From Home to Frontiers: Socialist Feminist Struggle in Today’s Pakistan
How do women, khwaja siras and gender non-conforming people in Pakistan resist the patriarchal expectations imposed upon them within the home, as well as the intertwined forces of capitalism and imperialism that shape their everyday lives? Recent scenes from the protest camp set up by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee in 2023 serve as a fitting answer to this question. Scores of Baloch women stepped out of their homes and participated in a long march to Islamabad where they set up camp outside the Islamabad Press Club. For several days and nights, they sat at the camp, enduring the harsh Islamabad winter as they demanded an end to the enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings that have taken countless members of the Baloch nation. Baloch women, alongside organiszers across regions stretching from Sindh to Pakhtunkhwa to Gilgit-Baltistan have increasingly highlighted the interconnectedness of their struggles against climate injustice, authoritarianism, national oppression, class inequality, imperialism, war, and patriarchy.
Our theme for this issue, “From Home to Frontiers”, spotlights the resistance of women, khwaja siras and gender non-conforming people in contemporary Pakistan. The recent IMF deal has pushed the country further into the stranglehold of international debt. As a result, the working masses face unprecedented unemployment and rising costs of food and basic amenities like gas and electricity, and forced economic migration. Meanwhile, the country’s military and civilian ruling elites continue to expand their holdings and capital in collaboration with regional and global imperialist forces. The state’s own geo-strategic aims, and the competing interests of the US and neighboring Iran and Afghanistan have trapped the region in an endless cycle of war. Against this backdrop, movements ranging from Pakistan’s peripheries to its urban centres continue to resist occupation, resource extraction, abductions, political repression, and war. Women and gender non-conforming folks, especially those who are working class or represent oppressed nations and religions, bear the brunt of these developments, facing femicide and sexual and gendered violence. Pakistan’s imperialized economy and neo-colonial state relies crucially on their labour, both as underpaid, informalized labour and unpaid caregivers. The home, streets and frontiers inevitably bleed into one another. Hence, feminist resistance on all fronts must foreground our understanding of how to build a progressive future.
Narivaad’s fifth issue will spotlight resistance against the connected patriarchies of home, state, and global capital. We seek to highlight and celebrate the role of feminist struggles in building progressive movements that envision a world free from patriarchy, national oppression, casteism, capitalism, and imperialism. As a magazine engaging with feminist struggles in Pakistan and beyond, Narivaad invites comrades, allies, and activist scholars to pitch essays and artwork from a socialist-feminist perspective on the following themes:
- Analyses of how feminist movements converge and diverge from progressive struggles in Pakistan around issues of land, labour, human rights, national liberation, environmental justice, and war.
- Histories of gender and sexual oppression in Pakistan, especially as they intersect with ethnic, caste, oppressed religions, and class formations.
- Proposals for building feminist solidarities within and beyond Pakistan.
- Critiques of development, authoritarianism, religious majoritarianism, neoliberalization, and imperialism.
- Reportage and reflection on ongoing struggles by women, khwaja siras, and queer collectives in Pakistan.
We are looking for essays, reportage, opinion, reviews, interviews, fiction and poetry. Please send us your pitches of 250 words or less that include the proposed length, format, and thematic focus of your submission. We welcome pitches and submissions in English and Urdu.
Deadline for pitches: 25th June 2024
Deadline for final submission: 25th July 2024
Please email us pitches at narivaad@gmail.com
For our perspective and aims, please consult our page About Us. Please also consult the Submission Guidelines before sending in a piece. For further queries, contact us at above email.
