scholarly journals Faith-Based Organisations as Welfare Providers in Brazil: The Conflict over Gender in Cases of Domestic Violence

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-23
Author(s):  
Kim Beecheno

What does the growth of faith-based organisations (FBOs) in social welfare mean for women’s rights and gender equality, especially within advocacy services for women experiencing domestic violence? Through empirical research within a Catholic-based organisation providing welfare services to abused women in São Paulo, Brazil, this article argues that FBOs can negatively impact the provision of women’s rights when conservative and patriarchal views towards gender and women’s roles in society are maintained. A heavily matrifocal perspective, where women’s identity and subjectivity are mediated through their normative roles as wives, mothers and carers of the family, appears to offer little possibility of change for abused women, who are encouraged to forgive violent husbands and question their own behaviour. Mediation between couples is promoted, undermining women’s rights upheld through Brazil’s domestic violence law (Lei Maria da Penha no 11.340). Furthermore, the focus of family preservation, supported by a patriarchal state, means that violence against women (VAW) appears to be subordinated to a focus on family violence and violence against children. In this case, faith-based involvement in social welfare rejects the feminist analysis of VAW as a gender-based problem, viewing it as a personal issue rather than a collective or political issue, making women responsible for the violence in their lives.

Author(s):  
Zahra Ali

This chapter explores the evolution of gender and women’s rights struggles in Iraq since the establishment of the Personal Status Code in 1959 and shed light on the ethnosectarian fragmentation of women’s legal rights in post-invasion Iraq. The chapter argues that in order to explore women’s rights and conditions of lives in Iraq it is essential to explore the evolution of women’s rights and gender issues historically and through a complex lens of analysis rather than applying a predefined argument involving an undifferentiated “Islam” or age-old gender-based violence. It seeks to show that gender issues have been entangled with issues of nationhood, religion, and with the nature of the political regime since the very foundation of the Iraqi Republic in 1958. First, the chapter examines the debates and mobilizations around women’s legal rights in Iraq. Secondly, it highlights the development of political, economic, and military violence since the 1980s and its impact on gender norms and relations. Finally, it analyzes the specific context of ethnosectarian fragmentation in which Iraqi women have lived and mobilized since 2003.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-46
Author(s):  
Yetimwork Anteneh Wondim

Irrespective of their contribution, women in Ethiopia have been facing issues like violence, gender-based discrimination, access to education and training, lack of basic human rights protection, and others. Girls' enrollment in education at all levels is much lower than boys. Female education is hampered mainly by the sexual division of labor, which confines girls to household activities. In addition, women have been suffering from gender-based violence under the guise of tradition and culture but condoned by society. In response to these problems, the Government of Ethiopia adopted relevant instruments pertaining to gender including the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), The Beijing Platform for Action, The Ethiopian Constitution, and various other policies and establishing the national machinery for addressing gender issues. However, several challenges still exist in the realization of women's rights. Therefore, all the respect and protection given for human rights should also be given to women because women's rights are human rights.


Author(s):  
Naila Farah

Today's women's issues are still very important to pay attention to because women's rights have not been fully fulfilled. The marginalization of women's rights often stems from local religious and cultural beliefs. This is where the importance of the thinking of figures like Asghar Ali Engineer is reviewed in the present. This paper discusses the thoughts of Asghar Ali Engineer about liberation theology in the matter of women's rights in Islam. Asghar Ali Engineer in many of his works has offered various kinds of deconstruction of discourses. In the matter of women's rights in Islam, he presents his opinion on inheritance, wealth, testimony, the position of women in the family, polygamy and divorce which are considered as examples of inequality. With its hermeneutic interpretation, Asghar Engineering rejects the existence of a patriarchal concept that is inherent in the classical interpretation of the Quran, which is considered discriminatory against women. Then he applies the verses of the Quran into two, namely normative and contextual, with the hope that the verses of the Quran can be reinterpreted, so that it truly becomes a universal verses of “das solen” on one side and contextual verses of “das sein” on the other. Thus, the equality of men and women can be realized and gender-based justice can be manifested.


2020 ◽  
pp. 145-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nomi Dave

This chapter examines the limits of musical activism by considering some of the varied ways in which music has addressed women’s rights and gender-based violence in Guinea. It centers around the case of a young Guinean rapper who was recently charged with sexual assault, and whose case generated intense criticism from feminist activists and intense support from his fans. The chapter considers two songs closely connected to the case: one that calls for an end to violence against women, and one that calls on women to forgive him. These two songs seem to reflect radically divergent views on gender-based violence. But they are both linked to an underlying ambivalence about women’s rights on the behalf of musicians, audiences, and the state. Survivors of sexual violence are absent in both cases, erased by a politics of forgiveness that calls on them to forget and to be forgotten.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nana Akua Anyidoho ◽  
Gordon Crawford ◽  
Peace A. Medie

Abstract The question of whether social movements can catalyze change has preoccupied researchers but an understanding of how such change can be created is equally important. Specifically, there has been little investigation of how women's movements engage in the process of implementation of women's rights laws. We use a case study of Ghana's Domestic Violence Coalition to examine the challenges that movements face in the policy implementation process. The Domestic Violence Coalition, a collective of women's rights organizations, was instrumental to the passage of Ghana's Domestic Violence Act in 2007. Our study investigates the coalition's subsequent attempts to influence the act's implementation. Drawing from the social movement literature, we apply an analytical framework consisting of three internal factors (strategies, movement infrastructure, and framing) and two external factors (political context and support of allies) that have mediated the coalition's impact on implementation. We find that changes in movement infrastructure are most significant in explaining the coalition's relative ineffectiveness, as these changes adversely affect its ability to employ effective strategies and take advantage of a conducive political context and the presence of allies. This article advances the literature on rights advocacy by women's movements by analyzing the challenge of translating success in policy adoption to implementation and explaining why women's movements may have less impact on implementation processes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 454-462
Author(s):  
Pearl K. Atuhaire ◽  
◽  
Sylvia Blanche Kaye ◽  

While the need for equal access to civil, political as well as economic, social and cultural rights is clear under the international law, the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against women in 1979 made this even clearer. Despite this positive progress, the abuse of refugee women's rights is one of the basic underlying root causes of their marginalisation and violence in their countries of asylum. This paper presents a critical review on the development of refugee women's rights at the international levels and national levels. It provides an array of scholarly literature on this issue and examines the measures taken by the international community to curb the problem of violence against women in their various provisions through the instruments set. It is cognizant of the fact that even if conflict affects both refugee women and men, the effects on women refugees are deep-reaching, due to the cultural strongholds they face. An important aspect of this paper is that it is conceptualised against the fact that refugee women face the problem of sexual and gender based first as refugees and second as women, yet, their rights are stumbled upon. Often times they have been rendered "worthless victims" who are only in need of humanitarian assistance than active participants committed to change their plight through their participation in political, economic and social participation in their societies. Scholars have taken notice of the fact that women's rights in refugee settings have been marginalized and call for a need to incorporate their perspectives in the planning and management of refugee settings in which they live. Underpinning this discussion is feminism theory which gives a clear understanding of the root cause of refugee women's problems. Finally, this paper suggests that these policies should be translated into action at local, national international and regional levels to ensure sustainable peace.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 731-747
Author(s):  
Elise Ketelaars

AbstractWith RRW populist actors’ discovery of gender norms as a useful foreign policy tool, narratives constructed in terms of geographical value spaces have become central to the struggle for women's rights. Through a detailed examination of international and domestic actors’ engagement with the failed ratification process of the Istanbul Convention in Ukraine, this article aims to enhance understanding of the appropriateness of the use of these geographical value spaces when describing the struggle to combat GBV in Ukraine, and how connecting gender justice issues to geographically restricted value spaces impacts this fight. It finds that in practice neither the EU – despite Russia's allegations to the contrary – nor domestic political elites in favour of closer cooperation with Europe have provided meaningful support to the ratification of the Istanbul Convention. Faced with this situation, some Ukrainian feminists have increasingly sought to present the struggle to combat gender-based violence in a locally acceptable vernacular. This article, however, concludes that framing the struggle for women's rights in any type of geographical terms – be they of an international or domestic nature – increases the risk of either instrumentalisation of or selective engagement with the feminist agenda.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Yonna Beatrix Salamor ◽  
Anna Maria Salamor ◽  
Meidilin Uneputty

Introduction: The study of women has been widely carried out in various disciplines from a biological, historical, and cultural perspective. This study of women began to emerge after the awareness of society, especially women, about their different views, status and roles compared to men. The fact that there are differences between women and men from various aspects has prompted activists to fight for change and efforts to eliminate the views that cause these differences, so that the differences between women and men are only due to biological differences.Purposes of the Research: The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the view of women's rights in a small society and the emergence of gender inequality which can be one of the triggers for domestic violence (KDRT) in women.Methods: Community service activities carried out in the Solagratia Youth Force are a community service activity carried out in several stages, namely Identifying problems faced by cadres of AM GPM Subdistrict Solagratia, providing education about women's rights and gender equality for AM GPM Ranting Solagratia cadres . From the stages carried out, the method used in community service activities at AM GPM Ranting Solagratia is an educational method through legal counseling on women's rights and gender equality for AM GPM Ranting Solagratia cadres.Results / Findings / Novelty of the Research: After conducting  identification based on data obtained from coordination with the executives of the Solagratia Subdistrict AM GPM, a community service activity was planned for January 30, 2021. After conducting educational activities on women's rights and gender equality through counseling given to all cadres of the Solagratia GPM Youth Force There are several facts that are quite surprising, including a lack of knowledge about the right to get the highest education without exception, so that it creates the mindset of both parents and members themselves who think it is important that women have graduated from high school in order to help the family economy by working and ignore the desire to continue education to a higher stage. Second, female cadre members often experience domestic violence as a result of marriage at a young age.


The existing literature on women’s rights and Islam falls short of addressing the relationship between the religious debate on women’s rights and the existing rules of law in Muslim-majority countries. This chapter will bridge this gap by analyzing the status of women in the legal systems of Egypt, Turkey, and Morocco. It will evaluate the influence of Islam on the shaping of these laws, compared to other factors like culture, socioeconomic development, and education. Except in marginal cases like Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan under the Taliban, women’s rights in politics, the economy, and education have advanced in all Muslim countries. But there are some limitations placed upon women’s rights using religious arguments. Everywhere, personal rights about family life, sexuality, and dress code remain discriminatory against women. In this regard, the woman’s body has become the main site of the politicization of Islam, by state and non-state actors alike.


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