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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Amina Mama. Whether one considers the direct effects of military rule and conflict on women, or the global economic implications of the US war-on-terror, militarism threatens to strip away all the 20th century gains in women’s rights, dispossessing us once more. African women must take a stand, says Amina Mama (Read this article in Italian) […]
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Laura Carlsen. Women human rights defenders in Mexico are increasingly targeted, often by government forces, since drug war violence and militarisation provide a cover for attacking leaders of grassroots movements, says Laura Carlsen Some women had to be escorted into the city by court-appointed guards. Others flew in from virtual war zones where they check […]
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Fatou Guèye. After a quarter century of armed conflict, and a socio-economic fabric reduced to shreds, women in Casamance, Senegal, are winning the right to access land and rebuild peace, says Fatou Guèye Ziguinchor is a region in Casamance in the south of Senegal that is separated from the rest of the country by Gambia. […]
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Emily Esplen. The benefits of getting women into work have been widely acclaimed in donor circles, popularised by the World Bank’s catchy slogan ‘Gender equality is smart economics’. For feminists who have long been advocating for women’s economic independence as a fundamental cornerstone of women’s liberation, the current preoccupation with stimulating women’s income-generating capacities is […]
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TABARA NDIAYE. Twenty years of conflict has destroyed the social fabric of Casamance.The only way to re-instate security and eradicate famine in an area once known as the bread-basket of Senegal is to ask the women farmers, says Tabara Ndiaye “How many times have we seen the experts ask our grandfathers questions about the rice […]
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CYNTHIA COCKBURN If one thing holds the overall movement of peace movements together it is the goal of violence reduction. There’s a shared conviction that violence is a choice, that there exists, much more often than commonly supposed, a more violent and a less violent course of action Can we justifiably speak of a global […]
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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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Jennifer Allsopp. How can we empower women to participate in existing economic structures but transform them? We need a model of economic power and citizenship that is not simply about sustaining capital or growth, but sustaining and celebrating life itself. Jenny Allsopp reports directly from the AWID Forum 2012. Here are parts two and three of her report. […]
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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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JENNIFER ALLSOPP. The argument is being made that “food sovereignty” is an organising principle so demonstrably strong that it has the potential to transform economic power. Can we really invest in it as the ecological principle to take us into the 21st century? Jenny Allsopp reports from the AWID Forum 2012 In order to advance women’s rights and […]
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YAKIN ERTURK. Women’s human rights discourse and movements have become entangled within a culture-versus-rights dualism. Yakin Ertürk argues that this is a false dualism which serves both private patriarchy and public patriarchy of neo-liberal globalisation The 1990’s was a remarkable period in experiencing the unravelling of a world order that has characterised much of the […]
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MARILYN WARING. If you are invisible as a producer in the GDP, you are invisible in the distribution of benefits in the economic framework of the national budget. As feminists we must embrace an ecological model if we are to transform economic power, and the market and commodification must be seen as the servants of […]
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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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The 12th AWID Forum began with a burst of colour in the Haliç Auditorium with 2240 women attending from 140 countries, the majority from the global South and East. Already, in the corridors and gardens of the Congress Centre, the inter-regional dialogue had begun. During the first plenary, there was discussion of the current context […]
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Militarism, Violence & Conflict
Labour & Work
The Role of the State
Sexuality
The Planet and Ecological Health
Financial Flows
Access to and Control of Resources
Private Sector and Corporate Power
Culture and Religion
Global Governance