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Within the constraints of bureaucratic straitjackets and institutional turf battles, this chapter examines the workings of cross-agency gender theme groups (GTGs) to strengthen the gender equality programming of three UN country teams (UNCTs) through an action-learning approach facilitated by Gender at Work. …

This ground-breaking collection investigates the relationship between feminist activism and legal reform as a pathway to gender justice and social change. …

This introduction outlines the central themes that are covered in the chapters and sheds light on the linkages between these issues as well as drawing out the conclusions that tie the arguments of the individual chapters. Three central themes connect the chapters in this volume. The first is concerned with problematising binaries and uniform categories. That is, many of the chapters address the question: What is concealed when both reform efforts (and the public debates about them) fail to escape conceptualisations and categorisations that are based on binaries and uniform understandings of terms such as ‘religious’  ‘secular’ or ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity?’ …

This introductory chapter provides a brief discussion on conceptual debates on voice and the assumptions that the authors interrogate using empirical evidence. The broader contexts within which feminist activism and voice are organised are discussed. It focuses on the various influences on feminist activism: NGOisation/ professionalisation ; increase in transnational networks and links; rise of conservative forces; creation of participatory/democratic spaces; increase in donor’s epistemic power to shape feminist agenda; and how these have influenced feminist voice in the selected countries. …

This chapter explores the impact that legal reform has had on Moroccan divorce practice. The Mudawwanat al-Usra (Family Law Compilation) of 2004 included a new provision under which courts should grant a judicial divorce to either spouse on the grounds of marital discord (shiqāq). Since the evidential requirements for establishing the grounds of shiqāq are easily met, the numbers of judicial divorces increased exponentially during 2004-7. …

This chapter focuses on one of the most comprehensive, regional coalition building efforts for nationality reform and citizenship across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the Campaign to Reform Arab Women’s Nationality (the nationality campaign). It explores the politics and dynamics of channelling voice through feminist nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), and specifically examines regional and domestic advocacy campaigns and collaborations in the Campaign to Reform Arab Women’s Nationality. …

Voicing demands is a collection of analytical narratives of what has happened to feminist voice, a key pathway to women's empowerment. These narratives depart fromthe existing debate on women's political engagement in formal institutions to examine feminist activism for building and sustaining constituencies through raising, negotiating and legitimising women's voice under different contexts. …

This ground-breaking new collection edited by Mulki Al-Sharmani in the Pathways Zed Feminisms and Development series investigates the relationship between feminist activism and legal reform as a pathway to gender justice and social change. …

Voicing Demands, a new book by Sohela Nazneen and Maheen Sultan, is a collection of analytical narratives of what has happened to feminist voice, a key pathway to women’s empowerment. These narratives depart from the existing debate on women’s political engagement in formal institutions to examine feminist activism for building and sustaining constituencies through raising, negotiating and legitimizing women’s voice under different contexts. …