Whose agenda is it?: abuses of women and abuses of `culture' in Britain

Developments in Britain reflect a shift from a shallow but widely endorsed multiculturalism to a growing preoccupation with abuses of women in minority cultural groups. Four main issues have been debated in the media and have become the basis of either public policy or legal judgment: forced marriage, honour killing, female genital cutting and women's Islamic dress. The treatment of these issues has often been problematic, with discourses over culture tending to misrepresent minority cultural groups as monolithic entities, and initiatives to protect women becoming entangled with anti-immigration agendas. It has therefore proved hard to address abuses of women without simultaneously promoting stereotypes of culture. The most encouraging signs of resolving these tensions appear where there has been a prior history of women's activism, and a greater willingness on the part of government to draw groups into consultation. We argue that this offers a greater prospect of devising effective initiatives that do not set up multiculturalism in opposition to women's rights

Function and disability status among women with fistula using WHODAS2.0: A descriptive study from Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo

Objective: To assess function and disability among women in Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo living with fistula and identify characteristics associated with higher disability scores. Methods: Women presenting for fistula care were recruited. Eligible participants underwent a physical examination to classify fistula type and completed the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 questionnaire to ascertain the impact of fistula on function across six domains: cognition, mobility, self-care, getting along, life activities, and participation. Disability scores were calculated (where 0 = no disability and 100 = complete disability). Participants were grouped according to no, low, or high disability status; results were examined to determine the domains most affected. Results: Among 69 participants, fistula type included: vesicovaginal (59.4%), ureterovaginal (14.5%), total absence of proximal urethra (11.6%), and rectovaginal (14.5%). Median disability score was 43.0/100 (interquartile range 26.0–67.0); 83% exhibited high disability status. Life activities and participation in society domains were most affected. Women with rectovaginal fistula reported the lowest scores, and those with total absence of proximal urethra reported the highest scores. Conclusion: WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 represents a simple, robust measure of global disability status, aligns with research efforts to estimate maternal disability, and may inform health needs and resource allocation for this population. In this study, disability was common, varied by fistula type, and affected physical, mental, and social domains

Engendering Redistribution, Recognition, and Representation: The Case of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the United Kingdom and France

International audienc

Too many bodies? The return and disavowal of the population question

During the 1960s and early 1970s population growth was regarded as an urgent environmental issue. Since then the topic has fallen into abeyance. Despite continuing demographic expansion and anxieties about a range of socio-ecological problems – from the stresses of high-density urban living to climate change, water, energy and food insecurity and loss of biodiversity – there is currently scant consideration of the benefits of population stabilisation or decline. Indeed, the problematisation of population numbers is widely disavowed or regarded with profound suspicion. Why have we become so reluctant to ask whether we are too many or to countenance policies that might discourage further growth? I identify five discourses – population-shaming, population-scepticism, population-declinism, population-decomposing and population-fatalism – that foreclose public debate and subject them to critical analysis. I end by eliciting signs of a hesitant revival of the population question alongside the enduring potency of silencing discourses