From Pakistan with Love: Islam, Intimacy and Transnational Marriages

The majority of marriages in Pakistan and amongst British Pakistanis are arranged, including a high proportion of between 38 to 49 percent with first cousins. These figures tend to support the popular assumption that Muslim marriage structures, and Muslim life more broadly, leave little room for personal choice and agency. This project will problematise such popular beliefs through a focus on individual desires and motivations in marriages. In particular, the research will shed new light on the ways in which recent transformations in urban Pakistan, such as religious change and the rise of a private media industry, have affected marriage expectations and ideas on romantic love and intimacy. Linked to these debates, the project is also concerned with the impact of such changes on transnational cousin marriages between Pakistanis and British Pakistanis. In sum, this project will break new intellectual ground by unravelling the linkages between intimate desires, personal agency and contemporary Islamic discourses.

In urban Pakistan, as in other parts of the Muslim world, there is a growing presence of a form of religiosity that emphasises the personal study of the Quran and other Islamic texts. Increasingly, young urban Pakistanis believe that they can acquire and cultivate Islamic ethics in their everyday life by understanding the meaning of Quranic verses and listening to the sermons of religious scholars. This phenomenon may appear as inhibitive of personal freedoms but, in fact, has opened spaces for individual agency. A growing number of men and women use their piety and knowledge of the Quran and Islamic laws to challenge conventional marriage norms and practices. For example, according to my research, sons and daughters argue that they have a right to contest an arranged marriage to a cousin if they felt that he/she was not equally pious and suitable. Similarly, while divorce is typically considered as taboo, pious women increasingly consider that under Islamic law it is their right to divorce if expectations for a happy marital life are not met. These transformations raises questions about the forms of intimacy that exist in spaces opened by Islamic discourses and how such modes of thinking differ from secular discourses on marriage and desire.

At the same time, this project considers other influences that exist alongside Islamic discourses. Here, it concentrates on the avid consumption in urban Pakistan of romantic television dramas, Bollywood films, and (dubbed) Turkish soap operas. I am interested in analysing the discourses of romantic love and intimacy in these productions, and the ways in which they influence individual aspirations and desires, and inform marriage expectations. The analysis will draw attention to the ways in which these discourses co-exist, or cause tensions with, religious ideas. The aim of this approach is to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the various forms and sources of information that inform individual motivations and marriage expectations. Finally, the project will consider the implications of changes in marriage expectations on transnational cousin marriages between Pakistanis and British Pakistanis. An estimated 48% of British Pakistani men and 57% of British Pakistani women are married to Pakistani nationals. Thus, changes in expectations in Pakistan have important implications for the emerging trends in transnational marriages in Britain.

The project will require long term ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation and semi-structured interviews, in Pakistani cities; and textual analysis of sermons, religious texts, and drama and film scripts. In addition, it will entail collaborative comparative work with leading experts on British Pakistani transnational marriages in Britain.

The project will benefit a number of stakeholders in both the UK and Pakistan. This section explains who these actors are and how they will benefit from my research.

In the UK, the following users will be targeted:
- National-level policymakers: agencies focused on marriage-related migration, specifically, the Migration Advisory Committee, and the Forced Marriage Unit, both within the Home Office.
- Third sector groups: voluntary actors in the British Pakistani community, such as the British Pakistan Foundation; civil society organisations concerned with gender equality, such as Pathways of Women's Empowerment; public health-related initiatives related to genetic diseases in children of consanguineous marriages, such as the Born in Bradford Project; and the Southall Black Sisters, a collective concerned with domestic abuse.
- Media outlets that give coverage to Pakistan, including The Guardian.
- Interested members of the general public.

In Pakistan, the following actors will be targeted:
- Third sector groups: feminist civil society actors such Shirkat Gah and Simorgh.
- Media outlets that are interested in social change, such as The Express Tribune.
- Interested members of the general public.

These identified stakeholders will benefit from the research in the following ways:

In the UK, as mentioned elsewhere, there are extensive networks of connections between Pakistanis and British Pakistanis, many of which are maintained through transnational cousin marriages. The majority of marriage migrants in Britain come from South Asia and, within this category, from Pakistan. According to the Migration Advisory Committee, spouses constitute the single largest category of migrant settlement in the UK, but marriage-related migration is an under-researched topic. Policymakers and migration expert groups will benefit from understanding the reasons for 'homeland' marriages and the motivations in Pakistan for marrying cousins abroad. Such knowledge will help inform a more nuanced and socially valuable understanding of marriage-related migration, the results of which could inform how policies are formulated. Research findings on the changing motivations in cousin marriages can also guide public health-related initiatives responding to the high rates of infant mortality and morbidity in areas with high concentrations of British Pakistanis. Government agencies and civil society groups working on forced marriages and domestic abuse in ethnic minority communities will find my focus on marriage ideals very helpful for acquiring cultural sensitivity that could, in turn, aid policies and outreach activities. The research can also assist in refining policies and defining research for third-sector groups focusing on gender empowerment. Finally, the wider purpose of the project - to see Pakistan through an alternative lens which is not fixated on security questions - will attract media and public actors who desire to better understand this critical, but often misunderstood, country.

In Pakistan, feminist civil society groups will be concerned with the relationship between Islam and marriage expectations. As detailed in the Case for Support and in Pathways to Impact, my research runs in parallel with the broader agendas of such organisations, which includes understanding the changes in individual expectations in marriages, prevailing attitudes towards companionship, and the influence of Islam. My research in this area will help refine their agendas and the knowledge of such linkages will aid their staff in campaigns. Media outlets, including The Express Tribune and its associated blog, have printed several reports on the changing trends in marriage and divorce rates, and will be keen to publish stories on connected topics of romance and intimacy. Details on co-production of knowledge with these stakeholders and the ways in which this research will be disseminated to relevant users are outlined in the Pathways to Impact.