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Pakistan, being a developing country, still has a long way to go to see progress in the field of research managers and administrators (RMAs). This chapter briefly explains the profession’s ecosystem in the country, its evolution, available data, and the future of the field. The type and quantum of extramural research happening in Pakistan are quite significant in terms of the number of grants as well as the total annual funding. Despite this progress, the growth of research management and administration as a profession is slow-paced because of the lack of recognition of RMAs as a profession, complemented by the dearth of schools that teach this formally in the country. The future, however, sounds promising as more and more people are gradually undertaking this dynamic field and working formally to acquire the knowledge and skills to become better research management and administration professionals.

In this introduction to the special issue, ‘Marxist Thought in South Asia’, we detail the long history of Marxist politics and theorizing in South Asia and highlight the unique contributions and perspectives of South Asian Marxists to global Marxism. Three contributions we find particularly significant are (1) South Asian Marxists' approach to thinking about questions of capitalism, colonialism and imperialism, (2) the treatment of agrarian and feudal continuities in Marxist theories from South Asia and (3) unique South Asian contributions to theorizing caste from a Marxist perspective.

Pakistan had never been a place of serious and nuanced debate and contestation of politics of postcolonial critique, that is, the continuity of economic, political, and cultural dependency of newly independent countries (NICs) on ex-colonizers as pointed out by neocolonialism, dependency theory, and postcolonial theory, respectively. Instead, Pakistan is presented by extant liberal academic literature as a “failed nation” and a state dominated by the military and plagued by religious extremism. As opposed to this, through the literary and activists writings of Aziz-ul-Haq, this chapter will try to illustrate how cultural contestation of the nation-building project postindependence from British rule was a lot more complex and interesting in Pakistan. This was so because the nation-building project of Pakistan was, on the one hand, an amalgamation of Indo-Persian, Arab, Indian, and Western colonial and civilizational influences and, on the other hand, entailed suppression of resilient local and national cultures of its constituent nationalities developed over centuries. This was later expressed in ethno-nationalist politics. However, when it came to the politics of the marginalized in the late 1960s, there were important political, theoretical, and literary insights which caused a change in the direction of political practice in Pakistan, which paralleled the politics expressed by writers like Fanon and early Subaltern Studies influenced by the Naxal Movement in India. The contestation and confusion arising from this dialectic also entered Pakistan's literary and cultural sphere. This chapter not only tries to give a different postcolonial critique of the failure of nation-building project in Pakistan but, though at a preliminary level, is an attempt to separate the original postcolonial theory in its radical tradition from contemporary postmodern/poststructuralist postcolonial theory marked with pessimism and resignation.

The question of civilian supremacy over managing state affairs has been revisiting Pakistan time and again; the case is the same these days. Assuming its strategic location at the crossroads of Middle East-Central South Asia, the country has a lot of potential not only to prosper and progress, but it can play a pivotal role in restoring peace and stability in the region.

Pakistan's civilian leadership has mostly supported the concept of peaceful coexistence with all neighboring countries, but the theory of animosity propagated by Pakistan's army with its neighbor, especially India, has kept the world's sixth most populous nation in a state of war ever since its inception. This chapter discuses the perpetual conflict between the civil-military approaches and how it is effecting regional peace.

The aim of my chapter is to draw on conceptualisations of sexism, racism, epistemology of white ignorance and critical race theorists’ critiques of white feminism to examine critical management studies (CMS) practices. The purpose of the chapter is to acknowledge the contribution of CMS feminists and look to how we can go beyond current practices to include antiracism in our feminisms. In particular, I show how sexism, racism and white ignorance are collectively produced in CMS and operate through mundane, and avoidable, organisational and pedagogical processes. I respond to the editors’ call for chapters by offering a practical politics through the idea of a killjoy manifesto, taking inspiration from the writings of Sara Ahmed. An important part of is that is for white feminism in CMS to attend to critiques from racially minoritised academics, activists and workers. Whilst challenging, I hope the chapter provides practical and theoretical resources and encouragement.

This chapter discusses the extension of legal equality between male and female citizens in four states in North Africa – Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria – through one specific lens: A married woman's legal capacity to initiate and obtain divorce without the husband's consent. Building on the works of Stein Rokkan and Reinhard Bendix on the expansion of citizenship to the ‘lower classes’, it is argued that amendments in divorce law by introducing in-court divorce for women, in addition to out-of-court divorce, is a significant institutional change that extends legal equality between men and women. The introduction of in-court divorce expands female citizenship by bolstering woman's juridical autonomy and capacity in state law. Changes in divorce laws are thus part of state centralization by means of standardizing rules that regulate family law through public administrative institutions rather than religious organizations. Two questions are addressed: First, how did amendments in divorce laws occur after independence? Second, in which ways did women's bolstered legal capacity in divorce have a spill over effect on reforms in other patriarchal state laws? Based on observations on sequences of change in four states in North Africa, it is argued that amendments that equalize between men and women in divorce should be seen as a key driver for reforms in other state laws, that reduce legal inequality between male and female citizens. In all four states, women's citizenship was extended in nationality law and criminal law after amendments in divorce law gave women unilateral legal power to exit a marital relationship.

For over 2000 years, Iran was dominated by different religions, and hence, religious texts constructed identity, status, and rights for women. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Islamists attacked “Iranian identity,” and tried to replace it with the “Islamic identity,” fearing that Iranians could undermine the legitimacy of their Islamic identity. The purpose of this discursive psychological research is to find out the level of faith development and religious identity among a sample of Iranian women. Due to the Iranian distinct politics and its young population, the Iranian women’s movement is one of the most important movements in the Muslim world. Findings of my inquiry indicate that a contradiction has been imposed on Iranian women since the revolution. Religious beliefs and practices based on Islamic laws and identities that are enforced by the government generate a traditional atmosphere in the society. Consequently, some Iranian women believe in inevitable destiny and admit that anything that happens is God’s will. They believe that an ideal woman must act according to the cultural and religious norms and traditions. Such women strongly internalize these values and have become a source of control and restriction over the activities of other women. On the other hand, many women attempts to become Westernized (modern) women, far from religious beliefs. This qualitative research provides us with rich detailed data and information about a sample of participants, so any generalizations made from the findings must be applied cautiously.