Episode 82

Tackling Gender Backlash During Crises

In this opening episode of the mini-series, we explore how moments of crisis—from economic collapse to political instability—create fertile ground for anti-feminist backlash. We hear how patriarchal power is mobilised across contexts and how resisting it requires collective action that cuts across sectors, including health. Co-host Ishrat Jahan is joined by Lebanese researcher and activist Nay El Rahi and Kenyan programme officer Alfred Makabira, who share personal reflections and strategies for countering gender backlash in their own work.

In this episode:

Ishrat Jahan - Research Fellow at the Centre for Gender and Sexual and Reproductive Health at BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Ishrat’s research focuses on the intersection of gender, health, and environmental issues. Ishrat is involved in national and international projects exploring the impact of climate change on women’s health, adaptive practices in marginalised communities, and Global South-led curricula in higher education.

Nay El Rahi – Researcher, Lebanese American University, Arab Institute for Women (AiW)

Nay is an intersectional feminist writer, researcher, and political activist with over a decade of experience in journalism, research, and programming. Based at the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University, Nay’s work focuses on anti-feminist backlash, gender-based violence, and kinship in Lebanon. She co-founded HarassTracker, a pioneering tool for reporting sexual harassment in Lebanon, and was named one of the BBC’s 100 Women in 2016.

Alfred Makabira - Programme Officer, Advocates for Social Change-Kenya (ADSOCK).

Alfred is a human rights advocate working as part of the Countering Backlash: Reclaiming Justice project, developing and implementing practical strategies to help individuals and communities identify, resist, and challenge patriarchal backlash both online and in their local contexts.

Useful links:

Want to hear more podcasts like this?

Follow Connecting Citizens to Science on your usual podcast platform or YouTube to hear more about current research and debates within global health.

The podcast cuts across disciplines, including health systems strengthening, gender and intersectionality, tropical diseases (NTDs, TB, Malaria), maternal and child healthcare (antenatal and postnatal care), mental health and wellbeing, vector-borne diseases, climate change and co-production approaches.

If you would like your project or programme to feature in an episode or miniseries, get in touch with the producers of Connecting Citizens to Science, the SCL Agency.

Transcript
Speaker:

Dr. Kim Ozano: Hello and welcome to Connecting Citizens to Science.

Speaker:

I'm your host, Dr. Kim Ozano, and this episode marks the start of a six-part

Speaker:

mini-series exploring gender backlash.

Speaker:

This series sounds a little bit different to our usual episodes where

Speaker:

we are focusing on health systems, but we know from conversations across this

Speaker:

podcast and across our disciplines that nothing happens in isolation.

Speaker:

Gender justice, political power, and access to services like

Speaker:

healthcare are all deeply connected.

Speaker:

If we wanna build more effective equitable health systems, we have to

Speaker:

understand these intersections, and this episode aims to do just that.

Speaker:

Nay El Rahi: Generally, a generic definition of backlash is that

Speaker:

it is a reaction to perceived or real gains made by the feminist

Speaker:

movement or any social movement.

Speaker:

Dr. Kim Ozano: We are seeing that around the world, moments of crisis,

Speaker:

whether economic, political, or environmental have become fertile

Speaker:

ground for patriarchal resurgence.

Speaker:

From austerity measures that disproportionately impact women, to the

Speaker:

rise of controlling governments rolling back gender rights, crisis is serving as

Speaker:

a justification to reinforce traditional gender norms and limit freedoms.

Speaker:

This episode investigates how different forms of crisis fuel anti-feminist

Speaker:

backlash in the Global South, how masculinity is weaponised in moments

Speaker:

of instability, and the strategies that activists are using to resist.

Speaker:

I'm joined in this series by Ishrat Jahan, who is a research fellow at the Center

Speaker:

for Gender and Sexual and Reproductive Health at BRAC, James P. Grant School

Speaker:

of Public Health in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Speaker:

Ishrat, as one of our co-hosts for this min-series, will help

Speaker:

us to explore the work of two long-term cross-country initiatives.

Speaker:

The first is Countering Backlash, Reclaiming Justice, which explores

Speaker:

how patriarchal backlash is mobilised across six countries.

Speaker:

The second is Our Voices, Our Futures a Global South led project that centers

Speaker:

the experiences of structurally silenced women, including sex workers, Indigenous

Speaker:

women, and women human rights defenders.

Speaker:

Ishrat's research has been published in journals and books on gender

Speaker:

justice, climate change, and sexual and reproductive health, and we're

Speaker:

pleased to have her with us today to help us unpack these critical themes

Speaker:

and to amplify the voices of those most affected by gender backlash.

Speaker:

We also have two guests joining us today, Nay El Rahi, who is a

Speaker:

Lebanese journalist and Alfred Makabira, a programme coordinator at

Speaker:

Advocates for Social Change in Kenya.

Speaker:

Both our guests are navigating the realities of gender backlash

Speaker:

in their own lives and work.

Speaker:

This episode is a reminder that gender justice is a public health issue, and

Speaker:

that inequality takes collective action.

Speaker:

Ishrat welcome to the podcast.

Speaker:

It's great to have you here as a co-host to guide us through this mini-series.

Speaker:

I think to help us understand gender justice a little bit more and why

Speaker:

this mini-series is needed now more than ever, talk to us about

Speaker:

some of the principles and concepts that we need to be thinking about.

Ishrat Jahan:

Thank you, Kim.

Ishrat Jahan:

I'm really excited to talk about gender justice.

Ishrat Jahan:

I think when we talk about gender justice, we are talking about much more than quote

Ishrat Jahan:

unquote 'achieving equality on paper'.

Ishrat Jahan:

It's about transforming systems that we live in every day, and it's about

Ishrat Jahan:

recognising how different traits and characteristics intersect with each other

Ishrat Jahan:

to create different kinds of inequalities for men, women, what have you.

Ishrat Jahan:

And working on gender justice is about working to tackle those

Ishrat Jahan:

intersecting kinds of oppression.

Ishrat Jahan:

It's not just about one thing, gender is something we live with, we live in.

Ishrat Jahan:

And just to put in a little bit of context to what I'm saying, the World

Ishrat Jahan:

Economic Forum's Global Gender gap report in 2024 stated that it'll take

Ishrat Jahan:

1 34 years to reach gender parity.

Ishrat Jahan:

The UN states that in 2024, 1 in 4 countries have reported

Ishrat Jahan:

backlash on women's rights.

Ishrat Jahan:

And I guess we also don't need these statistics to see it.

Ishrat Jahan:

We are already seeing a rise in kinds of power, which is trying to strip years and

Ishrat Jahan:

years of hard-earned gender justice gains.

Ishrat Jahan:

This series is about digging deeper into the why of it, and more importantly,

Ishrat Jahan:

it's about listening to people.

Ishrat Jahan:

It's listening to people's stories and voices, whether they're researchers and

Ishrat Jahan:

activists, whether they themselves are women who are structurally excluded from

Ishrat Jahan:

the society, young people navigating really deep social and political

Ishrat Jahan:

crisis across the Global South.

Ishrat Jahan:

And I think it's very important we come together and listen to those stories.

Ishrat Jahan:

Dr. Kim Ozano: Well, we're certainly happy to provide a platform for that.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, what I'm hearing is it's about transforming systems of exclusion.

Ishrat Jahan:

I really like that, and this is for everyone to address no matter

Ishrat Jahan:

what discipline you are from.

Ishrat Jahan:

And you're right, 134 years is far too long, and I believe you're

Ishrat Jahan:

already working on two programmes that are trying to counter this

Ishrat Jahan:

backlash from one in four countries.

Ishrat Jahan:

That's really quite astounding.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, talk us through the two programmes.

Ishrat Jahan:

Yes, of course.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, the series draws on research and stories from two long-term

Ishrat Jahan:

gender justice projects.

Ishrat Jahan:

One is Countering Backlash and Reclaiming Gender Justice, and the

Ishrat Jahan:

other one is Our Voices, Our Futures.

Ishrat Jahan:

Countering Backlash aims to create much needed knowledge around the complex

Ishrat Jahan:

phenomena of patriarchal backlash and identifying opportunities for women's

Ishrat Jahan:

rights organisations and other gender justice defenders to address the

Ishrat Jahan:

erosion of gender objectives within development and counter gender backlash.

Ishrat Jahan:

The programme's main countries of focus are Bangladesh, Brazil,

Ishrat Jahan:

India, Kenya, Lebanon, and Uganda.

Ishrat Jahan:

It's a six-year work programme that's funded by Sida.

Ishrat Jahan:

Our Voices, Our Future is a Global South led initiative to amplify the

Ishrat Jahan:

voices of structurally silenced women across Bangladesh, India, Kenya,

Ishrat Jahan:

Lebanon, Sudan and Uganda, and this is funded by the Embassy of Netherlands,

Ishrat Jahan:

and it's coordinated by CERA.

Ishrat Jahan:

And I'm really excited to have two guests with me here today.

Ishrat Jahan:

We have Nay El Rahi.

Ishrat Jahan:

She's a Lebanese journalist, researcher, activist.

Ishrat Jahan:

She wears many hats, and mainly she's the lead researcher at the Arab Institute of

Ishrat Jahan:

Women in the Lebanese American University.

Ishrat Jahan:

And we also have with us Alfred Makabira, he's the programme

Ishrat Jahan:

coordinator for ADSOCK Kenya.

Ishrat Jahan:

Thank you both for joining us today.

Ishrat Jahan:

I think the first, not question, but food for thought that I have for you, is

Ishrat Jahan:

that I want to know a bit more about what you think is the relationship between

Ishrat Jahan:

the rising far right power and politics that we are seeing globally, and the way

Ishrat Jahan:

in which it's affecting gender justice.

Ishrat Jahan:

Nay El Rahi: before I answer this question, Ishrat, I would like to

Ishrat Jahan:

just preface this by saying I am a Lebanese researcher and an activist,

Ishrat Jahan:

and I've worked with the Arab Institute for Women for over five years now.

Ishrat Jahan:

I am currently based in Canada, working on my PhD in anthropology, but my

Ishrat Jahan:

entire life I've grappled with tensions around feminist activism and political

Ishrat Jahan:

activism and how the two together work in the context of Lebanon, and I

Ishrat Jahan:

would say ever since we started this project, my problem was always the

Ishrat Jahan:

fact that backlash as a concept is, is parachuted on contexts like ours.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, generally a generic definition of backlash is that it is a reaction

Ishrat Jahan:

to perceived or real gains made by the feminist movement or any social

Ishrat Jahan:

movement, but like on gender mostly if we're talking about anti-feminist

Ishrat Jahan:

backlash, and in Lebanon we come from a baseline where women and other

Ishrat Jahan:

marginalised groups is already frail.

Ishrat Jahan:

The state in Lebanon, it's sextarian, in the fact that it uses sex and

Ishrat Jahan:

religious sect to organise political life and to organise life in the country.

Ishrat Jahan:

And it's also an epidermal state, which means it enacts its sovereignty

Ishrat Jahan:

and its power on, on people's actual identities, their sex, their gender,

Ishrat Jahan:

their legal status their class.

Ishrat Jahan:

All of this matters in their positioning.

Ishrat Jahan:

And so the state has always been violent and sovereign, violent essentially

Ishrat Jahan:

to, to these communities, to women, to the incarcerated, to sex workers, to

Ishrat Jahan:

refugees, to migrant domestic workers.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, in that sense this discussion on far right, and whether this is new or whether

Ishrat Jahan:

this is triggered by any movement on the geopolitical scene, I wouldn't say

Ishrat Jahan:

it's irrelevant, but I would say it's less relevant to a context like Lebanon.

Ishrat Jahan:

Which is why we say backlash is a legacy of structures.

Ishrat Jahan:

And that's the context in which I'm gonna position this conversation.

Ishrat Jahan:

I can relate to it a lot, given that when I first started

Ishrat Jahan:

working on this project, a lot of it would feel like I'm already starting

Ishrat Jahan:

at a baseline where there's a lot of rights and accessibility not granted to

Ishrat Jahan:

women, a lot about gender justice is not present within the Bangladesh context.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, what does it really mean when there's a rise of far right power when

Ishrat Jahan:

rights for women, for others, have always not been there or been resisted.

Ishrat Jahan:

Alfred M. Makabira: I do concur to some extent because uh, in our context in

Ishrat Jahan:

Africa, let me be specific to my country, Kenya, and most of our communities

Ishrat Jahan:

are very patriarchal in nature.

Ishrat Jahan:

The social norms from that traditional African, perspective where there's a clear

Ishrat Jahan:

definition of uh, what a man should be doing and what a woman should be doing.

Ishrat Jahan:

I would say that we recently have started seeing the reemergence of what

Ishrat Jahan:

traditionally used to be considered to be truly African in terms of

Ishrat Jahan:

rights, and more so when it comes to women, and girls and men and boys,

Ishrat Jahan:

and of course when it comes to the minority communities and populations.

Ishrat Jahan:

There's a resurgence of that traditional aspect.

Ishrat Jahan:

And we've seen people being pushed to the corner and especially members

Ishrat Jahan:

of the LGBT community and also women who are proving that indeed women can

Ishrat Jahan:

also rise up to the occasion in terms of leadership and decision making.

Ishrat Jahan:

They are facing a lot of opposition and especially from cultural, religious and

Ishrat Jahan:

administrative leaders in some areas where people do feel that the woman should

Ishrat Jahan:

go back to the traditional role of home keeping and ensuring that the children are

Ishrat Jahan:

well taken care of and their husband also.

Ishrat Jahan:

Of late we've had people, influencers online.

Ishrat Jahan:

We have a number of influencers who are actually, coming out strongly and they

Ishrat Jahan:

are fanning this kind of backlash online.

Ishrat Jahan:

They're really taking advantage of the space to push these aggressive agenda.

Ishrat Jahan:

And sad to say that there are drones of people actually who are rallying along and

Ishrat Jahan:

helping them advance this divisive agenda.

Ishrat Jahan:

In our country for instance, religion is being used to a greater

Ishrat Jahan:

extent to push the agenda of trying to stick to the traditional

Ishrat Jahan:

roles of the man and the woman.

Ishrat Jahan:

And also, politically, I would like to say that the government that we have in place,

Ishrat Jahan:

it came into power on the platform of uh, being religious and actually, this has

Ishrat Jahan:

worked negatively when it comes to pursuit of the rights and more so of women.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, the political arena intertwined with the religion, and of course the

Ishrat Jahan:

traditional cultural norms in our society, they're really playing a

Ishrat Jahan:

pivotal role in terms of pushing the way that we Kenyans perceive issues

Ishrat Jahan:

of gender justice and equality.

Ishrat Jahan:

In terms of what's happening on the global space and how it's impacting,

Ishrat Jahan:

gender justice efforts in our country.

Ishrat Jahan:

I'll say that one.

Ishrat Jahan:

There's a lot of panic as we speak.

Ishrat Jahan:

Because of the decisions that are being made in the Global North in

Ishrat Jahan:

terms of, say, for instance financing for efforts to promote gender

Ishrat Jahan:

justice on this side of the globe.

Ishrat Jahan:

And that in itself is really causing a lot of, helter skelter here and there

Ishrat Jahan:

as the shrinking economic space and the funding basket is running dry.

Ishrat Jahan:

thank you, Alfred.

Ishrat Jahan:

I think that's a very important point you bring up and your point actually

Ishrat Jahan:

puts into mind the fact that in times of crisis we always see this return to

Ishrat Jahan:

traditional roles being a point that's redoubled, whether it's by politicians,

Ishrat Jahan:

whether it's by religious leaders, and I think it happens across contexts.

Ishrat Jahan:

Along with all those things that you mentioned that's happening in Kenya,

Ishrat Jahan:

and I can also relate on some level from a Bangladesh context, I think

Ishrat Jahan:

what also happens is there's also a glorification of a hyper-masculinity

Ishrat Jahan:

or the traditional man as well.

Ishrat Jahan:

And that, trans-nationally, or across global context as we are seeing,

Ishrat Jahan:

it plays a very key role in shaping what's the right kind of gender to

Ishrat Jahan:

be or what's the right kind of ideas of gender we can hold and, I wanted

Ishrat Jahan:

to get your thoughts on that as well.

Ishrat Jahan:

If you think there is a relationship that you see between this hyper-masculinis

Ishrat Jahan:

ation of far-right power or power in general, and the way in which

Ishrat Jahan:

that affects the kinds of ideas we can have around gender justice.

Ishrat Jahan:

Alfred M. Makabira: Yeah, what I would say is that hypermasculinity is really

Ishrat Jahan:

taking centre stage in terms of say for instance trying to socialise the, the

Ishrat Jahan:

Kenyan boy because uh, people feel that with all the efforts that have been put

Ishrat Jahan:

into the discourse to promote gender justice, there are those, and more so

Ishrat Jahan:

the older generation, who feel that there's been, a masculation of the man

Ishrat Jahan:

and the boy to some degree, and therefore there are those coming out strongly

Ishrat Jahan:

and shouting from the rooftops that we need to take back the man and the boy

Ishrat Jahan:

to the initial hyper-masculine nature.

Ishrat Jahan:

And uh, you know, in our context traditionally it's considered the more

Ishrat Jahan:

aggressive the man is, the better.

Ishrat Jahan:

Dr. Kim Ozano: These concepts are really important for us to understand

Ishrat Jahan:

and I'm certainly learning quite a lot.

Ishrat Jahan:

I wondered if you could comment on how the political economic framing that is clearly

Ishrat Jahan:

very important to the backlash movement, translates to the health outcomes

Ishrat Jahan:

for different genders and how you've seen that already start to play out.

Ishrat Jahan:

Nay El Rahi: if I am to speak about the Lebanese context, I would say there

Ishrat Jahan:

is a general disintegration of the services of the, the infrastructure

Ishrat Jahan:

around services, health included.

Ishrat Jahan:

And certainly, there's a discrepancy in how this affects men and women.

Ishrat Jahan:

I wouldn't say it doesn't affect men.

Ishrat Jahan:

I would say it affects men and women differently in a sense that

Ishrat Jahan:

it's the women who are shouldering the care burden of the household.

Ishrat Jahan:

Dr. Kim Ozano: Ishrat, are you finding the same in Bangladesh?

Ishrat Jahan:

I think yes, there's a lot coming up for women's health

Ishrat Jahan:

and access to health services in terms of the crisis we experience.

Ishrat Jahan:

I think a point worthwhile adding to this is that we don't have a lot of

Ishrat Jahan:

light shed on the way in which these kinds of practices of hyper-masculinities

Ishrat Jahan:

affect men's health and men's wellbeing especially young boys.

Ishrat Jahan:

It's invisibilised to a point and I say this after having looked at men's everyday

Ishrat Jahan:

experiences for the past three years, especially men in informal settlements.

Ishrat Jahan:

For them, it's about moving from one crisis to another crisis.

Ishrat Jahan:

A lot of the times their mental wellbeing is pretty much

Ishrat Jahan:

left out of the conversation.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, I think of course, crisis driven backlash is going to affect women's

Ishrat Jahan:

rights and health and wellbeing.

Ishrat Jahan:

But it's also important to see the way in which this glorification of

Ishrat Jahan:

being the right kind of man will also drive men further into being

Ishrat Jahan:

invisible in health and healthcare.

Ishrat Jahan:

Alfred M. Makabira: Uh, With the current economic situation, you find that

Ishrat Jahan:

families have lesser resources, for instance, to seek healthcare and

Ishrat Jahan:

therefore in our context again let me point out that women and children are

Ishrat Jahan:

taking a toll when it comes to seeking healthcare, but also men are not spared

Ishrat Jahan:

because given that hyper-masculine man that we talked about, the traditional

Ishrat Jahan:

African man, they normally say that in the society that a man should not seek

Ishrat Jahan:

medical attention for things like flu or a cold or even a headache for that matter.

Ishrat Jahan:

And therefore there are masculinity issues also playing out.

Ishrat Jahan:

And it's affecting also the men.

Ishrat Jahan:

Dr. Kim Ozano: This has been a really great conversation about

Ishrat Jahan:

how these backlash approaches do have an impact and are intersected

Ishrat Jahan:

with different types of crises.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, I think this is a good time to bring out strategies for resistance and feminist

Ishrat Jahan:

responses to these crisis driven backlash.

Ishrat Jahan:

Nay, let's start with you please.

Ishrat Jahan:

Nay El Rahi: So, I would give two quick tips.

Ishrat Jahan:

I would say, in terms of feminist activism, I would borrow from

Ishrat Jahan:

feminist activism in Lebanon that's been extremely agile over the years.

Ishrat Jahan:

The fact that when there's a general environment of lawlessness and an

Ishrat Jahan:

increase in violation and an increase in violence, the women openly and in public

Ishrat Jahan:

spaces, feminist activism, which would retreat to like physical spaces to from

Ishrat Jahan:

the physical space to the online space.

Ishrat Jahan:

And when there's a crisis in the country, the feminists are often

Ishrat Jahan:

the ones to be at the forefront.

Ishrat Jahan:

Often like it's compensation for the absence of the state.

Ishrat Jahan:

And so, this agility marks feminist activism in Lebanon, and I'm sure in

Ishrat Jahan:

so many other places in the Global South and in the world, I would say.

Ishrat Jahan:

And the second, and I think equally important point is to keep our eyes

Ishrat Jahan:

focused on the bigger picture, on the general structures to keep it political.

Ishrat Jahan:

This isn't a war on women.

Ishrat Jahan:

This is a war on all of us.

Ishrat Jahan:

There's like a minority, oligarchic minority in the world that wants to

Ishrat Jahan:

instate an agenda that's gonna harm all of us; the climate, the planet, women,

Ishrat Jahan:

children, queers, refugees, everyone.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, I think keeping that in mind would sharpen our tools, would

Ishrat Jahan:

sharpen the way we see things.

Ishrat Jahan:

And would also facilitate our solidarity across, across the board.

Ishrat Jahan:

Dr. Kim Ozano: I really like that idea of sharpening the tools.

Ishrat Jahan:

This isn't just about women, it's about everyone, and coming

Ishrat Jahan:

together and having that solidarity.

Ishrat Jahan:

I think that's a really excellent point.

Ishrat Jahan:

Alfred, some advice for others out there that are really looking

Ishrat Jahan:

to have these feminist responses to crisis driven backlash.

Ishrat Jahan:

Alfred M. Makabira: We need to develop the counter narratives that exposes the

Ishrat Jahan:

manipulative nature of gender rhetoric and highlights the positive gains that

Ishrat Jahan:

are there in gender equality, not just for women and girls and the minorities,

Ishrat Jahan:

but also for ordinary men like, like me.

Ishrat Jahan:

And then there's also the need for us to engage in ensuring that we strengthen

Ishrat Jahan:

the voice of the feminist movement and institutions as well as networks.

Ishrat Jahan:

And here I would really like us to put to the core the need for interagency

Ishrat Jahan:

collaboration, bringing on board the state and non-state actors with a name

Ishrat Jahan:

of pushing the agenda of gender justice.

Ishrat Jahan:

And then lastly, it's important for us as actors to ensure that we promote

Ishrat Jahan:

media literacy and we equip individuals, with the skills and knowledge to

Ishrat Jahan:

critically be able to analyse the message that they come across in the digital

Ishrat Jahan:

platform and fish out the negatives.

Ishrat Jahan:

Dr. Kim Ozano: Fantastic.

Ishrat Jahan:

Thank you so much.

Ishrat Jahan:

So Ishrat, take us home with one final piece of advice

Ishrat Jahan:

to leave for our listeners.

Ishrat Jahan:

I think I just wanna leave our listeners and all of us with thought

Ishrat Jahan:

that, if crisis can be imagined as spaces where the traditional values are

Ishrat Jahan:

going to be anchored, I think they can also be reimagined as a space where our

Ishrat Jahan:

collective resistance can grow and where feminist responses are not just happening

Ishrat Jahan:

in silo and not just for women, for men, but feminist responses that cut across

Ishrat Jahan:

issues, address climate change, address deep economic and political crisis.

Ishrat Jahan:

And I think that's something that we all need to keep in mind.

Ishrat Jahan:

Dr. Kim Ozano: Thank you so much.

Ishrat Jahan:

It's been a really stimulating conversation and a great

Ishrat Jahan:

message to finish on.

Ishrat Jahan:

Thank you to our guests and to all of you for joining us for this first conversation

Ishrat Jahan:

in our gender justice series, we've heard how gender backlash takes many

Ishrat Jahan:

forms, that it's shaped by politics, culture, and crisis, and how resisting

Ishrat Jahan:

it requires collective action that goes beyond any one sector or discipline.

Ishrat Jahan:

Next time we'll shift our focus to another structurally silenced

Ishrat Jahan:

group, sex workers in Bangladesh.

Ishrat Jahan:

As shrinking civic spaces and increasing surveillance disproportionately affect

Ishrat Jahan:

structurally silenced communities.

Ishrat Jahan:

The impacts on health, wellbeing and access to support systems are

Ishrat Jahan:

profound, particularly for sex workers.

Ishrat Jahan:

It's a conversation that reminds us how marginalisation is experienced,

Ishrat Jahan:

not just through stigma and criminalisation, but through health

Ishrat Jahan:

harming exclusions from safe housing, and protection to mental health

Ishrat Jahan:

support and protection from violence.

Ishrat Jahan:

We hope you'll join us for that conversation.

Ishrat Jahan:

For now, stay curious and thanks for listening to

Ishrat Jahan:

Connecting Citizens to Science.

All Episodes Previous Episode

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Connecting Citizens to Science
Connecting Citizens to Science
Researchers and scientists join with communities and people to address global challenges

Listen for free

About your host

Profile picture for Kim Ozano

Kim Ozano

Research and Development Director at SCL and co-founder and host of the ‘Connecting Citizens to Science’ (CCS) podcast. Kim is a health policy and systems researcher with over 15 years’ experience of designing, delivering and evaluating health and development projects in the Global South and UK. She is an implementation health research specialist, as can be seen from her publications and work at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, where she remains an Honorary lecturer.
Kim creates space in Connecting Citizens to Science for researchers and communities to share their experience of co-production to shape policy and lasting positive change.