women and power

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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Brazil: “state feminism” at work

Posted in Plenary 3, The Role of the State on October 29th, 2012 by

ANA ALICE ALCÂNTARA and CECILIA SARDENBERG. How far can the flourishing “participatory state feminism” in Brazil expand into the state apparatus in order to counter the absence of women in decision making positions and redefine women’s place in society? Feminist activism in Brazil has stretched the very concept of democracy by including women’s rights in the process […]

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Visible players: the power and the risks for young feminists

Posted in Plenary 1, Plenary 2, Plenary 3, Sexuality, The Role of the State on October 29th, 2012 by

JENNIFER ALLSOPP. From the student protests in Chile, to the protests of the ‘Arab spring’ in the MENA region, the debate among young feminists about how to reclaim public space reveals tensions between an individualist model of autonomy and a collectivist reclamation of public space. Jenny Allsopp reports on day two of the AWID Forum 2012 […]

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Decoding the “DNA of Patriarchy” in Muslim family laws

Posted in Culture & Religion on October 24th, 2012 by

Why and how did verse 4:34, and not other verses in the Qur’an, become the foundation for the legal construction of marriage? Why areqiwamah and wilayah still the basis of gender relations in the imagination of modern-day jurists and Muslims who resist and denounce equality in marriage as alien to Islam? How can we Muslim women reconstruct the […]

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