on. During the Iranian Revolution of 1978–9,
female activists discussed the issues at stake, spread
information about developments, and attempted
to persuade others toward their own viewpoints.
Although most Afghan women are more secluded
than their more economically advantaged, modern-
ized Iranian counterparts, some Afghan women
worked to promote female education, resisted the
Taliban’s rigidly discriminatory treatment of women,
and tried to provide support for each other in loss
and suffering, both inside Afghanistan and as re-
fugees outside the county. Pakistani Muslim women
host gender-segregated religious rituals, participate
in party politics, especially in attracting the female
vote, and organize and mobilize for sectarian com-
petition, as do Muslim women in India.
In the smaller, more localized communities of
years past, women greatly enjoyed opportunities to
talk with other women and appreciated the sense of
support and community built through frequent and
relatively spontaneous interaction with women.
They developed much of their sense of well-being,
identity, and self-worth through their verbal ex-
changes. Women did most of the work of spreading
news. The fact that everyone seemed to know
everyone else’s business carried many advantages.
Learning that someone was ill or had suffered the
death of a loved one, or was looking for a spouse
for a child, other women could go to visit and
extend sympathy and advice. However, some
women mention the freedom from being the object
of close observation and extensive discussion as
one of the advantages of moving from village to a
somewhat more impersonal urban setting. With
women’s education, migration, and moderniza-
tion, women are no longer as available for regular
intensive verbal exchange. As women gain many
other interests and spheres of activity, their
thoughts and discussions are no longer limited to
other people in their immediate circles and their
behavior. With modernization and globalization,
over the last few decades communities, family
groups, and social networks have been growing
looser, particularly in oil-rich Iran. As economic
and political relations become more regularized
and institutionalized, women’s “gossip” becomes
less crucial for these spheres. In Afghanistan, par-
ticularly among the majority ethic group, the
Pushtun or Pukhtun, women were secluded in their
own courtyard or kin group. They focused their
verbal activity on their own or their children’s
interests within the family. Because of the war with
the Soviet Union and subsequent fighting among
Afghan factions, many Afghans became refugees.
Often living in Pakistan and concerned about their
iran, afghanistan, and south asia 213women surrounded by strangers, Afghani men se-
cluded their womenfolk and thereby restricted their
verbal exchanges all the more severely. In Pakistan
and India, some Muslim females have been able to
gain an education and then work outside the home,
but the majority become stay-at-home wives and
mothers upon marriage. Many Pakistani and Indian
Muslims are socially conservative. These women
may be limited in their access to verbal interactions
beyond their own family, kin, neighborhood, and
religious groups and networks and thus look posi-
tively on opportunities for verbal exchanges as enter-
tainment and emotional support. Given the sectarian
conflict and violence, in Pakistan between Sunnì
and Shì≠ìMuslims and in India between Hindus and
Muslims, women’s verbal work of persuading,
building networks, creating unity, mobilizing, and
disseminating information continues to promote
the interests of their religious groups. In all of these
countries, even if in a tiny minority, some women
have been using their verbal skills to work with
other women and speak out to try to improve con-
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