Commodity Culture and Porous Socio-Religious Boundaries

Based on fieldwork, this article portrays the deep influence exercised by modern media on the women in a Muslim neighbourhood in Delhi during the past 30 years. While visual media consumption was earlier largely tabooed and restricted, today’s consumers of media products appear significantly influenced by a media-driven com-modification of culture. The research findings indicate that a revision of ‘traditional’ assumptions about the lifestyles and thought patterns of Muslim women, at least in this particular neighbourhood in Delhi, is required to understand the current daily realities of Muslim women’s lives in South Asia.