Patriarchal Research Articles

Contemporary Interpretation Approach In The Culture Of Patriarchal Analysis In Surah An-Nisa Verse 34: Literature Review

This study examines the role of Qur'anic interpretation in promoting social welfare, focusing on the implementation of justice values in holy verses, especially in Surah An-Nisa verse 34. The method used is a literature study, which includes an in-depth analysis of various sources of literature related to gender and interpretation. The results show that traditional understandings of gender, which are often rooted in patriarchal societies, result in hierarchies that are detrimental to women. However, contemporary interpretations of this verse seek to challenge this view, offering a more inclusive perspective and emphasizing gender equality. This study concludes that a fairer interpretation approach can contribute positively to gender relations in Muslim society. These findings are expected to enrich academic discussions about gender in Islam and encourage the application of social justice principles in society

Examining the Role of Women-Jirga in Mitigating Cultural Challenges Faced by Women: A Case Study of Khwendo-Jirga in Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan Since 2013

In patriarchal societies, women have long faced dehumanization and victimization in areas such as education, healthcare, employment, and marriage, leading to deep cultural challenges. This research explores how women in Swat, Pakistan, established the Khwendo-Jirga (Sister’s Council) to challenge these cultural norms and secure their rights. By leveraging the existing power structures, these women created a platform to address the cultural challenges faced by others, challenging male-dominated discourses. The study employs qualitative content analysis based on interviews with Khwendo-Jirga activists and women who benefited from its decisions, alongside a review of secondary sources. It investigates the formation of the Khwendo-Jirga, the challenges it encountered, and its broader role in feminist discourse, particularly within Swat. The paper emphasizes the need for further research to amplify the voices of Pashtun women, whose struggles for agency and empowerment have often been overlooked.

‘No woman’s land’: A study of women’s land rights in context of neoliberal dispossession and gender relations in India

Given the complex web of socio-cultural factors, intersectional features of gender identity and the recent trajectories of a lack of land resources, the rise of alternative gainful employment, and a feminization of agriculture, this paper investigates whether land rights are the ultimate panacea for women’s autonomy. Land can be a source of women’s empowerment albeit the patriarchal Indian society restricts women’s right to property. Women in India are not a homogenous category. They are defined by their intersectional identities of caste, class, ethnicity, stages in their life course and subjectivities regarding demands for land. A more nuanced approach to women’s land rights is proposed in view of the agrarian crisis, restricted social validity of women’s land claims and other factors. Research has been conducted including an analysis of various feminist and intersectional debates concerning land rights in India, government reports, legal judgements, and religious text, among others.

Patriarchal Restrictions and Maternal Manoeuvres: Igbo Women’s Quest for Land Inheritance Rights

Abstract We examine the nature of maternal manoeuvres practised by Igbo women of Nigeria in negotiating access to resources under the traditional restrictive customary system and the contemporary plural legal framework. While extant feminist scholarship on African patriarchy often highlights discrimination and violations of women’s property rights, it rarely acknowledges the subtle strategies women use to navigate male-dominated societies, especially regarding land rights and inheritance. Among the Igbo, women have instrumentalized certain practices that uphold the patriarchal system for land access, inheritance, and succession. While employing a mix of socio-legal and discourse analysis and collaborative autoethnography, our study explores the traditional phase of silent politics of access, including practices like the female husband or woman-to-woman marriage, traditional single parenthood (nrachi), levirate marriage (nkuchi), and concubinage. We also delve into the modern phase, where women use Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs), child adoption, litigation, and legal instruments for property access. Our findings show that despite patriarchal biases in land rights, women navigate and assert their resource access using both traditional and modern methods.

A Voice of Liberty and Protest: Exploring Binodini’s Identity Crisis, Power and Self-discovery in Tagore’s Chokher Bali (A Grain of Sand)

The cultural icon and trail blazer of Bengali Renaissance Rabindranath Tagore has experimented successfully upon some great female protagonists in his fiction who have managed to curve a niche for themselves in world literature. A master artist, he has also depicted with his dexterously professional brushstrokes a host of highly progressive and brave female identities with a strong voice of protest against all prejudices of the contemporary backward and prejudiced Hindu communities as well as against all conservative forces of fate and society. Tagore has portrayed extremely meticulously some female voices, attributing them to the strength of motherhood, the beauty of the beloved, and the strong power of womanhood, allowing them to develop their own individual status and identity in a stereotypical, male dominated, and patriarchal Bengali society. This paper undertakes to explore Binodini, a finely crafted character in the Novel ‘Chokher Bali’ by Tagore, who battles over her identity breaks a fresh ground for her own, and emerges as an uncompromisingly assertive woman with a voice and brand of her own. It explores that she is not terrified by the severity of the male gaze or trodden down by the repression of the male centric society in her journey through liberty and blossoms an individual very sure of herself by breaking the image of the traditional Indian womanhood.

Women Friendship in the novel Sula

This article examines the historical and cultural experiences of African-American women through the lens of Black feminist thought, with a focus on Toni Morrison's novel Sula (1973). The research question guiding this study is: How does Sula reflect the complexities of friendship, autonomy, and the quest for empowerment among Black women within a racist and patriarchal society? The study employs a literary analysis method, drawing on the historical context of Black American women’s oppression and the emergence of Black feminist ideology as theorized by scholars like Patricia Hill Collins. Findings reveal that Sula intricately portrays the deep bond between the two protagonists, Sula Peace and Nel Wright, against the backdrop of systemic oppression. Their friendship symbolizes the broader struggle of African-American women to navigate personal autonomy within a community shaped by the legacy of slavery. Sula’s defiance of societal norms, particularly in her relationships with men, highlights the challenges Black women face in seeking empowerment and identity in a society that marginalizes them. This study concludes that Sula not only captures the historical context of Black women's experiences but also serves as a significant contribution to the discourse on Black feminist thought, emphasizing the importance of friendship, autonomy, and resistance in the fight for liberation.

Household Economy and its Relation to Household Head and Women: A Study Among the Tangkhuls in Kangpokpi District, Manipur

The household economy is the collective sociocultural of managing resources and economic activities within households or families. A household economy is a fundamental unit of analysis in anthropological studies of economic systems, as it provides insights into how people manage their livelihoods within different cultural contexts. The present study attempted to investigate the relationship between household income and the role of household heads and women in income generation in the context of the Tangkhul of Kangpokpi District, Manipur. Using a mixed methods approach, including surveys, interviews and focus group discussions, the study examines the economic practices of households engaged in shifting cultivation and how household heads and women contribute to income generation. The finding reveals the significant contribution of women to household economic activities and the interplay between gender roles and household heads in the Tangkhul community. The Tangkhul is a patriarchal society, although women enjoy substantial freedom and play an important role in family and community life. The study highlights the need for a more detailed understanding of economic practices and the role of gender in shaping household income in rural communities. The insight gained from this research can inform policies and interventions aimed at livelihood and reducing poverty in rural areas.

Jacqueline Audry’s Colette films: post-war quality style with a feminist edge

ABSTRACT Jacqueline Audry was that rare phenomenon, a woman film director in mid-twentieth century France. Drawn to Colette’s work by her appreciation of the latter’s style and close affinity with her values, Audry fought the initial reluctance of producers and went on to make three films based on Colette’s fictions, all with the author’s approval and the first, Gigi (1949), with her active collaboration. Very much in the ‘quality’ style, these entertaining costume dramas set in the prosperous, liberal era of the Belle Époque gave cinematic form to Colette’s stylistic verve and implicitly feminist philosophy. Audry’s Colette films tell stories of young women on a quest for self-realisation against the constraints of a patriarchal society and are laced with an (often humorous) irony in their representation of gender roles. Audry’s case, this article aims to show, demonstrates that the quality style so reviled by the New Wave could in fact be a form of cinema that effectively combined popular appeal with the seriousness of a subtly progressive feminist politics.

Affirmative action and government initiatives to improve gender equality in India: a retrospective view

PurposeThis paper discusses the problems of gender equality in society, the workplace and the household in the specific context of India. It explicates the past and the present gender diversity initiatives by government machinery to bring gender equality through affirmative action.Design/methodology/approachThe design, methodology and approach involve a general review.FindingsDeveloped countries have taken initiatives for gender equality almost in the pre-20th century and were partially successful. Despite gender diversity and affirmative action and legislation, bias still prevails in varied forms. In the case of India, the movement for gender equality started post-independence (1947). Still, there is a high disparity between men and women in society as well as in various occupations, as it is evident through a huge difference in salary, responsibilities, perquisites, recognition and promotions offered to men and women. India needs more transformation in the culture, statutory bodies and the mindset of patriarchal societies, to achieve gender equality. The legislative changes have faced resistance in their implementation due to social, cultural and religious issues, and the expectations and perceptions toward females have not been changed by the patriarchal society.Originality/valueThis paper deciphers the gender equality movement in developing countries like India, and how the planning commission of India focuses on women’s development and government machinery tries to bring down the gender gap through affirmative action. Why, in spite of all these efforts, India is not able to minimize the gender gap and concludes with reasons and implications.

VIJAY TENDULKAR AND MAHESH DATTANI'S SELECT PLAYS: VOICING THE MARGINALIZED

The paper is an attempt to discuss how Mahesh Dattani and Vijay Tendulkar have highlighted the miseries of women folk in society. The cruelty inflicted on women exposes the intricate working of a patriarchal system that is instrumental in marginalizing them by giving them neither the rights nor access to resources. Dattani and Tendulkar, have written at different times and their canvass has been different but both have raised this issue through their plays. Both reflect on role change and rise of the feminine gender struggling with the dominant discourses of the system to gain the respect and a space of their own. Issues and problems associated especially with females- have been staged with the motive of changing the socio-cultural psyche conditioned by the dominant discourses.

Using self-study approach to critique gender stereotyping and discrimination on family resources for girls and women: educational implications

Girls and women continue to suffer at the hands of patriarchal society that excludes them in family resource allocation. The primary objective of this paper is to examine the challenge that leads to the exclusion of family resource allocation in the form of educational resources for African girls and women. This paper adopts a self-study research approach, which is undergirded by interpretivism philosophical methodology. Intersectional feminism offers a lens for questioning the domination and supremacy of patriarchal society that perpetuates girls’ and women’s vulnerability in the acquisition of family resources in this age. We then discuss how girls and women lead lives marred by hunger, poverty, and inequality. Furthermore, we discuss gender violence and inequality, girl commodification, lessons from matriarchal and patriarchal polities, and gender discrimination at the workplace. We recommend that gender stereotypes and discrimination be eliminated in all social settings; and that at family, society and workplace levels. Finally, that educational institution should reconstruct curricula that should purposively interrogate girls and women's gender stereotyping and discrimination, GBV and other gender issues.

Stories of women's marriage and fertility experiences:Qualitative research on urban and rural cases in Bali, Indonesia.

As a Hindu-majority province in Indonesia, Bali presents a unique and distinctive culture. Patrilocal ( purusa) marriage and patrilineal inheritance as a continuation of the patriarchal system puts a male in the key role of family representative and successor. Having a son is a priority for a married couple in Balinese society. As a consequence, Balinese women experience several constraints related to their economic productive, reproductive, and adat (ritual) roles. When a family does not have a male heir, their daughter is pressed to find a spouse willing to accept sentana (daughter succession) marriage. This secondary form of marriage brings another complication for Balinese-Hindu women and does not necessarily relieve their submissive position. This study analyzes Balinese-Hindu women's perspectives on their marriage experiences and fertility decisions in patrilineal society in changing rural and urban conditions. The data was collected in two areas representing rural (Gianyar) and urban (Denpasar) locations in Bali Province, Indonesia from November 2019 to February 2020. Primary data was based on in-depth interviews of six rural and six urban married Balinese-Hindu women. This qualitative inquiry into Balinese women's experience of the marriage system and fertility options in urban and rural Bali revealed varying degrees of social expectation to provide male descendants for their families. At the same time, economic burdens still haunted them in this development era and manifested conflicting implications for family size. Their stories of purusa and sentana marriage were complex because it has strongly associated with customary law ( adat) in traditional society. Paradoxically, this study found that it was predominantly rural women who opted for the sentana arrangement and expressed a preference for smaller family sizes. This study explores women's fertility aspirations, notably regarding son precedence. It problematizes the sentana marriage alternative as a potential solution to alleviate the expectations and burdens placed on women.

Representation of Women and Class in Shakespeare’s <i>Othello</i>

Shakespeare’s plays reflect his society by imitating events that shaped the socio-economic, historical and political development of the Elizabethan era. This study examines the representation of women and class in the tragic play; Othello. Shakespeare juxtaposes male and female characters to understand their roles seeking to understand the complexities that shapes gender and class in society. He lived in a patriarchal society where women were subjugated, relegated, and oppressed. They were only good as daughters or wives; Shakespeare in some of his plays creates strong female characters that exhibit a new perspective in the representation of women who break away from the norm by their actions or inactions in Elizabethan England. The theory used for the analysis is New Historicism which seeks to reveal and challenge the depiction of women and class during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the first. New historicism is a practice of interpreting texts in their historical context or concerning the time and place in which they were written according to Greenblatt. Women and class have often been misrepresented in Shakespeare’s time but in his play Othello, they are found to break down the shackles of patriarchy to make choices and stand by it.

Beatrice Unbound: Adaptations of Shelley’s The Cenci

This essay considers three twentieth-century re-imaginings of Shelley’s The Cenci : Artaud’s play Les Cenci , Bernold Goldschmidt’s opera Beatrice Cenci , with a libretto by Martin Esslin, and both the play and opera versions of Beatrice Chancy by George Elliot Clarke with music by James Rolfe. Shelley and his adaptors in thinking through the figure of Beatrice take up what Shelley sees as the struggle of “oppressor to the oppressed.” Shelley writing during the reactionary restoration after the Napoleonic Wars, Artaud writing between the World Wars, Goldschmidt composing as a refugee from the Nazis, and Clarke seeking to illuminate the practice of slavery within Canada, all explore both oppression’s devastating impact and the possibility of a resistance to tyranny. Artaud’s version, which places Count Cenci as father at its center, altered the reception of Shelley’s play, influencing later adaptations and even the way we read Shelley’s play itself. In the end, that Shelley offers the most radical and ultimately feminist vision of a way beyond the patriarchal society that ensnares all these various Beatrices.

Debunking Patriarchy: A Feminist Critique of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855), a renowned Victorian woman writer, is best known for the novel Jane Eyre (1847), which portrays the struggles of the protagonist Jane Eyre for becoming a successful and self -reliant woman in a male dominated society. In this novel, the writer focuses on class conflict, women’s identity crisis and inequality of sexes, and thus tries to establish equal rights for both male and female by portraying the brave character Jane Eyre who is not like other traditional women of Victorian age because she has tried to be a successful woman in life fighting with her ill fate and social taboos of patriarchal society throughout her journey of life. This paper, using feminist lens, tries to explore the obstacles of women to become successful and self-reliant in a male dominated society by focusing on Charlotte Bronte’s female protagonist Jane Eyre who, as we know, is the representative of Victorian women.

Voting Rights of Indigenous Papuan Women in a Patriarchal Culture: A Study of Gender Equality among Indigenous Papuan Women in Yoboi Village, Sentani District, Jayapura Regency, Papua From the Perspective of Jurgen Habermas

Gender equality has become a significant issue and a focal point at both the national and international levels. The government has implemented various measures as a commitment to minimizing gender disparities. Women, being a vital part of human resources, must optimize their abilities, intelligence, and their role as mothers. Therefore, the issue of gender equality must be intertwined in the development process. Consequently, increasing women’s responsibilities has a positive impact on economic growth in Indonesia. The Gender Empowerment Index (IPG) reveals a substantial gap between provinces in Indonesia, especially in the eastern regions. The cultural system in Papua, which adheres to a patriarchal system, results in the confinement and neglect of women’s voting rights. This research adopts a critical or transformative paradigm processed from the intersection of criticism regarding assumptions made by previous researchers. A critical perspective typically utilizes information gaps for analysis, followed by reconstructing a new narrative without gaps. This allows for the development of a new, feasible concept, enabling researchers to design a new approach. This qualitative study aims to describe and explain the suppression of voting rights experienced by indigenous Papuan women in Yoboi Village, Sentani District, Jayapura Regency, Papua. The results indicate that Papuan women face numerous obstacles in exercising their voting rights in education, economy, culture, and religion. However, there are several ways to address these challenges, such as creating a discussion forum to explore the potential of Papuan women and providing opportunities for them to contribute their opinions. Additionally, the roles of tribal chiefs and customary leaders are crucial in providing space for Papuan women to actively participate in the development of their villages. Keywords: patriarchal culture, indigenous Papuan women

Female Subjectivity in Flightplan by Robert Schwentke

The historical underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women in the media have the potential to perpetuate gender inequalities and prejudices. This study aims to demonstrate how the film Flightplan by Robert Schwentke depicts female subjectivity and how masculine dominance is shown to affect the female main character's subjectivity, named Kyle Pratt. The researchers use the five C's of cinematographic theory to explore the portrayal of female subjectivity and feminism theory to analyze how the masculine manipulates the main character until her subjectivity arises. The study's findings indicate that although the movie places the female character in a field and situation traditionally dominated by men, it empowers her by portraying her as a character who, with her layered identity as a newly widowed woman, a single mother with one daughter, and a woman herself, who shows her capacity as an independent subject capable of performing qualities and traits normatively constructed as male.

A Feminist Approach to the Images of Women in <i>That Long Silence </i>and <i>Palace of Desire (Qasr Al-Shawq)</i>: A Comparative Study

This paper investigates the depiction of women in Shashi Deshpande's That Long Silence and Naguib Mahfouz's Palace of Desire (Qasr Al-Shawq) according to the feminist approach. The study seeks to compare and contrast the way these two novels, which are considered among reputable 20th century fiction, represent female characters and their struggles for asserting their individualities in two types of male-dominated societies. That is to say, Shashi Deshpande, the Indian authoress of That Long Silence fathoms the struggles of women in a traditional Indian society. In this novel, she mirrors the great challenges that women face in such a patriarchal system. Therefore, this research traces the heroines’ experience highlighting how the novelist has tackled misogynism and biased societal prospects. On the other hand, Mahfouz's Palace of Desire sheds light on the stereotyped images of women and feminists attempts to free women within the changing political and societal setting of Egypt then. Aida's personality represents the ambitious woman who reconciles with her desires and does her best to assert herself in a male-dominated society despite all the social constraints trying to limit her aspirations. In this comparative study between the two concerned novels, the researcher seeks to reveal the similarities and differences in the representations of women in two different cultural backgrounds. So, the paper examines how each of these two novelists criticizes the patriarchal structures and advocates feminism in his/ her society exposing the ways through which gender roles and societal norms are presented. The study shows a deep understanding of feminist literary criticism by highlighting the cultural influence of the two societies in which women’s sufferings are revealed. So, the findings of the research offer new insights into the gender roles, misogynism, stereotyped images of women, old traditions and patriarchal systems in literature.

Complexities and Possibilities of Strengthening the Social Inclusion of Military Women in the Netherlands Armed Forces: Findings From an Action Research Project

The social inclusion of military women is negatively affected by dominant masculine norms. Often, military organizations try to promote inclusion through top-down policies. However, little is known about solutions military personnel themselves propose, and what is needed to implement those. Drawing on an action research project in the Netherlands Armed Forces, we identify four systemic collaborative requirements to implement initiatives aimed at improving inclusion: (a) awareness and recognition of women’s (negative) experiences, (b) a safe environment for dialogue and joint ownership, (c) organizational trust, support and mandate, and (d) the implementation of interventions in the organizational structure. We discuss two paradoxes we identified (a) addressing inclusion in unsafe workplaces requires safety and (b) creating awareness about women’s social inclusion without putting women in the spotlight. Our results show that a dialogic and collaborative approach is promising, especially to address the complexities that arise when trying to strengthen inclusion.

Iḥsān ʿAbd al-Quddūs’ Paths to Freedom Between Journalism and Popular Fiction in the Novel "Anā Ḥurra" (I Am Free)

Iḥsān ʿAbd al-Quddūs (1919-1990) is one of the best-known journalists in the history of Egyptian political journalism. He began his career at Rūz al-Yūsuf magazine, founded by his mother, the celebrated actress and journalist who named the journal after herself. He was also a famed author of popular fiction, which was serialised in Egyptian mainstream weeklies from the late forties through the eighties. His name is associated with mass readership and sentimental novels and short stories whose protagonists often are young women struggling for freedom in a traditional and patriarchal society. In this article we will analyse his first success, the novel Anā Ḥurra (I Am Free), which was written a year after the 1952 Egyptian revolution. The aim of this study is to re-evaluate the underrated field of popular and middlebrow Arabic literature. We will focus on the relation between female liberation and politics in the novel, in particular how the story of the young protagonist’s search for freedom reflects the failures of the 1952 revolution. Keywords: Iḥsān ʿAbd al-Quddūs, Rūz al-Yūsuf, Anā Ḥurra, Journalism, Popular literature, Rebellion, Freedom.