This paper looks at the uses and conceptions of literacy among women from a rural Siraiki community in Pakistan. Literacy is a heavily gendered phenomenon in this community as women’s access to literacy was traditionally limited to Arabic literacy. However, a gradual change is evident in women’s uses of various literacies in Arabic, Urdu and English. The paper particularly draws attention to uses of literacy for self-expression among  younger women such as writing diaries and reading women’s magazines; excerpts from women’s interviews and diaries are quoted to argue that contrary to popular perceptions, these uses of literacies are significant in that they reflect women’s subjugated position in the social set-up and a desire to find a voice through literacy. It has been argued that the uses of literacy are very closely associated not only to women’s social roles but also to their inner feelings and emotions: the uses of literacy described in this paper suggest that these literacy practices are reflective of a search for a new identity.

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