Revealing Gender Inequalities and Perceptions in South Asian Countries Through Discourse Analysis

Misconceptions regarding gender identity and issues of inequality that women around the world face have become a predominant concern for not only the citizens impacted, but global political leaders, administrators, and human rights activists. Revealing Gender Inequalities and Perceptions in South Asian Countries through Discourse Analysis explores how an analysis of language use in the South Asian region exposes issues related to gender identity, representation, and equality. Emphasizing emerging research and case studies focusing on the concept of gender in Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Nepal, this publication is an essential resource for social theorists, activists, linguists, media professionals, researchers, and graduate-level students.

Nazmunnessa Mahtab is Professor (Supernumerary) in the Department of Women and Gender Studies, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She completed her Ph.D. from the University of Delhi, India in 1982. She was a Senior Full Bright Scholar at George Washington University, Washington D.C. in 1989 and worked on Women in Administration. Her recent publications include: 1) Womens Transformational Leadership in Bangladesh: Potentials and Challenges, published in Women, Political Struggles and Gender Equality in South Asia edited by Margaret Alston, Palgrave Macmillan, August 2014; 2) A. co-edited book entitled: Digital Public Administration and E-Government in Developing Nations, published by IGI Global Publishers, USA, in August, 2014.

Sara Parker has worked in school of social sciences at Liverpool John Moores University since 1994. Her PHD focused on gender education and empowerment in Nepal and she has co-led a British Council Higher Education link between Liverpool Nepal and Bangladesh. She has published on the gendered impact of conflict on school children in Nepal as well as on participatory development and non-formal education.

Farah Kabir has been working with Action Aid Bangladesh as the Country Director since June 2007. Over 19 years of vast experience in the field of development and research has made Farah Kabir a renowned human rights figure at home and abroad with an uncompromising voice against human-rights violation. Over the last seven years, as the Country Director of ActionAid Bangladesh, Farah Kabir has been engaged in persistent advocacy with many a corporate company to exhilarate their charity initiative and extend support to the poor and marginalized community.

Tania Haque is an Associate Professor in the Department of Women and Gender Studies, University of Dhaka. She graduated in Public Administration from Dhaka University. She also obtained her first MA degree in Public Administration from the same University. She was nominated by the Department, under a Dutch fellowship to study at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) at The Hague from where she received her second Masters degree. She has completed her MA in Development Studies (specialization in Women, Gender and Development) at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands.

Aditi Sabur is an Assistant Professor of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh where she teaches undergraduate courses on Feminist theories, Women Society and Culture, Gender and Family, and Women and Religion. She holds an M.Phil. in Gender and Development from University of Bergen, Norway, and MSS and BSS degree in Women and Gender Studies from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her main area of interest includes gender and construction of identities, masculinities and fatherhood, intersectionality, feminist theories and methodologies, gender, religion and minority issues etc.

Abu Saleh Mohammad Sowad is currently working at University of Dhaka as a lecturer and a freelance consultant in the field of Gender and Development. Formerly, he has worked with NETZ Partnership for Development and Justice as a young researcher, where his primary job responsibility was to conduct a study on the impact of development interventions on womens position in gender power relations; as a consultant with OXFAM Bangladesh, where he analysed gender consciousness and sustainability of one of their major projects in Bangladesh using qualitative analysis. Before that as a research fellow of USAID small research grants for masters students and young teachers 2010, he had analysed the gendered implications of one of the main development projects of USAID/Bangladesh focused on sustainable natural disaster mitigation.