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    Sonic modernities: capitalism, noise, and the city essay film
    (Taylor and Francis, 2023-03-07) Rascaroli, Laura
    Oculocentric perspectives are often dominant in descriptions of the city essay film. Whether flâneurial, observational, lyrical or visionary, the gaze is often placed at the centre of the filmic perception of the city, which is itself conceived of as a sight, image, or palimpsest. In this article, I reflect on the centrality of noise to modernity, and of capitalism to urban sound. In doing so, I pursue a dual goal: to foreground a sound-based understanding of the city through the essay film; and to ask how sound can help us understand the city essay film as a critique at once of the metropolis’ entanglement with capitalism and of the cinema’s historical contribution to the creation of the city as spectacle. A workable definition of the city essay film as an object of theory is attained via an engagement with urban and sound studies, and the discussion of sound design and sound discourse in Many Undulating Things (2019), a geopolitical essay by Bo Wang and Pan Lu about Hong Kong.
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    Feminist perspectives on physical and sexual violence against women: Pakistan as a case study
    (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Instituto Estudios de Géneros, 2017) Imran, Rahat
    Extreme forms of physical and sexual violence perpetrated by men against women, such as honour killings, acid attacks and rape, continue to spread throughout Pakistani society, apart from resistance across the country by women's rights groups and civil society activists. that they continue to pressure successive governments to confront the threat and introduce strict laws in the field of criminal justice to end the situation. As this threat continues to advance, it is pertinent to examine the male mindset that causes these acts of violence to be committed. This work presents a feminist perspective of these male attitudes and mindsets that instigate men's physical and sexual violence against women. In summary, this study deals with the various activist organizations and their measures that have been instrumental in the fight against violence against women in Pakistan, and the need for strict measures to end threats and to be included as part of the gender-biased legal system.
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    Film Review: Stealing a Nation
    (International Association of Genocide Scholars, 2017-10) Imran, Rahat
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    Legal injustices: The Zina Hudood Ordinance of Pakistan and its implications for women
    (Journal of International Women's Studies, 2005) Imran, Rahat
    During recent decades the women of Pakistan have been the most vulnerable and convenient targets of social, domestic and sexual violence. This paper will examine the trend of sexual violence against women that emerged in Pakistan with the introduction of the Islamization process through the implementation of the Sharia laws since1979. The paperâ s main focus will be on rape and the state legislation that governs it, namely the Zina Hudood Ordinance of 1979 and the Law of Evidence of 1984, and how the gender-discriminatory nature of these laws serves as a powerful weapon in the hands of the patriarchal society of Pakistan to subjugate women. These laws and their rigid interpretation in the name of Islam have not only facilitated oppression and sexual violence against women to an alarming degree in Pakistan, but also seriously eroded womenâ s chances of equal justice. The factors that led to the implementation and survival of such laws in the first place, and consequently how rape became a daunting weapon against women, will be discussed. The paper will analyze the various political, social, cultural and religious factors that contribute to this situation, and the legal and social complexities involved for women in seeking justice in rape cases. In conclusion, the paper will discuss Pakistani womenâ s initiative in evolving and building an organized resistance and struggle for the repeal of gender discriminatory laws.
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    Deconstructing Islamization in Pakistan: Sabiha Sumar wages feminist cinematic jihad through a documentary lens
    (Journal of International Women's Studies, 2008) Imran, Rahat
    Over half a billion Muslim women live in vastly different lands, cultures, societies, economies, and political systems. Yet, as Iranian scholar Mahnaz Afkhami points out, Muslim women’s oppressions are similar due to gender-discrimination under Islamic Sharia laws and patriarchal doctrines that are exercised in the name of religion and culture. Pakistan has been a prime example of how religious fundamentalism and politicization of religion can transform a secular society into one held hostage by Islamic extremist doctrines and gender-specific laws. It is a cause for hope and celebration then that its progressive and secular elements, particularly educated, urban women, have continued to wage a struggle against discriminatory socio-political and religious practices through various artistic, political, and activist channels-thereby posing a continuing opposition and challenge to religious fundamentalists that use women as the prime targets for the imposition of their Islamic ideologies and identity. More recently, Pakistani independent women filmmakers have also joined the ranks of this oppositional force, thereby appropriating their right to wage a feminist jihad (struggle). In initiating an anti-fundamentalist cinema category, their cinematic contributions deserve to be recognized as part of a larger feminist agenda against gender discrimination and patriarchal domination.