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| Srl | Item |
| 1 |
ID:
171303
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| Summary/Abstract |
The densely populated, multi-ethnic area of Lyari in Karachi is one of the city’s original settlements. The area has become infamous as the site of an ongoing conflict between criminal gangs, political parties and law enforcement agencies for over a decade, and, for this reason, Lyari has been labelled as one of several ‘no-go areas’ in the city. However, for the residents of Lyari, the ways in which they understand their part of the city far exceed these facile labels. While at times their neighbourhoods do become fearful spaces, they are also places of comfort, familiarity and fun. This article explores the multiple ways in which women and girls experience and understand this area. In particular, it documents the various ways in which they express and experience enjoyment in their everyday lives and during exceptional moments. Based on extensive interviews and participant observation in several neighbourhoods, the research shifts attention away from solely using violence as a lens to understand urban space and away from seeing women mainly as victims of violence. Focusing on the pursuit of fun and enjoyment as an area of academic inquiry can be an important way to show how women push against and challenge patriarchal boundaries. By highlighting women’s and girls’ own creative navigations and engagements with their locality and the city, this paper brings new insights into discussions of gender and urban marginalisation more generally.
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| 2 |
ID:
084242
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| Publication |
2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The research for this paper is based in a majority-Muslim neighbourhood in South Delhi, Zakir Nagar. As with most urban localities, the borders around Zakir Nagar are permeable-with residents frequently moving in and out of the neighbourhood and coming into contact with members of other religious groups. Many of the residents of Zakir Nagar have also lived in religiously mixed areas previously. Furthermore, although the neighbourhood is itself identified as 'Muslim', it is by no means homogeneous, so that multiple social boundaries operate even within this locality. This paper looks more closely at the issue of religious identity as it was narrated in relation to various and shifting 'others'. These 'others'-referred to in the context of friendship, neighbours and marriage as well as in terms of discrimination, riots and 'communalism'-were often identified as 'Hindus' or as 'non-Muslims', but were also often referred to members of different class, status or regional groups. Hence, boundaries around 'us' and 'them' shifted according to context and were contingent upon various factors alongside religious identity. Through the narratives of Zakir Nagar residents, religious identity emerged as itself a problematic category whose meaning and
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| 3 |
ID:
174133
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| Summary/Abstract |
Situations of internecine warfare have in common to question the transitivity of everyday life—that is, its capacity to be taken for granted, to flow without any need for explication. These wars within the familiar generate specific anxieties about where to look at and what to believe. Events, persons, places, or objects whose status seemed hitherto undeniable become less predictable, while their worth comes into question. As individuals’ ontological security is threatened, the need for new monitoring devices and authentication procedures arises. Drawing on the phenomenology of civil wars and the anthropology of fakes, this contribution proposes to explore one such crisis of evidence: the nexus of political, ethnic, and criminal violence raging in Karachi's inner-city area of Lyari. Through the lens of local journalism, it reflects upon the tactics of social navigation deployed by residents confronted with chronic uncertainty in all sectors of life. Janbaz, the Urdu newspaper examined here, provides an opportunity to move beyond functionalist readings of the press in conflict situations. While insisting upon the pleasure derived by Janbaz’s readers from the sensationalized rendering of Lyari's predicament, we argue that the newspaper is the site of a continuous series of ‘reality tests’ and the focal point of private and collective investigations, pooling knowledge in an increasingly undecipherable environment. More than through its information, it is through its shortcomings that Janbaz has helped to recreate social ties in a world plagued by discord and uncertainty.
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