ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: Growth of religious networks, which were mediated, funded, and guided solely by women, brought in new thinking about women roles in Pakistani diaspora. This was stated by Aneela Babar, a research scholar at the Centre for Cultural Research, Sydney, in her talk on ‘Pakistani Women on Negotiating Space, Gender and Rituals in Canberra’ at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute here on Monday.

She said her work examined the influence of diaspora and transnationalism on gender identities. According to a press release, Ms Babar said Pakistani women subscribed to religious networks to overcome unequal ethnic and class distribution they inherited. She looked at the influence of Al-Huda Organization on women, adding that Pakistani women had managed to negotiate their own space within the areas available.

Aneela Babar’s work profiles the Pakistani community in Canberra, which is conscious to class structure, and their association to Australia and Islamabad. Dividing the Pakistani community into the first settlers of government officers of foreign office and their families, Pakistani students, and the working class, she said the three were actively alive to associations of their class, relations and religious outlook.

Ms Babar also talked about two marriages in Pakistani community, one was a traditional affair with all the fun, performing all the rituals, and the other was plain, segregated show, which was described as accurately Islamic. She said a section of the younger generation of Pakistani women were trying to create space within Canberra where they could be acknowledged for their professional as well as Muslim identities, and their efforts to go to mosque and pray despite opposition.