Shahnaz Khan 2007, Chapter 1: Native Informing on the Zina
Ordinance, p. 15-17
Transnational Feminism and the Moral Regulation of Pakistani Women
In a recent article entitled “‘Under Western Eyes’ Revisited: Feminist Solidarity through Anticapitalist Struggles,” Chandra Mohanty (2003b) revisits her earlier critique (1991) of liberal feminism and its tendency to produce sensational accounts about third-world women as the oppressed other. Mohanty once again argues for a reading of women’s oppression in ways that show the local and global not only as simultaneous, but also as constitutive of each other. Mohanty’s analysis contributes to an examination of my location as a native who informs on the Zina Ordinance for a Western audience. In so doing, I reconfigure conversations about the native so that she is positioned to inform not only on the Zina Ordinance in Pakistan but also on its reading in the West.
The Zina Ordinance is an extremely oppressive, controversial, and contested piece of legislation in Pakistan. I am able to voice my criticism to Pakistani government officials who frequently agree with me and to activists there who are working to secure the release of women imprisoned for zina. (more…)
