Search

Appropriating relevant elements from Iranian film scholar Hamid Naficy's formulation of an 'Accented Cinema' (2001) that addresses various aspects of diasporic filmmaking and filmmakers 'situated in the interstices of social formations and cinematic practices' (4) as guiding tropes for analysis, this paper focuses on the depiction of the post-Taliban period through a contextual and critical reading of Nelofer Pazira's first documentary film Return to Kandahar (2003) and her debut feature film Act of Dishonour (2009) on the topic of 'honour-killing.' The paper examines how these films portray 'accented' images captured and relayed by a diaspora Afghan woman filmmaker to appeal to distant and unversed Western/foreign audiences and film festivals. In addition to Naficy's formulation of the 'accented cinema', I argue that Pazira uses a formulaic accent and variances (also to be read as her emphases) in her depictions that are aimed specifically at appealing to Western audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study that examines how gender has been referenced in United Nations (UN), supranational and state documents on forced migration over the past 40 years. It is motivated by the premise that humanitarian protection discourses reflect broader institutional priorities and ideologies and may therefore expose gaps that reveal the relative importance given to the category of gender. The evidence presented below is the result of an extensive review of policy documents on Afghanistan, Kurdistan Region-Iraq (KRI), and Sri Lanka contained in the Refworld database. 1 The study sought to understand how gender is mentioned in terms of 1. governmentality — a top-down policy preference, which emphasizes the management of humanitarian protection; 2. empowerment — a bottom up policy preference, which emphasizes self-actualization and self-determination: we seek to understand how agency is expressed, including how opportunities for participation feature in policy discourse; 3. inclusion — the scope of coverage of different gender categories in policy discourse; and, 4. differentiation — the particularization of needs, wishes, and demands made by women, men, and girls and boys in displacement settings. The paper finds: • Where gender and displacement are discussed together, there is greater emphasis on governmentality, which crowds out other objectives, including advancing opportunities for gender empowerment and participation. • Internally displaced persons (IDPs) tend to be treated as an operational challenge alongside security and peacebuilding. The nature of their displacement is implicit in these documents, associated within the recurring themes of land, violence, empowerment, and livelihoods. The documents mention violence, but do not widely cover maternal, sexual, and reproductive health. • The documents offer little insight into the identities of the displaced — whether female, male, children, or members of LGBT communities — and are mostly silent on their specific protection needs. Overall, the paper finds remarkably little integration of gender within the humanitarian literature on forced displacement. In spite of much advocacy by the UN, the concept of gender has not been effectively disaggregated to address the specific needs of IDPs, especially in the discussion of children. This paper argues that taking gender seriously means recognizing how protection needs may be shaped by power relationships, and how policy and practice would be enhanced by a more nuanced understanding of how vulnerabilities and opportunities are structured by gender and the specificities of the displacement context. It recommends that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and partner UN agencies continue to find opportunities to bring humanitarian policy on gender and forced displacement into conversation in order to strengthen protection. To this end, it suggests that the concept of gender should be disaggregated to address the specific needs of displaced people, to reflect the wider range of identities of displaced people, and to foster opportunities for their empowerment, and participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Located at the intersection of feminist geographies of development and embodiment, this paper explores the everyday gendered experiences of international women staff working for an education-related NGO in Afghanistan. Drawing from a larger study, this paper is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with eight international women who have spent extended periods of time working in Afghanistan. It reveals the various ways international staff experienced and managed their western female bodies within and across public, non-work related spaces. Our analysis focuses on the participants' ethical and cultural considerations of covering, navigation of gendered eye contact, and experiences of sexual harassment in the streets of Kabul. It reveals how women's embodied experiences within and across non-working spaces of development led to (partial) knowledge, heightened reflexivity, critique of the development industry, and deep questioning about identity politics. Ultimately, this paper offers valuable insights into the corporeality of international women in public spaces in Afghanistan. It highlights the importance of non-work related spaces for cultivating women's understandings of difference, relationality, and ethical relationships with the Afghan women they work for and with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of increasing risk for aid workers, a growing body of scholarship is focused on risk management in contexts of humanitarian assistance and development work. Much less attention, however, has been given to how staff and volunteers experience such risks. This paper adopts a feminist geographical approach to explore how development workers make meaning of risk in specific contexts. Adopting a qualitative approach, it draws upon 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews with international (7) and local (7) staff of an international educational and sporting non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Afghanistan. After exploring differences between local and foreign staff perceptions of risk, it also offers a gendered analysis of risk for women development workers in Afghanistan. In so doing, this paper contributes to the growing body of literature in 'Aidland' studies by revealing the complex understandings of risk and fear by both foreign and local staff in the same geographical and organisational context. For NGOs seeking to make life-saving decisions based on the calculation of risk, this paper evidences the need to also create space for the voices of local and foreign staff whose experiences of risk will be highly relational, embodied, gendered and context specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inequitable access to education is a widely acknowledged development challenge, an issue even more pronounced in conflict-affected communities like Afghanistan, where insecurity and violence targeted against education exacerbates barriers that keep children, especially girls, from going to school. To address these challenges, Baghch-e-Simsim (BSS), a locally produced children's television show, has focused on academic skills and gender equity for children and their families in Afghanistan. This paper will analyze the impact of BSS on the views of gender norms of children and parents using data from two studies: a nationally representative quasi-experimental evaluation of 3025 TV-viewing households and an in-depth qualitative encourage-to-view study of twenty households in Kabul. Overall findings will show that families who frequently view BSS have more gender equitable beliefs. Findings will also show that there is variability among parents on the appropriateness of boys and girls playing together outside, largely driven by security concerns rather than cultural gender norms. Recommendations will focus on the importance of continuing to create mass media content for young children that supports gender equity, but that content must also begin to reflect and address the security concerns facing parents that keep girls out of school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women in Afghanistan, taking advantage of the opportunities provided by their country's reconstruction efforts in the early 2000s, worked diligently to ensure that the new Afghan constitution included important rights for women, including the advancement of right to political representation. Indeed the 2004 Afghan constitution reserved at least 27% of the lower house parliamentary seats for women, guaranteeing their presence in formal political decision-making. Although women's political presence came to a sudden halt with the unexpected fall of the Afghan government in August 2021, this paper argues that the Afghan gender quota provision nonetheless has important symbolic implications for Afghan women's political roles in two central ways. First, the quotas, which were a long-time in the making, justified women's political presence to themselves as well as their male-dominated political and cultural context. Second, with the sudden coming to power of the Taliban in 2021, the quotas have greatly contributed to invigorating local women's protests and their key demand for women's political representation, comprising one of the most outspoken anti-Taliban and pro-democracy forces. Despite backlash from the militant Taliban, women, with the support of diverse transnational solidarity networks, are refusing to be silent, demanding equal inclusion in the country's political structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quasi-idiomatic expression 'women have to prove themselves' reflects various performance pressures and heightened visibility of women functioning in gendered professional spaces as advocated by tokenism theory. It is an example of how discriminatory practice – according to which competent and qualified women entering the culturally masculine professions are explicitly and implicitly expected to work harder for any recognition – gets discoursed in language and becomes a "rhetorically powerful form of talk" (Kitzinger 2000: 124). This paper explores the question: what is it that U.S. servicewomen functioning in the culturally hypermasculine space need to do to prove themselves? To this end, qualitative semi-structured interviews with women veterans of the recent Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are qualitatively scrutinized with the methods of discourse analysis and conversation analysis to 1) identify practices that U.S. servicewomen engage in to symbolically (re-)claim their place and status in the military, i.e., to prove they belong; 2) find out how the talk around proving emerged in the course of the conversation and how it was further interactionally sustained and/or dealt with in talk-in-interaction. The findings of the micro-level analysis – interpreted through the lenses of tokenism and the category of the 'honorary man' – reveal women's complex and nuanced struggle to fit and find acceptance in the military culture of hypermasculinity. They also re-engage with the ideas of tokenism by demonstrating that various acts of proving, reflecting women's token status, may concurrently and paradoxically be a means to earn honorary man status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show the relevance and applicability of Martha Nussbaum's Capability Approach (MNCA) in feminism to the lives of the women in Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) regions who are impacted by war, underdevelopment, entrenched patriarchy and religious fundamentalism and face its deadly repercussions on their daily lives and human rights. Contrary to the reductionist representation of women in these regions in terms of their religio-cultural identity, this article bases itself in their harsh, socio-economic-political reality, history of the cold war, erosion of democratic institutions, war on terror and the rise of militarism and nationalism. Thus, issues of development, specifically, gender gap and human rights need to be brought centre-stage to address the systematic violation of women's rights. The MNCA, being rooted in the dignity and personhood of each individual, is an indispensable baseline in terms of basic human rights for women in the Af-Pak region. Here, I show how the MNCA does not contradict institutions of family, culture and religion in the region and actually serves to build a bridge between universality and the specific local context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Republican nominee Donald Trump vowed to bring troops home from Afghanistan. After the election, in August of 2017, newly elected President Trump, with advice from national security adviser McMaster, decided to keep troops in Afghanistan. It is reported that the President was convinced to keep troops in Afghanistan after shown a black and white photograph of Afghan women in miniskirts from the 1970s (Eberhardt, 2017; Rucker & Costa, 2017). These photographs, in juxtaposition with images of veiled women, however, play a specific role in how we think about Afghanistan and intervention. Examining media representations of Afghan women, we explore media coverage in The New York Times, through a thematic analysis of 286 articles beginning with the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 up to 2018. We focus on coverage of Afghan women over the span of 17 years, paying close attention to news coverage following the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, President Obama's direction to increase the number of military troops in the country, and President Trump's decision to keep troops in Afghanistan. This paper examines how Afghan women are presented in media coverage and how these representations contribute to larger discussions of intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Afghanistan is a country with strong cultural norms and a male-dominated society, comprising 49% of women population. The plight of Afghan women is embedded in long history of the country. Decades old war has led 90% of Afghan women without education (aged 25). In wartorn countries around the world, thousands of women are deprived of education. The displacement and the predominance of norms or ideologies dampen the very idea of education for women. Most of the schools are far enough and the children, predominately the girls, have no easy access there. Girls do stay at home following the gender norms. However in post 2001, there have been significant developments regarding female education and their participation in public life. The most important contribution was the adoption of National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA¹), 10 years strategic framework (2010-18). The paper argues that the girls' education in Afghanistan requires to be looked through the lens of culture. It will analyze the other barriers to women education and explore the facts how they are unequally treated in terms of access to all levels of education in the country. However, there is a long way to meet the challenges regarding women education. It will conclude with the idea that it is undoubtedly true that countries can develop where there is no gender discrimination with regard to ducation politics and social and economic rebuilding. Only gender-oriented tasks can rule out inequalities in conflict-affected societies and transform them into peaceful societies of respect and equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While women's political inclusion is central to international conflict resolution efforts, public attitudes in conflict states towards women's political inclusion remain understudied. We expect insecurity to depress support for female political leadership in conflicts where women's political inclusion is violently contested. Citizens wanting security through force prefer male leaders because of stereotypes privileging men's military prowess. However, citizens wanting security through reconciliation also favour men for fear that female leadership would provoke more violence. We assess these expectations with experimental and observational data from the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. In the survey experiment, priming respondents to think about insecurity decreases support for female leadership, but only among women. In observational data, insecurity correlates with more polarized attitudes towards women's political representation in some regions and greater support for female leaders in others. Insecurity's impact on public support for female leadership in conflict states may be highly heterogeneous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Mental health problems are prevalent after combat; they are also common in its absence. Estimates of deployment-attributability vary. This paper quantifies the contribution of different subtypes of occupational trauma to post-deployment mental health problems.Methods: Participants were a cohort of 16,193 Canadian personnel undergoing post-deployment mental health screening after return from the mission in Afghanistan. The screening questionnaire assessed post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and exposure to 30 potentially traumatic deployment experiences. Logistic regression estimated adjusted population attributable fractions (PAFs) for deployment-related trauma, which was treated as count variables divided into several subtypes of experiences based on earlier factor analytic work.Results: The overall PAF for overall deployment-related trauma exposure was 57.5% (95% confidence interval 44.1, 67.7) for the aggregate outcome of any of the four assessed problems. Substantial PAFs were seen even at lower levels of exposure. Among subtypes of trauma, exposure to a dangerous environment (e.g., receiving small arms fire) and to the dead and injured (e.g., handling or uncovering human remains) had the largest PAFs. Active combat (e.g., calling in fire on the enemy) did not have a significant PAF.Conclusions: Military deployments involving exposure to a dangerous environment or to the dead or injured will have substantial impacts on mental health in military personnel and others exposed to similar occupational trauma. Potential explanations for divergent findings in the literature on the extent to which deployment-related trauma contributes to the burden of mental disorders are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social Sciences Studies is the property of Social Sciences Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Central to the goal of 'hearts and minds' counterinsurgency is the need for knowledge, understanding and influence in relation to local populations. Building on feminist scholarship on counterinsurgency, the article focuses on the 'female engagement' work undertaken by four programmes developed by the US military between 2003 and 2014. The article offers three key arguments. First, it maintains that the gendered subjectivities of Iraqi and Afghan women and US female counterinsurgents are constructed as strategic assets and as vulnerable subjects. Second, these programmes reveal the extent to which gendered counterinsurgency is constituted and regulated by emotional and embodied norms and rules for both female soldiers and civilians. Third, it suggests that the discursive construction of 'winning hearts and minds' works to render less visible the violence of gendered counterinsurgency practices. Although gendered counterinsurgency mobilizes a relational ontology predicated on the emotional labour required for developing knowledge of the Iraqi and Afghan 'other', female engagement activities cannot escape the logic of instrumental reasoning within which they are located. Ultimately, recognizing the policy of female engagement as central to forms of knowledge production reveals the extent to which the violences of war rely on a complex set of gendered and affective relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Limited research on experiences of women, who constitute a double vulnerable group in both women and refugee status, regarding sexual and reproductive health. The purpose of this study is to examine the knowledge, beliefs, and cultural practices of Afghan women living in Türkiye regarding sexual and reproductive health. Method: This descriptive phenomenological study was conducted with 18 Afghan refugee women. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data. Results: Four themes emerged from interviews: cultural practices and beliefs related to pregnancy and postpartum, use of contraceptive methods, gender-based violence, and access to health services. Conclusions: Afghan women have different cultural practices regarding prenatal, pregnancy, and postpartum and lack of knowledge about sexual and reproductive health. Considering individual differences in sexual and reproductive health, providing sensitive, supportive, and informative services is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine and analyse the Ideological construction of gender representation in Nadia Hashmi's The Pearl That Broke Its Shell from the perspective of Critical discourse analysis. The study has been conducted in a socially constructed Bacha Posh tradition which has been practiced in Afghanistan for several generations. To unpack gender representation and ideological construction of gender in the discourse structures, the researcher has used M.M Lazar's FCDA praxis. Lazar's theoretical and methodological considerations offer a systematic inquiry to the researcher to dig out the ideological construction and unequal representation of gender. The current study revealed that gender is a social and cultural phenomenon and central female characters in the discourse structures are represented unequally, socially, culturally politically and economically through linguistic structures. Further studies are required to investigate the effect of polygamy and early marriages on the lives of girls in Afghan society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the commodification of women in Afghanistan through an in-depth analysis of the anonymous Afghani-authored short story, "I Am For Sale, Who Will Buy Me" (2010). Employing a Materialist Feminist lens and drawing upon Silvia Federici's theoretical framework in Caliban and the Witch (2004), the study examines the influence of religious doctrines on women's social and economic status, culminating in their marginalization. The analysis dissects the exploitation of gender roles, objectification of female bodies, and the commodification of Afghan women, revealing the intricate interplay between patriarchal systems, religious ideologies, and gender disparity. Additionally, the study explores historical and contemporary challenges faced by Afghan women, encompassing barriers to education, economic opportunities, and social integration. Emphasizing the necessity for comprehensive approaches, this research advocates transformative change and gender justice, stressing its urgency. Positioned within the broader discourse on women's struggles, this study aims to contribute an understanding of women's oppression with a primary focus on fostering agency and societal transformation for Afghan women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades, mental health surveys in Afghanistan found very high prevalence figures for mental health problems among the Afghans. These epidemiological data suggest that the majority of the Afghan population suffer from a mental disorder such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. Such findings are often met with surprise by the Afghans who doubt that most of the people around them would suffer from a psychiatric illness. This paper explores the discrepancy between the findings from surveys using brief symptom-based questionnaires and the lived reality of the Afghan people. The authors argue that the outcomes of such mental health surveys should be interpreted with caution and can be better seen as indicators of 'non-disordered' psychosocial distress rather than as a general mental disorder. To better understand psychosocial wellbeing of the Afghan people, the survey data need to be put into context and have an eye for the cultural and social ecologies in which symptoms are produced. Many symptoms may actually be normal responses to living in difficult circumstances. Moreover, mental health surveys may conflate cultural idioms of distress with mental illness and often do not take into consideration that the Afghan social world is highly gender segregated. Future mental health research in Afghanistan should use contextually appropriate and culturally validated instruments and be complemented by in-depth ethnographic explorations of emotional suffering among Afghans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In 2019, a migrant camp on the Greek island of Samos designed for 650 people was home to a growing population of over 5500. We aimed to quantitatively describe living conditions and health needs in the camp. Methods: A questionnaire was designed with reference to international humanitarian standards, following a consultative process with the asylum-seeker population. Domains assessed included demographics, living conditions, safety/vulnerability, and health. The questionnaire was piloted and then conducted in June 2019 on a sample of asylum seekers. Results: Five hundred participants, predominantly from Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Of these, 79.4% lived in tents. Respondents cared for a total of 570 children; 20.6% of women were pregnant, 35.4% had experienced violence, 83% psychological distress, 71% skin disease, 66% diarrhoea and vomiting, and 64% respiratory disease. Accommodation, sanitation, and nutrition fell below internationally recognised standards, and poor access to water was significantly associated (p < 0.001) with respiratory disease, diarrhoea and vomiting, skin disease ,and psychological distress. Conclusions: Living conditions in the Samos camp fall below basic humanitarian standards and are associated with poor health status. Further research is imperative to analyse and monitor the diverse, varying needs of asylum-seekers and inform policies to improve conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International development initiatives in the Global-South are often shaped by Western and Eurocentric constructions of gender, female agency and empowerment embedded in popular narratives of universal rights and white mainstream feminist ideals. Through a qualitative desk-study and documentary-analysis, this paper explores the cases of two I-NGOs: Canadian Women for Women of Afghanistan (CW4WA) and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) to unravel how colonial discourses of gender and educational development, and homogenous and pathological notions of Muslim women are mobilised in Afghanistan to deliver various political agendas and reproduce patriarchal relations, as well as wider Global South/North divisions and entrenched inequalities. We engage with epistemic shifts. We argue that I-NGOs educational interventions take bottom-up approaches informed by local knowledges and contexts and decolonised notions of gender, power and participation, which promote and sustain a more socially just and transformative education in the developing world. We also argue that epistemic shifts are required informed by post-colonial and critical realism approaches to gender and development, both in terms of research/theory and policy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is one of the basic necessities of every person which is accepted by the United Nations as one of the basic rights of the individual male and female. Gender differences in educational achievementsиhave long been the focus of researches. Several studies have reported that female students outperform their male counterparts. The purpose of this study is to identify the percentage of intelligence level between male and female based on their exam score taking. The sample size estimation was created on the consecutive sampling where all cases are accessible in a given period of time. In a cross-sectional study out of a total of 610 students of the Dentistry Department of Kabul University of Medical Sciences which is one of the top public universities in Afghanistan, 278 were males and 332 females. The results of final exams of fall semester 2019 of Dentistry Department have been collected, then the percentage of each class have been calculated separately to find out which gender group is due to be among top ten students in each class. And in addition we have calculated how many students of both gender show above 80 percent. Two Sample T Test and Ms. excel were used for statistical analysis. This research showed that the numbers of Female students are more in top ten than male students in each class of Dentistry Department. We can accomplish that female students are more hardworking compared to male students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article empirically explores women's lived experiences of domestic violence and conflict in Afghanistan. A thematic analysis of 20 semistructured interviews with women living in safe houses produced three main themes about the relationship between conflict and domestic violence: (a) violence from loss of patriarchal support, (b) violence from the drug trade as an economic driver, and (c) violence from conflict-related poverty. We discuss the bidirectional nature of this relationship: Not only does conflict contribute to domestic violence, but domestic violence contributes to conflict through justifying armed intervention, separating women from economic and public life, and perpetuating patriarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gümüshane University Electronic Journal of the Institute of Social Science / Gümüshane Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Elektronik Dergisi is the property of Gumushane University Electronic Journal of the Institute of Social Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Although there have been notable improvements in availability and utilization of maternal health care in Afghanistan over the last few decades, risk of maternal mortality remains very high. Previous studies have highlighted gaps in quality of emergency obstetric and newborn care practices, however, little is known about the quality of routine intrapartum care at health facilities in Afghanistan.Methods: We analyzed a subset of data from the 2016 Afghanistan Maternal and Newborn Health Quality of Care Assessment that comprised of observations of labor, delivery and immediate post-partum care, as well as health facility assessments and provider interviews across all accessible public health facilities with an average of five or more births per day in the preceding year (N = 77). Using the Quality of the Process of Intrapartum and Immediate Postpartum Care index, we calculated a quality of care score for each observation. We conducted descriptive and bivariate analyses and built a multivariate linear regression model to identify facility-level factors associated with quality of care scores.Results: Across 665 childbirth observations, low quality of care was observed such that no health facility type received an average quality score over 56%. The multivariate regression model indicated that availability of routine labor and delivery supplies, training in respectful maternity care, perceived gender equality for training opportunities, recent supervision, and observation during supervision have positive, statistically significant associations with quality of care.Conclusions: Quality of routine intrapartum care at health facilities in Afghanistan is concerningly low. Our analysis suggests that multi-faceted interventions are needed to address direct and indirect contributors to quality of care including clinical care practices, attention to client experiences during labor and childbirth, and attention to staff welfare and opportunities, including gender equality within the health workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical research documented voices of women and girls in female shelters and prisons in Samangan, Laghman and Wardak provinces who experienced systematic sexual and gender based violence before and after they escaped forced marriages, forced virginity tests, physical and sexual violence. Women who challenged the status quo, fundamentalism and extremism faced imprisonment for up to five years. The research interviewed primary, secondary and territory health care professionals, who carried out or witnessed invasive virginity tests. The evidence suggests that women are being deprived of basic human rights of exercising autonomy and freedom. It shows difficulties some health professionals' encounter in documenting, reporting and treating cases of violence against women and girls. The research concludes that a survivor-centered approach, and secular framework is required against tyranny, misogyny and oppression. Instead of imposing moral arguments and harmful laws that undermine women's rights, brave leadership at many levels is required to tackle health inequities, dismantle patriarchy, counter fundamentalism and other entrenched systems of inequality. A new kind of feminist citizenship is needed not based on identity but political values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have focused on homelessness among Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) veterans, especially female veterans. An explanatory model of homelessness was constructed and tested for each gender. Data collected in the United States from 833 OEF/OIF/OND veterans (41.5% female; Mage = 35.22, SD = 8.86) who completed the baseline assessment of the Survey of the Experiences of Returning Veterans between September 2011 and July 2014 were analysed. Path analysis was used to examine associations between risk factors and any lifetime homelessness, stratified by gender. Adverse childhood events (ACEs) and low social support were significantly associated with lifetime homelessness for both genders. Social support mediated associations between ACEs and homelessness, after controlling for sociodemographic factors. While sociodemographic risk factors are often considered in homeless prevention, these findings highlight the importance of social support among male and female OEF/OIF/OND veterans, underscoring the need to target this life domain in preventing homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms have been repeatedly linked to intimate partner aggression (IPA), and previous research has suggested that this association may be stronger among veterans and men. However, few studies have examined veteran status and gender as moderators of the association between PTSD and psychological IPA, taking both partners' perspectives into account (i.e., within a dyadic framework). The current study aimed to address this limitation by using dyadic multilevel modeling to examine the association between PTSD symptoms and psychological IPA perpetration among a sample of 159 Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans and their partners (N = 318 participants). Findings revealed that both one's own and one's partner's PTSD symptoms were positively associated with greater psychological IPA. In addition, the effects of partner PTSD symptoms on psychological IPA perpetration differed across gender and veteran status. Results suggested that the association of partner PTSD and IPA perpetration may be stronger for male veterans than for female veterans. Findings from the current study are consistent with previous research showing associations between PTSD and IPA, and have clinical implications for treatment of PTSD and IPA among Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the connections between humour, gender and the violent function and practice of military institutions. As such it departs from a more typical theorisation of humour in international politics as a practice of rupture or resistance. Whilst humour can contest prevailing power structures, institutions, systems of oppression and violence, this article reveals the opposite. To do so, references to humour in the Ministry of Defence's official obituaries for British fatalities from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are analysed and discussed. Firstly, conceptualisations of humour, gender and violence are considered and an approach to humour as gender practice is detailed and situated within a feminist approach to gender and military violence. Secondly, through the MOD obituaries the article then explores how humour can contribute to the violent function and practice of the military institution and the broader social and political legitimacy of the institution and its violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Pakistan Journal of Gender Studies is the property of University of Karachi, Centre of Excellence for Women's Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article we reflect on our efforts to study the prosecution of moral crimes in Afghanistan. In the process of collating information about men and women imprisoned for moral crimes such as adultery, we found evidence that pointed to large-scale incarceration of men for the uncodified crime of elopement. After establishing this fact through a careful review of official data, the article considers two interrelated themes. First, we argue that government attempts to conceal its extralegal practices cannot be reduced to the question of a corrupt bureaucracy or weak governance. Rather, they reflect a fundamental tension between a modern state's interest in projecting the rule of (codified) law and societal expectations arising from both Islamic and customary law. Second, we suggest that officials seek to address this conceptual tension between the different bodies of law through a complex process involving both accommodation and concealment. In day-to-day judicial practice, 'assimilation' refers to attempts to rely on sharia provisions to accommodate customary practices which have no counterpart in statutory law. 'Dissimulation' refers to bureaucratic actions aimed at concealing the actual practices which make such extralegal accommodations possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Afghanistan has high maternal and infant mortality which is in part driven by high fertility and low modern contraceptive use. Using modern contraceptive methods can reduce maternal and infant mortality, however there are several barriers to modern contraceptive use in Afghanistan. Married men have the potential to hinder or facilitate their wives' contraceptive use. Internally displaced persons (IDP), a growing population in Afghanistan, are rarely included in reproductive health research. We explored whether married men's, including IDPs', gender-related attitudes and other factors were associated with reported modern contraceptive use to inform programming to meet reproductive health needs of married couples. Methods: Cross-sectional study using data from 885 married men determined to have contraceptive need in seven Afghan provinces. We explored associations between sociodemographic factors, IDP status, wives' involvement in household decision-making and men's attitudes towards intimate partner violence (IPV) with reported modern contraceptive use using logistic regression analysis. Results: Most men (78%) had ≥2 children, 60% reported any formal education, and 30% reported being IDPs. Only 38% of married men and 24% of IDPs with contraceptive need reported using modern contraception with their wives. Most (80% overall, 63% of IDPs) reported their wives' involvement in some/all household decisions, while 47% overall and 57% of IDPs reported IPV was justified in one or more listed circumstances. In bivariate analysis, men responding that IPV was not justified in any listed circumstance were more likely and IDPs less likely to report modern contraceptive use. In multivariable analysis, involvement by wives in household decision-making (AOR 2.57; 95% CI: 1.51, 4.37), owning a radio and/or television (AOR 1.69; 95% CI: 1.10, 2.59), having more children, age, and province of interview were independently associated with reported modern contraceptive use, while IDP status was not. Conclusions: Our findings reflect positive associations between wives' participation in household decisions and mass media exposure (television/radio ownership) with reported modern contraceptive use. Reproductive health initiatives engaging men to promote communication within couples and through mass media channels may further increase modern contraceptive use and advance Afghanistan's family planning goals. As fewer IDPs owned a radio/television, additional outreach methods should be tested for this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Women served in both combat and non-combat units in the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, the recent conflicts lacked traditional separation of civilians from combatants carrying additional risk for injury to local civilians. There is a relative paucity of data specific to this topic. We compare injury patterns and interventions performed in the prehospital, combat setting among females versus males. Methods: This is a secondary analysis of previously published data from the Department of Defense Trauma Registry. We included all subjects that had at least one prehospital intervention documented. We compared variables between females and males. Results: From January 2007 to August 2016, our inclusion criteria captured 19,485 males and 533 females. Female casualties were older (median age 29 vs. 25), less likely to have sustained injuries from explosives (48.0% vs. 56.8%), and more severely injured as measured by median composite injury scores (10 vs. 9). Most subjects were in Afghanistan for both females and males (52.9% vs. 73.9%). Among United States (US) service members, findings were similar to the overall study population, except female service members had lower median composite injury scores than males (5 vs. 9). In unadjusted analyses, females were less likely to survive to hospital discharge (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.48–0.97). There was no difference in survival (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.50–1.07), when controlling for confounders. In both unadjusted and adjusted analyses specific to US forces, we were unable to detect any differences in survival or for select analgesic administration. In both unadjusted and adjusted analyses specific to host nation civilians, we were unable to detect any differences in survival; however, even when controlling for confounders females were less likely to receive ketamine and IV morphine (OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.15–0.63; 0.69, 95% CI 0.49–0.98, respectively). Conclusions: Females accounted for a small proportion of total casualties within our dataset. After controlling for confounders, survival was comparable between males and females, but host nation females were less likely to receive ketamine and intravenous morphine. Future studies should seek to elucidate the reasons for these subtle differences between males and females in prehospital combat casualty care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NATO's public diplomacy plays an important role in constituting the alliance's identity in global politics, yet has remained marginal to many scholarly accounts of the alliance. This article considers NATO's increasing footprint in digital diplomacy and the role of gendered narratives in shaping it. The central point of analysis is NATO's 'story of Afghanistan', told in the web-documentary Return to Hope, which was released to much acclaim in September 2014 to coincide with the drawdown of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Afghanistan. It finds personal narratives given precedence over historical events, key temporal omissions and the silencing of Afghan women. As such, it provides an important critique of the masculinist protection logic underpinning NATO's efforts, which has served to instrumentalize (Afghan) women and falls short of expectations given the alliance's commitment to UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the Women, Peace and Security agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nowadays, in light of gender inequity, new concern has been raised for health-seeking behavior of women in clinical setting. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions and health-seeking behaviors of Afghan immigrant women residing in Mashhad, Iran. Method: An ethnographic design was used to examine the health-seeking behavior of Afghan women. This study took place in Tollab Tabarsi area of Mashhad, Iran, from March 2013 to July 2014. For gathering of data, participant observations, fieldwork, and formal interviews were included. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Fourteen Afghan women immigrants and five health care professionals were interviewed. The overarching category derived from the data was gender inequity. The emergent three themes were cultural taboos, women position, and information gap. Discussions: The displaced Afghan women were found to be at significant risk of adverse health events, which affected both their physical health and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly four decades of instability and fragility have led to many changes in the status of women and girls in Afghanistan. Yet, little research focuses on these changes within the education system. To understand the country’s stance toward gender issues in formal practice, we examine gender representations in Afghan primary-level Dari language arts textbooks. Using a qualitative content analysis and longitudinal data, we examine how ideologies about gender have been politicised in Afghanistan and are reflected in school textbooks from 1980 to 2010. Findings suggest that tumultuous political events and power struggles in the recent history of Afghanistan have led to many changes in how the daily social and working lives of Afghan women and girls have been portrayed in textbooks. As seen in the textbooks, it appears that efforts are being made within the current regime to balance competing gender norms. We conclude with suggestions for policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the role played by the murder of Farkhunda Malikzada by a mob in Afghanistan in year 2015 in bringing new perspective to gender issues in the country. According to the author, Farkhunda's legacy has encouraged women to pursue a fight for justice on the basis of their culture and faith.

Purpose: Although it is well established that combat-related PTSD can lead to reduced quality of life, less is known about the relative effect of PTSD on different aspects of former service members' post-military readjustment. Moreover, research on female veterans' reintegration experiences is limited. This study aimed to document the work and family quality of life of post-9/11 male and female veterans and evaluate the gender-specific impact of PTSD on veterans' work and family outcomes.Methods: A national sample of 524 post-9/11 veterans completed mailed surveys as part of a longitudinal study. Descriptive and regression-based analyses were gender-stratified and weighted to enhance representativeness to the larger population.Results: With a few notable exceptions, the majority of post-9/11 U.S. veterans reported high work and family quality of life. PTSD was not associated with either employment or relationship status; however, it did predict poorer work and family functioning and satisfaction for both men and women, with the most consistent negative effects on intimate relationships. Several gender differences were found, primarily with respect to work experiences.Conclusions: Although most post-9/11 veterans appear to be doing well in both their work and family lives, results support the need for interventions that can mitigate the negative effect of PTSD and other associated mental health conditions on several aspects of work and family quality of life. Findings contribute to research suggesting both similarities and differences in the post-military readjustment of male and female post-9/11 veterans and underscore the need for additional consideration of the unique work-related challenges women experience following military service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress in education in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban has been described as ‘fragile, limited in reach, depth and uncertainty of sustainability' [UNICEF. 2013.Basic Education and Gender Equality: Afghanistan. United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund.http://www.unicef.org/afghanistan/education_2206.htm]. This is particularly true for Afghan women participating in higher education, within a culture that remains resistant to women's education. This article documents the views and attitudes of Afghan women who have sought to gain a higher education, within a context where only 5% of the Afghan population attends university, and less than 20% of university students are female [The World Bank. 2013. World Development Indicators: Poverty Headcount Ratio at National Poverty Lines.The World Bank Group. http://data.worldbank.org/country/afghanistan]. It is an attempt to listen to the voices of Afghan women to ascertain what they see as the best ways to improve their educational outcomes. Findings illustrate that while progress has been made in enabling a small percentage of women to pursue higher education, there are still significant and enduring obstacles for Afghan women seeking such a path. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective.The current study examines gender differences in drug-abuse treatment (DAT) entry, dropout, and outcomes in seven DAT centers in Afghanistan. This is the first study to examine gender differences in DAT programming in Afghanistan. Design.A prospective cohort design of 504 women and men in seven DAT centers in Afghanistan was used in this study and the analyses examined whether gender differences exist for patients (1) at treatment entry, (2) at treatment dropout, and (3) for treatment outcomes. Results.Gender differences were found at baseline for patient characteristics, drug use, crime, and social and occupational functioning. Results showed a trend that women remained in treatment longer than men. Looking at gender differences in treatment success, results showed greater reductions in drug use and crime, and greater social functioning among women. Conclusion.Results provide preliminary evidence for potential treatment success of women-tailored DAT programming in Afghanistan. Results also indicate that DAT appears to be successful among Afghan men; however, lower positive outcomes for men when compared to women suggest that more efforts should focus on tailoring DAT programming to the specific needs of Afghan men as well. Study limitations are addressed, and important policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)