Violence and Resistance in Pakistan: Spectral States, Fragmented Borderlands, and Women’s Agency

This book examines violence and political developments in the western borderland communities of Pakistan, a postcolonial militarist state in the Global South, through the lens of gendered experiences of insecurity. It provides a fresh perspective on comprehending the perception and experience of security among individuals, uncovering the role of gender hierarchies and gendered hierarchies in shaping state policies and personal encounters with security and violence.

Based on ground-based qualitative research, in-depth interviews with Mahsud men and women, military and government officials, academics, security experts and aid organisation officials, each chapter foregrounds an analysis of militarisation, violence, and resistance through varied thematic lens. The result is a rich and original study of Waziristan where conflict and security are presented through a feminist geopolitical perspective, calling for fresh comprehensions of gendered understandings of militarisation and security and a reappraisal of vulnerable populations.

Addressing a gap in the literature regarding the relationship between state-peripheral communities, violence, security, and militarisation in the Global South, this book analyses power relations through a gendered lens and explores the impact of armed violence in everyday life. It will be of interest to researchers in the field of regional geopolitical and security studies, postcolonial states and militarisation in the Global South, as well as borderland studies, gender studies, and South Asian studies.