'Address issues of masculinities for a gender-neutral society'

Although it might take time to eliminate the patriarchal societal system, it is possible to change the attitude towards women by changing men's behavioural pattern, they observed.

They were speaking at the inaugural session of a three-day regional seminar titled 'Exploring Masculinities' jointly organised by Department of Women and Gender Studies, University of Dhaka (DU) and AAKAR India at Senate Building of DU.

Professor SMA Faiz, vice chancellor of DU, inaugurated the seminar while Professor Najma Chowdhury, founder chair of the Department of Women and Gender Studies, presided over the session.

Speaking as the chief guest, Prof Faiz said, "Masculinities is often associated with characteristics such as aggressiveness, competitiveness, dominance, strength, courage and social influences, and related to our understanding of power in society as a whole."

He also said discussion on masculinity makes men more conscious about gender and is a first step towards challenging gender inequalities and eliminating violence against women.

Professor Najma said masculinities, which is emerging as a new area of academic and research interests, is constructed on the supposedly dichotomous traits of humankind into the masculine and the feminine, assigning masculinities to male and femininity to female nature.

Society expects that women to be docile, conciliatory and submissive which are laid down by males who rule and design the mechanisms of social control, she added.

Delivering the speech of the guest of honour, Annemieke de Los Santos, first secretary to the Embassy of Netherlands in Bangladesh, pointed out that the discrimination between men and women begins since the birth in many South Asian countries.

Prof Dr Sadrul Amin, dean, Faculty of Arts of DU, Prof Harun-or-Rashid, dean, Faculty of Social Science of DU, Ayesha Banu, chairperson and Sheikh Imtiaz, lecturer of the Department of Women and Gender Studies of DU, and Rahul Roy, representative of AAKAR, India also spoke on the occasion.

The seminar will end tomorrow and today's scheduled programmes have been postponed due to unavoidable circumstances.