Approximately half of the world's 1.1 billion Muslims live in three countries of South Asia: 145 million and 130 million in Muslim-majority Pakistan and Bangladesh respectively, and 125 million in Hindu-majority India. Yet, the global discourse on Muslim women in civil society and democracy is shaped largely by the experiences of the Middle East where only 172 million Muslims live.

The Western media generally portray Muslim women as veiled and excluded from the public sphere. This is not so for South Asian Muslim women. Th…