Impacts of Gender Disparity and Socio-Educational Structure on Legal Awareness of Women Inmates: A Case Study of Prisons in Sindh, Pakistan

The study is an endeavor to undertake an in-depth analysis of the prevailing injustices faced by women inmates incarcerated in one of the merged prisons(merger of 2 districts)of Sindh Province Pakistan. It aims to explore how social norms, education system, and gender discrimination, collectively influence the women inmates' legal awareness and struggles for availing their legal rights and equitable treatment. By employing a mixed-method research design, including in-depth interviews with women inmates, questionnaires, and an interview guide with open-ended questions, the study uncovered the multifaceted barriers they encounter. The study also advocates fostering a more inclusive and gender-responsive criminal justice system and concludes that the intersectional nature of these challenges impacts legal awareness of women inmates and also has some significant implications for stakeholders and reformists in the context of entertaining the female inmates without gender discrimination as ensuring Article-4 of the 1973 constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.