Religion

Citation:

Hartmann, Miriam, Suneeta Krishnan, Brent Rowe, Anushah Hossain, and Myles Elledge. 2015. Gender-Responsive Sanitation Solutions in Urban India. Research Brief. Research Triangle Park: RTI Press.

Authors: Miriam Hartmann, Suneeta Krishnan, Brent Rowe, Anushah Hossain, Myles Elledge

Annotation:

Summary:
"In this research brief, we provide an overview of recent literature on women and sanitation in urban India. In particular, we consider possible improvements to the design and location of toilet facilities based on articulated needs and current solutions. We also highlight the need for further research evaluating the potential benefits of female-targeted interventions for women and their communities. The issues we consider are context specific, because women’s preferences vary across caste, religion, and region. Furthermore, the improvements we discuss respond primarily to existing gender norms. Broader efforts are needed to transform gender norms and meet the dual goals of higher sanitation adoption and better outcomes for women" (Hartmann et al. 2015, 1).

 

Topics: Caste, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Gender Equity, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Religion Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2015

Citation:

Rao, Smitha. 2020. "A Natural Disaster and Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence over Time." Social Science & Medicine 247.

Author: Smitha Rao

Abstract:

Natural disasters affect about 200 million people annually. Heightened intimate partner violence (IPV) is a gendered impact of these disruptive events. This study examines prevalence and correlates of IPV in four Indian states—TamilNadu, Kerala, AndhraPradesh, and Karnataka-before and after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. Drawing on three waves of National Family Health Surveys of India-six years before, immediately after, and a decade after disaster, this paper evaluates if TamilNadu and Kerala (severely affected) exhibited higher prevalence of IPV than AndhraPradesh (moderately affected) and Karnataka (not directly affected). Logistic regression analyses determine association between IPV, state of residence (proxy for experience of disaster), and other covariates. To test hypotheses guided by vulnerability theory, IPV was regressed on socio-economic and demographic predictors for states across waves. IPV increased by 48% between 2005 and 2015. Increase in physical (61%) and sexual (232%) violence was highest in TamilNadu; emotional violence increased by 122% in Karnataka. State of residence was associated with IPV in the aftermath of disaster. In 2005, compared to Karnataka, odds of IPV were 98% higher in TamilNadu and 41% higher in Kerala. A decade after, odds were two times higher in TamilNadu than in Karnataka. Belonging to disadvantaged groups predicted higher odds of IPV in the year after disaster. Higher socio-economic status predicted lower odds of IPV, except in Kerala. Data point to ways in which socio-economic and demographic vulnerabilities factor into risk of IPV after disaster. Demographic factors of religion and caste appear to lose significance over time, but socio-economic factors continue to matter. Disaster response strategies seldom work without tackling long-standing inequities. Appropriate support systems for women and minorities in non-disaster situations are critical to ensure their conditions are not exacerbated.

Keywords: disasters, Intimate partner violence, Gender, vulnerability

Topics: Caste, Class, Domestic Violence, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender-Based Violence, Religion, Sexual Violence Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2020

Citation:

Martín-Moruno, Dolores. 2020. "A Female Genealogy of Humanitarian Action: Compassion as a Practice in the Work of Josephine Butler, Florence Nightingale and Sarah Monod." Medicine, Conflict and Survival 36 (1): 19-40.

Author: Dolores Martín-Moruno

Abstract:

Taking the Second Conference of the International Abolitionist Federation as a starting point, this article reconstructs a female genealogy of humanitarian action by shedding light on the transnational connections established by Josephine Butler, Florence Nightingale and Sarah Monod between the abolitionist cause against the state regulation of prostitution and the nursing movement. By using gender and emotion histories as the main methodologies, their letters, journals and drawings are analysed in order to question their alleged natural compassion towards the unfortunate by examining this emotion as a practice performed according to gender, class, religious and ethnic differences. As an expression of maternal imperialism, this essentialist vision provided them with an agency while taking care of victims. However, Butler, Nightingale and Monod’s care did not only work in complicity with late-nineteenth century British and French Empires, as it frequently came into conflict with the decisions taken by male authorities, such as those represented by politicians, military officials and physicians. By carefully looking at the conformation of their subjectivities through their written and visual documents, their compassion ultimately appears more as a tactic, for asserting their very different stances concerning Western women’s role in society, than as an authentically experienced emotion.

Keywords: gender and women's history, post-colonial studies, history of emotions, International Abolitionist Federation, history of nursing, history of humanitarian relief

Topics: Class, Ethnicity, Gender, Humanitarian Assistance, Religion

Year: 2020

Citation:

Ida, Rachmah, and Muhammad Saud. 2020. “The Narratives of Shia Madurese Displaced Women on Their Religious Identity and Gender Citizenship: A Study of Women and Shi’as in Indonesia.” Journal of Religion and Health. doi: 10.1007/s10943-020-01001-y.

Authors: Rachmah Ida, Muhammad Saud

Abstract:

This article explores expressions in how the local Shi’as Muslim women refugees define and interpret their religious identity and gender citizenship in post-authoritarian Indonesia. This article discusses the cases of Shias women from the Sampang Regency, East Java, Indonesia, in the aftermath of the 2012 conflict that made them internally displaced persons (IDPs, Indonesian: pengungsi). This study argues that religious identity and gender citizenship are constructed by these displaced Shias women concerning their belief as to what is considered ‘true’ in Islam, acquired from the ‘Islamic traditions’ of their local Islamic teacher (s). Their loyalty to a religious belief does not arise from any independent search for the ‘true Islam’ but rather from the doctrine of the teachers/spiritual leaders. Enforced loyalty to Shi’as in their everyday communal ritual practices has influenced the formation of these displaced women’s religious identity as Shi’ias.

Keywords: Shi'as women, internally displaced persons (IDPs), women's narratives, religious identity, gender citizenship

Topics: Citizenship, Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Refugees, Gender, Women, Post-Conflict, Religion, Violence Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Indonesia

Year: 2020

Citation:

Dagtaș, Seçil. 2018. "Inhabiting Difference across Religion and Gender: Displaced Women’s Experiences at Turkey’s Border with Syria." Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees 34 (1): 50-59. 

Author: Seçil Dagtaș

Abstract:

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Discourses, Religion Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Syria, Turkey

Year: 2018

Citation:

Pandya, Sophia. 2018.  "'The War Took Us Backwards:' Yemeni Families and Dialectical Patriarchal Reordering." Hawwa: Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World 16 (1-3): 266-308.

Author: Sophia Pandya

Abstract:

If political activities (demonstration, revolution, war) can be understood as forms of ritual performance in which temporary social hegemonic inversions typically are followed by competing efforts to restore structure or define a new structure, then under what conditions would they offer potential for changes in family dynamics and gender roles? The past few years in Yemen have witnessed extraordinary political and socioeconomic turbulence, from the 2011 Arab Spring revolution to the 2015 brutal war. Yemeni families have been significantly impacted in myriad ways, including displacement, family separation, poverty, violence, unemployment, sectarian strife, disruption of education, and mental illness. Men and women have demonstrated a high level of public activism during the Arab Spring and the war, further altering family dynamics and the gendered social tapestry, in a highly patriarchal country. Social "disorder," including modification of gender roles, is often challenged by those desiring to restore "order," the "traditional" family structure, and patriarchy. This study analyzes gendered dimensions of the "Yemen Spring" and the subsequent war, with a particular focus on the link between gendered family dynamics and the sociopolitical landscape, also considering the role religion and religious groups play.

Keywords: Yemen, Yemen and war, Islam and gender, gender and war, ritual theory, family, family and war, religion

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Gender, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Households, Religion Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Yemen

Year: 2018

Citation:

Elveren, Adem, and Valentine M. Moghadam. 2019. “The Impact of Militarization on Gender Inequality and Female Labor Force Participation.” Economic Research Forum Working Paper 1307, Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg.

Authors: Adem Elveren, Valentine M. Moghadam

Abstract:

Feminist research has revealed significant relationships between militarization, patriarchy, and gender inequality. This paper takes that research forward through an empirical analysis of the impact of militarization on gender inequality and on women’s participation in the labor market. Using the Gender Inequality Index and the Global Militarization Index for the period of 1990-2017 for 133 countries, the paper shows that higher militarization is significantly correlated with higher gender inequality and lower level of female labor force participation rate, controlling for major variables such as conflict, democracy level, regime type, fertility rate, and urbanization rate. The results are significant in the case of Islam and MENA countries, and with respect to countries with different income levels.

Keywords: militarization, military expenditure, democracy, Islam, gender inequality

Topics: Democracy / Democratization, Economies, Conflict, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Gender Equality/Inequality, Health, Reproductive Health, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Livelihoods, Religion Regions: MENA

Year: 2019

Citation:

García, Martín Meráz, Martha L. Cottam, and Bruno M. Baltodano. 2019. The Role of Female Combatants in the Nicaraguan Revolution and Counter Revolutionary War. New York: Routledge. 

Authors: Martín Meráz García, Martha L. Cottam, Bruno M. Baltodano

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Combatants, Female Combatants, Male Combatants, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Indigenous, Nationalism, Religion Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: Nicaragua

Year: 2019

Citation:

Bhattacharya, Srobana and Courtney Burns. 2019. “What’s War Got to Do with It? Post-Conflict Effects on Gender Equality in South and Southeast Asia, 1975–2006.” Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs 6 (1): 55-81.

Authors: Srobana Bhattacharya, Courtney Burns

Abstract:

Does gender equality get better or worse following civil conflict? Given the plethora of research linking gender equality to less bellicosity, we aim to look at the relationship between post-conflict situations and gender equality. Specifically, we argue that circumstances surrounding how a conflict ends can better explain gender equality levels in a country in the post-conflict set up. We discuss whether outright victory for rebel groups will have the best impact for women due to the regime change and democratic process that typically follows. We conduct a Qualitative Comparative Analysis of 13 cases of intrastate conflicts in South and Southeast Asia for the years 1975–2006 along with an in-depth case study of Nepal.We find that rebel victory does have a positive impact on women in post-conflict situations when religious freedom was high, the conflict was centre seeking and wanted to establish a democratic regime.

Keywords: post-conflict, gender equality, conflict termination, civil war

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Democracy / Democratization, Conflict, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Post-Conflict, Religion Regions: Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Nepal

Year: 2019

Citation:

Marddent, Amporn. 2019. "Religious Discourse and Gender Security in Southern Thailand." Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies 12 (2): 225-47.

Author: Amporn Marddent

Abstract:

This article describes the complexity of applying human security through the notion of gender equality in southern Thailand where violent conflict has been prevalent for nearly half a century in a Malay-Muslim dominated society. It explores how the concepts of gender and security have been interpreted in Malay-Muslim leaders’ outlooks. To define security more broadly, the article surveys the various notions of peacebuilding dealing with comprehensive human security and any security threat, thus not limited to state of war or physical violence only. In the prolonged armed violence and conflict, like that faced in Thailand’s Deep South, women’s security and their role in peacebuilding emerge as pertinent concerns. The discontinuities within the narratives of women and security highlight a divergence connected to personal-political imaginations of conflict whereby subtle variations in violent conflict can be seen as the products of different policy prescriptions, local cultural norms, and the project outcomes of women groups supported by governmental organizations and national and international donors. Thus, in order to reflect upon how contemporary security notions are framed, gendered security perceptions ought to be considered as they signify the exercise of peacebuilding programs in the local context. Persistent advocacy of gender equality is about cultural change, which eventually becomes a modality for non-violent society.

Keywords: Cultural Change, Deep South of Thailand, gender security, Malay-Muslim Women, peacebuilding

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Peacebuilding, Religion, Security, Human Security, Violence Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Thailand

Year: 2019