LAHORE: Several academics from Pakistan paid tribute to late anthropologist Saba Mahmood, professor of anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, at a memorial reference organised by the Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums) on Tuesday, and discussed her contributions to the theoretical understanding of liberalism and secularism and their political implications.

The event was moderated by Dr Kamran Asdar Ali, dean of the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Lums, who began with a brief introduction of Ms Mehmood.

He said her books Politics of Piety - The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject and Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report remain some of the most important interventions in understanding the political implications of liberalism and secularism. Despite being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Ms Mehmood taught students till the fall of 2017. “She was one of the most well respected academics of our time,” he added.

Several academics, including Dr Humeira Iqtidar of Kings College, London; Dr Ali Usman Qasmi; Dr Nauman Faizi and Dr Ali Raza of Lums; Zahra Hayat, a former student of Ms Mehmood; and Rabia Nadir of the Lahore School of Economics shared memories of her compassion and love for her students and colleagues.

“Ms Mehmood’s work questions our comfort with the idea of secularism as a solution to the problems of modern state,” said Dr Qasmi, adding that it shows how the secularisation project finds space in majoritarian tendencies.

Her primary argument, which generated much debate in Pakistan, questioned the binary of theocracy and secularism to show that the secular state had, in fact, granted itself greater control in determining what form of religious practice was acceptable and what was not.

Dr Iqtidar said many forget that Ms Mehmood was a dedicated political activist. “She did not support theocracy but she questioned liberalism and secularism as ideologies,” she said, adding that it was unfortunate that many continue to think of emancipation in the binary of theocracy/secularism.

Ms Hayat shared a quotation by Raymond Carver from the last email Ms Mehmood had sent her friends and family: “And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.”

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2018