Nida Kirmani

Nida Kirmani is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. She is also Faculty Director of the Saida Waheed Gender Initiative. Nida has published widely on issues related to gender, Islam, women’s movements, development and urban studies in India and Pakistan. She completed her PhD in 2007 from the University of Manchester in Sociology. Her book, Questioning ‘the Muslim Woman’: Identity and Insecurity in an Urban Indian Locality, was published in 2013 by Routledge. Her ongoing research focuses on urban violence, gender and insecurity in the area of Lyari in Karachi. She is also exploring the relationship between social media and social movements in Pakistan, particularly related to the issue of enforced disappearances.

Nida Kirmani will take part of the Visiting Professors Program designed by EHESS, on proposal of Virginie Dutoya (CESAH)

LECTURES

Everyday Life in a “No-go area”: violence, insecurity and resistance in Lyari, Karachi

One of the oldest settlements in Karachi, Lyari has been the site of conflict between political parties, criminal gangs and law enforcement agencies since the early 2000s. Between 2008 and 2013, much of Lyari was controlled by the People’s Aman Committee (PAC), a body created as a means of ending a long-standing conflict between two factions of gangs. It was common knowledge amongst residents that this organization was patronized by the state and could provide access to public goods thus blurring the line between formality and informality. For some, this organization was viewed positively as decreasing the distance between citizens and the state and as a means of imparting quick ‘justice’. For others, the informal nature of the PAC legitimized the power of violent actors and strengthened their desire for formal state rule. I argue that the opacity introduced by organisations such as the PAC is a deliberate strategy used by the state to bolster its authority, particularly amongst marginalized populations.

Along with a detailed discussion of the People’s Aman Committee, this talk will provide an overview of research conducted in Lyari over the course of a decade (2012-2022), focusing on resistance strategies of local residents and reflections on the impacts of the seemingly endless cycle of violence on the texture of everyday life.   

Dans le cadre du séminaire « Actualité de la recherche sur l’Asie du Sud et les mondes himalayens » animé par M. Trento, V. Dutoya, A. Mohammad-Arif et D. Berti

• Mardi 14 mai de 14h à 16h – Salle A202, Bâtiment EHESS, Campus Condorcet, Aubervilliers

Mobilising for Gender Justice in Pakistan: How Do We Define the Women’s Movement?

This talk provides an overview of the literature produced thus far on women’s activism in Pakistan over the past three decades. This includes a discussion of the writings and activism of the self-identified women’s movement, particularly related to the question of the movement’s engagement with religion written largely during the 80s and 90s focusing on the Women’s Action Forum. More recently, academic attention has turned towards the Aurat March, an annual event that takes place in cities across the country. This will be followed by an exploration of the scholarship produced on the activism and organization of Islamist women and the women’s piety movement more recently in the period following 9/11.

However, there are many women-led mobilisations that are neither self-consciously feminist nor Islamic in nature. This includes the struggles for the rights of transgender women and women-led mobiliations against state violence in the former Federally-Administered Tribal Agencies (FATA) and activism against enforced disappearances and state-led development projects in Balochistan. These cases highlight the diverse and vibrant nature of women’s activism in the country, generated spontaneously and without the direct engagement of either the women’s movement or pious women’s groups/religious parties. These cases demonstrate the diverse forms of women’s activism across the country that exceed the confines of the religious/secular binary.

Dans le cadre du séminaire “Fabrique et circulation des savoirs sur le genre dans/sur le Sud global” animé par Virginie Dutoya

• Mardi 21 mai de 10h30 à 12h30  – Salle A402, Bâtiment EHESS, Campus Condorcet, Aubervilliers

Resisting erasure: social media activism against enforced disappearances in Balochistan

The practice of enforced disappearance is one of the most extreme manifestations of state violence, exemplifying the opaque nature of the state, particularly with regard to the management of its peripheries. Pakistan is one of many countries where this practice is widespread. Many of those missing are from Balochistan—the country’s most underdeveloped province, which has been the site of an ongoing insurgency for several decades. Despite the thousands affected, this issue rarely makes it onto the national media. For this reason, activists and family members of missing persons increasingly rely on the digital sphere, particularly ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter), to call for the return of their loved ones and to highlight the state’s violent practices. This paper analyses the digital tactics of Baloch activists and family members of the disappeared as they forge an affective digital counterpublic. Interview findings demonstrate the double-edged nature of social media, which is also used by the state for the purposes of surveillance, to further their narrative, and to frighten critics into silence. The paper highlights the multiple affective meanings social media holds for the Baloch as a space that represents both promise and risk for members of marginalised groups.

Dans le cadre de la Conférence CERI/SciencesPo Paris (South Asia Seminar)

• Jeudi 30 mai de 14h à 16h – SciencesPo Paris, 28, rue des Saints-Pères 75007 Paris

Film Screening of Shadowlands and discussion with producer Nida Kirmani (LUMS) – Projection du film Shadowlands et discussion avec Nida Kirmani (LUMS)

One of Karachi’s oldest and largest working class settlements, Lyari has witnessed several conflicts over the past two decades. For this reason, Lyari has been labelled by law enforcement agencies and the media as one of several ‘no-go areas’ in the city. However, residents refer to their area as ‘Karachi ki maan’ or the mother of Karachi. For Lyari’s residents, their locality has continuously shifted from being a space of protection against the hostile social and political environment of the city to a space of terror at the hands of local criminal gangs and law enforcement agencies. While the conflict has gradually subsided since 2013, the state-led Operation came with its own violence, with many residents losing family members to extrajudicial killings (‘encounters’). Many others are still in prison for alleged involvement in the gangs. Furthermore, the roots of the conflict—poverty, drugs, and the conflict between political parties—remain factors that shape the area. Hence, while Lyari may officially be at ‘peace’, residents are aware that the violent conflict may erupt at any time in the future. This documentary follows two residents of Lyari, both of whom have lost family members to police encounters. Through telling their stories, the documentary sheds light on the ongoing ramifications of violence and questions whether peace has truly been achieved for the people of Lyari.

Dans le cadre du séminaire visuel IMAGO du CESAH

•  Jeudi 6 juin de 17h30 à 19h30 – Salle de projection gradinée, EHESS, Campus Condorcet, Aubervilliers