Women, Political Struggles and Gender Equality in South Asia

Kerri Whittenbury, Monash University, Australia Alexandra Haynes, Monash University, Australia Sneha Krishnan, Oxford University, UK Sadhna Arya, University of Delhi, India Shashi Khurana, University of Delhi, India Bushra Khaliq, Women in Struggle for Empowerment (WISE) Bidushi Dhungel, activist and independent researcher Alix Dolson, activist and independent researcher Rokeya Kabir, Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS) Kalyani Menon-Sen, independent researcher Paromita Chakravarti, Jadavpur University, India Kaushiki Rao, University of Pennsylvania, USA Anusha Hariharan, independent researcher Aruna Burte, Halo Medical Foundation, India Shaheen Ashraf Shah, independent researcher Mary Hope Schwoebel, independent researcher Carol Wrenn, Concern Worldwide Sebnem Cansun, ?stanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, Turkey Mahmuda Islam, University of Massachusetts Boston, USAMahfuza akter Mala, independent researcher Shantana Rani Halder Nazmunnessa Mahtab, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh Rajeshri N. Varhadi, University of Mumbai, IndiaOmar Tarek Chowdhury, rights activist, published freelance author and translator.

• Table of Contents 1. Introduction: Women, Political Struggles and Activism: Exploring the Lives of Women in South Asia; Margaret Alston PART I: GENDER BASED VIOLENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 2. Responding to Rape: Feminism and Young Middle-Class Women in India; Sneha Krishnan 3. Gendered Violence: Forms, Incidence and Legislation in India; Sadhna Arya and Shashi Khurana 4. Women Struggles Against Structural-based Violence in Pakistan; Bushra Khaliq 5. Women in Bangladesh: Resistance Fighters and Invisible Heroes in the Economy and Society; Rokeya Kabir and Omar Tarek Chowdhury 6. Intergenerational Prostitution in India: How a Cultural Practice Constitutes Sex Trafficking; Alix Dolson PART II: ACTIVISM, RESISTANCE AND EMPOWERMENT 7. Powerful Perpetrators: A Kathmandu Perspective; Bidushi Dhungel 8. Living on the Edge: Mapping Homeless Women's Mobilisation in Kolkata, India; Paromita Chakravarti 9. Money where the Mouth is: Women, Capital and a Land Rights Movement; Kaushiki Rao and Anusha Hariharan 10. Linking Traditions of Resistance; Aruna Burte PART III: POLITICS, LEADERSHIP AND REPRESENTATION 11. Substantive Representation and Violence against Women (VAW) in Pakistan; Shaheen Ashraf, SHAH 12. The Intersection of the Public and Private for Pashtun Women in Politics; Mary Hope Schwoebel 13. Creating Spaces for Change: Santali Women's Role in Local Level politics in Rural India; Carol Wrenn 14. Women's Transformational leadership in Bangladesh: Potentials and Challenges; Nazmunnessa Mahtab 15. Women and Politics in Patriarchy: Case of Bangladesh; Mahmuda Islam Conclusion; Margaret Alston