A Critical Ethnographic of Ziddi Feminist Socio-Spatial Practices in a Modern-Mohalla of Islamabad

Abstract

This research conceptualizes the “Modern Mohalla” in a post-independence Pakistan to explore the interrelatedness of feminist ‘Mohalla-Making practices’ and formal urban planning in Islamabad’s G-9/2 Government Housing Quarters. The study investigates the lived experiences of subaltern women through a critical ethnographic methodology, including interviews and visual translations of spatial practices. The research addresses the systemic exclusion of women from the design process of Islamabad and the Government Housing quarters, feminist spatial discourse, and archival data about feminist lived experiences. By engaging with Doxiadis’ theory of Ekistics, the study further interrogates its potential alignment with feminist Mohalla-making practices. Ultimately, the research aims to develop a historiographical feminist dialogue that highlights unacknowledged female communal networks within a socially stratified and patriarchal urban context.