Sharifa Sultana

Background:

The stigma associated with reproductive health and sex-ed is inevitable in the Global South. This risks many Global South women’s health as they reject many of the modern health and well-being supports offered by their local government and other organizations as their support and care policies do not understand the socio-cultural practices of the women in question. Existing works show that many women turn away from reproductive well-being support offered by modern healthcare practices because talking about or seeking help for such care is a taboo in their society, many women do not understand the modern terminologies, and many of the care practices do not reflect nor recognize the values women in the Global South hold. Like many other countries in the Global South, this problem is still prevalent in Bangladesh. Our existing research shows that many women in these areas are particularly stigmatized about birth control, pregnancy support, fertility service, contraceptive use, and menopause care and less frequently seek modern healthcare support. When seeking help, women find it difficult to navigate across community perceptions, sociocultural practices, norms, and relationships, as well as across the fragmented and distributed nature of healthcare services. All of these challenges jeopardize women’s reproductive health that have profound long-term consequences for parents, children, and society in general.  

We will co-develop an AI framework to help address the stigma related to reproductive well-being in the Global South. We will leverage local knowledge and infographic practices on visual data curation and visual narratives. We will integrate rural Bangladeshi visual communication methods to co-develop AI-mediated infographic well-being tools for women to support their reproductive health and decision-making practices to improve their overall well-being We build on decolonial-AI literature and pluralistic co-design. 

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Initial Fieldwork and Findings:

We engage with rural women and artists in Bangladesh, using ethnographic techniques. We employ participatory observations, contextual inquiries, storytelling, interviews, and focus-group discussions in this regard. Additionally, we frequently engage with them in codesign sessions to brainstorm ideas. 

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Our Initial findings bring in knowledge of local Bangladeshi intelligence of data curation, visual narratives, and infographics from rural arts and crafts, including visual witchcraft, Nakshi Katha, and Hindu Idol making. In an ongoing work, we are engaging with women on their daily-life reproductive care information queries and use of digital platforms and their interpretability. We use this understanding of their data literacy in designing culturally appropriate AI-infused infographics.  

A group of rural Bangladeshi female villagers participating in Focus Group Discussion with the ethnogrpaher and PI Sultana.