Men and anti-violence initiatives: transnational feminist reflections from Afghanistan and Pakistan

Abstract

This article looks at how international development’s rhetoric for enlisting men to take up anti-violence against women’s work is translated into reality. Based on fieldwork conducted in Afghanistan and Pakistan, I argue that whilst there have been success stories of men’s behaviour changing, the localisation of gender concepts and ideas into local frameworks has not been as successful. Furthermore, inattention to how gender relations are shaped by conflict and violence results in the dilution of feminist values around work on violence against women. This inattention also privileges middle-class men’s activism at the expense of activism by women and men from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds. The article concludes with a call for further transnational feminist dialogue and interventions in the area of men’s involvement, so that current and future initiatives are critical, reflexive and relevant.

Keywords:

• Afghanistan
• Pakistan
• transnational feminism
• violence against women
• masculinities

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Oxfam Australia and Oxfam Britain for being host organisations during fieldwork research. Sincere thanks to Kerrie Thornhill and Hamsa Ranja, for their feedback and advice during the development of this article. Many thanks as well to the journal editor Kanchana N Ruwanpura, and the reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joyce Wu

Joyce Wu is a Research Fellow at the Australian National University at the Crawford School of Public Policy. She is also a Visiting Scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), working on the gender integration of Sustainable Development Investment Portfolio program.