THE POLITICS OF LAND OWNERSHIP AND WOMEN’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN GILGIT-BALTISTAN

Abstract

Land ownership in Gilgit Baltistan is shaped historically by princely state authority, communal land system, state interferences, culminating in recent controversies surrounding the Gilgit Baltistan Land Reforms Act, 2025. These dynamics show the importance of land for political power. Within this backdrop, women’s access to land is limited not only by legal ambiguities but also by deep rooted patriarchal norms that limit their authority, identity and participation in both formal and informal political spheres. This study explores how educated women in Gilgit Baltistan experience, negotiate, interpret land ownership and inheritance. Using phenomenological qualitative methods, semi structured interviews supplemented with social media content analysis; the research explores women’s perception of landownership, belonging, authority and political participation. The findings show that despite progress in education and public visibility, women’s claim to land remains largely symbolic. Gender practices, the association of land with male honor, and male dominated bureaucratic spaces restrict women’s ability to exercise their right and control over the inherited property. Women’s exclusion from landownership further weakens their political agency and increase vulnerability in contexts of divorce, widowhood, and domestic violence. The study further argues that land in Gilgit Baltistan functions not only as an economic resource, but also marker of identity and gateway to political participation, yet women remain structurally marginalized in all three dimensions. Legal reforms cannot be the only solution for this exclusion but transformation of cultural and institutional practices that govern land, belonging and political voice.