Practice of masculinities leads to violence

The seminar styled 'Exploring Masculinities' was jointly organised by the Department of Women and Gender Studies of Dhaka University (DU) and AAKAR-India at the Senate Building of DU and was funded by Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Dhaka.

In the first session, Shaila Parvin Luna of Save the Children during her presentation gave recommendations to reduce inequality in the society while Shaikh Imtiaz, lecturer at the Department of Women and Gender Studies, presented a paper on 'Learning by doing: Masculinities, Healthy Behaviour and Young Men's Sexual Practices in Dhaka.'

Imtiaz explained that how false ideas and misconceptions about the notion of masculinities in Bangladesh could lead towards major health risks and danger for men.

He also said there exists a close relation between the masculinity and sexual practices and most of the adolescent men do not have access to proper sexual knowledge.

Because of the dominant forms of masculinity, the adolescent men adopt different strategies that risk their own lives and their sexual partners as well, said Imtiaz, also a PhD researcher of Amsterdam University, Netherlands.

Child Brigade, a child rights organisation of Save the Children, staged a drama on present social construction and sense of masculinity that leads to repression on children.

In another session, Deeptha Achar of University of Baroda, India presented a paper on 'Attaining Majority: With Gandhi In South Africa' while Subhashim Goswmi, an independent researcher from India talked on 'Being and Becoming: Men in a Matrilineal Society'.

Dr Mangesh Kulkarni of University of Pune also discussed on 'Teaching Men's Studies: A Global Perspective.'

Chairperson of the Department Ayesha Banu and Dr Shankar Ramaswamy of University of Michigan presided over the two separate sessions in the seminar on the concluding day of the three-day seminar curtailed to two-day for unavoidable reasons.