EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN THROUGH RELIGION: A CASE OF ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS MAGAZINES OF PAKISTAN

EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN THROUGH RELIGION: A CASE OF ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS MAGAZINES OF PAKISTAN

Bushra H. Rahman[1]

 

ABSTRACT

This study examines the issues relating to Pakistani Muslim women in the mainstream religious magazines of major religious schools of thought in Pakistan from the year 2000-2008. Specifically, it has explored whether the religious magazines of Pakistan frame issues facing Muslim women in a manner that has the potential to empower them. The study is cast in Muslim feminist perspective. Quantitative content analysis was used and the contents of the religious magazines were coded as potentially empowering and not-empowering women. The analysis showed that the issues facing the Muslim women were treated in a manner that did not have the potential to empower women.