open a Hotmail account. Now he runs his own internet café. Bohat bohat shukriya! Professor Rishma Dunlop from the Faculty of Education at York University, Toronto, inspired me to apply for a study leave at her in- stitution. Her writing and teaching have changed the direction of this study in strategic ways. At the Faculty, I would also like to thank Prof. Warren Critchlow for constant cultural studies inspiration, Prof. Isabel Killoran and Tove Fynbo for practical assistance and Kathleen 8 SHADOW DYNASTIES Vaughan and Auggie for walks and talks. I am also grateful to Profs. Varpu Lindström and Vijay Agnew for feminist inspiration and words of wisdom. My Canadian stay would not have been the same without the company of Päivi and Sten Evars, Paul Valanne and Wing-Yee Hui and all our noisy, multilingual and -cultural kids. Julian Samuel from Montréal has entertained me with Punjabi jokes and taught me about postcolonial documentary fi lms. I would also like to thank Sara Suleri Goodyear for encouraging correspondence. Th e following people have helped me forward in seminars or in the editing of my chapters: Fawzia Mustafa, Pnina Werbner, Sara Ahmed, Eeva Peltonen, Tuula Gordon, Elina Oinas, Joel Kuortti, Helena Oikarinen-Jabai and Topi Lappalainen. Laila and Krishnan have taken care of the ”South Asianness” of my everyday life in Fin- land. Th e following friends and family members have done wonders, taken care of my children during my absences, and given me breaks from academic life: Eija and Harri, Riikka, Tiina, Virve, Pirjo, Pasi, Anu K., Darren, Markku, Marko and Kirsi, Päivi, Antti and Anasta- sia, Paula, Lasse and Pauliina. Siiri and Sebastian have also been taken care of in seven kindergartens and in three schools during my PhD process: thanks to all caretakers and teachers. Dr. Tarja Väyrynen from TAPRI and Dr. Olivia Guaraldo from the University of Verona kindly accepted the task of external examiner and knew how to tease out from the study certain absences and silenc- es. I am also thankful to Olivia Guaraldo for arriving once again to chilly Finland to work as my opponent in the defence. Special thanks to Marita Alanko, who took charge of the book’s layout within a tight schedule. Th e present study was fi nanced by Th e University of Jyväskylä Rector’s Fund, Väinö Tanner Foundation, NorFa, and for the longest period, Th e Academy of Finland. Th e study is dedicated to my parents Leena and Aimo, who de- spite my nomadic lifestyle have always been there. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 9 10 SHADOW DYNASTIES CONTENTS Acknowledgements 7 1 ITINERARIES 13 1.1 Contingencies 15 1.2 Compositions 28 1.3 Strategies 47 2 READING POSSIBLE WORLDS 76 2.1 Th eories with texture 76 2.2 Narratives 100 2.3 Embodied voices 118 3 DUAL AFFINITIES 131 3.1 Egypt, Turkey and Iran 133 3.2 South Asia 143 Vignette one: At the Fair Trade Junction 157 4 COURTYARD EMPIRES 159 4.1 Liberated hands 161 4.2 From colonial complicity to Muslim nationhood 179 4.3 Sticklebacks in scorpio land 198 4.4 Loyalties 209 CONTENTS 11 5 EDIBLE HISTORIES 221 5.1 Food as cultural power 222 5.2 Devouring grief 234 5.3 Pleasures 250 5.4 Political brews 255 Vignette two: Learning/unlearning 259 6 KHAKI SHADOWS AND SILENCE 261 6.1 Inside coupistan 266 6.2 Waiting for a daughter 282 6.3 Pandora’s box 299 7 HOMESPUN SUBJECTS 314 7.1 A desi introduction to subjectivity 214 7.2 Th e shalwar kameez nation 318 7.3 Stitched into the family shawl 325 7.4 A citizen remembers 335 7.5 Transnational intimacy 341 7.6 Spaces, times and becoming 346 8 YARN 357 References 381 Appendix 1. Glossary 401 Appendix 2. Map of South Asia 406 12 SHADOW DYNASTIES 1 ITINERARIES Th e line that traces this plan is neither straight nor circular but a spiral that turns back and ceaselessly distances itself from the point of departure. What we are living today brings me close to what I lived seventy years back and, simultaneously, irremediably and defi nitely distances me. Strange lesson: there is no turning back but there is no point of arrival. We are in transit. Octavio Paz (1994, 5) ”Itinerary. An Intellectual Journey” Drawing itineraries, imaginary and real, for future travels has always been the most pleasant activity I can think of. Little do I care that every time the original plan changes. In this opening chapter, it is my challenge to retrospectively re-construct the travelogue of a journey that I have been on for seven years now. It has taken me to various locations both geographically and theoretically. Cities that mattered: Dublin, Jyväskylä, Odense, Copenhagen, London, Helsinki, Tampere, Lahore, Islamabad, Kampala, Toronto, Montréal. Th eoretical umbrellas that became important: materialist femi- nism, postcolonial literary criticism, theories on embodiment, space, time and memory, the ethics of encounters, theories on life-writing and storytelling. Fields of study I thought I entered: feminist theory, South Asian studies, Islamic studies, literature, anthropology, political history, po- litical theory, political philosophy, international relations. ITINERARIES 13 Nomadism and interdisciplinarity are, then, the two certainties in the forthcoming story. Many of the theoretical shifts during the research process have been caused by places, my encounters with peo- ple in diff erent locations, and the recent geopolitical changes on the world map. In other words, I have been forced to discard a lot of learning that once inspired me, because other kind of learning seemed more appropriate in the research context.