Women [un-]like women

On a typically hot evening in July 2010 at the dargāh (lit. shrine) of La‘l Shahbāz Qalandar in Sehwan, I came across a woman in her fifties dressed in black, her hands dyed with henna, and her fingers embellished with colourful rings. She referred to herself as ‘ammā malangī new-Karachi wālī’ (lit. the ascetic mother from New Karachi). Chewing pān (betel-nut leaf), she said to me, ‘I have been given so much that there is no one left between myself and the Qalandar. I do not believe in any fakirs and malangs, neither have I approached any,’ then emphasizing her distinctiveness and pointing towards the tomb of the saint she added, ‘after him, it is just me!’ While she had stationed herself at the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Karachi, she was a regular visitor at the shrine in Sehwan. More remarkable, and pertinent to this discussion, was her claim that she has received fakīrī through blood, i.e. her paternal uncle (tāyā) transmitted his fakīrī to her. This was already an unusual statement to make, as research suggests that most fakirs strive to become fakirs and do not inherit their charismatic roles as do sayyid hereditary pīrs of Sehwan; also, because women are traditionally excluded from lines and systems of patrilineal transmission or Sufi masters. When I inquired about her uncle's unusual decision to hand over fakīrī to her instead of a male member of the family, as would be the custom, her nephew interrupted our conversation. Then addressing me, he asked, ‘Who delivered the last sermon after all?’ Before I could even answer, he quickly repeated the question, adding, ‘and whose sermon was it?’ As he paused for what sounded like dramatic effect, I wondered if he had meant to speak of Muhammad and his last sermon. This was not the case. Referring to events in the aftermath of the Battle of Karbala (680 A.D.), he declared, ‘It was Hussayn's sermon and bībī Zaynab delivered it’. More importantly, though, by evoking the example of Hussayn's sister, Zaynab, he had put to rest, in his mind and that of the listener, any suspicion regarding the validity of a woman's representative position. It is such negotiated and inventive employing of gender vis-à-vis the question of spiritual authorization amongst women fakirs at the dargāh of Sehwan that constitutes the central theme of this chapter.