Marital Breakdown among British Asians

By: Kaveri Qureshi

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Synopsis: Against long-standingcharacterizations of British Asians as 'flying the flag' for traditional life,this book identifies an increase in marital breakdown and argues to reorientdebates about conservatism and authoritarianism in British Asian families. Qureshidraws on a rich ethnographic study of marital breakdown among working classPakistani Muslims in order to unpick the grounds of marital conflict, themanoeuvres couples undertake in staying together, their interactions withdivorce laws and their moral reasonings about post-divorce family life. MaritalBreakdown among British Asians argues against individualization approaches,demonstrating the embeddedness of couples in extended family relations, whilstat the same time showing that Pakistani marriages and divorces do not deviatein all respects from wider marital separation trajectories in Britain. Providing new insights into how marital breakdown is changing the contoursof British Asian families, this book will be essential reading for scholars andstudents, clinicians working in couple or family therapy, social workers andlegal practitioners.