Sarfraz Khan

The curriculum is the most grounded device to transmit and transform the way of life, values, and convictions of the society to the students. At the point the children enter the school, the pictures of the male and female depicted in books, solidify their ideas about gender bias and such gender stereotypes shape the mental framework of the students and leave an everlasting effect on the social outlook of the students. Children develop a certain sense of perception and personality while reading such books. The text, words, and pictures in the books leave a permanent blueprint in their mind and they organize their behavior along the patriarchal line, represented in the books. In the textbooks, male-dominant ideology has been used to construct reality in such a way that serves the interest of men in a society. There is a latent and manifest nexus of power and language which favors the patriarchal values. Gender ideologies apparent in the books are also embedded in children's pictures, mass media, and even clothing. There are also more males characters and heroes than females characters and heroes in the textbooks of Urdu and English. All prominent leaders of the Pakistan movement are males and only one female leader, Fatimah Jinnah, has representation in the books but that too in her capacity as sister of the founder of Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

The present study aimed to develop model of perceived threats to religious minorities and their intentions to migrate from Pakistan. We selected 275 respondents randomly from District Multan. Structure equation model revealed that social, cultural and religious threats were associated with intentions of migration among minorities. Social threat, consisted of life insecurity, hostility of majority and social exclusion, is stronger predictor of intentions to migrate from Pakistan (p<.001). Additionally, it was suggested that government officials should encourage cross-religious participation to produce culturally pluralistic communities in Pakistan. The law enforcement agencies should control extrajudicial murders of minorities and promote national collectiveness regardless of religious diversity.

Purpose-In  rural  communities  across  Pakistan  an  increased  proclivity  can  be  observed towards  Sufi  shrines  visitation  and  ritual  performance.  People  normally  pay  visits  and give  donations  at  shrines  in  a  bid  to  accommodate  their  spiritual  needs.  The  migrants (transnational  devotees)  having  strong  connections  to  the  home  communities  were inclined  towards  the  Sufi  shrines  in  the  same  way  as  their  relatives  back  homes. Design/methodology/approach-The  current  research  was  conducted  in  district  Gujrat which is famous forboth the international migration and veneration of Sufi shrines. For this research, ethnographic fieldwork was conducted by using a) in-depth interviews, b) case  studies,  and  c)  focus  group  discussions  from  the  community  members  having knowledge  about  migration  and  shrines.  The  selection  of  the  respondents  was  made through  the  use  of  purposive  sampling  with  a  specific  criterion  as  only  international migrants, their left behind families‘ de facto heads and the custodians of the Sufi shrines were taken as respondents. The rationale behind their selection was very simple as they can  better  explain  the  bond  between  migrants,  custodians  and  shrines  even  after  the relocation from the origin to destination.Findings-The findings showed that a strong affection can be seen among migrants, their families  and  the  shrines.  They  were  paying  visits  to  the  shrines,  performing  rituals  and giving donations for the functioning of shrines. Originality/Value-This  paper  has  focused  on  one  of  the  issues  which  normally  had been missed  by  mainstream  migrant  researchers.  So,  keeping  in  view  the  dearth  of existing  knowledge  base  on  this  issue,  the  current  paper  aim  to  add  on  to  the  body  of knowledge related to therole ofspiritual guidance in the process of migrants.

In its 50th edition of key indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2019, the Asian Development Bank reports that Pakistan with $21 billion remittance ranks 5th in the top 10 remittance sending countries of the world. The inflow of remittances helps the families of migrants and community in the broader context to improve their conditions and lives at many levels; (a) family’s wellbeing and (b) community relationship and development. The migrants normally send remittances for families in the first instance to accommodate their daily essential needs and additionally to spend paying back loans, make savings and finally make safe investments in order to receive continuous income in future. But in many cases these remittances remained focused and consumed in non-productive activities, a pattern that has been observed in case of many developing countries around the globe. This is probably due to the fact the families suddenly find themselves in a situation where they have liberty to move from poverty stricken conditions to a more benevolent change. In the case of community development, the remittances of the migrant workers are allocated in the shape of funding to a number of planned activities such as health, education, roads, sanitation, water supply etc. This research was conducted in Karrianwala village in Gujrat district of Pakistan with an aim to investigate the impact of foreign remittances on the community development that comprises of small or large enterprises for the overall wellbeing of the people. In this particular village the foreign remittances were evidently effective in improving the community situation, especially in installation of water supply, pavement of streets and sanitation during 1990s. Although, these projects were planned out and started out by a development committee comprising of conscientious and responsible members chosen by consensus from all major biradary [Urdu: Community] groups, financial support of Gujrati diaspora living across the world provided the much needed impetus for development. The researchers conducted an ethnographic fieldwork to collect data by using In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) technique from a set of respondents including: (a) members of the village development committee, and (b) the heads and elders of left behind families having at least one active migrant member who contributed financially to these developmental activities. In addition, two Key Informants (KIs) were also taken on board to get their detailed perspectives on the issues at hand and additionally they also validated the information collected through IDIs. The results showed a positive correlation between the inflow of foreign remittances and community development.

This research paper focuses on the research findings regarding health belief systems, faith healing and modern biomedical healthcare systems prevailing in the Village Zandra, District Ziarat in the province of Balochistan. An effort has been made to find out the health care systems working in the village which included both beliefs and perceptions related to health and illness and also the activities which natives have adopted or developed to maintain and restore their health. Initially the natives were using traditional and spiritual healing systems but now as their economic condition and literacy rate is increasing they are more inclined towards the modern methods of treatment. During the last 3 decades many changes have been witnessed. Awareness through media and shift from subsistence to market economy has increased the use of allopathic medicines due to which the natives have started opting for secondary sources of income. Besides, researcher&#39;s endeavor to explore the shift...

The present research study was conducted in two public sector universities in Islamabad, Pakistan to explore the relationship between women's education and empowerment. In this research we have looked at the five major dimensions of the women's empowerment in conjunction with education i.e. (1) freedom of movement, (2) economic activism, familial and social affairs (3) freedom from domination and support by the family, (4) decision-making in daily life, and (5) political participation and community engagement. The data was collected from 30 female respondents (15 university teachers and 15 recently passed-out university graduates). The selection of the respondents was made through purposive sampling but with a special inclusion criterion. Based on the research findings, we can suggest that higher levels of education could positively be associated with the higher levels of women's empowerment.

Ageism is known as discrimination and stereotyping against aged person. Transgender person is considered as neither male or female or a combination of both male and female. Transgender population being marginalized community in Pakistan have to face multiple problems (i.e. economic, psychological and health) with the increase in age. In this vein, the current study was conducted to explore the socioeconomic and health conditions of aged transgender in the Rawalpindi district of Punjab province. Specifically, this study aimed to assess the extent of this population' access to basic human rights such as health, food, shelter, cloth and sanitation. Least research has been done in Pakistan in this regard. Therefore, Case studies method was used for data collection. A sample of 9 aged transgender with age above 50 years was selected through snowball sampling technique. The result indicates that usually aged transgenders were living extreme alarming situation. Finding indicates that most of the older transgender profession was beggary and 55.6% (n=5) of the transgender fall into the category of low income. Most of the transgender health status was unpleasant due to lack of devotion. Likewise, 89.9 % (n=8) transgender lived in rented house and paid double fair because people stigmatized them questionable profession like dancing and sex work. The study has also shown that all aged transgender have imbalance diet, poor condition of seasonal clothes and sanitation system because they lived in the side areas of the city due to gender non-conforming. The study suggests further work on aged transgender people and mainstreaming them in the sociological, anthropological and human rights context.

The role of religion and kinship is very dynamic in the case of District Jhang (Pakistan) where most of the custodians of religious shrines are actively involved in the national and provincial level politics deriving their political power from the religion and kinship. These shrines and kinship provide them both political and religious powers to exert in everyday life in rural areas of the district. These spaces are also used for resolving religious, kinship and political disputes of various communities who are both devotees and voters of these custodians of the shrines. The influence of these custodians is very much reflected in the decisions that they make, thus enrolling voters as devotees. Usually voters are not devotees of the custodians of the sufi shrines. Therefore this paper has looked at the role of religion and kinship in influencing political behavior of the voters of the district. In most of the cases these custodians win the elections because both religion and kinship play a pivotal role in the elections. The custodians not only rely on the power of religion which they derive from their shrines but also from kinship which always come forward in the electoral process.

The present research was conducted in the village Toru in District Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The main objective of the research was to understand and analyze patriarchal structure and sexist ideology in Pakhtun society through Pashto proverbs. The second major objective of the study was to understand the role of Pashto proverbs in the construction of social reality. Through the selected proverbs one can understand the worldview of the males toward the status of females in male dominated Pakhtun society. The study also reveals that how a proverb becomes meaningful in a particular context and how it is used as a powerful tool by the men to construct endocentric social reality. How the prevailing sexist stereotypes and common sense helps in the construction of so called universal reality through the proverbs. In this paper we have challenged matals (proverbs) as a regime of truth and by
deconstructing and critically analyzing such derogatory and sexist proverbs we can highlight the hidden discrepancies in so called wise sayings and established facts and reality. The basic purpose of this study is to critically analysis the male chauvinism in Pakhtun culture through the deconstruction of sexist proverbs.

The major aim of present study was to analyze the impact of women’s education on maternal health care utilization in rural areas of District Gujrat, Pakistan. A survey
was conducted in Union Council Kunjah of Tehsil Gujrat. A sample of 139 female respondents (delivered a baby having the age group of 6 weeks to 8 months) was
drawn with the help of simple random sampling technique. Interview schedule was developed to collect relevant information from the respondents. Statistical test Tau-b and Gamma was used to test the hypothesis. A great significance was seen after the data analysis and interpretation between women’s education and maternal health care utilization among females in the selected rural union council of Gujrat District.

Present study was conducted in a small community Nahar Kot, District Barkhan, Balochistan (Pakistan). The study aims at understanding the role of the early warning system in the disaster management at community level. Indigenous knowledge has a pivotal role in managing the disasters in the absence of the scientific knowledge and vice-versa. This study sheds light on the role of early warning systems i.e. weather predictions based on the typology of the winds and predictions based on the behavior of the animals. The analysis shows that these masses of the tribal community of the Barkhan have an enriched indigenous knowledge purely based on their experiences. They also believe in the elders because of the vast experiences regarding local environment and they also timely get help from their elders to predict weather and mitigate with it.

The role of religion and kinship is very dynamic in the case of District Jhang (Pakistan) where most of the custodians of religious shrines are actively involved in the national and provincial level politics deriving their political power from the religion and kinship. These shrines and kinship provide them both political and religious powers to exert in everyday life in rural areas of the district. These spaces are also used for resolving religious, kinship and political disputes of various communities who are both devotees and voters of these custodians of the shrines. The influence of these custodians is very much reflected in the decisions that they make, thus enrolling voters as devotees. Usually voters are not devotees of the custodians of the sufi shrines. Therefore this paper has looked at the role of religion and kinship in influencing political behavior of the voters of the district. In most of the cases these custodians win the elections because both religion and kinship play a pivotal role in the elections. The custodians not only rely on the power of religion which they derive from their shrines but also from kinship which always come
forward in the electoral process.