Why do some minority-based social movements seeking rights and autonomy respond to state repression with armed resistance, while others respond with unarmed resistance? To answer the research question, I will examine variations in strategies of resistance that have occurred across two structurally similar ethnopolitical struggles in Islamic countries: the struggle for Pashtun rights in Pakistan and the struggle for Kurdish rights in Turkey. Incorporating a longitudinal paired comparison methodology, the research will explain how and why strategic shifts between armed and unarmed resistance have occurred over time among groups struggling for ethnopolitical rights and autonomy and how strategies of unarmed resistance can gain leverage in repressive authoritarian contexts. The research findings should be generalizable beyond the two struggles and provide insights on the possibilities of civil resistance in autonomist and separatist struggles more generally. The research will make a significant contribution to the comparative and historical study of political conflict and the literatures on social movements and ethnopolitics.