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There is considerable debate about the extent to which gender equality and womens’ rights are universal values. This debate has been particularly heated in Afghanistan where the violation of women’s rights by the Taliban regime was one justification used by the US and its allies for their invasion of the country. There is, however, very little research on how ordinary Afghan women view their lives and their place within a highly patriarchal society and how their views might fit into these debates. This paper explores these issues using in-depth qualitative interviews with 12 Hazara women and their husbands in Kabul. …

There has been an ideological tug-of-war over women's place in Afghan society from the early years of the twentieth century between the modernising tendencies of its urban-based elite and the forces of conservatism represented by the Islamic ulema (religious leaders). Following the US-led invasion and the international donor community's subsequent efforts to “develop” the country, this struggle has acquired a new lease of life. Current debates reproduce the now familiar divide between cultural values and universal rights that characterises the wider feminist literature. While Afghan voices have been part of this debate, they tend to be drawn from more educated and politicised groups. …

This case study describes Pathways South Asia's (led by Ayesha Khan) qualitative research into Lady Health Workers' experiences in Pakistan. The study provides key findings and action points as well as narrating the story of one lady health worker and the confidence her work has brought to her. …

Pakistan's Lady Health Workers' programme has trained over 1,000,000 women to provide community health services in rural areas. Not only has the programme revitalised the primary health care system, it has also helped overcome the gendered division of public and private space that is a major obstacle to women's access to basic services, including education, and employment opportunities. However, there are a number of shortcomings that need government intervention to ensure that it fulfils its aims. …

The Lady Health Workers Programme is a major public sector initiative to provide reproductive health care to women in Pakistan, employing almost 100,000 women. This qualitative research study is based on interviews with LHWs and community members in four districts to explore dimensions of women’s empowerment. They are analysed in terms of how context and circumstance can positively shape the LHW experience. Four possible trajectories are illustrated based on case studies. …

This chapter explores the contributions that paid work can make to creating pathways of empowerment for women in Pakistan. It draws on the case of Pakistan’s government-run Lady Health Workers Programme (LHWP), which employs almost 100,000 women across Pakistan as community health workers who act as a vital link between communities and primary health care. …

The gang-rape of Mukhtaran Mai launched a nine-year court battle that concluded with a verdict by the Supreme Court of Pakistan acquitting all but one of the accused. Her case illustrates how both the formal and informal systems of justice share the same hostility to women who defy social norms and demand justice in cases of rape, says Ayesha Khan. …

This chapter offers an analysis of women and paid work with a view to identifying where there are changes underway in this area that may play a role in leading to equitable gender relations in Pakistan in the long term. The discussion is based on existing research on the subject, which comes from a variety of disciplines. Much of the research that will be discussed below is preliminary and based on micro-studies, or on larger quantitative surveys that may have ignored some of the diversity within the country. Women in Pakistan live in a society that is highly stratified according to class, caste, region and cultural variations, all of which have implications for their lives and opportunities. …

The Lady Health Worker Programme (LHWP) is a major public sector initiative to provide reproductive health care to women in Pakistan, employing almost 100,000 women as community health workers. The LHWP directly addresses women’s reproductive health needs by providing them with information, basic services and access to further care. The experience of LHWs can provide valuable insight into the impact of paid work on their lives and communities, and how processes of women’s empowerment are shaped. The LHWP is a huge employer of women and the most important link between communities and primary health care in the country. …

The present study explores the topic of empowerment through the experience of women in the Lady Health Workers Programme, a government-run project that employs almost 100,000 women across Pakistan as community health workers. The LHWP directly addresses women’s reproductive health needs by attempting to provide them information, basic services and access to further care if necessary. It is also a major employer of women, and therefore the experiences of LHWs can provide valuable insight into the impact of paid work on their lives and gender relations in their homes and communities. The discussion that follows will begin with some background information on women and paid work in Pakistan, followed by details of the LHWP, and an analysis of selected interviews with LHWs. …

The aim of the research is to provide a grass-roots analysis of the livelihood strategies of women from low income households, their ability to take advantage of new economic resources and the extent to which these resources, along with other supportive measures, have translated into shifts in the balance of power within the family and the community. …

The purpose of this study was to explore the empowerment-related possibilities experienced by women in a major public sector community health initiative in Pakistan. The Lady Health Worker (LHW) scheme has engaged almost 100,000 women across Pakistan to work in their local communities as primary health and family planning service providers through visiting households door to door to document basic health indicators and offer selected services. The study locates the LHW experience within the geography of gender in diverse parts of Pakistan, and attempts to identify whether the work has any transformative effect on LHWs themselves, and/or has affected the views of communities regarding women’s paid work. …

The collection of essays in the book aims to capture the variety of policies, discourses, debates and interventions that have influenced the lives of women in South Asia and to identify those that have led to greater empowerment of women. …

Articles by Pathways of Women's Empowerment researchers for Open Democracy's 50:50 section which features and analysis and news from women working around the world on issues of women's rights and empowerment. …

This research project explored how paid work can change women’s lives in terms of dealing with the public sphere and institutions, accessing services, commodities, resources, information, reducing isolation, increasing negotiation/bargaining skills, ability to protect themselves, etc. The context under which work can be empowering and the kinds of work that change lives was compared through comparisons of similar research undertaken by the West Africa and Middle East Pathways regional hubs in Ghana and Egypt. …