Presenting an ethnographic study of a multi-ethnic, middle-class high-rise apartment building in Karachi, Pakistan, this book argues that peace is the product of a relentless daily labour, much of it carried out in the zenana, or women's space. It provides a glimpse into contemporary urban life in a Muslim society.

Correspondence, travel writing, diary writing, painting, scrapbooking, curating, collecting and house interiors allowed British women scope to express their responses to imperial sites and experiences in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Taking these productions as its archive, British Women and Cultural Practices of Empire, 1775-1930 includes a collection of essays from different disciplines that consider the role of British women's cultural practices and productions in conceptualising empire. While such productions have started to receive greater scholarly attention, this volume uses a more self-conscious lens of gender to question whether female cultural work demonstrates that colonial women engaged with the spaces and places of empire in distinctive ways. By working across disciplines, centuries and different colonial geographies, the volume makes an exciting and important contribution to the field by demonstrating the diverse ways in which European women shaped constructions of empire in the modern period.

First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.