Research Paper: Main Question: "how do muslim leaders and communities respond to honor killings in pakistan" Guidelines have been attached, ALSO i need you to add the Connections to class reading in
Paragraph with Rinaldo (on pious agency and internal reform)
Rachel Rinaldo’s concept of “pious and critical agency,” introduced in her article Pious and Critical: Muslim Women Activists and the Question of Agency (2014), provides a useful lens for understanding how Muslim women in Pakistan challenge honor killings from within an Islamic framework. Rather than conforming to secular liberal feminist models, many women activists draw on Islamic teachings about justice (insaf), compassion (rahma), and human dignity to critique patriarchal customs like honor-based violence. Rinaldo shows how Indonesian Muslim women use religious discourse to push for gender justice without abandoning piety, a dynamic also visible in Pakistan. Organizations such as the Aurat Foundation and grassroots educators in madrasas advocate against honor killings by reinterpreting Islamic texts and emphasizing that Islam forbids murder and injustice. This strategy challenges both local justifications for honor killings and global narratives that cast Islam as inherently oppressive. Through this “pious critical agency,” Muslim women in Pakistan assert their right to safety and respect — not despite their faith, but through it.
Paragraph with Abu-Lughod (on representation and cultural essentialism)
In the discourse surrounding honor killings, particularly in Western media and policy circles, Muslim communities are often framed as inherently violent, patriarchal, and culturally backward. However, as Lila Abu-Lughod (2013) critiques in her work Do Muslim Women (Still) Need Saving? these narratives rely on what she calls “cultural essentialism” — the idea that Muslim women are oppressed because of Islam or Muslim culture. Abu-Lughod argues that this framing not only erases the diverse voices of Muslim women but also ignores the political and structural conditions that shape gendered violence. Applying this to the Pakistani context, we can see that honor killings are not simply a product of Islam, but of entrenched patriarchal norms, legal loopholes, and weak state enforcement — conditions that many Muslim communities themselves are actively challenging. Activists, religious leaders, and civil society groups in Pakistan have increasingly framed honor killings as a violation of Islamic ethics and Pakistani law, showing that resistance comes from within, not outside, the community. Abu-Lughod’s critique helps us move beyond simplistic cultural explanations and better understand the nuanced ways in which Muslim communities engage with and resist gendered violence.
Rachel Rinaldo- Pious and Critical
Indonesian Muslim women used Islamic teachings to advocate for their rights
Pakistani women and educators use Islamic texts
Rinaldo shows that piety and gender justice can go together, and that dynamic is present in Pakistan too
Lila Abu Lughod- Do women still need saving?
The idea of women being oppressed is blamed on Islam, it ignores the other political or structural conditions that might be adding to gendered violence/ inequality
Honor killings aren’t just because of the religion- patriarchal norms and the weak law/state enforcement add to it as well
