Persecuted lives: Hazara women in Pakistan and beyond

Abstract

This is the first in-depth study about Shia Muslim ethnic Hazara women, a silenced minority impacted by Pakistan’s post 9/11 armed conflict. The study is underpinned by diverse interdisciplinary scholarship employed to analyse distinct under-studied themes in the literature—the gendered nature of harms, migration/mobilities, social and economic capacity, grief, and mourning rituals. It makes important contributions to knowledge, drawing on the feminist theory of harm, the construction of feminist security and gendered experiences of conflict/post-conflict / violence/terrorism linked to migration.

Women’s intersectional experiences of violence and their multidimensional responses reveal violence, (in)security and peace manifesting together through gendered, contextualised everyday ‘connected existences’. Migration journeys challenge predominant conceptualisations of home, and women’s grief work serves as an intersectional vehicle of agency to acknowledge their silenced losses. Women’s efforts to resist violence, challenge gendered cultural norms and assert new identities demonstrate their agency and resilience, reweaving the torn social fabric by redefining familial, community and social cohesion. Recommendations are offered to the Pakistani state regarding policy implementation for victim rehabilitation and to the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda for attention towards gendered harms in protracted conflicts. The study also points to potential future research with Hazara men regarding gendered security concerns due to conflict, shaping masculinities.

The study is based on a compelling and distinct fieldwork methodology, which encompasses a humane and sensitive approach to complex and challenging social contexts through incorporation of participants’ own terminology to capture emotion, nuance and deeper meaning; inclusion of photographs to uncover narratives absent from mainstream frames of war; and by weaving the researcher’s personal experience of loss into the analysis to reflect feminist solidarity and knowledge co-creation. Online and in person interviews with Pakistani and Afghan Hazaras were manually translated, transcribed and coded for inductive analysis.

Thesis is embargoed until 30 June 2027

Date of Award	Jun 2025
Original language	English
Supervisor	Johanne Devlin Trew (Supervisor), Shane MacGiollabhui (Supervisor) & Niall Gilmartin (Supervisor)