The Significance of Socio-Political Context in Shaping the Authenticity of Jamaat-i-Islami’s Gender Discourse

Abstract

This paper analyses an important series of episodes in politico-legal history of Pakistan from a particular perspective. It is generally contended by Islamic religious discourses that whatever has been presented by them that is the only authentic manifestation of the divine sources, i.e. the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad. The paper problematizes the above contention and argues that the link between the divine sources and its human interpretations is not so straight forward. Without denying or undermining the role of the divine sources, it is argued that there are many factors which help formulate the authentic stances of the religious discourses and one of them is socio-political context of a particular discourse. To substantiate the above argument, the paper analyses the gender discourse of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan. The analysis underscores the relevance and scope of those socio-political factors which have played a significant role in construction of authentic stances of the Jamaat-i-Islami’s gender discourse at different stages of its formation.