Negotiations in the Zones of Intimacy: Inter-faith Romantic Relations and Culture Work in a Pakistani Neighborhood

• In Event: 216 - Regular Session. Gender in the Muslim World: New Perspectives

Abstract

Using the example of romantic relations between Hindu women and Muslim men in Karachi, Pakistan, I refine Andrew Shryock’s notion of off-stage and on-display by blurring the hard distinction, he constructs, between culture workers and those hidden in representations of their community. In the working class neighborhood of Karachi, Pakistan, that I conducted my fieldwork in, culture work is conducted even by those who one would think engage in otherwise hidden or “embarrassing” practices, but who nonetheless reproduce conventional norms in local representations of community propriety. All actors, whether who engage in practices which are off-stage or on-display, constitute and reconstitute cultural intimacy. My work also shows that local context matters when local groups represent themselves and not the global ethic as shown in previous work on the topic of culture work by religious minorities (Shryock 2004).

Author

• Syeda Quratulain Masood, Brown University