Doing Gender, Agency and Deviance: A Case Study of Women
Smugglers in Peshawar

Tasleem Malik1, Faiz Ali2

Abstract
Women are now seen more in spaces traditionally ascribed for men. There
is similar trend in the domain of crime economy. This study problematizes the
feminist understanding of women agency in such male dominated spaces, agreeing
with Spivak‟s argument that agency of the subaltern/marginalized women is not
complete rather is informed by patriarchal structures of the society. It also
problematizes conservative notion of „doing gender‟, while the study observes that
„smuggler‟ women are performing gender untraditionally in male spaces by
feeding their families in the absence of their men. This ethnographic study takes
up the case of women engaged in transportation of non-duty paid goods of
everyday consumption in Peshawar and undertakes the examination of agency,
deviance and patriarchal order in situated, complex, interactional networks
constructing identity and subjectivity of difference.

Keywords: Doing Gender, Narcotics, women smugglers, ethnographic