Voices of Change
Women’s Influence in Northwest Pakistan
- Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Published: 2026
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Publisher's Description
Voices of Change explores the influence exercised by forty-eight ordinary yet extraordinary Muslim and non-Muslim women as they study and work in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), northwest Pakistan. At the end of the twentieth century there were few women in KP’s public spaces. Today, there are many women in these same spaces. Individually and collectively, they are reshaping societal practices throughout the province. Not least, in KP’s conservative, patriarchal society, they have persuaded the heads of households to allow them to work alongside men, overturning entrenched societal norms. These ordinary women are influencing as those who hold authority although only a few are organizational leaders. Yet, influence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is culturally male, and there is a dissonance to female influence that all women have to overcome. They have to tackle stereotypical attitudes regarding female morality and trustworthiness and deal with obstructionism on multiple levels. The forty-eight Muslim and non-Muslim women in Voices of Change are also representative of the many who are redefining female honor as well as female influence in KP. In women’s hands, influence is a tool and a strategy that is reshaping cultural codes and quietly changing the public sphere for future generations.
Endorsements (5)
“Susan B. Smith offers a compelling study of women’s leadership and influence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, engaging participants from diverse social and religious backgrounds. Notably, she has not positioned these practices against Western models, instead situating Pakistani women’s influence on its own terms. Influence in the Global South does not necessarily mirror Western paradigms; rather, the women Smith discusses employ the very strategies such as honor and hard work often used to constrain them, to reclaim agency and exert leadership and influence. A must read!”
“This book is a groundbreaking exploration of the exercise of influence and leadership among a cohort often ignored in Western scholarship—women in a religiously conservative, patriarchal society. Smith explores beyond women from the majority Muslim population who exercise influence by including women from minority groups. Smith pays careful attention to the role the cultural context plays. Anyone interested in leadership, Islamic, cultural, or women’s studies will find Smith’s careful research illuminating.”
“Having herself worked as an executive director in Pakistan, Dr. Susan Smith is ideally qualified to write about influence exercised by working women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Comparative sociological studies, a series of interviews, and some well-placed metaphors come together in a scholarly approach that is also very human, engaging with respondents’ realities, hopes, and frustrations. These women are shaping their world, as they interact with male colleagues and pass on new opportunities to their daughters and sons.”
“Having known Susan Smith (and her husband Geoffrey) for over twenty years, there is a sense that the research in this book, and the careful description of the people and situations represented are a positive reflection of Susan herself. That is, how she understands and is able to document what makes her local friends, colleagues, and acquaintances so significant, and through that process, to encourage these women while pointing outsiders to the transformation she has observed over many years.”
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