Indian Council of World Affairs

The Indian Council of World Affairs organized a two-day International Conference on “Women Across Geographies: Issues and Perspectives” on 8 and 9 October 2025 in New Delhi. The Conference saw the participation of experts in the fields of international relations, gender studies, sociology, anthropology, psychology, lawyers, media and UN Peacekeeping. Thirty one experts from ten countries across five continents gathered to deliberate on themes like the purdah system, prostitution, polygamy, pornography, widow remarriage, age of consent and women in peace and security.

Smt Vijaya Rahatkar, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW) delivered the Special Address. She highlighted the importance of discussing women’s issues across geographies where discussions are not only limited to the geographical borders of the country but also incorporate emotions, values, struggles and possibilities. She emphasized the need to discuss issues related to purdah, widow remarriage, prostitution, and pornography. She mentioned how Government of India’s initiatives like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao have led to many positive outcomes vis-à-vis women in India. Ms. Rahatkar also mentioned that the Government has taken many steps to ensure gender equality however, several challenges remain. She said that child marriage, domestic violence, online harassment, women trafficking are challenges not only for India but the world and that for resolving the issues of women the doors to dialogue (samvaad) will have to be opened and that there is a need for the world community to work together with hope and faith.

Welcome Remarks were delivered by Amb. Nutan Kapoor Mahawar, Acting Director General & Additional Secretary, ICWA. Amb. Mahawar highlighted how geo-politics and international relations shape gender-power dynamics and how unequal gender relations are manifested politically, economically, and socially with women’s subjugation being perpetuated through systems like purdah, prostitution, polygamy, and pornography and decadent traditions associated with widowhood. She underscored that women’s role in ameliorating violence, radicalism, extremism, militancy, hatred can prove to be vital for our world in transition today and beyond. She proposed that women’s participation, leadership, and inherent qualities of care, giving and empathy must be harnessed to heal societies and drive transformation towards a New World Order. She emphasized that the talk on a world in transition, of an emerging New World Order cannot be bereft of just and equal gender relations and gender empowerment and that a New World Order will not just be about geo-politics and international relations but would also very much be about social reconstruction and just gender relations. She said women too will have to make their contributions in shaping the New World Order for which women who are conscious of their identity as women, instead of falling prey to the patriarchal logic of imitating men in power, are needed. The Inaugural Session ended with a Vote of Thanks delivered by Dr. Nivedita Ray, Director (Research), ICWA.

The first session titled The Purdah System – Cultural Tradition or Instrument of Oppression? was chaired by Sri Sunil Jaglan, Founder of Selfie with Daughter, Haryana and the Speakers for the session were Ms. Ambar Ahmad (Associate Professor, Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi), Prof. Laura Yerkesheva (Professor, Al Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan), and Dr. Muddassir Quamar (Associate Professor, Centre for West Asian Studies, JNU). The Session deliberated on the religious and cultural drivers of the practice of purdah and acknowledged that a concept or manner of social interaction or etiquette of interaction that gives space to boycott or exclusion is against the principle of equality.

Session II titled Prostitution – Money, Business, Trafficking, and Morality was chaired by Ms. Nandita Baruah, Country Representative, Asia Foundation and the speakers for the session included Prof. Priydarshini Vijaisiri (CSDS, New Delhi), Ms. Anastasia Grishina (Safe House Foundation, Russia) and Trude Jacobsoen (Professor, Northern Illinois University, USA). The session explored enhancing women’s agency by giving her control over her body and yet curtailing her to use it for business and making money. It emphasized the importance of de-stigmatizing sex workers to facilitate their mainstreaming and rehabilitation, as also of concerted preventive efforts and outlawing this age-old practice through robust legislative and implementation frameworks.

Session III titles Polygamy – Personal Choice or Patriarchal Practice? Was chaired by Prof. Tahir Mahmood, Professor and Founder Chairman of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Amity University and the speakers for the session were Prof. Faizan Mustafa (VC, Chanakya National Law University), Prof. Lizelle Ramaccio Calviuno (University of Zululand, South Africa), Dr. Theresia Dyah Wirastri (Faculty of Law Universitas, Indonesia) and Dr. Farhana Abdul Fatah (Gender Studies Programme, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia). The session acknowledged the advantages of prohibition through state legal action. It emphasized the importance of building social preferences for commitment to monogamy despite religious or customary sanctity through transformative narrative building in countries where it continues to be prevalent. It was agreed that polygamy is a contested and decadent institution in the contemporary context and discredited false religious narratives that sought to lend it legitimacy.

The fourth session on Pornography- Commodification of Women or Behavioral Issue of Men? chaired by Dr. Manoj K Sharma, Professor, NIMHANS, Bengaluru and the speakers for the session were Prof. Anuradha Ghosh (Professor, Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi), Prof. Constance Penley (Professor Emerita, University of California, Santa Barbara, US) and Ms. Tehmina Kaoosji (Broadcast Journalist, TBP Communications, Malaysia). The session agreed that pornography reflected both commodification of women and a behavioural issue of men, which necessitated a transformed attitude towards its unacceptability including through tight regulation of legal and illegal industry dynamics. It discredited narratives that equate pornography with freedom of expression, viewing it rather from the lens of sex work or sexual trafficking. The issue of AI and digital pornography was highlighted as violence by design and through manufacturing demand for sexualized content.

This was followed by the fifth session which was on the theme Widow Remarriage- Tradition, Taboo, and Transformation. The session was chaired by Dr. Ranjana Kumari, Founder Director, Centre for Social Research and the speakers for the session included Dr. Rai Ganguly (Assistant Professor, UPES), Prof. Mary A Nyangweso (Professor of Religious Studies. East Carolina University, US) and Dr. Saradamoyee Chatterjee (Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, UK). The session highlighted that the social stigma around widowhood is gradually declining in countries like India (though widow re-marriage remains a distant reality) while it continues to be widespread in Africa and that the effort to fight socio-economic exclusion of widows and to integrate them into secure family networks needs to be given a renewed impetus. It discredited false religious narratives and cultural practices that cause harm - physical, emotional, mental to widows and to their sexuality.

Age of Consent- Developing a view on what is right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable? was the sixth session of the Conference chaired by Dr. Rajesh Sagar (AIIMS, New Delhi). Anant Asthana (Advocate, Delhi High Court), Dr. Vilashini Somiah (Senior Lecturer, University Malaya), Ms. Carolina Atencio (Former Director, Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity, Argentina) and Dr. Madhumita Das (Feminist Researcher) spoke on the panel. The session discussed the legal and social contexts, as well as the mental and emotional capabilities of the teenagers and even those in their early 20s in the context of the age of consent for sexual intercourse. It underscored the need to invest in holistic growth and strong foundations of youngsters in their teens and early 20s and exchanged important views on the topic of dissuading early casual sex.

The seventh session on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) – Beyond the Battlefield was chaired by Ms. Rita Manchanda (Former Executive Director, South Asia Forum of Human Rights, New Delhi) and the speakers for the session were Dr. Rina Kashyap (Associate Professor, Delhi University, New Delhi), Lt. Col. Suman Gawani (Former UNMISS Peacekeeper, New Delhi), and Dr. Shweta Singh (Associate Professor, South Asia University (SAU), New Delhi). The session critiqued on the UN’s women, peace and security agenda’s trajectory and achievements of past 25 years, and also acknowledged that it was too narrow to just be focusing on sexual violence in conflict situations.

In her concluding remarks at the Conference, Ms. Nutan Kapoor Mahawar, Acting Director General and Additional Secretary, ICWA summed up the thrust of discussions under each theme as also on the overarching theme of gender empowerment and just & equal gender relations, charting the way forward amidst the global churn that the world is witnessing today. The Conference acknowledged how International Relations and geo-politics are not bereft of social issues, and how important it is to focus on social issues in institutions of global and regional governance which currently have excessive skewed focus on the political and economic. Also, how dialogue across cultures, faiths, and countries on social issues, on what is right and what is wrong, where do morality and legality converge or conflict is as important, as a dialogue on these issues nationally and within communities - for enhanced understanding, learning from mistakes, exchange of best practices and building harmony.

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