Empowerment beyond resistance: Cultural ways of negotiating power relations

•Empowerment as a series of negotiations and constant struggles•Positionality in the field and its impact on the research process•Understanding empowerment in the light of relevant literature•Background of the study and the methods used to collect data•Implications & conclusions

SynopsisThis paper explores Muslim women's experiences of empowerment in northern Pakistan by drawing upon the life history of a woman informant named Dana. It also outlines some of the methodological concerns related with researching empowerment in a situation where the researchers and the researched share common context. The paper re-conceptualizes the utility of empowerment by unveiling it as an intricate process, which involves the negotiation of roles, responsibilities and values by individuals. The findings evidence that empowerment is not always exhibiting absolute power over others or open defiance against standard norms; neither is it resistance against coercion at all times. Instead it is also about strategically acting in a way that makes women feel more secure within particular circumstances. Importantly, since the process of being empowered involves constant personal labor, pain of being denied respect and dignity it is not as glorious as depicted in the dominant development discourse.