Media Literacy
Photo/Tessa Lewin
The South Asia Hub hosted a Media Literacy workshop in Dhaka from 10th to 15th November 2007. The workshop was facilitated by Shohini Ghosh from India and participants included members of the South Asia Hub as well as Tessa Lewin from IDS and Kristina Hallez from AUC Egypt.
Bangladesh Project Meetings
Regional Planning Meeting
The Pathways of Women’s Empowerment South Asia hub held a planning meeting in Dhaka from 7-9 April 2007.
The purpose of the meeting was to plan the overall framework, design research and communication strategies for the programme and decide on the methodologies and resources that will be used. At the meeting, Naila Kabeer from IDS explained the meanings of the term ‘Empowerment’ and mentioned that “empowerment is when women join the dialogue about what is just and what is not”. Firdous Azim from BRAC spoke about the life histories project of the programme and explained how the personal narratives of life stories can create a historical narrative of a nation. She also posed questions regarding the ‘truth’ that gets constructed when people retell their stories and whether there is a need to corroborate the stories we hear.
On the second day of the Planning Meeting, the thematic groups worked separately on work, culture (media and religion) and voice to decide on collaborative research topics and the areas of comparison within the region. The work group is collaborating with the Collective for Social Science Research (CSSR), Karachi, Pakistan and the culture theme with SIMORGH, Lahore, Pakistan.
At the Regional Planning Meeting we discussed the local contexts that effect issues of empowerment in our particular countries and have formed ways of investigating the differences and commonalities shared. We were able to define the scope of our research and the methodologies to be used, and formed stronger relationships with our regional partners.
Religion and Women's Empowerment
The Pathways South Asia Hub also hosted a Religion and Women’s Empowerment workshop from 10-12 April, 2007 at BRAC Center, Dhaka. This workshop, part of the research under the culture/changing narratives of sexuality theme, was held in order to understand how religion is experienced as part of women’s daily lives and how women are redefining themselves from an urban, cultural and religious trajectory. Two participants from Afghanistan, Palwasha Kakar from Kabul University and Palwasha Hassan form GTZ, Kabul joined us for this workshop.
The workshop brought together academicians, women’s rights activists and practitioners in the field who elucidated ways in which religion, and in particular Islam, has integrated with popular culture and how women today are creating spaces for themselves within tropes of religion. An overview of the history of Islam in Bangladesh highlighted the spread of Islam through folk stories and imagery and validated the syncretism of religions and the multiple understandings of Islam.
There were panel discussions throughout the three days addressing diverse topics around women’s experiences of religion. Lively discussion took place on the changing practices and comprehension of religion according to socio-economic class, about the shifting significance of the external markers of faith and on dress codes and its ties to modern fashions and religious beliefs. We also deliberated on the meanings of Islamic feminism and whether and how modernity, secularism and Islam can converge in our everyday lives.
When speaking about the protection of rights of minorities, Rehnuma Ahmed mentioned that ‘we should not seek equality from the State, because the State itself creates and perpetuates discrimination and violence against certain sections of its population. Therese Blanchet mentioned that “Women migrate illegally and make up their own minds to leave and decide what to do, although in some periods they may loose control and be exploited. However it is not right to see them only as trafficked victims. We need to acknowledge their willingness to take risks and their agency".
The last portion of the workshop consisted of a working session that revised the research strategy and defined the methodologies to be used in our research. The workshop informed us of the varied understandings of religion, helped to consolidate our research focus and generated new perspectives through which to regard our work.
Planning Meeting on Work and Women's Empowerment
A meeting to plan the work research was held by Pathways South Asia from 15-18 April, 2007 at BRAC Centre. The meeting was a small one, consisting of the core work team members, younger researchers, and an invited expert on social science survey methodology, Dr. Samer Al-Samarrai.
Naila Kabeer set the conceptual framework of the programme by presenting a powerpoint investigating the meanings and definitions of ‘work’. Distinctions were made regarding paid work, unpaid work and care work. Factors that limit the transformational potential of work were highlighted and views were exchanged about how men were dealing with women’s paid work. Simeen Mahmud presented the debates around the definitions of work used by the various government surveys.
A major portion of the workshop was devoted to developing a questionnaire for the work research. After brainstorming the requirements for the research, a working draft questionnaire was compiled. The questionnaire is now being formalized and expected to be ready for pilot-testing in May. A timeline was drawn up by the team members with the survey scheduled to begin in Mid June.
The workshop allowed the work team to operationalize the framework and goals of the research, create the research instrument and launch on the research on Women’s Work and Empowerment.
Partners: