Wujuud-i-Zan: Mussamat Tajo's fight for justice
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13.03.2025
On February 21st, 2025, Habib University hosted a thought-provoking one-day conference titled Wujuud-i-Zan, focusing on women in academia: scholars, artists, and activists. The event fostered a transdisciplinary dialogue on gender performance and perception, bringing together voices from diverse fields to explore the complexities of women's roles in society. As a Habib University alumna, attending this conference was a bittersweet experience. It was a return to an intellectual space I had cherished as a student, but this time, I was there not to discuss the event in class but to cover it as a professional. The shift in context was both nostalgic and empowering. One of the panels that particularly captivated me was “Colonial Modernity and the Gendered Subject”, especially the subsection led by Zoya Sameen, a historian specializing in gender, law, and empire in 19th and 20th-century South Asia. Her talk, titled ‘This Woman is a Most Undesirable Person’: Tajo vs. Frontier Crimes Regulation in the Balochistan Agency', delved into the intricate ways colonial and patriarchal systems policed women, particularly those involved in sex work, and how these systems intersected with legal and social frameworks. Her presentation began by outlining the colonial state’s multifaceted approach to policing women, particularly those engaged in prostitution. She identified four distinct regimes of control that evolved over the 19th and 20th centuries: 1. Criminalization: In the late 19th century, women........
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