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This chapter illustrates - with two examples - the procedures applied for the formulation of politically negotiated texts that guided international policies in the field of women, gender, and development. The challenges in the preparation and negotiation process that ultimately led to a formal position of the European Union are described from the perspective of a gender adviser to a member state's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. …

This paper illustrates the complementarities between women’s work and their private and intimate choices. The engagements of women in Egyptian labour markets are determined to some extent by their personal life trajectories. The fabled low rates of formal employment for women are a function of the gender roles that women choose to or are compelled to play. Work and marriage choices are linked and have mutual bearings on one another. …

Postcolonial feminist representations of Muslim women as subjects and agents have successfully cleared a space for unsettling oppressive colonial representations of Muslim women as unchanging victims of patriarchal religion and Muslim men. This space has also brought into view new problems and issues that divide Muslim women into feminist and fundamentalists, secular and religious, diasporic and native. This paper focuses on one of the most contentious issues of Muslim women's representation: secular feminists' attempts to represent women in Islamic religious movements. In this process I examine some of the normative and ethical dimensions of feminist research as they emerged in my research with women in the Jamaat‐e‐Islami, a movement for religious reform and renewal in Pakistan. …

The film, which examines how the ancient Egyptian divorce law of khul’ is helping women in modern day Cairo to escape from abusive marriages, is directed by Lucy Bennett from Manifest Films. Forty-seven per cent of married women in Egypt are affected by domestic violence but whilst khul’ is a crucial law, it can come at a high price. Following the stories of three women, the film explores how khul’ has both helped and hindered them and asks what more now needs to be done. …

This report in Bangla focuses on the project which involved two components - a survey and qualitative interviews. A survey of 5,200 women, aged 15 and above, of different socio-economic backgrounds in Bangladesh was done to compare the impact of various kinds of work on women's lives. …

This case study describes Pathways South Asia's (led by Ayesha Khan) qualitative research into Lady Health Workers' experiences in Pakistan. The study provides key findings and action points as well as narrating the story of one lady health worker and the confidence her work has brought to her. …

Pakistan's Lady Health Workers' programme has trained over 1,000,000 women to provide community health services in rural areas. Not only has the programme revitalised the primary health care system, it has also helped overcome the gendered division of public and private space that is a major obstacle to women's access to basic services, including education, and employment opportunities. However, there are a number of shortcomings that need government intervention to ensure that it fulfils its aims. …

The issue of women's empowerment has a long history. This article intends to trace the issue of women's empowerment in the area that now forms contemporary Bangladesh. In this regard, we have delved into the early part of the twentieth century to look into women's writing in numerous journals that were beginning to be published in that era. Looking into Muslim-edited journals, we look into how issues of women's education, writing and the place of women in society were being debated. …

A witness account from Larry on the politically motivated sexual assaults targeting female protestors of the Arab revolt in Cairo. These have been taking place since the revolution in 2011 which deposed President Mubarak. …

The Regional Scoping Workshop for Latin America, organized by NEIM, took place in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, from 6-9 June 2006. The workshop was organized around five round-tables followed by open debates in plenary: 1) Theoretical Reflections on the Empowerment of Women in Latin America; 2) Power, Institutionality and the Empowerment of Women in Latin America; 3) Policies of Employment and Income as Spaces of Empowerment of Women in Latin America; 4) Public Policies for Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women; and 5) Struggles for Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Latin America. On the last two days there were three different discussion sessions in small groups, organized around the three axes that the RPC will be investigating (voice, work, and bodily integrity): 1) Issues in Measurement of Women’s Empowerment; 2) Identifying Stories of Change; 3) Exploring Policy Experiences. Group discussions had the objective of generating ideas and recommendations for the formulation of RPC projects, the results being presented in the final plenary session, followed by an informal evaluation of the workshop and its accomplishments. …

Report by Ana Alice Costa and Cecilia Sardenberg on the creation of the interdisciplinary studies programme on women, gender and feminism at the Interdisciplinary Women's Studies Nucleus at the Federal University of Bahia in Salvador, Brazil. …

Ana Francis Mor describes how laughter, brought on by cabaret theatre in health workshops in Mexico, was key to changing people, not just their minds, but their hearts and their bodies and what they do with them. Mor describes how women learn gender ideologies from the television soap operas, all-pervasive in Mexico, which take their cue from Catholicism. Mor describes trainings on health run in rural Mexico for women, men and children. The three year programme trained over 30,000 people in total, in four day-long trainings that included participants first identifying key health issues in small groups, and a cabaret theatre working on these issues in the afternoon, and performing them in the evening. …

New family laws have been passed in Egypt within the last several years, with important ramifications for women. In this chapter, Mulki Al-Sharmani argues that two issues diminish the transformative role that these reforms could play in strengthening Egyptian women's rights and achieving gender justice. …

In the last decade, new family laws have been passed in Egypt, with important ramifications for women. In this article, I argue that two issues diminish the transformative role that these reforms could play in strengthening Egyptian women's rights and achieving gender justice. First, despite the recently passed laws, the model of marriage that the state continues to uphold through its codes and courts is premised on gendered roles and rights for husbands and wives. This model, however, contradicts the realities of Egyptian marriages. …

This article questions whether affirmative action and training of women politicians leads to effective voice and change on issues that are relevant for women. The authors examine the case of Bangladesh, which has an affirmative action policy for women in government, and consider the barriers that women in politics continue to face, as well as the doors that are opened to them through their role in politics. The Bangladesh case shows that the advent of direct elections has established a direct link between the constituency and women members. This, in turn, has given women a stronger voice and more legitimacy as political actors. …