Propuestas para Superar las Dificultades.

The Iranian revolution has had a major impact, directly and indirectly, on the presence of Islam in the Pakistani public sphere. Indirectly, it has con- tributed to the flourishing of various Sunni Muslim institutions and move- ments, including some radical ones. Both local and foreign sponsors, espe- cially from the Arabian peninsula, who have wished to counter the revolu- tionary messages coming from Iran, have resorted to supporting the radical strain in Sunni Islam. But more directly, the revolution has galvanised the Pakistani Shiªi communities, as it did Shiªi communities all over the world, setting in motion a strong movement of religious intensification and purifi- cation, and creating or strengthening transnational networks that con- nected Pakistani Shiªis with their co-religionaries in Iran and elsewhere. This paper deals with one particular aspect of the resurgence of Pakistani Shiªism, the emergence of women’s madrasas and the movement of some of the best graduates of these madrasas to Qom in Iran for advanced studies.1

Shiªism, in its various forms, has had a long presence in the regions that make up present-day Pakistan. Currently, Shiªis are believed to constitute 15 to 20 per cent of the population.2 _{Most of them are Twelver (ithnaªashari)}

Shiªis, but there is also a certain presence of Ismaªilis, especially in Karachi and in the northern territories. According to local tradition, Shiªism here goes back to the first centuries of Islam, when members of the Ahl-i Bait, the Prophet’s family, fled eastward from Sunni persecution and found a safe

haven on the banks of the Indus. The genealogies of the Pakistani sayyids (descendants of the Prophet) trace their family origins all the way back to the seventh century and believe their ancestors settled here soon after Hu- sain’s martyrdom at Karbala and the persecution of his descendants. Most sayyidsin Pakistan are Shiªis.

However, the majority of Pakistani Shiªis are the descendants of Hindus who were converted to Islam by Ismaªili missionaries (daªi), whose presence in the region can be attested from the tenth century onwards.3_{The state of}

Multan in fact even adopted Ismaªilism as the state religion for a brief pe- riod in the tenth century, under an independent dynasty allied with the Qarmatis, until its conquest and incorporation into the Sunni Ghaznavid empire under Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna in 1010.4_{Another wave of conver-}

sions, this time to Twelver (ithnaªashari) Shiªism, took place in the Safavid pe- riod (1505-1722). Ismaªili shrines in the Panjab and the present Northwest Frontier Province were taken over by Twelver Shiªa. Conversions to Shiªism did not come to an end after the Safavid period but have continued to our day. A number of well-known Shiªi ulama and preachers today are converts from Sunni Islam.

The Shiªi population is highly fragmented and heterogeneous, divided into numerous ethnic, linguistic and social communities, with rituals and practices showing great variety from region to region and even from one city to another. The mourning rituals (ªazadari) are particularly rich and complex, with apparent adaptations of Hindu rituals, but quite different from the more austere rituals observed in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran.5

In terms of gender relations, Shiªism has often been considered as more liberal than Sunni Islam on the Indian subcontinent, and as offering a more important role for women in social life. Shiªi women have access to reli- gious public spaces whereas. apart from visits to the shrines, Sunni women are not permitted to participate in public religious activities. Moreover, Shiªi religious law favours women more than does the Hanafimazhab, especially in matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance.

Juan Cole has shown that women in urban circles in the Shiªi principal- ity of Awadh (1722-1856) enjoyed a high degree of independence vis-à-vis men, which, together with the practice of gender segregation, “contributed to the development of a specifically feminine Shi’ite religious discourse that was … more syncretic and innovative than the scripturalism of literate males.”6_{Cole adds that these women believed in astrology and were much}

influenced by Hindu rituals. All this contributed to the elaboration of a dis- tinct female Shiªi culture that is still very much alive among thesayyidfam- ilies that settled in Multan, Lahore and Karachi as refugees (muhajir) after the Partition of British India.

One remarkable aspect of this relatively independent position of women combined with strict gender separation in Shiªi communities is the exis- tence of a class of female informal religious experts. Many daughters of es- pecially the poorersayyid families remained unmarried, because they were not allowed to marry commoners and their families could not afford the high dowries demanded by the more well-offsayyid families.7_{These women}

were then trained as religious teachers and preachers. They would teach the Qur’an to the daughters of the aristocracy and during the month of Muhar- ram they would lead women’s gatherings (majlis) and recite the mournful stories of the martyrdom of Husain and the suffering of the other imams. The female religious experts constituted a widespread network of learning, independent of the male ulama networks.

In contemporary Pakistan, such celibatesayyidasare not the only class of educated women among the Shiªa, however. The Pakistani Shiªa, and espe- cially the Urdu-speaking Muhajirs among them, have long given more im- portance to girls’ education than the Sunnis. Before the 1980s, this con- cerned mainly secular education. Due to their relatively high educational achievements, Shiªi women were over-represented in the media (on televi- sion and in the English-language press) as well as in the professions (lawyers, doctors, academics) and in literature and the arts.

The Iranian revolution and its apparently empowering effect on women’s social roles had a pervasive effect on the self-perception and ideals of south Asian Shiªi women, who took Iranian women as their role models. It was especially in the field of religious education and in the increased vis- ibility of women in the religious space that the Iranian influence made itself felt. A number of girls’ madrasas were established, initially with financial support from Iran. (It was especially during Khatami’s presidency that the export of revolution gave way to the support of educational institutions as an instrument of foreign policy.)

Consequently, the number of women seeking a religious education or taking courses in such a madrasa while continuing their secular studies has increased tremendously. Moreover, since the mid-1980s, a growing number

of Pakistani women have been going to Iran for advanced studies in the seminaries of Qom.

The remainder of this chapter discusses three of these new women’s madrasas in Pakistan and the seminary for foreign female students in Qom, the Jamiªat al-Zahra, where some of the best graduates of these madrasas have gone to continue their studies. These madrasas are located in very dif- ferent geographical and social settings, were established for different rea- sons, and serve different constituencies. One is an urban elite institution in Lahore, that is highly ‘Persianised;’ another is a school in a Shiªa village with a largelysayyidpopulation; and the third, with which I begin, is located in an isolated rural district, where Shiªism is deeply anchored in local tradi- tion and culture.

The Jamic_{at Khadijat al-Kubra}

One of Pakistan’s largest madrasas for girls is the Jamiªat Khadijat al-Kubra in Pakki Shah Mardan, a remote Shiªa village about 40 kilometres from Mi- anwali, in a socially conservative area where the female literacy rate is par- ticularly low. The founder of this madrasa is Sayyid Iftikhar Hussain Naqvi, a Shiªi ªalimwho was born in 1951 in the Multan district. Upon his return from studying in Iraq in the 1970s, Naqvi became a close associate of Allama Arif Hussain al-Hussaini, the most prominent leader of the reformist group among Pakistani Shiªi clerics, and he became actively involved in politics.8

His first venture into education was his founding of the Madrasa Imam Khomeini for boys in Marri Indus, near Mianwali, in 1982. The Jamiªat Khadijat al-Kubra began its activities in 1993 in a small house next to the boys’ madrasa. Land was later acquired in Pakki Shah Mardan, where the madrasa was inaugurated in September 1996. In the first year, 40 girls re- ceived admission; currently the number of students is close to 200, and the school has some 60 full-time and part-time teachers, of whom 20 are men.9

At the time of my last visit, in December 2004, a new dormitory was under construction, indicating that expansion was continuing. The madrasa at- tracts students from far afield, but the complex includes two institutions catering to the needs of the local community: a training centre where local girls are taught practical skills such as sewing, embroidery but also com- puter skills, and a dispensary. The current director of the madrasa is

Iftikhar Naqvi’s daughter, Wajiha Naqvi, one of the early Pakistani gradu- ates from the Jamiªat al-Zahra in Qom.

Some of the students belong to clerical (ruhani) families, and could be said to be stepping into a known though previously male domain. They are a minority, however. The other girls have chosen to study in a madrasa be- cause of their personal interest in religion, or because they perceived these studies as a way to advance socially. Quite a few students are from the northern areas (Gilgit, Baltistan), although this region has many madrasas supported by Iran. I also met a number of British Pakistani girls, who had enrolled in the madrasa both in order to receive a religious education and to get better acquainted with their own culture.

The madrasa offers four types of courses, each designed for a different audience. The curriculum follows the prescribed curriculum for Pakistani Shiªi madrasas elaborated by the Wifaq al-Madaris al-Shiªa (Union of Shiªi madrasas), the body in charge of religious studies that organises exams and issues degrees.10_{The courses are taught in Urdu, and many of the prescribed}

books are translations from Persian textbooks, published in Lahore in co-op- eration with Iranian publishers.

The first course,fahm-i din, which lasts three months, is a basic course in- tended especially for girls studying in government schools or living abroad. It consists of a basic knowledge of Islam: ªaqa’id (the articles of faith) and akhlaq (morality); the girls are taught how to read the Qur’an and theSirat Fatima (the life of the Prophet’s daughter Fatima – the ultimate role model for Shiªi women); they learn the correct form of the rituals and memorise numerous invocations (salawat) to be recited daily.

Wajiha Naqvi explained the objectives of this course, which are that the basic knowledge imparted should enable the girls to develop their personal- ities and give spirituality a proper place in their lives. It should offer girls a better understanding of Shiªism and also correct the negative image of madrasas in Pakistani society. Students are formally required to pass a ma- triculation exam, which means having successfully completed ten years of general education, before they can apply for admission. In exceptional cases, girls who have only completed intermediate level (8th_{grade) or even}

primary level (5th_{grade) of education, can be admitted if they have the re-}

quired intellectual capacities and motivation and the courses are then ap- propriately adapted to their levels of education.

Wajiha Naqvi argues that there are good reasons for offering this type of basic religious education in a school context instead of, as was common in the past, at home. The family, she claims, is not the best environment for providing even this basic level of discipline; a more structured learning en- vironment is needed. With more systematic methods of discipline, even those girls who do not continue their educations after this basic course will contribute to spreading the faith as ‘silent preachers’: by daily performing the prayers and wearing thehijab, they become role models for children and draw them towards Islam.

During the ten years that this course has been offered, about 500 girls have followed it. The madrasa attempts to stay in touch with the former students and has thus gradually built up a network of pious, committed young women.

The second course, which lasts a full year trains girls to bemuballigha(fe- male preachers) andzakira(the ritual experts who lead themajalis, the gath- erings where the suffering and martyrdom of the imams is commemo- rated). The teaching focuses on memorisation and the practical aspects of the majlis. Students memorise Qur’anic verses together with their Urdu translation, they learn about the life of the Prophet and of the imams, and they receive basic notions of Arabic (in order to pronounce the Qur’anic verses correctly), tafsir (exegesis) and fiqh (jurisprudence). They memorise the songs of mourning, laments and elegies (marsiyas, nohas, and qasidas) that are sung during themajalis. The courses focus on the performing tech- nique whereby the students view videocassettes of famous (male)zakirs and waªiz(preachers),11_{and they learn how to write sermons in Urdu and in Sir-}

aiki (the local language) for various types of audiences. They also acquire the technique of reciting the faza’il (meritorious qualities) of the imams and masa’ib (misfortunes) of the Ahl-i Bait. A good zakira must have a strong voice, and she must be able to arouse emotions among the participants and make them cry.

The madrasa aims to produce a new type ofzakira, different from the tra- ditionalzakiras, who lacked a formal religious education and learned their skills from their mothers or older, more experiencedzakiras. The traditional religious ideas mediated by the old-stylezakiras often bordered on the het- erodox. The training of better qualified (and more orthodox)zakiras contin- ues an earlier movement of reform of themajalis(islah al-majalis) and the ra- tionalisation of ritual that was launched in as early as the mid-1960s by

Maulana Mohammad Hussain Dhakku. Dhakku’s initiative at that time pro- voked hostile reactions from the more traditional elements, who called him a ‘Wahhabi’ intent on destroying religion. The revolution in Iran, however, gave a strong boost to the reformist effort to purify belief. As a part of their training, students are required to do textual research in preparation of their having to recount one of the episodes of the imams’ lives. Their teach- ers have them compare the written texts with the popular oral versions told by traditionalzakiras and denounce the latter as erroneous and heterodox.

Wajiha Naqvi says that she considers the majalis an excellent occasion for tabligh(predication), but that these are unfortunately mostly organised and led by men. Women do attend themajalis, but they usually return home after listening to the faza’il and masa’ib, without acquiring any religious knowledge. Therefore, educated women have had to take charge and organ- ise separate women’s majalisas a vehicle for the transmission of religious knowledge that is both accessible to rural women and adapted to their spe- cific needs.12

In rural areas, where women are not highly educated and often illiterate, the graduates of this one-year course can make a significant impact on soci- ety because of their access to the women.Muballighas travel from village to village especially during the months of Ramadan and Muharram, delivering pious homilies, teaching the Qur’an, and leading invocations.

This second course has so far been completed by 120 students, some of whom have opened schools in their own villages or neighbourhoods. They act as role models; many of the current students claim that they joined the madrasa because they were influenced by thesemuballighas. After complet- ing this course, the students who wish to do so have the right to take part, as external candidates, in the final exams of the secular higher secondary school.13

The third course, which lasts two years, is a proper madrasa curriculum that prepares the students for the degrees offazil-i Arabiandsultan al-afazil. The holders of the latter degree can obtain a statement that states that it is the equivalent of an M.A. in Arabic or Islamic Studies from the University of Panjab.14_{After they pass an examination that tests their didactic abilities at}

the Allama Iqbal Open University, they are also allowed to teach these sub- jects in government schools. During the past decade, 140 students have ob- tained the degree of sultan al-afazil, and many of them have in fact become teachers.

The course is traditional in content: it is based on thedars-i nizami, that has constituted the standard curriculum of south Asian madrasas since the mid-eighteenth century, along with some specifically Shiªi texts prescribed by the Shiªa madrasa board (Wifaq al-Madaris al-Shiªa).15_{The students must}

also acquire a solid, passive knowledge of Arabic, which is taught by a Lebanese woman married to a Pakistani cleric who lived in Syria for 17 years, studying at the Imam Khomeini madrasa in Damascus. Language classes are also traditional and consist of the memorisation ofnahw (mor- phology) and sarf (syntax) textbooks. Persian is also taught, using more modern textbooks published in Iran, but the students do not acquire more than a passive knowledge of this language either.

The fourth course, which lasts another two years, leads to theªalimade- gree. The program of study includes the methods oftabligh, or teaching and research with an emphasis on munazara(theological debate). This course is primarily for students who wish to continue on to more advanced studies in Iran. It prepares them for the entrance exam of the Jamiªat al-Zahra in Qom, where they will study for at least another two years. In the past decade, 38 graduates of this course have been admitted to the Qom; 22 of them have returned to Pakistan since completing their studies. Some of them are di- rectors of madrasas in Pakistan now; the majority have become well-known preachers, whosemajalisattract large crowds. They have experienced a defi- nite rise in social status and prestige due to their stay in Qom.

Rajoa Sadat

Rajoa Sadat is a Shiªi village in Punjab, situated close to the road linking Faisalabad to Chiniot, built around the shrine of a local Shiªi saint, Shah Daulat Bukhari. As the name of the village indicates (sadatbeing the Arabic plural of sayyid), the majority of the inhabitants are sayyids, and most of