How religious beliefs become radicalised: the dramatic rise of female madrasas
14 May 2009
Oxford University researcher, Dr Masooda Bano, has been awarded one of the Economic and Social Research Council's 'Ideas and Beliefs' fellowships to start a research programme into how religious beliefs can become radicalised. Her research will focus on the birth and dramatic rise of female madrasas in Pakistan; in particular, the female madrasa 'Jamia Hafza' in Islamabad, which staged an armed resistance against the state in 2007 to defend the role of Shariah law in contemporary society.
The three-year fellowships, which have a total funding of £5.5 million, are part of the Research Council's Global Uncertainties Programme. The programme, which involves all seven UK Research Councils, aims to understand how ideas and beliefs interact with five global phenomena - conflict, crime, environmental degradation, poverty and terrorism - to cause global uncertainties. Fourteen new fellowships will form the Research Council's Global Uncertainties programme.
The new fellowship will allow Dr Bano, from Oxford's Department of International Development, to look at why female madrasas are gaining ground, teaching conservative religious values and orthodox conceptions of women's roles, at a time when the state and development agencies have been making concerted efforts to advance liberal ideas on gender roles.
The project will consist of three major studies starting with ethnographic research in 25 leading female madrasas across the four provinces of Pakistan. Dr Bano will document the socio-economic profiles of the students; their motives for enrolment; and explore the idealised conceptions of womanhood and why they are promoted through a madrasa education.
The second study will examine 'Jamia Hafza', the female madrasa attached to the Red Mosque in Islamabad, where 100 students died defending Shariah law during an armed struggle with the state. Female students who played an active role in the resistance, and the parents of those students who died, will be traced and interviewed about their perceptions of the resistance and the impact on their own religious conviction. A central part of the research is to look at whether the use of military force as a strategy acts as a militancy check or whether it further radicalises believers.
The third study will focus on those involved in military operations that are aimed at combating religious militancy. Officials of the military brigade that carried out the Red Mosque operation will be interviewed about their experience. They were targeted in suicide attacks that caused over 30 deaths after the operation. In addition, interviews will take place with officials from the Pakistani Armed Forces who resigned or faced being court-martialled after refusing to take part in anti-Taliban operations.
Dr Bano said: 'The female madrasas provide a lens to study the uncertain interface between traditional values and beliefs, and global influences that often results in further radicalisation of the traditional beliefs. Being focused on Pakistan, a nuclear armed country at the centre of global concerns about Islamic militancy, should mean that these research findings have major policy significance.'
For more information or to arrange an interview with Dr Masooda Bano, please contact the University of Oxford Press Office on +44 (0) 1865 280534 or press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk