Structural violence and the lives of Pakistani christians: A collaborative analysis

Abstract

The article uses the lens of structural violence to examine the lives of Pakistani Christians. Thirty-five Christians living in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi participated in a study that elicited life history narratives and dialogical interviews. These narratives yielded participants’ experiences of structural violence and their analyses of societal level processes that enabled these experiences. The collaborative analysis is discussed under three headings: the impact of the Blasphemy Laws, the ascription of impurity, and unequal citizenship. These findings have important implications for practice and future research. The results of the study, that is the accounts of structural violence generated by the participants, need to be made available to policy-makers, educators and other justice-oriented members of the dominant group so they can work towards attaining equity for Christians. In terms of further research the study points to the imperative of investigating in depth the various domains of structural violence such as education, sexual harassment, job experiences, and religious expression.

Keywords

• Pakistani Christians, structural violence, life histories