Women and Asylum: A Particular Social Group

This note examines the judgement of the House of Lords in the cases of Islam andShah, particularly with regard to their conclusion that women in Pakistan who were victims of domestic violence and not protected by their state could qualify as members of a particular social group under the Geneva Convention, and therefore attain refugee status. The note considers the Refugee Women's Legal Group's Gender Guidelines for the Determination of Asylum Claims in the U.K. and discusses the problems faced by women who claim refugee status. Finally, the conceptualisation of domestic violence as a political issue and therefore a matter falling within the scope of the Convention issue is analysed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Gender and Disorder Specific Criminal Career Profiles in Former Adolescent Psychiatric In-Patients

A Norwegian nation-wide sample of 1087 former adolescent psychiatric in-patients, 584 males and 503 females, were followed up 15–33 years after first hospitalization. On the basis of detailed hospital records from index hospitalization all were rediagnosed according to DSM-IV. The patient list was linked to the national criminal register and the diagnostic groups were compared as to gender-specific frequency of registered criminality. Next, the criminal career characteristics were compared in those with criminal records at follow-up, relative to mental disorder at index hospitalization. The prevalence of registered criminality, both overall and for specific types of crimes, differed significantly between diagnostic groups and between genders. In both genders criminal convictions were most frequent in disruptive behavior disorders and personality disorders. Among males, the lowest violent crime rate was observed in those with psychotic disorders. Males had more severe criminal careers than females, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The diagnoses and criminal profiles of the 10 most active criminals in the study sample were described closer, as were the 11 individuals found guilty of homicide.     

Gender,Culture and the Law: Approaches to ‘Honour Crimes’ in the UK

This article examines the debate on whether to analyse ‘honour crimes’ as gender-based violence, or as cultural tradition, and the effects of either stance on protection from and prevention of these crimes. In particular, the article argues that the categorisation of honour-related violence as primarily cultural ignores its position within the wider spectrum of gender violence, and may result in a number of unfortunate side-effects, including lesser protection of the rights of women within minority communities, and the stigmatisation of those communities. At the same time it is problematic to completely dismiss any cultural aspects of violence against women, and a nuanced approach is required which carefully balances the benefits and detriments of taking cultural factors into account. The article examines the issues within the context of the legal response to cases involving honour-related violence, arguing that although the judiciary has in a number of cases inclined towards viewing ‘honour’ as primarily cultural rather than patriarchal, in some cases they have begun to take a more gender-based or ‘mature multiculturalism’ approach.

女性领导力提升的非制度性障碍及对策分析

随着经济全球化和信息时代的发展,越来越多的女性领导者出现在政府机关和企事业单位的领导岗位上。女性领导者自身所拥有的特殊性格和品质使其在社会经济发展过程中的地位和作用不断提高,但传统文化、心理特性、社会习惯及女性群体自身的特质等一些非制度性的障碍因素仍制约着女性领导力的提升,因此,在新形势下,积极提升女性领导者的领导意愿、塑造女性领导者的人本主义精神和人性化的领导风格、提高女性领导者的科学决策水平、保障女性领导者的权益和工作时间对提升女性领导力显得尤为必要。     

Interrogating ‘invisibilization’ and ‘instrumentalization’: women and current citizenship trends in Canada

This paper examines current citizenship discourses and practices in Canada, focusing on the implications not only of marketization, but also of growing securitization vis-à-vis citizenship, and the gendered ramifications of such developments. The repercussions of marketization and securitization and their interrelations, for women in general, as well as racialized and immigrant women in particular, are outlined and assessed. In this way, we see how women are at the receiving end of highly contradictory processes in that they are both ‘invisibilized’, in other words, rendered invisible, by the Canadian state, but are also are increasingly ‘instrumentalized’, in other words, used in strategic ways. Yet, women also challenge these trends and tactics, thereby interrogating these processes that serve to limit the terms and scope of citizenship in Canada.     

论中国妇女法定退休年龄的界定与调整

男女退休年龄不平等导致女性在养老金的分配和劳动就业权益等方面受损,一些政策对妇女地位的负面影响常常被忽视,或没有得到应有的关注。因此,有必要分析法定退休年龄确定的相关因素并在此基础上对中国妇女法定退休年龄作出界定。     

Engineering Elections: The Experiences of Women in Panchayati Raj in Karnataka, India

Engineering elections through gender quotas is a crucial component of strategies that seek to empower women through increased participation in the political system. In the south Indian state of Karnataka, this experiment has seen mixed results: it has made women more visible, decreased levels of corruption in Panchayati Raj institutions, and increased self-efficiency of women representatives. It is more difficult, however, to claim a substantive change in institutional priorities and state accountability. As important is the fact that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) often provide significant training and support in successful cases. Engineering elections thus highlights possibilities for change through increased participation by women.     

Religious Intellectuals, the “Woman Question,” and the Struggle for the Creation of a Democratic Public Sphere in Iran

The ideas of the new generation of religious intellectuals in Iran have been the main engine for the call for reform. These intellectuals have attempted to locate their views about the way women are and should be treated in Islamic societies in their much broader—and to them more significant—attempt to offer a modernist religious understanding and a more democratic reading of the role of religion in modern polity. Iranian feminists, on the other hand, have begun to insist that the particular situation of women in Iran is in need of more attention. Religious intellectuals have responded by engaging in reluctant analysis of the way the woman question poses itself in the Iranian context. So far, their analyses fail to take into account the gender implications of the struggle against absolutism and traditional authority. However, the dynamic interaction of the reform project with demands and aspirations of various sectors of Iranian public life will not allow the issue to rest here. Religious intellectuals, in their attempt to recreate essential religious truth in the form of new intellectual concepts and systems, will increasingly have to deal with systemic gender inequalities in a more systematic manner.