International Quarterly for Asian Studies
IQAS - International Quarterly for Asian Studies – has been Germany's leading academic journal on Asia since 1970. It provides a forum for multidisciplinary research on current and historical topics relevant to politics, economics and society in contemporary Asia. It seeks to make the results of social science research on Asia known to a broader public discourse about Asia. The contributions are intended for a public that is aware that the regions and cultures of the world have always been interlinked and, thus, need to be understood in relation to one another. The journal appears quarterly or semi-anunally as a double issue both in a print and an open access version. IQAS continues Internationales Asienforum.
Syed Irfan Ashraf: The Dark Side of News Fixing: The Culture and Political Economy of Global Media in Pakistan and Afghanistan
Copyright (c) 2025 Nasema Zeerak https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Sanaa Alimia: Refugee Cities: How Afghans Changed Urban Pakistan
Copyright (c) 2025 Shulagna Pal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Hassan Abbas: The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left
Copyright (c) 2025 Mujib Abid https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Knowledge Production in the Australian Afghan Diaspora – The Role of Women in Sustaining Afghan Identity
This paper documents the experiences of women from Afghanistan and the ways they cultivate identity and knowledge in a diasporic context. Sensemaking practices occur within a dismantled Afghan society ruptured by war, displacement and a Western environment marked by racialised multicultural dynamics. Women’s roles have been affected in acute ways, with cascading effects on the collective sense of Afghan nationhood, identity and belonging among Afghanistan’s diaspora. The women in this study hold diverse family histories and have lived through different but overlapping political periods, offering a continuum of memories that connect Afghanistan’s history to Australia’s contemporary social and political milieu. The narratives included here highlight the significant role women play as guardians of culture and heritage and show how, despite the many threats to the endurance of Afghan identity, this identity persists – retained and reinterpreted in diverse ways. Everyday cultural practices by women in the diasporic home act as an often overlooked form of knowledge production, informing and transforming memory, language and identity from Afghanistan.
Copyright (c) 2025 Zarlasht Sarwari https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Phoebe Zoe Maria U. Sanchez / Regletto Aldrich D. Imbong / Matthew Ming Tak Chew / Caroline M. Schöpf (eds): The Palgrave Handbook on Decoloniality in Asia
Copyright (c) 2025 John N. Ponsaran https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Resonating Voices: Afghan Women as Broadcasters and Radio Producers in the 1960s and 1970s. The Careers of Farīda Usmān Anwarī and Anīsa Latīf Durrānī
Following the 1964 constitution of Afghanistan, which conferred civil rights that included equal rights for women and freedom of the press, Afghan women capitalised on these opportunities to shape new directions in radio programming. They navigated and negotiated societal constraints to excel as broadcasters and producers, creating widely popular programmes. Their success, driven by diligence and ingenuity, is exemplified by the legacy of radio broadcasting pioneers like Farīda Usmān Anwarī and Anīsa Latīf Durrānī. These women used radio as a form of cultural and artistic resistance, transforming poetry recitation and integrating classical Persianate poetry into their radio shows. This article offers a brief overview of the role of Afghan women in radio broadcasting during the transformative decades of the 1960s and 1970s, highlighting how they navigated emerging media opportunities. In doing so, this study contributes to a broader historical understanding of women’s evolving roles in media and emphasises their agency, innovation and resilience in challenging societal norms.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mejgan Massoumi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The co-editor of this special issue, Susanne Schmeidl, here joins two Afghan women in exile: Suraya Pakzad, founder of the Voice of Women Organization and internationally recognised advocate for women’s rights, and Zainab Qadiri, a playwright, theatre director and writer committed to preserving Hazara cultural memory and women’s artistic expression. This Current Debate section presents two autoethnographic narratives documenting lives shaped by activism, cultural production and resistance under shifting Afghan political regimes. Suraya Pakzad recounts her trajectory from clandestine home-schooling for girls under the Taliban in the 1990s to leading one of Afghanistan’s largest women-led NGOs. Zainab Qadiri reflects on her path through theatre and literature as tools of advocacy, memory and identity. Both narratives foreground embodied knowledge, feminist praxis and the preservation of voice in the face of exile and systemic silencing, offering powerful insights into Afghan women’s agency and their contributions to knowledge production.
Copyright (c) 2025 Susanne Schmeidl, Suraya Pakzad, Zainab Qadiri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Reclaiming Voice – Afghan Women and the Politics of Knowledge Production
This special double edition of IQAS on Afghan Women’s Knowledge Production foregrounds the knowledge, creativity and critical voice of Afghan women. It brings together perspectives from both within and beyond academia, spanning geographies and disciplines, centring women not as subjects of study but as authors, critics and theorists in their own right. In this editorial, co-editors Susanne Schmeidl, a scholar with decades of research and field experience in Afghanistan, and Morwari Zafar, an Afghan-American anthropologist and writer, set the thematic and political frame for the volume. They reflect on the urgency of centring Afghan women’s voices amid escalating restrictions and political erasure since the Taliban’s return to power. Drawing on their own scholarly work, they situate the contributions – ranging from academic articles to personal narratives, poetry and art – within broader debates on decolonising knowledge, feminist epistemology and the ethics of representation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Susanne Schmeidl, Morwari Zafar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Witnessing through Verse: Afghan Women’s Poetics of Resilience
This paper challenges prevalent narratives that depict Afghan women solely as oppressed and suppressed individuals by highlighting the narrative of resilience found within the literature produced and refined by women, past and present. It does so through the works of the pre-modern Persian poet Rābiʿah Balkhī, as a source of inspiration and the most well-known and respected poet, alongside the poetry of two modern female poets writing primarily in Persian: Nadia Anjuman and Mahbouba Ibrahimi. The paper examines how these poets, living across different periods, express themselves and reflect on the violence inflicted upon them and others rendered helpless in the face of aggression. By closely analysing their poetry, this paper aims to examine how each poet articulates a distinct response to violence and how their work functions as a form of knowledge production that challenges dominant narratives surrounding Afghan women and their struggles. Through close reading and critical analysis, it aims to shed light on the role of poetry in shaping societal discourse and perceptions, particularly in the context of political aggression and cultural vilification, through the lens of the poetics of witnessing.
Copyright (c) 2025 Parwana Fayyaz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Syafiq Hasyim: The Shariatisation of Indonesia: The Politics of the Council of Indonesian Ulama (Majelis Ulama Indonesia, MUI)
Copyright (c) 2025 Tim Lindsey https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Liz Przybylski: Hybrid Ethnography: Online, Offline, and In Between
Copyright (c) 2025 Mehmet Özgün Özkul https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Bryan C. Clift / Ioannis Costas Batlle / Sheree Becker / Katharina Chudzikowsi (eds): Qualitative Researcher Vulnerability. Negotiating, Experiencing and Embracing
Copyright (c) 2025 Muhammad Salman Khan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Fiction and Fracture: Literary Tropes and the Representation of Afghan Women
For more than two decades, literature on Afghanistan has evolved around a similar axis of the literary imagination. Works of fiction, in particular, consistently convey an Afghan female archetype whose significance is defined by her struggle against the oppressive patriarchal values of Afghan culture and society. From Khaled Hosseini’s storied A Thousand Splendid Suns to Deborah Ellis’s The Breadwinner, Afghan women and girls are closely associated with narratives of war, violence and an equally unforgiving socio-cultural landscape. This article examines the representation of Afghan women in two successful novels of contemporary English-language fiction by Afghan-American authors: Khalid Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns and Nadia Hashimi’s The Pearl that Broke Her Shell. The analysis intends to unpack the tropes and narratives that have come to embody Afghan femininity in the American imagination. Grounded in literary criticism, the article will discuss a selection of prominent works to analyse the effects of textual nuances, narrative structures and character development in producing a characteristic image of “the Afghan woman”. By identifying recurring tropes, stereotypes and other literary devices, the research aims to contribute to ongoing conversations about the limitations of knowledge production on Afghanistan and its people, particularly as such narratives are drawn into the world of politics and policymaking.
Afghanistan, knowledge production, Afghan women, literary fiction, narratives, U.S. perception, Khaled Hosseini, Nadia Hashimi
Copyright (c) 2025 Morwari Zafar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Researching Asia in Pandemic Times – the Triple Crunch of Early Career Researchers: Navigating Changing Research Designs, Funding Issues and Ethics of Care
The following Current Debate section documents a fishbowl discussion held in a hybrid format during the Summer Term of 2022 as part of an MA class on "Digital Research Methods Beyond Pandemic Times," organised by Andrea Fleschenberg in collaboration with Muhammad Salman Khan. The conversation brings together early-career researchers – specifically, PhD students from the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin – who reflect on and discuss their concrete experiences, obstacles, challenges, and opportunities encountered while conducting PhD research during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and Asia. These conversations, an integral part of the MA class, were designed as an interdisciplinary, interactive, and participatory learning and reflection space for exploring approaches to research methods and research ethics in online, hybrid, and offline contexts.
Copyright (c) 2024 Andrea Fleschenberg, Amanda Oliveira, Abdullah Athayi, Laurent Glattli, Esra Sözalmaz Tiryaki, Mateeullah Tareen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
This editorial introduces the special issue "Researching Asia in Pandemic Times," which reflects on the impact of digital transformation on academic research during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic necessitated a rapid shift to online and digital research methods, presenting researchers with both opportunities and challenges. These included ethical dilemmas, methodological adaptations, and structural inequalities amplified by the reliance on technology. Early career researchers, particularly those navigating disrupted fieldwork, played a central role in exploring these dynamics, contributing valuable insights into the interplay between online and offline research spaces. The articles in this issue document grounded experiences from diverse contexts in Asia, examining topics such as digital inequalities, research ethics, and methodological shifts. They critically explore how digital tools reshape data collection, relationships with research participants, and power structures, while raising pressing questions about the location of "the field" and the implications of online methods in volatile contexts. The contributions presented in this special issue underscore the urgency of developing ethically sound and adaptable research approaches in an increasingly digital academic landscape.
Copyright (c) 2024 Sarah Holz, Andrea Fleschenberg, Wikke Jansen, Muhammad Salman Khan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Vineeta Sinha: Temple Tracks. Labour, Piety, and Railway Construction in Asia
Copyright (c) 2024 Dagmar Hellmann-Rajanayagam https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Faiza Muhammad Din: Female Madrasas in Pakistan: Religious, Cultural and Pedagogical Dimensions
Copyright (c) 2024 Abida Bano https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Sukhadeo Thorat / S. Madheswaran / B. P. Vani: Scheduled Castes in the Indian Labour Market: Employment Discrimination and Its Impact on Poverty
Copyright (c) 2024 Sumeet Mhaskar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Sylvia Mayasari-Hoffert: The Cold War and its Legacy in Indonesia: Literary Representation of the Red Scare
Copyright (c) 2024 Grace Leksana https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Diego Javier Luis: The First Asians in the Americas: A Transpacific History
Copyright (c) 2024 Kaori Mizukami https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Sabine Frühstück: Gender and Sexuality in Modern Japan
Copyright (c) 2024 An Huy Tran https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Rüdiger Lohlker / Katharina Ivanyi (eds): Humanitarian Islam: Reflecting on an Islamic Concept
Copyright (c) 2024 Hilman Latief https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Tim Lindsey / Jamhari Makruf / Helen Pausacker (eds): Islam, Education and Radicalism in Indonesia: Instructing Piety
Copyright (c) 2024 Dissa Paputungan-Engelhardt https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Charlotte Setijadi: Memories of Unbelonging: Ethnic Chinese Identity Politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia
Copyright (c) 2024 Silvia Mayasari-Hoffert https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Marcus Mietzner: The Coalitions Presidents Make: Presidential Power and Its Limits in Democratic Indonesia
Copyright (c) 2024 Aditya Perdana https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Legal Changes during Joko Widodo’s Administration – Backsliding of Democracy?
This paper provides an overview of the legislative landscape and its background under the Joko Widodo administration (2014–2024). The transition of presidential power from Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to Joko Widodo marked the consolidation of democracy in post-authoritarian Indonesia, continuing from the pivotal reforms of 1998. The period of Widodo’s administration from 2014 to 2024 illustrates how free elections and freedom of expression, combined with advancements in IT technology, have inadvertently highlighted societal divisions, including discrimination against minorities. Beyond political evolution, the period has also witnessed emerging economic disparities within Indonesian society, as well as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic during the latter half of the period. This paper focuses on major legislative initiatives during the Joko Widodo administration. It systematically examines the background, contents and pivotal discussions of these significant pieces of legislation, providing a comprehensive analysis of the legislative developments during this crucial decade in Indonesia. It goes on to argue that the legislative policies of the Widodo administration reflect a situation where the transition from authoritarianism to democratisation falls short of fully embodying constitutionalism, characterised by limits on executive power and respect for human rights.
Copyright (c) 2024 Shimada Yuzuru https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
False Hope and Broken Promises: Jokowi’s Human Rights Agenda – A Commentary
Usman Hamid is the Chairperson of the Public Virtue Institute and Director of Amnesty International Indonesia. He is also a lecturer at the Indonesia Jentera School of Law, a human rights lawyer, and a member of the expert council at the Indonesian Bar Association (PERADI-RBA). In 1998, as a student activist at Trisakti University, he became involved in protests that contributed to the fall of the Suharto regime. He subsequently became the coordinator of KontraS, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence. In 2004, he was appointed to the Presidential Fact-Finding Team that investigated the murder of prominent human rights defender Munir Said Thalib. In 2011, he was appointed to the Presidential Unit for the Supervision of Development, where he reviewed Indonesia’s National Human Rights Action Plan for 2011–2014. This commentary reflects on the unmet expectations of human rights improvements during President Jokowi's two terms in Indonesia. Written from his perspective of a long-time human rights activist, Usman Hamid critiques Jokowi's failure to address key human rights issues, including past violations, minority protections, and civil liberties, despite Jokowis early promises. The author combines personal experiences with an analysis of Jokowi's political compromises and their impact on Indonesia's declining human rights landscape.
Copyright (c) 2024 Usman Hamid https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Politics of Marginalisation in Indonesia: The Jokowi Era
This special issue critically examines the socio-political and economic impacts of the Joko Widodo (Jokowi) government (2014–2024) on marginalised communities in Indonesia, focusing on the intersection of government policies and local struggles. Despite economic growth, Indonesia has experienced democratic backsliding, characterised by oligarchic influence, weakened institutions, and rising corruption. These challenges have exacerbated the marginalisation of vulnerable groups, particularly in rural and indigenous areas, where top-down development projects have deepened social inequality, land disputes, and environmental degradation. However, the issue also highlights grassroots resistance, with communities engaging in "everyday resistance" and "politics of marginality" to challenge these policies. Case studies include struggles over land in Flores, political-economic turmoil in West Papua, and the challenges faced by rural social movements and people with disabilities. The editorial critiques Jokowi’s developmental policies, questioning their social and ecological consequences while pointing to the resilience of local communities as a crucial counterbalance to elite-driven politics. It calls for further research into these dynamics as Indonesia pursues its "Golden Indonesia 2045" vision.
Copyright (c) 2024 Amanda tho Seeth, Jafar Suryomenggolo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Bringing Up Underground Corpora: Ethics and Manuscripts in an Age of Digital Reproduction
While methodological considerations of positionality and disciplinary reflexivity have long been standard components of ethnographic studies, this is still not the case in codicology. Within the field of Arabic and Islamic manuscripts, recent debates on provenance and the use of digital archives have once again emphasised the need for increased awareness of issues tied to the individual researcher’s access to and use of collections located in both the Global North and Global South. This article draws on my experience of working with digital reproductions of premodern Arabic manuscripts from my living room in Berlin during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning with the notion of unauthorised underground manuscript corpora that circulate among researchers, I provide an overview of current debates on the ethical dimensions of digital codicology in Arabic and Islamic Studies. Pointing out the need for a synoptic consideration of colonial history and researcher positionality, I ultimately argue for the methodological value of including an “epistemic politics” at the forefront of manuscript research.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ingrid Austveg Evans https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Engagement and Ethics for Digital Ethnog­raphy: Reflections from (online) Indonesia in times of COVID-19
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought out a number of urgent issues for ethnographers and other scholars working across online and offline spaces. Whereas the massive recourse to social media platforms and other digital means of communication led to a surge in popularity and credibility afforded to online research methods, the ethical challenges that accompany such a move have only begun to be explored. This paper draws on my experiences of conducting research with queer Indonesians between 2017 and 2022 to suggest an approach to ethics and engagement that takes seriously the blurring of the divide between private and public online data, the sensitivity of social media data beyond “terms and conditions”, and the material dimensions and intersectional hierarchies that suffuse online spaces and access to them. I argue for integrating “do no harm” approaches, such as cultivating an attitude of “intentional paranoia” towards the risks and dangers of storing and using online data of vulnerable groups, with active ethical strategies such as pursuing unusual research methods, speculation and applied engagement.
Copyright (c) 2025 Wikke Jansen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0