Contested Representation: Punjabi Women in Feminist Debate in Pakistan

This book is a new voice coming from the academia and covers the gap between the activists and the represented women. It is an addition to the available literature on women in Pakistan as the focus is more on lower and lower middle class rural, as well as urban, women rather than women activists and organisations and their efforts. Apart from looking at the legal rights, political representation and socio-economic status of women it looks at the contested views on the class structure of society and the manner in which women are positioned. It opens a debate about representatives as well as the represented and how it affects the manner in which women issues are analyzed in various State and non-State avenues both at national and international levels. It brings forward the questions raised by women participants regarding class differences and its effects on ways women issues are dealt with by the State structures and organisations. It highlights the need for the inclusion of women from various class in mainstream feminist agendas of organisations aa well as donor agencies. It asserts the need to make a distinction between speaking ‘on’ women and ‘for’ women.