Women’s Mobility, Honor Culture, and Social Control in Rural Villages of District Karak
Abstract
This paper looks at how the honor culture, social norms and religious values affect the movement and agency of women in three villages of the District Karak of Gorgori, Kohi Maidan, and Warana Ahmad Abad. The qualitative approach was used to obtain data with 30 women aged between 18 and 45 years using an in-depth interview and focus group discussion. Results indicate that honor (ghairat) is one of the key social values that determine the actions of women and their day-to-day movements. The mobility of women is followed up by their family, elders, peers, and the community, and therefore the need to comply with them in order to preserve family reputation. Learning and involvement in the economy are ways of empowerment, but both are closely controlled, which may involve control or socially acceptable models. The family support turns out to be an influential mediator that facilitates or limits the mobility and peer influence and social learning help to uphold the cultural norms. These prohibitions are further approved by religious and moral values that make women control themselves in accordance with the social norms. This research relies on Michel Foucault concept of disciplinary power and the social and symbolic capital proposed by Pierre Bourdieu in order to describe the manner in which mobility limitations are internalized and negotiated. In these villages, women empowerment is relational, context-sensitive and within the scope of culture. The study makes contributions to the knowledge of honor oriented social control in rural South Asia and provides the information about the culturally specific intervention. Some of the recommendations are improving access to education, economic opportunities, mentorship, and community involvement, which enable women to contribute more actively to social, economic, and educational spheres and at the same time respecting the local norms.
Keywords: Women mobility, honor culture, social norms, empowerment, rural Pakistan, District Karak.
