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21. Placement of Pakistani Women during Democratic Regimes: 1988-2018

Author:
Shehzadi Zamurrad Awan
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
On women issues, the response of democratically elected governments of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), remained vague and noncommittal. Both parties in their manifestos for general elections, vowed to take steps for women socio-economic and political empowerment. However, after assuming power, these parties could not fullfill their promises. They could neither enact appropriate legislation on women issues nor they repealed or amended gender discriminatory Hudood Ordinance of Zia-ul-Haq. More so, these two leading parties failed to restore the expired women quota in National and Provincial Assemblies, resulting in insufficient representation in the legislative bodies. Nevertheless, in comparison with conservative PML (N), the expectations from a liberal Benazir Bhutto to enforce pro-women policies was more promising. Both parties formed coalition governments, thus remained incapacitated to enact women related laws. Furthermore, they were confronted with orthodoxy within and outside the legislative bodies, posing challenges to their political agendas. Nonetheless, the last two tenures of both parties marked a little difference in their approach towards women issues, resulting in some serious legislation, targeting women problems in socio-economic and political domains. It is imperative to say that the effectiveness of these newly in-placed women related laws and policies has yet to bring change in society as their proper implementation and required institutionalization is in its infancy stage.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Governance, Elections, Women, and Legislation
Political Geography:
Pakistan, South Asia, and Punjab

22. June/July 2018 Issue

Author:
Kirsten E. Schulze, Brian Dodwell, Dakota Foster, Daniel Milton, David Sterman, and Robin Simcox
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
CTC Sentinel
Institution:
The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
Abstract:
This summer marks the end of an era for us. Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Price, the Combating Terrorism Center’s longest-serving director, is retiring after 20 years of service in the Army, the last six at the helm of the CTC. During that time, he was a tireless champion for the CTC and its staff and cemented its status as one of the leading research institutions in the terrorism studies field. In a conversation with Brian Dodwell, who is taking over as director, LTC Price reflects on his service at the CTC and the essential need for rigorous research to understand the evolving threat landscape. There is concern that Islamic State-linked terror is on the rise in Southeast Asia. On Sunday, May 13, 2018, three churches in Surabaya, Indonesia, were targeted by suicide bombers comprising one single family of six. The following day, a family of five rode two motorbikes to the entrance of the city’s police headquarters where they blew themselves up. The attacks saw the confluence of several trends in jihadi terrorist plotting—an increased reliance on family networks and an increased embrace of women and children in combat roles. In our cover article, Kirsten Schulze outlines the evolving threat from pro-Islamic State militants in Southeast Asia’s most populous country. Dakota Foster and Daniel Milton build on the the CTC’s previous analysis on the personnel records of just over 4,100 Islamic State foreign fighters to focus on what the records reveal about the smaller subset of 267 children. David Sterman also analyzes the Islamic State’s personnel records to compare and contrast the profile of recruits with previous experience in Libya and Afghanistan. Robin Simcox documents an alleged terrorist conspiracy by an all-female cell guided by an Islamic State cybercoach to plot attacks in the Paris area in 2016.
Topic:
Terrorism, Children, Counter-terrorism, Women, Islamic State, Jihad, Foreign Fighters, and Child Soldiers
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Europe, South Asia, Indonesia, France, Libya, North Africa, and Southeast Asia

23. Determinants of Violence Against Women and Justice Delivery Mechanism in Pakistan: A Historical Perspective (1977-2014)

Author:
Mahboob Alam Nutkani
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Political Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
According to Human Rights Watch there are estimated to be over fourteen million child brides worldwide, many of whom are traded for debt, bondage, and in contexts where polygamy and sexual activities with children go hand in hand, justified by religion or custom.(United Nation, 2013:31) There occurs a victimization of a new rising class of feminists in countries like Pakistan, where Islamist extremism from 1977 to 1988 especially targets and instances even murders or attempts to murder women who challenge their patriarchal power base. The analysis that represents these forms of violence against women and women’s struggles for justice delivery in Pakistan by using their voices and their stories, from their frame of analysis have been failed miserably.
Topic:
History, Women, Violence, and Justice
Political Geography:
Pakistan and South Asia

24. Journal of Public and International Affairs 2017

Author:
Bethany Atkins, Trevor Pierce, Valentina Baiamonte, Chiara Redaelli, Hal Brewster, Vivian Chang, Lindsay Holcomb, Sarah Lohschelder, Nicolas Pose, Stephen Reimer, Namitha Sadanand, and Eustace Uzor
Publication Date:
05-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Woodrow Wilson School Journal of Public and International Affairs
Institution:
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
Abstract:
From the United States to the Switzerland, this year’s Journal draws on a diverse range of authors’ experiences and studies to analyze a varied—yet timely—set of current issues. By spotlighting topics such as climate change, voting rights, and gender issues, JPIA contributes to the debates that are occurring today. The strong use of quantitative analysis and in-depth study of resources ensures that this year’s Journal adds a select perspective to the debate that hopefully policymakers will find useful and actionable.
Topic:
Security, Climate Change, Development, Narcotics Trafficking, Law, Prisons/Penal Systems, Elections, Women, Brexit, Multilateralism, Private Sector, Carbon Tax, Carbon Emissions, and Gerrymandering
Political Geography:
Britain, Afghanistan, Africa, China, South Asia, Central Asia, Asia, and Nigeria

25. Gender and Urban Sanitation Inequalities in Everyday Lives

Author:
Susan Esme Chaplin
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
Even though sanitation was established as a separate human right by the United Nations General Assembly in January 2016, there has an been overall failure to reduce by half the proportion of the global population without access to basic sanitation (Millennium Development Goal 7, Target C). The Sustainable Development Goals have targets of gender equality, and the sustainable and universal provision of sanitation. Hopefully this will mean increased attention being given to the interests and well-being of poor women and girls living in slums and informal settlements who still lack access to adequate sanitation. The sanitation needs of women and girls are different from those of men and boys because of the former’s requirements of personal safety, dignity and menstrual hygiene; there is also the issue of the disproportionate burden of unpaid labour in managing household sanitary needs. These inequalities in urban sanitation access have a great impact on the health, well-being and socio-economic status of women and girls. These inequalities continue to exist despite efforts to make the needs of poor urban women and girls an integral part of sanitation policies and project planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Despite the emphasis of low-income countries on gender inequalities and sanitation in their development goals, programmes and projects, there is still only a limited number of qualitative and quantitative evidence-based research articles available focusing on gender and sanitation continue to be available. This number further decreases when it comes to gender and urban sanitation in the Global South. The grey literature is more numerous, particularly that commissioned by international development agencies and non-government organisations. Missing from much of this evidence-based and grey literature are studies on the broader social, economic and environmental impacts on poor women and girls of daily life without access to adequate and safe sanitation. This means that there is very little evidence-based literature which examines how these inequalities in sanitation access affect the lives of poor women and girls who have to queue each morning to use public toilets, or decide which open defecation (OD) sites are the least dangerous to use. Also missing are studies on the socio-economic, health and well-being impacts on and coping strategies of women working in the informal sector, poor women and girls with a disability, elderly women, adolescent girls and homeless women or those living on the pavements, who all lack access to adequate and safe sanitation facilities. These sanitation inequalities are exemplified by the time poor women and girls have to spend each morning queueing to use the toilet or getting up earlier to go with other women to OD sites. The necessity for such actions furthers gender inequalities because it puts at risk the time women have available for paid employment and other household responsibilities. Truelove (2011, p. 148) has argued that this ‘curtailment of opportunities (from income to education) due to water and sanitation activities reinforces a further level of physical insecurity and emotional violence, as some women become locked in a feedback cycle that brings them into distinct spaces and networks in order to access water and sanitation’. Women and girls living in slums often report instances of gender-based violence, shame and loss of dignity when walking along badly lit narrow paths to poorly designed and maintained community toilets or places of OD (Bapat & Agarwal 2003, Lennon 2011, McFarlane 2015, SHARE 2015 and Amnesty International 2010a). Phadke, Khan & Ranade (2011, p. 85), in a study of women and risk in Mumbai, have suggested that ‘[what] the lack of public toilets says is that women are less equal citizens than men and don’t deserve the same consideration’ in the design of urban spaces and the provision of urban infrastructures such as sanitation facilities. These gender inequalities continue to exist despite the use of the concept of ‘gender mainstreaming’ in water and sanitation projects since the mid-1990s, which was designed to make the needs of women and girls an integral part of sanitation policies and project planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Instead, gender has become a term that is widely used in project documents and organisational policy documents ‘but is little theorised and ill-defined in most projects and supporting policy documents’ (O‘Reilly 2010, p. 49). Gender, according to the Water and Sanitation Program (2010, p. 9): is a concept that refers to socially constructed roles, behaviour, activities and attributes that a particular society considers appropriate and ascribes to men and women. These distinct roles and the relations between them may give rise to gender inequalities where one group is systematically favoured and holds advantages over another. Inequality in the position of men and women can and has worked against societies.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Water, Urbanization, Women, Inequality, and Sanitation
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, and Asia

26. Infrastructure, Gender and Violence: Women and Slum Sanitation Inequalities in Delhi

Author:
Susan Esme Chaplin and Reetika Kalita
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
In Delhi, as in many other Indian cities, millions of men, women and children who live in slums and informal settlements haveto daily confront the lack of adequate sanitation facilities. These sanitation inequalities have a greater impact on the health and socioeconomic status of women and girls because of their greater social vulnerability to sexual violence; there is also the role played by biology in their need for privacy, safety and cleanliness. Men and boys, on the other hand, tend to use public urinals and open defecation (OD) sites generally more frequently, because their need for privacy during these sanitation activities is not such a cause for concern. In addition, women and girls are forced every day to risk using precarious spaces for their sanitation activities that may expose them to gender-based violence and harassment and not satisfy their biological and socio-cultural needs. These urban sanitation inequalities also negatively impact the time women have available for paid employment as well as their daily domestic responsibilities, as they have to spend each morning queuing for toilets or getting up earlier to go with other women to OD sites. For adolescent girls this can often mean being late for school, which threatens their education and future life choices. India failed to meet Millennium Development Goal No. 7 (adopted by the United Nations in 2000) relating to halving the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation. In terms of toilet usage across India, the Census 2011 found that 81 percent of urban households had a private toilet or latrine. But when it came to slum households, only 66 percent had a toilet, meaning that 34 percent had to either use a community or public toilet or resort to OD (Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation & National Buildings Organisations 2013, p. 60). In reality, there are an estimated 41 million urban dwellers still practising OD because of a lack of access to improved sanitation (WaterAid 2016). OD is a compulsion, not a choice, and creates particular risks and imposes a variety of harms upon women and children that men and boys do not suffer. Who or what is responsible for such socioeconomic consequences of the lack of adequate sanitation infrastructure in Indian cities which perpetuate gender inequalities? How do harms like gender-based violence impact the everyday lives of women and girls living in slums in particular? This project report examines these issues using the notion of infrastructural violence and then examines the harms and suffering caused by a lack of sanitation infrastructure in two long-established localities in Delhi: Mangolpuri and Kusumpur Pahari. Mangolpuri is a resettlement colony in the northwest region of Delhi with an estimated population of more than 350,000. It is interspersed with eight JJCs clusters of varying sizes. Kusumpur Pahari is located in the heart of south Delhi, near Jawaharlal Nehru University, and now has five blocks of JJCs and an estimated population of nearly 50,000.
Topic:
Development, Gender Issues, Health, Children, Women, Income Inequality, and Sanitation
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, and Asia

27. Incidence and Dynamism of Sexual Harassment in South Asian Students

Author:
Zobia Kanwal and Muhammad Aamir Hashmi
Publication Date:
01-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
Sexual harassment has become social evil in the modern era throughout the world. It is continuously raised with the passage of time among university students and teachers. Especially female students are facing such kinds of negative activities at the workplace. Some female students create an attraction for male students at higher educational sector in Pakistan because it is natural phenomenon because it is true that the esthetic sense exists in the nature of female. It is noted that sexual harassment has become a common issue in every field of life. Especially from the social and cultural aspects it has become a dilemma of our society. It is also found in educational institutions. It is against the dignity of humanity and especially for family ownership. The female students cannot take the report because they do not want to be mistrusted in front of their guardians. The purpose of this study is to investigate the feelings and responses of harassed students on facing sexual harassment on the university premises. Empirical data were collected from 260 students (144 male and 116 female) of 12 departments of University of the Punjab, Pakistan. A stratified random sampling technique was used to collect the data. A questionnaire of 53 items was developed and tested. All the questions were close ended, based on five point Likert scale (from strongly agreed to strongly disagreed). The reliability of the questionnaire was 0.83. Findings of this paper show that seldom complaints were reported on sexual harassment faced by the students in the university. They reported that the male students code such kinds of negative and sexual comments and use vulgar language towards female students. A great care is to be taken for this concern on large scale. It is recommended that awareness sessions should be conducted for the students and the faculty and trainings should be provided. Along with formal policies, the informal culture of the higher education institute should facilitate the victims in preventing and seeking justice
Topic:
Crime, Education, Gender Issues, Women, and Gender Based Violence
Political Geography:
Pakistan, South Asia, India, and Punjab

28. Impact of Social, Political and Economic Globalization on Gender Inequality Index in Pakistan: A Time Series Analysis

Author:
Nabila Asghar, Tanveer Ahmed Naveed, and Shaista Saleem
Publication Date:
01-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
This study is designed to calculate the newly introduced Gender Inequality Index for Pakistan according to the formula mentioned in technical notes of United Nations Development Report (2010) and then finding the impact of Social, Political and Economic Globalization on Gender Inequality Index. Time series data from 1980 to 2014 is used for Gender Inequality Index, Social, Political and Economic Globalization. Johnsons Co-integration technique is applied to investigate the impact of social, economic and political globalization on gender inequality index in Pakistan. The results of study show negative and significant relationship between economic globalization, social globalization and gender inequality index, while a negative but insignificant relationship is found between political globalization and gender inequality index. The results of the study are consistent with various theoretical and empirical studies. The policies related to globalization promotion are recommended to enrich the country with development through gender balances. To increase impact of political globalization, Pakistan needs to put more emphasis in following the spirit of treaties which target gender disparity of which she is the signatory.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Globalization, United Nations, Women, and Inequality
Political Geography:
Pakistan, South Asia, and Punjab

29. Women and Work in India: Descriptive Evidence and a Review of Potential Policies

Author:
Erin K. Fletcher, Rohini Pande, and Charity Troyer Moore
Publication Date:
12-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
Sustained high economic growth since the early 1990s has brought significant change to the lives of Indian women, and yet female labor force participation has stagnated at under 30%, and recent labor surveys even suggest some decline since 2005. Using a nationally representative household survey, we lay out five descriptive facts about female labor force participation in India that help identify constraints to higher participation. First, there is significant demand for jobs by women currently not in the labor force. Second, willing female non-workers have difficulty matching to jobs. Third, obtaining vocational training is correlated with a higher likelihood of working among women. Fourth, women are more likely to be working in sectors where the gender wage gap and unexplained wage gap, commonly attributed to discrimination, is higher. Finally, female-friendly policies, including quotas, are correlated with higher female participation in some key sectors. Combining these facts with a review of the literature, we map out important areas for future investigation and highlight how policies such as employment quotas and government initiatives focused on skilling and manufacturing should be better investigated and leveraged to increase women’s economic activity.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Labor Issues, Women, Inequality, Economic growth, and Public Policy
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

30. The Effect of Violence on Women’s Electoral and Political Participation in Bangladesh

Author:
Silja Paasilinna, Sue Palmer-Wetherald, and Megan Ritchie
Publication Date:
04-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Foundation for Electoral Systems
Abstract:
Women in Bangladesh are uniquely impacted by pervasive violence in the country’s electoral process, as voters, candidates, political party supporters and activists. To explore the effect of electoral violence on women’s meaningful participation, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) convened seven focus groups of Bangladeshi women in 2013 and 2015 to discuss electoral violence they have experienced both in the home and in the public sphere. Under the “Bangladesh Election Support Activities” (BESA) Program, IFES has worked through two key channels to engage interested stakeholders in preventing electoral violence, sharing information on the causes of conflict and promoting peaceful political processes:
Topic:
Gender Issues, Elections, Women, Gender Based Violence, and Participation
Political Geography:
Bangladesh, South Asia, and Asia