Abstract
In recent decades, a class of Shia clerical women, with the theological training and agency to contribute to contemporary religious discourse, has emerged in Pakistan. During summer 2021 and 2022, I attended a bi-weekly study circle led by a prominent Shia female cleric, Khanum Tehmina. Drawing on this fieldwork, my paper investigates how Khanum Tehmina employs her religious expertise and agency to both reinforce and reconfigure gender roles amongst Pakistani Shias. The study hones in on the tension that arises regarding Khanum’s advice on the public role of Pakistani Shia women. Specifically, Khanum Tehmina advises that women ideally should not enter the public realm or assume positions of leadership in a mixed-gender setting. At the same time, Khanum finds contemporary Pakistani Shia men to be failing in fulfilling their religious duties necessitating women’s presence, activism and leadership outside the home. The research also highlights how Khanum Tehmina’s lectures both challenge and reinforce the religious authority of the historically male Pakistani Shia clerical community. While deferential towards some male clerics, particularly ayatollahs in Iran, Khanum Tehmina challenges the morals and ethics of several leading Pakistani male clerics, deeming them too patriarchal or dismissive of significant human concerns, which these male clerics dismiss, per Khanum, as ‘mere female issues.’ Untll now, there has been no work on Pakistani Shia female clerics – my investigation of how gender roles and authority are being reconfigured by and amongst the Shia clerical community of Pakistan inaugurates the study of this important topic.
Presenters
Mashal SaifAssociate Professor, Philosophy and Religion, Clemson University, South Carolina, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Shia, Pakistan, Clerics, Authority, Women
