Culture & Religion

Women’s survival strategies in Chechnya: from self-care to caring for each other

What would a combination of self and community care look like? For activists in Chechnya, it means creating individual and organizational security plans, for example, that ensure if one woman is threatened, there are others standing by to help to keep her safe, writes Keely Tongate. Luiza encounters regular violence and intimidation in her work […]

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Women’s Movements and Economic Power: Connecting the local and the global

Lisa VeneKlasen and Alia Khan. The authors present first a contextual analysis of the forces and actors shaping the reality of women’s lives today. They outline the importance of changing hearts and minds with time-tested strategies and new forms of organizing that can fuel development of and support for alternative economic arrangements that respect the rights, dignity, and […]

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Unmasking religious fundamentalisms: women’s rights, freedoms and resistance Session

Posted in Culture & Religion on March 27th, 2013 by

What impact is the rise of religious fundamentalisms having on women’s rights and freedoms? How are activists fighting back?. This session – one of the top ten breakout sessions as voted for by Forum participants – shared insights from AWID’s research which gathered analysis from hundreds of activists on religious fundamentalisms, along with strategies and […]

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Men as Providers: The Unmaking of a Legal Fiction in Muslim Family Laws

Posted in Culture & Religion on March 13th, 2013 by

This session – one of the top ten breakout sessions as voted for by Forum participants – presented findings from a Musawah research project on rethinking and challenging the concept of qiwamah (male authority) in Muslim family laws, which legitimises and institutionalises a patriarchal model of family. It also explored strategies to transform power relations […]

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Interconnected Struggles: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queer And Intersex (LGBTQI) Activism In Africa

Posted in Culture & Religion, Sexuality on January 29th, 2013 by

FRIDAY FILE: LGBTQI individuals in Africa face numerous civil, political, economic, social and cultural barriers. AWID spoke to Hakima Abbas, the Executive Director of Fahamu about the challenges of LGBTQI activism and how the politics of foreign aid impacts the struggle. By Kathambi Kinoti. AWID: There are currently many setbacks to LGBTQI rights in Africa, […]

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What does transforming economic power mean?

Srilatha Batliwala. Today’s targeting of women in processes of realigning economic controls is perhaps quite unique. In order to unpack and understand economic power, we must revisit the different realms in which power operates, and the various forms that it takes – visible, hidden and invisible, says Srilatha Batliwala On the eve of the 12th AWID […]

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The balance between religiousness and women’s rights

Posted in Culture & Religion on November 2nd, 2012 by

I’m attending the Association of Women’s Rights in Development conference in Turkey. I’m blogging my thoughts here at the F-word. I had wanted to write about each day’s reflection, but many of these topics run every day and my thoughts are evolving through each day. There are over 18 sessions per breakout session so this is specifically […]

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Women’s Rights & the “Arab Spring”

Posted in Culture & Religion on November 2nd, 2012 by

A hot topic at this AWID Forum has been the revolutions in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region. One of my favorite sessions so far has been about the innovative ideas young feminists in Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon used before, during and after the uprisings. These inspirational young women were out on the […]

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The revolution should be feminized

Posted in Culture & Religion, Sexuality on November 2nd, 2012 by

As I was casually browsing the many booths with information and goods from the various women’s organisations at the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) Conference in Istanbul, Turkey last week, I spotted some T-shirts that grabbed my attention. Although I had already walked past the booth, the message on the T-shirts made me do an […]

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Feminists unmasking religious fundamentalisms

Posted in Culture & Religion on November 2nd, 2012 by

What impact is the rise of religious fundamentalisms having on women’s rights? How are women’s rights activists fighting back? Interesting questions in the light of the developments at international human rights fora in recent years, amongst which the ICPD, the Human Rights Council, current Rio+20 negotiations and the CSW a couple of months back. The latter was […]

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First AWID day ‘MENA & Migrants’

Posted in Culture & Religion on November 2nd, 2012 by

For me, economics are still rocket science, even though I bravely engaged in the session on demystifying economics and macroeconomic policy.. But three more days to come to work on my skills for Transforming Economic Power. Today started with the economical, social and political power of women in the MENA region. Before the official AWID Forum […]

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Sisters in Istanbul

Posted in Culture & Religion on November 2nd, 2012 by

I arrived (very) early on Thursday morning to attend the 4 day Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) forum 2012 in Istanbul. I was immensely excited. This conference is probably the biggest meeting of feminists I have ever attended (aside from the Commission on the Status of Women) – and the most radical. There […]

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Women’s Rights in Transitions to Democracy: Achieving Rights, Resisting Backlash

Posted in Culture & Religion on November 2nd, 2012 by

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. Summary of challenges and strategies discussed in the pre-AWID Forum and the subsequent strategy meetings WLP partners joined over one hundred leaders, grassroots activists and academics from the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) and others from Asia, Africa, and Latin America to discuss the challenges faced by women in the MENA region and […]

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Interfaith Perspectives on Religious Fundamentalisms and Women’s Rights

Posted in Culture & Religion on November 2nd, 2012 by

On the final day of the AWID Forum WLP held the panel discussion “Interfaith Perspectives on Religious Fundamentalisms and Women’s Rights.” During the panel leading activists from the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and the United States commented on fundamentalist groups, their recent rise in power, the values they hold, and their view of […]

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