ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the prominent features of the legal systems that affect women in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Economic situations within families and at the national level, as well as social, cultural, and religious norms in South Asia, shape gender ideologies that affect women's and girls' lives and potential. The Muslim social order, then, can be seen as an attempt to control women's power and neutralize its disruptive effects through the seclusion of women. Lower educational levels are one factor in women being relegated to particular areas of work and restricted from participating in others. Due to methodological and definitional problems of what constitutes work, conventional classifications of work in measuring female labor-force participation are grossly inadequate. Women's subordinate position in society and within the family manifests itself in their poor health and survival rates. Creating spaces in highly restrictive societies in which women can more actively analyze and challenge inequitable social relations and practices can be difficult.
