Category Archives: Reflections
Potential Audience for Eportfolio
My project will be of interest to those studying gender studies, specifically women’s studies. My research zooms in on how unequal treatment in the legal system affects women in Pakistan. Students, professionals, activists who want to learn more about human rights violations might find the website helpful. The case studies (of Mukhtar Mai and Kainat Soomro) would be of particular interest for them. This project will also be informative for those who are pursuing careers in international law. The research journals on the political influences and repealed legislations will be revealing.
Since my project is at the intersection of international law, human rights violations, women’s studies, I would expect that most viewers who want to peruse through my eportfolio have prior knowledge on the subject and are expanding their understanding. I think the Bibliography would be a helpful resource for them.
Schedule for Last Weeks
May 8, 2015:
- Read through all posts. Create word tags for those that are missing tags.
- Place each post in its appropriate category.
- Organize the structure of site.
- Start a new eportfolio with a new URL.
May 15, 2015:
- Review and finish writing an About page.
- Write a blurb for Home page.
- Write descriptions for categories.
May 22, 2015:
- Submit final paper on May 20.
NCUR 2015: Reflections and Tips
Although I have attended different conferences, NCUR was different. This was my first time presenting at one. It’s natural to be nervous, but the anxiety wore off soon after the first few minutes. I know that the practice presentations in class helped me improve my skills. Since I had a class of attentive audience and I presented twice, I got lots of good questions! Overall, it was a worthwhile experience at Spokane, WA.
If I could go back to my presentation day, I would definitely ask one of my class fellows to jot down the questions that were asked at the end of my session. I would suggest that questions from practice presentations should be recorded as well. If you get a lot of thoughtful questions (and you can provide concise answers for them), then this could become a sort of “FAQs” of your eportfolio. If someone stumbles upon your website, this “FAQs” page could be a nice snapshot of your one-year research.
A thing to keep in mind when going to NCUR is to have your PowerPoint Presentation or Prezi be saved to a USB. This might not be true for the next NCUR conference, but if there are Windows computer, it’s a good idea to save things accordingly.
NCUR Practice Presentation
Here is my outline for the first practice presentation. The structure of my discussion is to (1) give a brief overview of the Hudood Laws (2) explain its subcategory of Offence of Zina (3) bring up some statistics (4) describe the islamization period (5) delve into how Zia’s martial law and Maududi’s political opposition played an influential role in passing discriminatory rape laws.
Tentative NCUR Presentation Outline
Here is the Plan
1. I will begin writing my interview questions, which will be sent out to various NGOs such as War Against Rape (WAR), women rights organizations such as Women’s Forum Action (WFA), political parties such as Jama’at-i-Islami, ulemas, and authors whose work I have read. My interviews will include questions about the justification used for restrictive rape laws, why such laws are targeting towards women etc. Although one can argue that I can get that sort of information by research alone, I think interviewing will narrow down my sources. Since most of my questions will be open-ended, I will be organizing this information in the form of separate journal entries. Later, I will put them in a visual for easier comparison.
2. I will also be reading the following books:
- Women of Pakistan: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back? by Khawar Mumtaz and Farida Shaheeda.
- Purdah and the Status of Women in Islam by Maududi. His philosophy was influential in the incorporation of Hudood Laws in the penal code of Pakistan. That is why I think it is important to understand his views of women.
3. My research goals:
- Find specific instances where misinterpretation of Islamic ideas has led to restrictive laws. This will be expanding on how Zia justified his martial law, how political parties continue to promote Maududi’s ideologies, how local jirgas exploit power to carry out discriminatory verdicts.
- Explore the clash of different legal systems (Sharia vs. secular law) and its implication for victims of rape.
- Research the theme of how Islamic virtues are intertwined with traditional values like purdah. This will shed light on how Hinduism and Mughal’s rule has shaped accepted cultural values.
I have not set exact deadlines yet because I will be doing most of the tasks simultaneously. I will also be reading journal articles and watching documentaries to gather further information.
World Philosophy Day
Alcoff, Linda. “What Philosophy can Contribute to the Global Resistance Against Rape?” City College of New York. New York City. 20 Nov. 2014.
“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” –Socrates
Yesterday was World Philosophy Day and UNESCO had organized a public talk with guest speaker Linda Alcoff at City College. Alcoff is a philosopher of epistemology, who has written on the global epidemic of rape. She talked about how social media is used in this politically complex problem of sexual violence, how society still clings to taint of the victims, though the taint has grown into a psychological one in the recent years, and she also discussed meta-lucidity and epistemic resistance.
Three themes stood out to me:
- It takes time to make sense of any situation, including traumatic ones such as rape. Survivors’ perspective may change, but the credibility deficit associated with women, children, slaves etc. is not grounded.
- She explained that reverse empiricism is unjustified in the context of sexual violence. The logic that if a woman has been sexually abused, then she can’t reason properly is not justified considering that people’s opinion change.
- The key solution to sexual violence is to create safe circles of discourse. She noted that sexual violence is brought up only when it serves another narrative, so one needs to think of that too.
I haven’t read any of her books or articles, but it would be a helpful resource in answering, “What can philosophy contribute to the debate on unjust and restrictive laws?”
Research Journal: Mukhtar’s Story in Half the Sky
Kristoff, Nicholas D., & WuDunn, Sheryl. (2009). Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunities for Women Worldwide. New York: Random House.
Half the Sky is the reason why I changed my topic to rape laws in Pakistan. The book is a compilation of real-life stories about sex trafficking, sexual violence, maternal mortality, girls’ education etc. Each story narrated harsh conditions women face around the world, but it was inspirational to learn about individuals who rose up against all odds. The story that is most relevant to my research project was of Mukhtar Mai’s. She is a Pakistani from a village in southern Punjab, where she was gang-raped by four men because her younger brother was falsely accused of illicit sex. She reported her perpetrators to the police and, surprisingly, they were arrested. Then president of Pakistan, Musharraf, awarded her $8,300, which Mukhtar used for building her own school. When money started to channel in for her school ($430,000) through contributions from Times readers, Musharraf became uneasy about the “embarrassment” she was garnering for Pakistan from the international community. He put her on the “exit control list,” preventing her from leaving the country, kidnapped her, seized her passport, and stationed intelligence agents to spy on her. All this was done to prevent the outside world from knowing the circumstances women like Mukhtar face. Mukhtar opened her aid group, called the Mukhtar Mai Women’s Welfare Organization, which offers a 24/7 hotline, free clinic, public library, and a shelter.
I will be reading her book In the Name of Honor: A Memoir to understand how she was able to dispel the stigma of rape in her little village, Meerwala. I am interested in understanding the factors that were able to make her case heard and receive a fair decision. She won her case when the Hudood laws were in effect. What was different about her case that led to a Kuhnian “paradigm shift”?
Watch this short video to learn more about Mukhtar’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlhKyPOuRvA
Midterm Evaluation
Initially I thought that I would research a topic in Public Health – something that I want to study in graduate school- and I was beginning to narrow down my topic to harm reduction, but I diverged from my syllabus significantly. Creating a syllabus in the beginning weeks helped me realize that I could plan a concrete project on tobacco use and analyze successful and unsuccessful intervention programs that have a harm reduction approach to tobacco consumption. As I was researching, I began to broaden my topic more and more. However, after reading Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity For Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, I knew that I wanted to change my research topic to rape laws in Pakistan. Needless to say, I have not been following my syllabus and have not taken the time to create one for my new topic. I think I will carve out a better plan by examining research material as I progress. In fact, I will most likely diverge again if I begin making a syllabus/ mind map for this topic because the more relevant questions I think of answering, the further away I get from my original topic. Consider this analogy: When you are in a dark room and you cannot see anything, you should not focus on looking at the thing you cannot see. Instead, it’s better to look to the side for the rod cells are sensitive to light.
I have been researching my new topic for a month now. I have to catch up on writing research journals. Also, I have to begin crafting interview questions that I would be asking different people. I have found a lot of sources for background information and at this stage I am concentrating on what are some important aspects of Islamic law and how they were introduced into Pakistan’s legal system.
