Disentangling Religion and Politics: Whither Gender Equality?

This article explores the ways in which both religion and gender equality are instrumentalised in the service of diverse political agendas. Building on illustrations from Turkey and Afghanistan, the argument is made that a moratorium should be declared on focusing on the binaries of religious vs secular, Western vs non?Western or global vs local in favour of more rigorous institutional analysis that will give a better understanding of the politics of gender. This will require detailed attention to fluid networks of influence at the global, national and local levels and engagement with a multiplicity of actors, interests and practices

Políticas sexuadas na Turquia: um novelo emaranhado

A Turquia é frequentemente apontada como o único país predominantemente muçulmano com constituição laica e com um Código Civil que não obedece à xaria, sendo que o movimento de mulheres obteve vitórias importantes em matéria de reformas jurídicas no início dos anos de 2000. Observa-se, entretanto, um crescente abismo entre direitos formais e direitos reais após a esmagadora vitória do AKP, em 2007. Por conta das divisões que atravessam as fileiras feministas – particularmente acerca da questão do véu – o artigo se pergunta sobre a validade de tais conquistas.

Volume 8: Gender, Governance and Islam

Analyses the links between gender and governance in contemporary Muslim majority countries and diaspora contexts. Following a period of rapid political change, both globally and in relation to the Middle East and South Asia, this collection sets new terms of reference for an analysis of the intersections between global, state, non-state and popular actors and their contradictory effects on the politics of gender. The volume charts the shifts in academic discourse and global development practice that shape our understanding of gender both as an object of policy and as a terrain for activism. Nine individual case studies systematically explore how struggles for political control and legitimacy determine both the ways in which dominant gender orders are safeguarded and the diverse forms of resistance against them.https://ecommons.aku.edu/uk_ismc_series_emc/1011/thumbnail.jp

Introduction: critical perspectives on food sovereignty

Visions of food sovereignty have been extremely important in helping to galvanize broad-based and diverse movements around the need for radical changes in agro-food systems. Yet while food sovereignty has thrived as a ‘dynamic process’, until recently there has been insufficient attention to many thorny questions, such as its origins, its connection to other food justice movements, its relation to rights discourses, the roles of markets and states and the challenges of implementation. This essay contributes to food sovereignty praxis by pushing the process of critical self- reflection forward and considering its relation to critical agrarian studies – and vice versa

Women bargaining with patriarchy in coastal Kenya:contradictions, creative agency and food provisioning

Gender analysts have long recognised that challenging existing patriarchal structures involves risks for women, who may lose both long-term support and protection from kin. However, understanding the specific ways in which they ‘bargain with patriarchy’ in particular contexts is relatively poorly understood. We focus on a Mijikenda fishing community in coastal Kenya to explore contradictions in gendered power relations and how women deploy these to reinterpret gendered practices without directly challenging local patriarchal structures. We argue that a more complex understanding of women’s creative agency can reveal both the value to women of culturally-specific gendered roles and responsibilities and the importance of subtle changes that they are able to negotiate in these. With reference to food provisioning, the analysis contributes to more nuanced understandings of gendered household food security and women’s creative approaches to maintaining long-term security in their lives