abstract: Sexual harassment has emerged as a widespread problem facing women in public space in Egypt. Activism to combat sexual harassment began in 2005. However, just prior to and in the years following the January 25, 2011 Egyptian Revolution, which witnessed an increase in the collective sexual harassment, assault and rape of women, this activism has increased. Subsequently, scholarly attention to sexual harassment and public sexual violence has also expanded. Much of the attention in scholarly analyses has been directed toward politically motivated sexual violence, focused on understanding the state commissioning of sexual violence against female protestors to drive them from protest participation. There is an emerging critique of activist approaches that seems to ignore the politicalized nature of sexual harassment to focus instead on “cultural” targets. The early work of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) and current work of HarassMap have been criticized for depoliticizing sexual harassment by failing to include an analysis of state-commissioned sexual violence in their work. Similarly, both have been accused of expanding the scope of the security state by calling for increased policing of public space to protect women from “culturally-bad” men. With data collected through one year of participant observation with HarassMap, interviews with activists from eleven anti-sexual harassment initiatives and advocacy NGOs, and community-level surveys with non-activist individuals, this dissertation argues that “cultural” work undertaken through the community-based approaches by entities like ECWR and HarassMap is, in fact, an inherently political process, in which political engagement represents both an attempt to change political culture and state practice and a negotiative process involving changing patriarchal gender norms that underpin sexual harassment at a society-wide level. New conceptualizations of sexual harassment promoted by anti-sexual harassment initiatives and NGOs in Egypt frame it as a form of violence against women, and attempt to make sexual harassment an offense that may be criminalized. Yet, this dissertation contends there is a tension between activist and widespread public understandings of sexual harassment, predicated on the incomplete framing of sexual harassment as a form of violence. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Anthropology 2016

The Rohingya, an ethnic minority group that traditionally have lived in Rakhine State, Myanmar, are facing severe structural discrimination from the Myanmar state. Rohingya women and girls have experienced horrific acts of gender-based violence from the Myanmar army in Rakhine State before they fled to Bangladesh and the refugee camps in Cox Bazar area. In these refugee camps gender-based violence continues to be widespread, much like other refugee camps in other parts of the world. Rohingya women and girls are vulnerable because of their gender, refugee status and ethnic affiliation. In addition they become even more vulnerable because family and community structures have broken down. These intersecting vulnerabilities make them exposed to gender-based violence from a number of different perpetrators. In addition these intersecting vulnerabilities lead to a lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services. Overall the humanitarian organisations operating in Cox Bazar did not manage to deliver these sexual and reproductive health services to the amount of Rohingya women and girls that needed them. Although gender-based violence was identified to be widespread in the refugee camps preventive measures were few. The unequal power relationships are identified as an underpinning reason for gender-based violence. In addition, the underlying causes of gender-based violence are connected with beliefs, norms, attitudes and structures that promote and/or tolerate gender-based discrimination and unequal power relationships.

Background and Aim: Street harassment is an international and trans-cultural phenomenon that has short and long-term negative effects on its individual targets impacting millions of people, mostly women and young girls, everyday. Most studies on the subject have been focused on defining the problem from a law point of view leaving a knowledge gap on how social structures and the various political, economic, and cultural means interact to (re)produce and perpetuate this social phenomenon. This study aims to explore the thoughts of young men in Iran in order to discover possible underlying mechanisms reinforcing street harassment.   Methods: A qualitative study consisted of four focus group discussions, with male university students, was conducted in Tehran, Iran. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data with social constructionism as the theoretical lens.   Results: Two candidate themes were developed: “Normalization and trivialization of the problem” and “Socio-cultural and political silence”. The first theme represents the discussions about street harassment as normal, inevitable, and harmless. The second theme embodies the systematic silence around the subject of sexual harassment. Both normalization and the silence construct street harassment as an invisible problem not only to men who are not directly harmed by it, but also to the society as a whole which led to developing the overarching theme describing street harassment as “an invisible gender-based violence” in Iran. Conclusion: The participants were unaware of the relation between power, gender inequality, and the concept of patriarchy, which in itself is a sign of an androcentric culture. Street harassment was conceptualized as normal and invisible since it doesn’t concern them. However, most participants were eager to discuss the topic developing their arguments as the discussion went on and stating that this topic needs to be discussed and studied which confirms that just providing a safe space and the opportunity for discussions can raise people’s awareness of this social problem.     Key words: Street harassment, male university student, conceptualization, Iran

Magister Curationis / Domestic violence is a pervasive problem in South Africa. The School of Nursing at the University of Western Cape has responded to the challenge of training sensitive, knowledgeable and skilled health personnel by developing a Management of Gender- Based Violence Module. The purpose of this study is to describe the professional and personal development of nursing students who were placed at the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Abused Women and Children for the service-learning trial run of this Gender- Based Violence module in 2003. A qualitative, contextual, and descriptive design was therefore used to provide rich information from in-depth descriptions of students’ perceptions and experiences with regard to the service-learning module. Purposive, convenient sampling was used because the key informants, 27 female students involved in the trial run of the module, were selected to “illuminate" the research question. Content analysis was done and to ensure credibility, data triangulation was done using focus group, project reports and the students’ journals. Informed consent to use data from the previously mentioned sources was obtained from students. The overall findings indicate that the service-learning programme allowed students to achieve the goals defined by the community, services and the university. Students came to understand the supportive roles that health professionals can play and recognised that the development of the attributes of caring, advocacy and civic ngagement is essential to their professional development. Comments in their reflective journals revealed that students valued their service-learning experience, and believed that this experience would expand into future collaborative relationships within civil society. The recommendation is that further in depth research be conducted given the promise shown by this educational approach. / South Africa

Magister Public Health - MPH / The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with reporting incidents of sexual violence after seventy-two hours at the sexual assault service centre in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal. This descriptive study was based on retrospective analysis of 534 medical records of victims of sexual violence at the Newcastle hospital between 2005 and 2009. A data collection sheet was designed to extract information from three sources namely: the victims' hospital files, J88 forms and specific hospital forms that were completed for sexual assault victims. The collected data were entered into and processed for analysis using EPI INFO statistical package. Frequencies, means and standard deviations were calculated for the data set. Test of significance was also done using the Chi-square test and presented using odds ratios with 95% CI and p-value of <0.05. The victims' age range was 2-81years (mean= 18.84, σ=13.25). Approximately 87% were female and 59.4% of the victims were aged 0-17 years. One in five victims (19.7%) was HIV positive, and most (74.4%) reported rape with vaginal penetration. Fifty-nine percent reported within 72 hours of being assaulted. The most common reason for delayed reporting (21.5%) was fear of the perpetrator. Most of the sexual assaults were committed by male (96%) and single perpetrator (90%). Nearly a third (32.4%) of the sexual violence occurred within intimate relationships and more than two-thirds (68%) knew the perpetrators. In all, 35% sustained injuries during the assault and a third (34.5%) reported the use of weapons during the assault. Nearly half of the victims (48.7%) were referred to hospital by their relatives who also accompanied them to the facility (42.1%). Of the 198 victims that were offered post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), 87% collected the full 28-day course. / South Africa

This thesis elaborates on a complex, multilayered gender perspective of mineral exports in the conflict of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The focus lies on the Dodd-Frank Act and its implications for sexual gender-based violence, both conflict and non-conflict related, as well as socioeconomic dimensions. The in-depth analysis of these factors indicates, that after the initiation of the well-intended Act, the occurrence of sexual gender-based violence has increased and socioeconomic situation for women have worsened. Possible reasons can be found in the sole focus on Western narratives and the neglect of local perspectives.

Magister Legum - LLM / During armed conflicts, women experience more abuses than their male counterpart. Besides, the disruption of national security systems resulting form the social and political troubles, exposes women to more violation of their human rights in the postconflict setting. During the last decade, the international community has employed noteworthy efforts to protect women from the effects of armed conflicts, and to ensure the prosecution of violators of women’s rights in post-conflict situations. This included inter alia, the adoption of binding treaties calling for protection of women against sexual and gender based violence(GBV), and the creation of an international Criminal Court and International tribunals to prosecute persons for the most serious crimes of international concern, including sexual and gender violence. During the armed conflict that occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between 1996 and 2003, a significant number of GBV acts were committed against women. Reports and statistical data from humanitarian organisations working in the DRC indicated an increase of GBV acts against women after the official cessation of the conflict. Moreover, reports indicated the emergence of GBV acts against women in areas that did not witness such acts during the conflict. The research paper interrogates, from a criminal justice angle, the response given to GBV acts perpetrated against women in the post-conflict setting. Furthermore, the research questions the access of women to justice and interrogates the challenges bedevilling this access at the national and international level. In addition, the research formulates recommendations aimed at enhancing the access of women survivor of GBV to justice, and for an effective prosecution of perpetrators of such acts.

The problem of cultural violence against girls in Nigeria has been discussed at length. A number of scholars have conducted empirical studies, others developed theories and tools to be used in measuring and monitoring improvement on eliminating specific cultural practices. This scholarship is vitally important. They launch feminist and other anthropological works into an arena of anti-violence work which without a doubt have a significant impact and far-reaching repercussions for girls who experience violence in Nigeria. Yet, despite the systemic change over the past years, the problem of violence against girls in Africa, more specifically Nigeria, is still persistent within cultural communities. Building on the important foundational works of these authors, my dissertation analyses this problem from a different perspective. This thesis identifies several governance gaps within the Nigerian legal framework that needs to be addressed before existing legal mechanisms can adequately address the problem of violence against girls. To ensure a proper examination of the different dimensions and changing patterns of cultural violence against girls, the dissertation focuses on the practice of child marriages within Muslim communities in Northern Nigeria. The complexity of the issues addressed in this dissertation required a variety of theoretical tools to unpack the different fields of inquiry. The dissertation uses a critical legal studies and feminist framework in studying the problem of cultural violence against girls in Nigeria. It also uses textuality, a method of inquiry within Dorothy Smith’s feminist socio-legal methodology, to investigate the text-based organization of social policy in Nigeria to ultimately reveal a legal and political system used as an instrument for consolidating power and legitimizing anti-women principles as traditional values. Using these tools, the thesis analyzed the complexity of the problem of cultural violence through a focus on co-existing institutional frameworks, that is, formal and informal legal structures and the roles they play in shaping the experiences of girls within cultural communities.

The main aim of this Degree Project was to investigate the role of social media for women’s rights movements in Ethiopia, specifically for the #MeTooEthiopia movement, and whether utilising social media in their operations and mobilisations has enhanced the movements’ ability to raise awareness and challenge traditional gender norms. The research was investigated through the lens of digital activism and via the logic of connective action, by utilising in-depth semi-structured interviews with women’s rights activists in Ethiopia and overseas and undertaking a review of the #MeTooEthiopia movement social media platforms. Through the interviews, it was possible to identify numerous benefits and challenges relating to the country-specific cultural, social and economic context that women’s rights movements in Ethiopia have to operate in. For the #MeTooEthiopia movement specifically, operating an international movement within this context has been challenging, however due to its ability to diversify and adopt to both new and traditional communication technologies, the movement has been able to sustain its momentum and remain active in their attempt to raise awareness and challenge traditional gender norms. The findings also demonstrate that for contemporary women’s rights movements in Ethiopia, raising awareness and bringing along attitudinal change cannot be accomplished by only utilising new technologies. Rather, it is necessary to combine activism via social media with traditional forms of communication, including face-to-face meetings, to be able to have a reach across the wider society.

Turkey and its authoritarian policies are in the headlines: the topic of Syrian refugees and the EU – Turkey deal, gross human rights violations, repression against opposition parties, and last but not least the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention in March 2021. Heavy protests of feminist activist groups are demanding the end of gender-based violence and femicide.Against this background, the thesis investigates the reasons for the rapidly rising number of femicides in Turkey since 2008. It is argued that femicides are not isolated, individualized acts. Rather, they need to be grasped by the present social, political, and gendered context of Turkey. A contextual intersectional analysis is applied to examine the multifaceted and multilayered political phenomenon of femicides.The analysis reveals that femicides are not caused by single-issue factors, but rather by a variety of interlocking determinants such as deeply entrenched gender roles and patriarchal structures, gender-based violence, the regulatory landscape and the creation of political conditions that institutionalize gender hierarchy and violence.The unique contribution of this paper is the adoption of a decolonial view that incorporates a view to the resistance practices embedded into practices of repression and violence.