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The Zina Ordinance is part of the Hadood Ordinances that were promulgated in 1979 by the military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq, self-proclaimed president of Pakistan. Since then, tens of thousands of Pakistani women have been charged and incarcerated under the ordinance, which governs illicit sex. Shahnaz Khan argues that the zina laws help situate morality within the individual, thus de-emphasizing the prevalence of societal injustice. She also examines the production and reception of knowledge in the west about women in the third world and concludes that transnational feminist solidarity can challenge oppressive practices internationally.

This book seeks to interrogate the classical fiqh formulation on gender and homicide with a view to exploring further the debate on whether the so-called gender injustice in Islamic law is a human creation or attributable to the divine sources of the Qur'an and Sunnah. The study is in response to the increasing criticism of the Islamic criminal law regime and the accusation that it discriminates on the basis of gender. It argues that any attempt to critique a religious question through the lens of traditional Western human rights ideals would be resisted by the vast majority of Muslims. An examination of the question and any suggested solutions offered would be much more effective if situated within the system they identify with; that is to address the question of gender justice deficit from within the Islamic legal tradition. Focusing on Nigeria and Pakistan, the book achieves this by drawing on classical fiqh literature, contemporary literature, legislative sources and relevant case law.

Why are honour killings and honour-related violence (HRV) so important to understand? What do such crimes represent? And how does HRV fit in with Western views and perceptions of Islam? This distinctively comparative collection examines the concept of HRV against women in general and Muslim women in particular. The issue of HRV has become a sensitive subject in many South Asian and Middle Eastern countries and it has received the growing attention of the media, human rights groups and academics around the globe. However, the issue has yet to receive detailed academic study in the United Kingdom, particularly in terms of both legal and sociological research. This collection sets out the theoretical and ethical parameters of the study of HRV in order to address this intellectual vacuum in a socio-legal context. The key objectives of this book are: to construct, and to develop further, a theory of HRV; to rationalise and characterise the different forms of HRV; to investigate the role of religion, race and class in society within this context, in particular, the role of Islam; to scrutinise the role of the civil/criminal law/justice systems in preventing these crimes; and to inform public policy-makers of the potential policies that may be employed in combating HRV. 1. Introduction Mohammad Mazher Idriss 2. Honour-Related Violence Towards South Asian Muslim Women Tahir Abbas 3. The Silencing of Women from the Pakistani Muslim Mirpuri Community in Violent Relationships Zahira Latif 4. There is Nothing 'Honourable' About Honour Killings: Gender, Violence and the Limits of Multiculturalism Veena Meeto and Heidi Safia Mirza 5. Collective Crimes, Collective Victims: A Case Study into the Murder of Banaz Mahmod Joanne Lee Payton 6. Honour and Shame in Domestic Homicide: A Critical Analysis of the Provocation Defence Anna Carline 7. Does the Qur’an Condone Domestic Violence Sadia Kauser, Sjaad Hussain, Mohammad Mazher Idriss 8. The Construction of ‘Honour’ in Indian Criminal Law: An Indian Lawyer’s Perspective Geeta Ramaseshan 9. Men’s Violence and Women’s Responsibility: Mothers’ Stories about Honour Violence Åsa Eldén 10. Lack of Due Diligence: Judgments of Crimes of Honour in Turkey Leylâ Pervizat 11. A Comparative Study of the Reform Work Conducted in Asia and Europe to Combat Violence and So-Called Honour Murders Rana Husseini 12. Ending Honour Crimes in Sub Saharan Africa: Looking at a Long Hard Death Nancy Kaymar Stafford 13. Conversations Across Borders: Men and Honour Related Violence in the UK and Sweden Suruchi Thapar-Björkert 14. Tackling ‘Crimes of Honour:’ Evaluating the Social and Legal Responses to Combating Forced Marriages in the United Kingdom Samia Bano 15. Reconfiguring ‘Honour’-Based Violence as a Form of Gendered Violence Aisha Gill \"Honour, Violence, Women and Islam, a scholarly attempt to address questions of honour-related violence, is a truly exceptional publication... [it] is among the first complete guides to honour-related violence, and undoubtedly represents a valuable source of information and point of reference for everyone interested in this area of study – postgraduates and academics interested in this area of study, social workers dealing with honour related violence and policy makers alike. It is suitable for anyone seeking a broader picture of the sociological and legal contexts of crimes of honour.\" - Monika Gabriela Dąbrowska, In-Spire, Journal of Law, Politics and Societies Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2010 Mohammad Mazher Idriss is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Law, formerly at Coventry University. Dr Tahir Abbas FRSA is currently Honorary University Fellow at the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies.

Religion plays a pivotal role in the way women are treated around the world, socially and legally.This book discusses three Islamic human rights approaches: secular, non-compatible, reconciliatory (compatible), and proposes a contextual interpretive approach.

In Pakistan, female entrepreneurs and earning women encounter considerable challenges when trying to enter male-dominated job markets. Many turn to women-only social media groups as a forum to discuss these obstacles and share strategies for overcoming them. Unlike conventional, more bureaucratic networking avenues such as chambers of commerce, these online platforms offer flexibility and continuous connectivity. This proves especially beneficial for women during significant life events like maternity or caregiving breaks. In Muslim-majority countries, these groups also serve as platforms for exchanging culturally and religiously relevant business practices, including discussions on halal investments and Sharia-compliant entrepreneurship. This study employs online ethnography and interviews with key stakeholders in some of Pakistan's most prominent women-focused online networking groups. While one might assume that the primary aim of such professional networks is to discuss business growth, cutting-edge research or technology, these groups actually thrive on a common language, shared challenges and shared values. The article begins by exploring the concept of professionalism and the role of community and networking in career advancement. It then delves into the specific challenges that make networking difficult for women in Pakistan but paradoxically act as a glue binding them together in these online spaces.

Iftikhar Ud Din, Zubia Mumtaz, and Anushka Ataullahjan examine the difficulties experienced by Pakistan’s lady health workers

In her multi award-winning feature film Silent Waters (2003), Pakistani woman filmmaker Sabiha Sumar connects the socio-political traumas of the Partition of India and creation of Pakistan (1947) with the onset of military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamization period (1977-1988) in Pakistan. Presenting a story based on real-life events, the film focuses on the impact of religious fundamentalism and nationalism on women in particular. Examining Silent Waters as an example of “history on film/film on history” (Rosenstone 2013), and film as an “agent, product, and source of history”  (Ferro 1983), the discussion identifies and analyzes the filmmaker’s  own tacitly embedded location and participation in the filmic narrative as an experiential  ‘auto/bio-historiographer’, arguing for the value of this new paradigm in Cinema Studies.

In Pakistan, the self-serving use of Islam by more secular elements alongside politico-religious ones facilitated the latter's increasing influence and the conflation and intricate interweaving of Islam and Pakistani nationhood. A paradigm shift under Zia's martial law revamped society as much as state laws, producing both religiously defined militias and aligned civil society groups. Examining the impact on women of fusing religion and politics, this paper argues that women become symbolic markers of appropriated territory in the pursuit of state power, and that the impact of such fusing, different for differently situated women, needs to be gauged in societal terms as well as in terms of state dynamics. Questioning the positing of civil society as a self-evident progressive desideratum, the paper concludes that gender equality projects seeking reconfigurations of power cannot be effective without vigorously competing in the creation of knowledge, culture and identity.