Decolonizing Empowerment;Indigenous Voices and Cultural Realities in Women’s Agency

Decolonizing Empowerment: Indigenous Voices and Cultural Realities in Women's Agency challenges dominant Western-centric notions of empowerment that often focus narrowly on individual autonomy, economic independence, and legal rights, overlooking the rich cultural realities of women's lives. By centering indigenous voices, this book addresses a critical gap in scholarship and invites readers to rethink what empowerment truly means within social, cultural, and spiritual contexts. Focusing on indigenous and marginalized women, primarily in Punjab, Pakistan, the book explores how agency, resilience, and empowerment are experienced through family, community, cultural traditions, and indigenous knowledge systems. Through fifty-six in-depth narrative inquiries, it reveals how women exercise influence and strength in ways that prioritize collective wellbeing, intergenerational solidarity, and environmental responsibility—beyond individual success or material gain. Employing participatory, qualitative methods, including narrative inquiry, ethnography, and a robust mixed-methods design, the research captures women's stories authentically, ensuring that their perspectives and cultural realities shape the analysis. This volume reframes empowerment as relational, multidimensional, and culturally grounded. It highlights women's strategies of resistance, leadership, and community stewardship, offering a holistic framework that bridges global feminist and development discourses with local lived realities. Essential for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners in gender studies, development, and cultural studies, Decolonizing Empowerment demonstrates that true empowerment emerges from within—rooted in culture, dignity, and shared humanity—and offers a transformative vision for inclusive, context-sensitive social change.