FEMINIST PRAXIS AS A SITE OF POWER AND CHANGE: A STUDY ON GIRLS AT DHABAS _______________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of San Diego State University _______________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Women’s Studies _______________ by Sheema Khawar Summer 2018 iii Copyright © 2018 by Sheema Khawar All Rights Reserved iv DEDICATION This is for you, Amma. The person I fight with and the person who fights with me and for me. You’ve fought all your life for your children. We are grateful. This is for Fatima. A warrior in the making. Alhumdulillah v ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS Feminist Praxis as a Site of Power and Change: A Study on Girls at Dhabas by Sheema Khawar Master of Arts in Women’s Studies San Diego State University, 2018 Girls at Dhabas (G@D) is feminist collective in Pakistan rallying online to reclaim public spaces for women. The group primarily targets dhabas (roadside tea-stalls) which remain exclusively male spaces. By grounding my exploration of feminist activism in the work of G@D, I unpack what it means to be a feminist in Pakistan, what power structures they tackle and hope to dismantle from their social location and how they view transnational feminist solidarity. My thesis explores the nuances of G@D’s work given their precarious position, accused of being complicit in ‘elite feminism’ while consciously fighting to take control over the way their narrative is told by foreign media. This thesis examines the challenges faced by G@D members such as patriarchal codes of honor binding women’s mobility in Pakistan. I contextualize and analyze the role of dhabas as radical sites of activism in G@D’s work. I also explore how these activists are ‘queering’ public spaces in Pakistan. My efforts to cover G@D’s work are focused on documenting the narrative of an ‘organic’ women’s movement which operates in the context of Pakistan and is mindful of the inherent racism and patriarchy in the global neo-liberal capitalist agenda and the complicated histories of feminism in the South Asian region. I examine how members of G@D deploy the physical and digital occupation of public spaces to challenge patriarchal narratives restricting women’s mobility in urban Pakistan. In conversation with G@D members I highlight how the development sector and corporations systematically hinder the work of G@D and how G@D members position themselves strategically to combat these power structures. Using post-colonial and transnational feminist theories as an analytical lens, I conclude that given the ‘crisis of representation’ of women and queer issues in the global South, the reach of the NGO-industrial complex and Pakistan’s precarious entanglement with the War on Terror, G@D members remain skeptical of true solidarity and effective cross-border collaborations with feminists from the global North. Their positioning on the margins of the neoliberal and neo-colonial world order makes them a valuable epistemic resource while also erasing their identities, agency and activism. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................1 What is Girls at Dhabas? ....................................................................................................4 1 THEORIZING TRANSNATIONAL FEMINIST THOUGHT .....................................8 History of Transnational Feminist Thought .............................................................9 From Post-Colonial to Transnational .....................................................................11 Central Discussions in Transnational Feminist Thought over Time .....................13 Transnational Feminist Thought in Women’s and Gender Studies .......................18 Conclusion .............................................................................................................20 2 HISTORY AND CONTEXT OF PAKISTANI WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS ............21 Anti-colonial Women’s Movement: Events Leading up to 1947 ..........................23 Early Years of the State and Growing Women’s Movements: 1947-1971 ...........23 1971-1988: Realizing the ‘Islamic’ Republic of Pakistan .....................................26 1990’s Onwards: Of state and NGO Feminisms ....................................................29 The War on Terror and Return of Military Governance ........................................31 Conclusion .............................................................................................................34 3 METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................36 Research Tools .......................................................................................................37 My Standpoint and Motivations.............................................................................38 The Interviewees ....................................................................................................40 Limitations .............................................................................................................41 Research Reflections ..............................................................................................42 vii 4 ANSWERING THE QUESTION, WHY LOITER: FRAMING GIRLS AT DHABAS, THEIR ACTIVISM AND FEMINIST PRAXIS .......................................44 Islam, Honor and Respectability Politics in Pakistan ............................................46 Dhaba as a Site of Radical Possibilities .................................................................50 Creating the Other: How Race and Class Intersect to Define the ‘Other’ .............51 Queering Public Space ...........................................................................................54 Negotiating the Feminist Identity in a Post-colonial State ....................................58 Conclusion .............................................................................................................60 5 GIRLS AT DHABAS: STRATEGIZING RESISTANCE ..........................................61 Reconfiguring Activism: The Role of Social Media .............................................63 Creating and Subverting Narratives of Women in Public Space ...........................65 Loitering as Resistance ..........................................................................................68 Continuing the Legacy of Women’s Activism in Pakistan ....................................70 NGOizing Feminism: Concerns and Criticisms ....................................................73 Resisting Capitalism ..............................................................................................76 Conclusion .............................................................................................................78 6 ENVISIONING SOLIDARITY: EXAMINING POSSIBILITIES OF TRANSNATIONAL FEMINIST COLLABORATION .............................................80 The Role and Limitations of Social Media ............................................................82 Shortcomings of the Development Sector and Discourse......................................85 Complicating the Transnational: On Collaborating with Indian Feminists ...........88 The Crisis of Representation in Feminist Solidarity ..............................................90 Conclusion .............................................................................................................94 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................96 Future Research ...............................................................................................................100 WORKS CITED ....................................................................................................................101 APPENDIX FACEBOOK POSTS USED FOR TEXTUAL ANALYSIS.....................................106 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As this journey comes to a close I would like to acknowledge the love and labor of the people in my life, those who have made it possible for me to be physically and emotionally in this space and finish my thesis. To my thesis advisors, Dr. Huma Ahmed-Ghosh and Dr. Amira Jarmakani. I am grateful for your invaluable support and feedback. Thank you for your mentorship and making space for me to cry in your offices and making me cry in your offices. Dr. Kate Swanson thank you for your labor on this. To the person who has to put up with random memes, jokes and anxieties at odd hours of the day, I am truly grateful to Yusra Akhtar for being in my life. Thank you for being there and consistently showing up for me for a decade and in undertaking this thesis journey with me. Thank you for the last minute edits, readovers and feedback, you’re a star. I love you deeply. To my queer chosen family, Sevil Suleymani, Layla Mahmood-Britton, Sav Schlauderaff, Krizia Puig, Will Ellis, you all are the sole reason I have survived the mess that has been this thesis and grad school. Your radical love, support and consistent attempts at liberating me are just a few of the reasons I am walking out of this place in one piece. Thank you for joining me in my struggles. Thank you for owning them.