By examining commemorative practices and compensation regimes of the Pakistan Military, Dr. Maria Rashid's work focuses on the relationship between the military and its female subjects: the mothers and widows of dead soldiers. She argues that the female subject’s affect, which at the time of the soldier’s death is a focus of management and discipline, is deliberately invoked by the military institution as vital for spectacles of mourning. Also, within compensation regimes, the singling out of the female dependent is reflective of the patriarchal state, which enforces a family ethic in ways that further enmesh her within the institutions of the family, military and nation-state. The paper argues that the masculine military institution, holds within it both a discomfort with the female subject and the constant need to engage with it. 

Dr. Maria Rashid recently completed her PhD from the Department of Politics, SOAS and has previously worked with various non-governmental organizations in Pakistan over the last 18 years on issues of violence against women and children, gender and masculinities.