Jane Freedman

HIV/AIDS in rural India: context and health care needs.

Primary research on HIV/AIDS in India has predominantly focused on known risk groups such as sex workers, STI clinic attendees and long-distance truck drivers, and has largely been undertaken in urban areas. There is evidence of HIV spreading to rural areas but very little is known about the context of the infection or about issues relating to health and social impact on people living with HIV/AIDS. In-depth interviews with nineteen men and women infected with HIV who live in rural areas were used to collect experiences of testing and treatment, the social impacts of living with HIV and differential impacts on women and men. Eight focus group discussions with groups drawn from the general population in the four villages were used to provide an analysis of community level views about HIV/AIDS. While men reported contracting HIV from sex workers in the cities, women considered their husbands to be the source of their infection. Correct knowledge about HIV transmission co-existed with misconceptions. Men and women tested for HIV reported inadequate counselling and sought treatment from traditional healers as well as professionals. Owing to the general pattern of husbands being the first to contract HIV women faced a substantial burden, with few resources remaining for their own or their childrens care after meeting the needs of sick husbands. Stigma and social isolation following widowhood were common, with an enforced return to the natal home. Implications for potential educational and service interventions are discussed within the context of gender and social relations.

Women, immigration and identities in France

This book is the first to address the relationship between gender and immigration in contemporary France and the political and personal issues that affect women of immigrant origin. Focusing on the social and political aspects of women’s lives, the book investigates how they are affected by racism and changes in citizenship laws and explores the strategies they use to combat exclusion through movements such as the ‘sans-papiers’. Authors go on to discuss ways in which immigrant women and their daughters negotiate their changing cultural identities in relation to their communities of origin and their positions in France, with reference to the Magrebhi family and attitudes to the Islamic headscarf. These issues are further developed through analyses of women’s cultural production across a wide range of media, from the writing of Vietnamese women to ‘Beur’ Filmmaking, including Yamina Benguigui’s highly acclaimed documentary Memoires d’Immigres. Combining a range of case studies and practical data with a theoretical overview of the topic, this is an important reference work for anyone studying postcolonial France and the role of women within it.

The socioeconomic context of Africa¿s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

Although the proximate cause of Africa’s AIDS crisis is HIV, the underlining societal causes are much broader and familiar. Across the continent, poverty structures not only the contours of the pandemic but also the outcome once an individual is infected with HIV. Thus, until poverty is reduced there will be little progress with either reducing transmission of the virus or creating an enhanced capacity to cope with its socioeconomic consequences. It follows that sustained human development is an essential precondition for any effective response to the pandemic in Africa.

Sexual and gender-based violence against refugee women: a hidden aspect of the refugee "crisis"

Abstract The current refugee “crisis” in Europe has created multiple forms of vulnerability and insecurity for refugee women including various forms of sexual and gender-based violence. Increasing numbers of women, either alone or with family, are attempting to reach Europe to seek protection from conflict and violence in their countries, but these women are subject to violence during their journey and/or on arrival in a destination country. The lack of adequate accommodation or reception facilities for refugees and migrants in Europe, as well as the closure of borders which has increased the need for smugglers to help them reach Europe, acts to exacerbate the violence and insecurity. Résumé La « crise » actuelle des réfugiés en Europe a créé de multiples formes de vulnérabilité et d’insécurité pour les réfugiées, notamment plusieurs formes de violence sexuelle et sexiste. Les femmes, seules ou avec leur famille, sont de plus en plus nombreuses à tenter de parvenir en Europe pour y chercher protection, mais elles sont soumises à la violence pendant le voyage et/ou à l’arrivée dans un pays de destination. Le manque de logements adéquats ou d’installations d’accueil pour les réfugiés et les migrants en Europe, ainsi que la fermeture des frontières qui a augmenté la nécessité d’avoir recours à des passeurs pour atteindre l’Europe, exacerbent la violence et l’insécurité. Resumen La “crisis” actual de refugiados en Europa ha creado múltiples formas de vulnerabilidad e inseguridad para mujeres refugiadas, incluidas diversas formas de violencia sexual y de género. Crecientes números de mujeres, solas o con familia, están intentando llegar a Europa para buscar protección pero estas mujeres son sujetas a violencia durante su viaje y/o al llegar al país de destino. La violencia e inseguridad son exacerbadas por la falta de instalaciones adecuadas para alojar o recibir a refugiados y migrantes en Europa, así como el cierre de fronteras que ha incrementado la necesidad de las refugiadas de recurrir a contrabandistas para que las ayuden a llegar a Europa.

Increasing women’s political representation: the limits of constitutional reform

In 1999 and 2000 the French parliament passed a constitutional revision and a set of legislation with the aim of achieving parity of representation between men and women in Frances elected assemblies. France was the first country in Europe to institute such radical reform to address the issue of womens under-representation in politics. The success of the parity reforms in achieving equal representation for women has been limited, however. This paper will discuss how and why the issue of parity progressed onto the French political agenda, and will identify the main factors which have limited the impact of these reforms. It will be argued that both the electoral system and the attitudes of political parties remain important obstacles to achieving true parity in elected institutions.

The Réseau Education Sans Frontières: reframing the campaign against the deportation of migrants

This article analyses the emergence of the Réseau Education Sans Frontières (RESF) in France, a movement that emerged in response to fear about the deportation of immigrant children who were pupils in French schools. Mobilising ethical concerns about childrens welfare, the movement has been able to create public debate about the French States moral responsibility to protect these children of ‘sans-papiers’. Based on qualitative research, this article analyses the membership of RESF and its modes of action to show how this mobilisation has taken place, stressing the importance of ‘everyday interactions’ in this mobilisation, and the use of new frames of moral injustice concerning childrens welfare.

Women, Islam and rights in Europe: beyond a universalist/culturalist dichotomy

In 2004 the French National Assembly and Senate passed legislation which makes it illegal for Muslim women to wear headscarves (the hijab) within French public schools. To be precise the legislation refers to the banning of ostentatious religious symbols within the secular domain of the public school system, but is clearly aimed primarily at Muslim women, following a long-running dispute over this issue. Similar debates are taking place in other European countries such as Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. A bill modelled on the recent French legislation has been tabled in the Belgian senate, whilst various court cases have been brought in other European countries by Muslim women who have been banned from wearing headscarves by employers or schools. Following a ruling of the German Supreme Court that a Muslim teacher should be allowed to wear a headscarf, as this did not contravene current legislation, the state of Baden-Wuerttenberg acted to introduce legislation to ban headscarves, and this legislation is likely to be copied by six other German states

Mainstreaming gender in refugee protection

The issues of gender-related persecution and violence against women have been put onto the international agenda, largely thanks to lobbying by feminist NGOs and transnational networks. There is a question, however, of how successfully this agenda-setting has translated into effective policy-making and policies that will increase the protection of women who are victims of gender-related persecution. One of the problems with policies to support women refugees and asylum seekers lies in a failure of transmission of the goals of gender sensitivity through all the various bureaux and representatives of a large bureaucratic organization such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). For nearly twenty years, since the early 1990s, the UNHCR has identified ‘refugee women’ as a policy priority, and yet, despite this prioritization of concerns about women refugees and gender issues in the asylum and refugee process, it could be argued that little progress has been made in implementation of policies on refugee women. This article will examine the way in which the concept of gender has been adopted within the UNHCR and the processes that have been put in place to mainstream gender within refugee protection activities. How far has mainstreaming managed to move policies to protect women beyond a mere focus on ‘vulnerable’ groups, and to integrate a gendered understanding of the global processes that produce refugees, and of the protection needs of these refugees?

Analysing the Gendered Insecurities of Migration

This article examines the experiences of female migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa aiming to reach Europe via Morocco. The article argues that European immigration policies and policies of co-operation with neighbouring countries on the other side of the Mediterranean, have increased the sources of insecurity for migrants attempting to reach Europe, and shows how these insecurities are gendered.

Explaining Sexual Violence and Gender Inequalities in the DRC

Recent reports of mass rape and sexual violence against women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are just the latest in an ongoing tale of gender-based violence that has characterized some of the conflicts to which the country has been subjected. But beyond these conflicts, this violence has also expanded to become a “normalized” part of everyday life. Despite existing legislation and policies on gender equality and women’s rights, it seems that this equality is still very far from reality, and women still face serious obstacles to enjoying their rights in the post-conflict DRC. This essay argues that the sexual and gender-based violence that is so talked about as part of the conflicts in the DRC is just one part of a continuum of social structures within the country that perpetuate gender inequalities and forms of domination. Despite interventions from international organizations and international and national nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) aiming to advance women’s rights and gender equality, it seems that there is still a long way to go in this domain.