Globalization and Changing Family Relations: Family Violence and Women’s Resistance in Asian Muslim Societies

Abstract

There is a growing body of research on family relationships and the nature of family violence in Muslim-majority countries of Asia. However, patterns and trends around family dynamics and violence do not remain static. Despite the diversity of South Asian societies, all are being influenced by a constellation of globalized social, economic, political and religious forces that manifest in unique ways in different contexts. To date, there is little written about the implications for women’s rights and gendered violence when globalization remolds religious, cultural, geographic and other social realities. This critical review presents a review of feminist literature on gender, family and violence in Asian Muslim-majority countries – notably Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh – from a feminist globalization theoretical perspective. The article uses the Maldives as a case study to map how globalized socio-economic and political trends are changing the terrain of family and society in ways that both advance and retract women’s rights and contribute to their increased risk of violence. This paper advances the literature on feminist perspectives on family relationships by demonstrating the importance of considering localized problems within a global sphere. This approach will allow researchers to systematically assess the influence of global processes on changing family relations and implications for family structures. The paper concludes with applications for feminist approaches to globalization, gender and violence. In particular, an increased focus on global processes and the shifting dynamics of family relationships will better inform global feminist activism, and feminist activism in Asian Islamic communities.