Currently viewing the tag: "gender"

As an Islamic Republic, Pakistan treats its women as responsible ‘individuals/adults’ liable to pay all government taxes on incomes, savings, investments and property. A Pakistani Muslim professional woman is not expected to hide behind her wali or male guardian (and /or chaperone) on this account and claim exemption from taxes. If the expectation that she be duty-bound and clear all dues to the State and Government of Pakistan is warranted than so is the expectation from the State and Government of Pakistan to be rights-bound and thereby safeguard women’s freedoms while protecting them against any forms of harassment in the real and/or virtual world.

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This article highlights the globalized personhood of young women artists of Pakistan in the backdrop of gender nationalism. Towards the end a few major issues in digital governance of Pakistan are discussed. The main premise of the argument remains that Pakistan’s women artists have a right to uphold their ‘occupational’ identity without getting stigmatized in the process and more than anyone, the State and government of Islamic Republic of Pakistan is responsible for putting an end to online misogyny by investing in providing innovative digital solutions. In this regard the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), Islamabad, should take lead in planning a policy initiative that involves women artists, state/government institutions and the technology sector.

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Indisputably, these developments constitute a crucial aspect of Riyadh’s broader national reform agenda, as led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Within the wider regional context of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), they mark the long overdue acceleration of a trend towards improving citizen women’s participation in the economy and public life. Yet, improvement in the lives of half of the region’s citizens cannot be understood if we ignore the demographic reality that roughly 49 percent of GCC residents are foreign nationals, at least a third of whom are noncitizen women.[1] An important question is whether state policies aimed ostensibly at women’s empowerment represent an exercise in national inclusion or nationalist retreat? The answer is, “Both.”

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The sexual abuse allegations against Oxfam staff came to light because Oxfam has one the best reporting systems in the aid industry. Sexual harassment, exploitation and assault is commonplace in the entire aid business, from the smallest voluntary agencies to the biggest United Nations organizations. The claims about orgy parties in Oxfam compounds, hiring of sex workers, and sexual assault of children in Oxfam’s British charity shops are sadly very credible. What they point to is a system-wide problem, which needs a radical change in institutional culture—not a vindictive scapegoating of one particular agency.

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special edition of the journal Disasters (2018, 42(1)) on ‘Gender, sexuality and violence in humanitarian crises,’  includes essays by several authors with WPF connections: edited by Holly Porter, who we brought to Fletcher last semester, it includes contributions by Roxanne Krystalli and Allyson Hawkins, both former WPF Research Assistants, and Rebecca Tapscott, who worked […]

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WPF Senior Fellow, Dyan Mazurana just published a review of  Shekhawat, Seema (ed), Female Combatants in Conflict and Peace: Challenging Gender in Violence and Post-Conflict Reintegration  (2015, Palgrave Macmillan) in the Journal of Women, Politics and Policy. Below is an excerpt, the full review is available on the journal’s site.

Female Combatants in Conflict and Peace: […]

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