Empowerment Under Tradition: Cultural Influences on Women’s Microfinance Participation Through SRSP in Karak

Abstract

The study focuses on how cultural norms in District Karak affect the way women take up and avail microfinance offered by the Sarhad Rural Support Program (SRSP) and the social and cultural transformations of women in the society as a whole due to these interventions. Women living in conservative societies in rural environments are socially restricted such that they have limited economic activities as well as access to economic movement. The microfinance programs through which SRSP works are focused on empowering women through availing them with financial means, allowing them to be entrepreneurs and through social visibility. The qualitative approach was used as the study applied 12 in-depth interviews (IDIs) and 6 focus group discussions (FGDs) with 30 participants in Tehsil Karak and Tehsil Takht-e-Nasrati. The data were recorded in Pashto language so that the original expression was done and then translated into English. Using the thematic analysis, they were able to identify eight key themes which include negotiating cultural constraints, access to microfinance, economic agency and household influence, social recognition and mobility, psychological resilience, collective action and support networks, intergenerational impact and long-term cultural transformation. The results show that the interventions of SRSP did not only help women to engage in economic activities, but the change was also of great social and cultural impact. The two theories that have informed this study are Women Empowerment Theory and Microfinance Theory, which suggest that structured financial interventions are associated with changes in social norms, agency, and empowerment.