Politics of Gender Sovereignties: The Case of Women in the Persianate World

The dominant political and media narratives about Islam, Muslims, and Muslim women embed a contest at the core of Muslim women's identities (Malik, 2018; Ahmad & Matthes, 2016). Western feminist theory addresses cultural and ideological oppression but often fails to engage with the lived realities shaping these identities. More recent scholarship, such as Islamic Feminism: Discourses on Gender and Sexuality (Sirri, 2020), explores the compatibility between Islam and feminism, advocating a deeper understanding of Muslim women's cultural and ideological experiences. Muslim Women and Gender Justice (El Omari, Hammer, & Khorchide, 2021) demonstrates the contextualized struggle for gender justice in Muslim communities, challenging universalizing frameworks by focusing on women’s agency. The notion of "gendered Islamophobia" (Alimahomed-Wilson, 2020) further investigates the complex oppression Muslim women face, emphasizing intersections of gender, religion, ethnicity, and politics. My monograph Muslim Women, Agency and Resistance Politics: The Case of Kashmir (2018) explores women’s activism in Kashmir within the sociopolitical context of conflict, providing a nuanced understanding of their agency. Despite these advancements, the politicization and contestation in the Global South necessitate a comprehensive theoretical understanding of gender in Islamicate and Persianate societies beyond critiquing Western feminist theories. Gender theories offer various conceptualizations: as socialization (Beauvoir, 1949; Oakley, 1974), power (Foucault, 1976; Connell, 1987), class domination (Engels, 1884; Walby, 1986), and intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989; Collins, 1990). These frameworks provide multifaceted insights but underscore the challenge of defining gender universally. Publications from Butler, Connell, Crenshaw, Spivak, and Ahmed form a critical foundation for developing a contextual gender theory addressing challenges within Persianate societies. This research aims to offer such an understanding, critiquing dominant discourses and aligning with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Global South. The relationship between sovereignty and gender reveals how gendered norms legitimize state authority. The concept of gender sovereignty—at the intersection of contest, state, and gender—offers an alternative framework for localized notions of justice in Islamicate and Persianate contexts. The paper develops this concept through comparative analysis of gendered politics of resistance in Afghanistan, Iran, the Kashmir region, and Georgia.