The politics of state intervention: State policy and the status of women in Pakistan (1947--2006) and Afghanistan (1919--2006)

This monograph---an interpretative study---examines two paradigms in comparative politics: the statist and the state-in-society approaches. Using a historical context, it explores state-society relations in Pakistan and Afghanistan---since independence to present---in order to test hypotheses derived from the aforementioned frameworks. Specifically, within the realm of state-society relations, it concentrates on the efforts of these two states to regulate the lives of their female populace in their quest for legitimacy; as a means to strengthen their "Islamic" credentials and/or to appease certain social elements. Selection of these two case studies has to do with the cultural, ethnic and religious similarities of these neighboring states and the controversial gender policies of their state actors, which has attracted considerable international attention.; The findings of this monograph substantiate the state-in-society perspective. When it comes to the gender politics of these states, the state has generally not acted as an autonomous entity at either the enactment or the implementation phases. More importantly, gender policy has fluctuated---sometimes wildly---depending on who was at the helm of either state. Furthermore, during the process of enactment (of laws), the state apparatus of both states faced less obstacles in stark contrast to the hurdles they encountered when it came to implementation of controversial gender policies. The most significant finding was the degree of intensity of social opposition and the willingness of these authoritarian states to consider backing down from original decisions in order to appease disgruntled social elements.