Border thinking and local knowledges concerning women's empowerment : a case study of Baloch women activists
department or school: Arts and Social Sciences, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Khan, Hamayoon
issued: 2024-05-30T16:39:52Z
issued: 2024
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: This research problematizes the idea of universal forms of understanding socio-political progress and the hegemony of Western knowledge in the post-colonial society of Pakistan. It takes the notions of women’s empowerment as a case study. The study aims to understand the phenomenon of women’s empowerment from the perspective of Baloch women living at the margins of the modern world. The research is a qualitative study that utilizes the grounded theory method to analyze the data collected during fieldwork in Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan, the most marginalized province of Pakistan. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 Baloch women who were educated and actively engaged in the social and political spheres of Balochistan. The research has two purposes: first, to analyze and acknowledge the hitherto unheeded role of Baloch women in the on-going nationalist movement in Balochistan; and, second, to bring to the fore the voices at the margins and their perspective about women’s empowerment. This research is not a critique of the liberal secular feminist movement in Pakistan. Rather, it argues for the novel and alternative understandings of women’s empowerment coming from the margins. The research findings tell us that although Baloch women consider Baloch society to be a patriarchal society and advocate for a women’s empowerment movement, they disagree with the ideology, politics, and demands of the dominant liberal secular feminist movement in Pakistan. The research findings also lead us to argue that women’s empowerment is a matter of “lived experience”; thus, it varies according to the social context in which women reside. The perspective of Baloch women about feminism and women’s empowerment proves that the societies at the margins of modern world should not be treated as an object of study; rather, these societies are also loci of knowledge production from within. Finally, the research concludes that in order to build a more tolerant a…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/88390
note: Border Thinking and Local Knowledges Concerning Women’s Empowerment: A Case Study of Baloch Women Activists by Hamayoon Khan B.A., Forman Christian College and University Lahore, 2016 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Interdisciplinary Studies) (Power, Conflict and Ideas) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) May 2024 © Hamayoon Khan, 2024 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled: Border Thinking and Local Knowledges Concerning Women’s Empowerment: A Case Study of Baloch Women Activists submitted by Hamayoon Khan in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts . Dr. Thomas Heilke, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Supervisor Dr. Sajjad Nejatie, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Supervisory Committee Member Dr. David Geary, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Bonar Buffam, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. University Examiner iii Abstract This research problematizes the idea of universal forms of understanding socio-political progress and the hegemony of Western knowledge in the post-colonial society of Pakistan. It takes the notions of women’s empowerment as a case study. The study aims to understand the phenomenon of women’s empowerment from the perspective of Baloch women living at the margins of the modern world. The research is a qualitative study that utilizes the grounded theory method to analyze the data collected during fieldwork in Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan, the most marginalized province of Pakistan. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 Baloch women who were educated and actively engaged in the social and political spheres of Balochistan. The research has two purposes: first, to analy…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2024-09
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0443821
language: eng
degree discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Heilke, Thomas W., 1960-
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88390