Contesting Subjectivities, Negotiating Agency, and Re-defining Boundaries: The Ideological Subject Formation and Positioning of Pakhtun Women

Pakhtun society is patriarchal. It is patriarchal in the sense that men are the tribal and familial heads; the decision-makers; and occupy sociocultural positions of power. This project explores how subject-positions of Pakhtun women are ideologically shaped within those patriarchal structures. Are they limited with reference to men's subject-positions as fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, and tribal heads? Or is there space for: 1) an autonomous sense of "woman's" subject formation and position and 2) each woman's sense of herself as an individual? In other words, in this project I consider how the Ideological State Apparatuses (Althusser 1971) and the processes of recognition (Pêcheux 1982) situate Pakhtun women and how women's ensuing subject-positions are contested. Thus what I really explore is how Pakhtun women occupy subject-positions through which they come to be defined as individuals with their own rights and voice(s) rather than recognized as referent-subjects with respect to men's subjectivities only. In order to find answers this dissertation examines the notions of citizenship and belonging in order to explicate who is accepted as an authentic group member in the Pakhtun society amidst global influences. It further explores the influence Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) like: family, education, media, law, religion, and culture have on the subject formation of Pakhtun women (and younger men); their subject-positions; the consequent subjectivities various ISAs create; and finally the way Pakhtun women contest and negotiate these subject-positions. The ways by which Pakhtun women contest and negotiate their subject-positions and hence achieve some level of agency demonstrates that agency cannot have fixed meanings; it has to be understood with reference to the historical, material, and cultural nuances of a society. This dissertation concludes that the main subject-positions which have helped in the sociocultural progression and agency propagation of Pakhtun women include the "locally-globally aware"; the "mobile"; and the "educated" subject. The analysis of my data shows that achieving and sustaining agency will be further guaranteed if Pakhtun women continue to think critically; stop accepting cultural, social, and political proxy subject-positions; and determinedly lead their lives progressively.