Sadaf Ahmad is Professor of Anthropology in the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences at LUMS. Sadaf completed her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Syracuse University in 2006. She is the author of Transforming Faith: A Story of Al-Huda and Islamic Revivalism Among Urban Pakistani Women (2009) and Female Police Officers in Pakistan: Diverse Realities, Continuities and Change (2025). Her larger body of work on gender has consistently examined how patriarchal structures are reproduced and navigated within society and has appeared in several leading journals like Gender and Society and South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies.
"Al-Huda and Women s Religious Authority in Urban Pakistan." (2013) The Muslim World, 103(3), 363-374.
"Pakistani policewomen: Questioning the role of gender in circumscribing police corruption." (2019) Policing and Society, 30(8), 890-904. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2019.1611820
"Development of Rape Myths Scale and its Relation with Gender Role Attitudes." (2000) Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 15 (1-2), 54-74
"Identity Matters, Culture Wars: An account of Al-Huda (re)-defining identity and reconfiguring culture in Pakistan." (2008) Religion and Culture, 9(1), 63-80.
"Sexualized Objects and the Embodiment of Honour: Rape in Pakistani Films." (2016) South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 39(2), 386-400.
"Coping with Conundrums: Lower Ranked Pakistani Policewomen and Gender Inequity at the Workplace." (2022) Gender & Society, 36(2), 264-286. https://doi.org/10.1177/08912432211067968
Female Police Officers in Pakistan: Diverse Realities, Continuities and Change. (2025) I. B. Tauris. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/female-police-officers-in-pakistan- 9780755657681/
Edited Book: Pakistani Women: Multiple Locations and Competing Narratives. (2019) Series Title: Oxford in Pakistan Readings in Sociology and Social Anthropology. Karachi: Oxford University Press.
Transforming Faith: The Story of Al-Huda and Islamic Revivalism Among Urban Pakistani Women. (2009) Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. (Republished by the Oxford University Press for sale in South Asia in 2010)
"Constructing a Culture of Fear: The Role of Gender Based Violence in Controlling Bonded Labour in Pakistan." Bonded Labour in Pakistan, Ali Khan and Ayaz Qureshi (eds.). Series Title: Oxford in Pakistan Readings in Sociology and Social Anthropology. (2016) Karachi: Oxford University Press.
""How do I like being a policewoman? I m very happy!" Pakistani Policewomen and the Challenge of Presentational Data". (2021) In The Routledge Companion to Anthropology and Business. Edited by Raza Mir and Anne-Laure Fayard. London: Routledge.
"AASHAs Approach to Institute Sexual Harassment Legislation in Pakistan." In New South Asian Feminisms: Paradoxes and Possibilities.Srila Roy (ed.). (2012) London: Zed Books.
"A Minority within a Minority: Senior Ranked Policewomen in Pakistan." In Exploring Contemporary Police Challenges: A Global Perspective. (2023) Edited by Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovic, Jon Maskaly, Christopher Donner, Irena Cajner Mraovic and Dilip Das. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003136965
"Morality and Desire? Examining the role of the "Westernized" woman of Pakistani Cinema in the 1970s. In The Postcolonial World. (2016) Jyotsna G. Singh and David D. Kim (eds.). Routledge.
"Punctuating Gendered Values: Exploring the Phenomena of Slaps in Commercial Pakistani Films." In Cinema and Society, Ali Khan & Ali Nobil (Eds.). (2016) Karachi: Oxford University Press.
"Unfulfilled Potential: Women Police Stations in Pakistan." In Policing the Global South: Colonial Legacies, Pluralities, Partnerships, and Reform. (2023) Edited by Danielle Watson, Sara Amin, Wendell Wallace, Oluwagbenga Akinlabi and Juan Carlos Ruiz Vasquez. Routledge.
"When Emotions Become Fuel: The Passage of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Legislation in Pakistan." In Emotions, Mobilisations and South Asian Politics. (2019) Edited by Amelie Blom and Stephanie Tawa Lama-Rewal. Routledge.
"Of Allah and the Power Point." In Islam and Society in Pakistan: Anthropological Perspectives, Magnus Marsden (ed.). Series Title: Oxford in Pakistan Readings in Sociology and Social Anthropology. (2010) Karachi: Oxford University Press.
"The Veil." In The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. (2012) Princeton University Press.
"Internship with the Research Centre of the Divine World College of Tagbilaran: A Testimony of Experience." Graduate School Journal of DWCT, Philippines.
"Sexual Harassment: A Case in Pakistan." Violence Against Women and Children. (2001) Review of Women s Studies, 11 (1-2): 80-101. Center for Women s Studies, University of the Philippines.
Blog: "Patriarchal webs: understanding workplace inequity for lower-ranked pakistani policewomen" in Work in Progress: Sociology on the economy, work and inequality--American Sociological Association blog. (2022) For details: http://ow.ly/RGeU50IlJyc
Review: "Politics of Exclusion." Published in Dissertation Reviews.http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/2469 (2013)
"Internship with the Research Centre of the Divine World College of Tagbilaran: A Testimony of Experience." (2000) Graduate School Journal of DWCT, Philippines.
Review: "The Women s Movement in Pakistan: Activism, Islam and Democracy," by Ayesha Khan, London and New York: I. B. Tauris. Published in Gender and Development, 27(3), 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2019.1682312
Review: "Gender, Politics, and Islam," in Religious Studies Review, 29(2):205 (2003)
Research Report: The AASHA Experience: A Decade of Struggle Against Sexual Harassment in Pakistan. (2011) Co Authored by: Sadaf Ahmad, Fouzia Saeed, Raffiq Jaffer & Renate French. Mehergarh Publications.
Research Report: Leaders of Change: Drawing Lessons from Case Studies of Organizations with Anti- Sexual Harassment Policies. (2010) A joint ILO & Mehergarh Publication.
"Farhat Hashmi." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women. (2013) Edited by Natana DeLong-Bas. New York: Oxford University Press.
"When Emotions Become Fuel: The Passage of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Legislation in Pakistan." (2016) EMPOLIS Conference. Paris, France.
"The Role of Emotions in the Passage of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Legislation in Pakistan. (2015) " EMPOLIS Workshop. Delhi, India. (presented paper via Skype)
"Social Issues of Women in the Cultural Context of Pakistan." A presentation for the academic and NGO community of Tagbilaran, Bohol, Philippines.
"Allah and the Power-Point: The Story of Islamic Revivalism Amongst Urban Pakistani Women." Panel: Women s Empowerment: Blurring Boundaries, NGO s and Islamic Revivalism. Presenter and Chair. Annual South Asia Conference. Madison, USA.
"The Goddess." Presentation for the Asian Study Group, Islamabad, Pakistan
"Pakistani policewomen: Questioning the role of gender in circumscribing police corruption." Corruption and Communities in South Asia, 11-12th December. Anti Corruption Resource Center, Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway.(2018)