PurposeGlobally, women suffer from a lack of knowledge about breast cancer (BC), its symptoms and treatment. The purpose of this paper is to examine how people living in rural and less developed areas in Pakistan perceive BC. The study investigates the level of knowledge about BC in rural communities and analyses how the prevalent perceptions and beliefs impact women's lives and delay the diagnosis.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on 42 in-depth interviews with the women who have undergone BC treatment during the past five years. The participants were interviewed were the residents of the northern Sindh, southern Pakistan.FindingsFindings show that BC was perceived as a contagious disease transmitted through touching or being physically close to the patient. Some women were abandoned by their husbands because of this perception. Faith in fatalism and the perception that BC is an incurable disease were common in communities with low socio-economic status. This is likely to affect the prevention and early detection of BC.Originality/valueThe study shows a strong co-relation of awareness with the prevalent perceptions regarding BC. Therefore, we recommend promoting health literacy and introducing culturally specific interventions in remote communities to enhance their understanding of the available treatment and help remove misconceptions about BC.
Son preference persists in South Asian patrilineal and patriarchal societies where practices of sex-selective abortions are used to ensure the maximum number of male children. Such practices cannot be understood without analysing socio-economic conditions that foster son preference. This article highlights the strategic importance of sons in rural Pakistan by analysing 30 semi-structured interviews and three focus group discussions with women. I take into account the prevalent perception of men as breadwinners and argue that even if men do not fulfil this role, they are considered precious due to other factors, e.g., family’s future security, social protection and maintenance of kinship ties. The family faces the threat of discontinuity of lineage in the absence of a male child even if it has daughters. While the girl child is also useful for the family, particularly when she supports her mother, cultural and social expectations attached to the male child make him invaluable.
Following a pictorial analysis of Sindhi primary textbooks used in Sindh province of Pakistan (Agha et al., 2018), we are interested in analysing the text and pictures used in secondary textbooks of Sindhi. The present study uses the previous study as a pilot and aims at exploring the representation of gender and citizenship in textbooks of Sindhi language used at the secondary level. This study uses Kabira and Masinjila’s (1997) framework of gender analysis. Data was taken from four textbooks and analysed through the thematic coding technique adopted from Braun and Clarke (2006). Findings of this study depict that women are represented much less in terms of being the main actors, involved in productive actions in society, or present in the public sphere. We argue that the textbooks are restrengthening the patriarchal norms of Pakistani society and treating women as secondary citizens who are incapable of being leaders of any kind.
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