Virtual Manifestations of Patriarchy: Digital Experience of Pakistani Women

Aksar, Iffat Ali; Firdaus, Amira; Danaee, Mehmoud; Maqsood, Huma

doi:10.14431/aw.2020.3.36.1.61

Cited by 5 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…I suggest that, in the Pakistani context, women may use such techniques to express sexual agency. Unlike scholars who have emphasized the links between Muslim women's strategic social media practices and sexual modesty (e.g., Ali et al, 2020;Baulch & Pramiyanti, 2018;Hurley, 2021;Schoemaker, 2015), I show how digital purdah can be very compatible, and co-exist, with expressions of sexuality. TikTok's features facilitate this type of digital purdah.…”

Section: Digital Purdah In Muslim Contextsmentioning

confidence: 62%

“…Patriarchal control over women's mobility and behavior extends to online spaces as well. Since women's reputation is seen as an index of familial reputation and honor (T. S. Khan, 2006), family members surveil, prohibit, and mediate women's access to personal phones and social media to ensure that women follow normative gender scripts (Ali et al, 2020;Sambasivan et al, 2018). In fact, social media often becomes a tool of enhanced familial surveillance of women (Pearce & Vitak, 2016).…”

Section: Gender Transgressions Moral Panics and The Digital Public Sp...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Thermometer Broke! Digital Purdah, Class, and Gender Transgressions on Pakistani TikTok

Kamran

2023

Social Media + Society

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Research on women’s social media practices in Muslim societies has primarily focused on middle-class or elite women, such as influencers, activists, and members of online communities. However, we know little about working-class women’s use of social media in Muslim contexts. Using ethnography and interviews, I analyze TikTok’s early popularity with working-class women in Pakistan and report three main findings. First, TikTok’s initial reception in Pakistan was fractured across class lines; whereas middle-class and elite women dismissed it, working-class women flocked to it, and TikTok became associated with a “low-class” femininity. Second, women engaged in a range of gender transgressions on TikTok. Third, women simultaneously crafted new practices of “digital purdah,” or veiling, on TikTok. I contribute to scholarship on digital purdah by, first, showing how women combine tools available on TikTok with other veiling strategies to conceal their identity while expressing their sexuality and second, arguing that “digital purdah” is compatible, rather than incongruous, with gender transgressions on TikTok. By showing how co-constituted class and gender dynamics shaped the simultaneous popularity and moral disapproval of TikTok in Pakistan, I argue for increased attention to class dynamics in studies of new social media platforms.

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Section: Digital Purdah In Muslim Contextsmentioning

confidence: 62%

Section: Gender Transgressions Moral Panics and The Digital Public Sp...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Thermometer Broke! Digital Purdah, Class, and Gender Transgressions on Pakistani TikTok

Kamran

2023

Social Media + Society

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“…The current study observed use of social media among women for widening of social circle and development of relationships, which is quite limited in Pakistan due to restricted and limited social mobility of women. Interview responses revealed social media's strong potential for bonding and bridging social capital among women (Aksar et al, 2020). Research participants were quite hopeful that social media would transform patriarchal landscape of Pakistani society, and women would be able to enjoy freedom in true spirit.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the reasons is the persistent trend of women's vulnerability, victimization, and harassment in male-dominated societies, which has flowed into virtual spaces as well. Women try to adopt specific strategies to hide their online identities so as to secure their online experience (Aksar et al, 2020). According to research, social media has the potential to address gender disparities and lead women towards empowerment (Antonio & Tuffley, 2014).…”

Section: Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Virtual vs. Real Self: Gendered Presentation and Everyday Performance of Virtual Selfhood – A Case Study of Pakistan

Aksar

Firdaus

Pasha

2022

Journal of Communication Inquiry

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The presentation and performance of women's selfhood and identity in Pakistan, in both the real and the virtual world, is dictated and shaped by the male-dominated cultural mores of Pakistan. Therefore, drawing upon Goffman's notion of self-presentation and everyday performance of selfhood, this paper explores digitally active Pakistani women's selfhood and identity presentation through qualitative interviews with ten Pakistani women from diverse backgrounds. Participants’ narratives revealed identity conflicts between their offline and online identities due to the control exhibited by the prevalent cultural norms and values. Similarly, offline cultural mores of the veil seeping into the online world operate as a patriarchal means of controlling women online akin to the male-protected family and home as a sacred sanctuary providing security to the family women. Pakistani women's experience of the online world is also defined in terms of “digital veil” and “digital sanctuary”. Findings reveal that Pakistani women social media users’ offline self-presentation clashes with their performance of selfhood in their virtual lives. This divergence and resulting identity crisis of selfhood is shaped by cultural regulation which adversely affects Pakistani women's lives. Extended research on social and cyber culture in offline and online identity formation with respect to psychosocial implications is recommended.

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Gender-Based Violence in Pakistan's Digital Spaces

Naseer

Ashraf

2021

Fem Leg Stud

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Virtual Manifestations of Patriarchy: Digital Experience of Pakistani Women

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

The Thermometer Broke! Digital Purdah, Class, and Gender Transgressions on Pakistani TikTok

The Thermometer Broke! Digital Purdah, Class, and Gender Transgressions on Pakistani TikTok

Virtual vs. Real Self: Gendered Presentation and Everyday Performance of Virtual Selfhood – A Case Study of Pakistan

Gender-Based Violence in Pakistan's Digital Spaces

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