Gender Studies

Final paper: Gender studies

Submitted to: Ma’am Bareeha

Submitted by: Zia Uddin

Reg No: 04202013050

POL/Science- BS 2nd semester

Submission date: 03 July 2021

Quaid-I-Azam University

Islamabad
Q no 2 ; In the light of public and private dichotomies of political science discuss the

statement “personal is political’’

Ans: the society is divided the gender into two part public and private first we discuss public

spere is the reteam of politics where we freely exchange ideas and government insititution

and they have easy to access to it and private is the spere of social life in which individual is

free from government influence and the institution influence in here political thinker divide

the society in two spere public spere and private sphere they said that public spere is spere of

politic and government it is spere of politics according to Aristotle he said that politics is not

for female this given more impact in public sphere. Public spere is the spere of law final we

say that overall support that public life is political. And the private spere is sphere of

individual ssand privacy and it is free government power for examples relation between men

and women always based on power and one dominated to other it’s the sphere of inequality

hierarchy and sphere of domination. it is arising in second of wave of feminism the aim of

feminist is government should interfere in private sphere of life and provide equality in both

sphere

Q no 01; Gender is something we do, not something we have explain it political

reference

Ans; Sex refer to biogical characteristics that categorize as either female or male where as

gender refers to the socially constructed idea and practices what is it is to be or female. .

Gender is something we constructed for example in politics we see every day of life women

is subjugated by society if we see that Imran khan told to Mariyam Nawaz you are not fit for

politics go to your home to care his children in here Imran khan oppress Maryam due to its

sex. Last year PML-N politician Talal Chaudhry give some immoral comment on Firdous

Ashiq Awan . these all behavior are created by society and not attach this by birth. This is all
created by patriarchy society because male is dominate in every aspect as we see in society,

and we crated social stratification on the basic of economy. They created class system in our

society They are very harmful for peaceful society they crate inequalities in our society. Due

to all gender basic discrimination only 23 percent on the world politicians are women. before

Pervez Musharraf Era only 5 percent seat are women and Pervez Musharraf increase into 33

percent. If we see female national assembly member they are only 40 out of 342 members it

is show in equality and half of the population of our country is representing by they are only

given 33 percent seat in National assembly. These all inequalities and discrimination are

given to women only what because they are women’s and general our society is not support

women in politics because they are generally weak, and they are not fit for public work and

feel insecurity in society due to this reason their family have not support female politicians

these insecurity and weak concept are the product of patriarchy society

Q no 05; What is intersectionality? How can if inform and policy related to gender

equality

Ans; intersectionality is basically a framework which focus on the way in which gender

interrelates with other social catorization such as ethnicity class ,sexuality identity age and

disability etc. and other way notion of gendered and the way a person’s gendered is

interpreted by other impacted by notion of race and the way person race is interpreted for

example if a person is never received female as just female but how that person received as a

female and so the blackness and brownness and whiteness are influence the gender

experience

According to the feminist intersectionality is predominate way of oppression and which

construct multiply identies and created social hierarchies in our society. The UN commission

of human right state that intersectionality create multiple form of discrimination in society.
Intersectionality is about understanding an addressing all old potential road block individual

and group well being but is not a simple as just adding of oppression and addressing each one

individually , racism sexism and embolism exist on their own and when combine the

compound and transform the experience of oppression .

How intersectionality informs the debate and policy related to gender equality

Intersectionality all discuss inequality and discrimination so it is describes and discuss it

more and so that they give us gender equality because intersectionality see women they are

not face only male dominance it face problem is very step of life if see women in America

and Europe they face sexism racism .these intersection and over combining social identities

empowering and oppressing women for example for example black women face mainly

discrimination in business sector this is not show due to her gender because the business

does not discriminate any white and black women . second wave of feminism mainly focus

on this issue the aim of intersectional feminism to separated itself from white feminism by

recognize women’s many experiences and identities. gender face discrimination in gender

race sex caste race disabilities they are all face by gender, due this inequalities basic their

movement and debate are fruitful in gender equality.

Q 4; is the practice of gendered. explain three dimensions proposed by Mala hun

Ans; politics as practices is gendered women is kept a household and they were not allow in

politics or decision making process is our patriarchy society all decision making control by

man and women were excluded from and they are kept in private life Napoleon said about

women they are children producing machine they reflect the male dominance in politics .

public and politics Politics is almost gendered based where in politics majority of males are

dominated. For example, in Pakistan women are almost 22% of the total representation.

However, these women are recruited through quota system. The percentage of women
repression is less than 20 percent in Pakistan & their participation is completely controlled by

the head of family which is male. So according to feminist the male centered societies was

the main cause of gender language, women survival and participation. if we passed context

there no important for women in politics because they are not adjustable in governmental

work they are mentally weak. if we see Pakis today in politics is more acerated as compared

to previous decade.

Q 03; In your own words, briefly explain the three dimensions proposed by Mala Htun

to explain the workings of Gender?

Ans Htun is a feminist activist and a professor of political science at the University of New

Mexico. She works on women’s rights and social inequalities and aims at elevating the

inclusion and diversity.

The work of Mala Htun in her articles is about the “intersectionality between Gender and

Ethnic identities and how quotas and reservation systems are not always looked at by other

groups in a polity” . She explains that women should have inclusion along with

representation. She promotes the inclusion of women and indigenous groups in political

institutions of a country, she argues that the new mechanism has included women, but they

have no representation. Mala Htun states “that existing democracies are not perfect, but they

are the best that we have for sustainable advances in women’s rights because it permits

contestation and mobilization in the broader polity and offers a same model for civic and

religious organizations”. She argues that there is women presence without empowerment.

She also takes a stance and explain “the ways that laws and public policies shape women's

economic agency, and how economic empowerment affects gender relations and social

norms” and they said that state crated sexual division of labor and they not provide outside

opportunities for work and they bound inside the home and provide the environment of war
and militarization and also state crate heterosexual normativity if women goes to politics

they create peace and hormone and prosperity s

Essay ;Gender based Violence and Pakistan’s State policies

Gender Based Violence can be defined such activities or actions that regrets and harm the

individual in society based on their gender. It is very serious and challenging issues for those

individual who has deprived from the basic rights that he/she deserves being a member of

society. The individuals have forced to perform such actions that he/she cannot act according

to his/her willing. Especially the females are more prone to violence across the world. They

have been ignored and deprived from the basic rights of life what they desire. Pakistan being

a developing country leads the gender based violence where traditional beliefs and

stereotypic thinking promotes such kinds of deviant behavior towards such violence.

Pakistan being a Patriarchal state follow the norms and values of cultural where the strong

religious mindedness compel people to perform acts according to the cultural and religious

norms of the native society. People in Pakistan have strongly beliefs in the religious norms

and values that lead an extreme thinking behavior in the minds of people. Where gender

violence against women is on the top ranking.The patriarchal thinking and traditional beliefs

have set the categories of gender; where males can generate incomes and work outside and

females have the responsibility to practice the households work, cooking food, take care of

children and taking care of their husbands. This beliefs system discriminates between the role

and status among male and females. There are discrimination between males and females in

social aspects (role, status, position), political aspect (participation in political activities) and
economical aspect (female can earn less money due to status). In Pakistani society the female

are considered as an inferior creatures than males. The social statuses of female are negligible

where those also have been deprived from the basic rights such as education, political

participation job selection. In this society the perceptions of people are; the females are

outsider (it means one day she has to marry and has to go her husband’s house) whereas the

males are considered as a permanent member of the house and he has the ability to defend the

family members about any threats. In our homes son’s preference concept is going on that

deprive the rights of daughters. Healthy foods have been given to sons and the remaining

foods have been given to daughters. Expensive dresses have been bought for sons and the

daughters have ignored. It is been socialized that boys can go outside while the girls remain

inside homes. There is a good saying of the 48 th Imam of the ”Ismaili Community” (Sir

Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan 3) he says, “If I had two children one is son and the

other is daughter and if I could effort only the expenses of one child, I would have no

hesitation to educate my daughter”. It means to develop society we have to prefer girl’s

education. If we educate male we just educate one individual while if we educate a girl we

educate the family.

There are many types of gender based violence such as sexual harassment, honor killing,

Acid attacks, early marriages, forced marriages, physical punishment, psychological violence

and forced conversion marriages.

According to 1973 constitution Articles no 32&38 that there should be gender equality and

should be protect women rights. In constitution there is clearly written for the rights of

women such as the rights to divorce, willing marriage, right to votes and works. The 18 th and

21st amendments also discuss about the education of females. In 2011 bills has passed in

assembly for the sake of the prevention of anti-women practices and in 2016 anti-rape bill has

passed that explain the violence acid attacking, forced marriage, honor killing, domestic
violence and etc. According to a report more than 800 women have been killed or they

commit suicide due to sexual harassment, honor killing, blackmailing and other violence.

The government passes the bill but unfortunately cannot enforce the passed bill the society.

The government fails to enforce because of Pakistan being a Patriarchal society and religious

extremist. In 1979 the islamization laws have been enforced where “Zina hudud” Ordinance

defines that the individual has been punishes when he accused the sexual harassment, and

fornication. In nowadays we see certain such cases which promote violence e.g. the motor

way rape case, rapes towards children such as Qusoor incident, and the recent Moulana

Abdul Aziz case in Madrassa Lahore. We clearly watch videos of sexual harassment of the

people but unfortunately we cannot take actions against the culprits due to fear of religious

revolution. Religious leaders used religious for its personal benefits but we public blindly

beliefs on them.

Further measures to tackle this issue

There is a good saying,

“Do Not Stop Your Daughter to Go Outside but Educate Your Son How to Behave”

From the above quotation we learnt that, Firstly we have to socialize our children at our

homes that they have to behave in a positive manner. If it starts from our homes then we can

practice this in our society them we will escape from such violence. On the other hand there

should need a strict policy that can be enforced unbiased. There should be no preferences for

religious leaders or any political authoritarians. The law should be equally enforced for each

and every citizen without discriminating sex, gender, race, position and etc. The culprits have

been sentenced and punished that other can avoid of performing such acts. If we make
affective policy and implement without discrimination then we can control such crimes and

deviant acts.