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Strengthening the capacity of women's rights organization

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Title: Strengthening the capacity of women's rights organization


1
Resisting and Challenging Religious
FundamentalismsAWID - Association For Womens
Rights in Development
2
Introduction Background
  • AWIDs mission is to strengthen the voice, impact
    influence of womens rights advocates,
    organizations and movements internationally to
    effectively advance the rights of women.
  • Strategic initiatives including
  • Challenging and Resisting Religious
    Fundamentalisms
  • Wheres the Money for Womens Rights?
  • Influencing Development Actors
  • Feminist Responses to HIV and AIDS
  • Building Stronger Feminist Movements and
    Organizations
  • Womens Rights Information
  • AWID Forum
  • Young Feminist Activism

3
Intro Backgroundcontd
  • 2005 AWID awarded prize from The Sigrid Rausing
    Trust
  • AWID proposed to work on religious
    fundamentalisms
  • The Challenging and Resisting Fundamentalisms
    initiative was launched in Jan07.

4
AWIDs Role
  • AWID sees its role as
  • Creating more knowledge on trends in
    fundamentalisms and their impact on womens
    rights across regions and religions.
  • Strengthening the capacity of womens rights
    organizations and movements to intervene
    strategically to resist and challenge religious
    fundamentalisms.
  • Increasing dialogue between womens rights orgs
    movts making strategic contributions to
    progress womens rights advocacy on the issue.

5
Working Definition
  • For the purposes of this project, we understand
    religious fundamentalisms (RFs) as
  • The use of religion (sometimes in conjunction
    with ethnicity, culture and nationality) by
    certain political and religious leaders,
    institutions and parties to legitimize as divine
    - and thereby render unchallengeable -
    authoritarian political power and to essentialize
    social control. This has particularly negative
    consequences for womens rights.

6
Program Strategy
  • Womens rights advocates have done considerable
    work detailing how religious fundamentalisms
    impact on womens rights, and designing
    strategies
  • However, there is no feminist research which
    synthesizes the broad trends of the impact of
    religious fundamentalisms on womens rights and
    strategies to combat religious fundamentalisms,
    that is cross-comparative across religions and
    regions, is credible, accessible and widely
    shared.

7
Research Approach
  • Literature Review of existing research, analysis
    and relevant reports
  • Interviews with Womens Rights Advocates
  • Online Survey
  • Case Studies
  • Stakeholders Meeting (Istanbul)

8
Research Findings
  • Preliminary data only still needs further
    discussion and analysis. Final results will be
    ready by November 2008 (AWID Forum)
  • From Survey 98 of respondents identified as
    womens rights advocates, with 91 working with
    an organization

9
Rise of Religious Fundamentalisms
Over the last ten years, how has the strength of
religious fundamentalisms changed in each of the
following contexts?
N1,552
Base 1,602 Women's Rights Activists/Advocates
Q14
10
Some interesting issues
  • Relationship between religious fundamentalisms
    and control
  • Backlash against women's improved
    status/increased autonomy

11
Impact of RF Forces on WHR
In the last ten years, what would you say has
been the overall impact of religious
fundamentalisms on women's rights in the context
of your work?

Total Negative 79
Base 789 Women's Rights Activists/Advocates
Q17
12
Relative Influence of RF Forces
As compared to other political forces in the
context of your work, how much do religious
fundamentalisms obstruct womens rights?
Base 1,594 Women's Rights Activists/Advocates
Note 8 said Dont know or Not applicable
Q15
13
Why is RF negative for WHR?
Please explain why you hold a negative view the
impact of religious fundamentalisms.
Depicts only the 79 of respondents who said RF
has had a negative impact on womens rights in
their context.
Base 555 Women's Rights Activists/Advocates
Q18
14
Examples of RF Impacts- Overall Responses -
Please describe one or two specific examples of
obstructions to or violations of womens rights
caused by religious fundamentalisms in your
context.
Respondents could provide two examples.
Percentages will not total to 100.
Q22
Percentages based on 74 of respondents who
answered question.
Base 1,217 Women's Rights Activists/Advocates
15
Examples of RF violations of WRs
  • The North-West Frontier Province is ruled by an
    alliance of religious parties that has a very
    narrow view of what is permissible in Islam and
    what is not. It blackened and pulled down
    hoardings that had women's pictures, it closed
    down video shops, it ordered that female
    mannequins be removed from shops, girls schools
    were told to close down or ensure proper dress
    code, etc. Womens NGOs have been stopped from
    operating in certain areas and Shirkat Gah had to
    stop its work along with other NGOs who had set
    up girls schools after threats from the local
    religious leaders. SR
  • The Orthodox Church's programs are incorporated
    into the legal public (primary) education,
    promoting inequality between women and men,
    naturalising women's role in society and
    demonising women's sexuality and rights for
    abortion these things are officially accepted.
    SR, Serbia Montenegro

16
Examples of RF Impacts-Detailed Responses-
Please describe one or two specific examples of
obstructions to or violations of womens rights
caused by religious fundamentalisms in your
context.
Respondents could provide two examples.
Percentages will not total to 100. Categories
under 5 (23) omitted.
Q22
Percentages based on 74 of respondents who
answered question.
Base 1,217 Women's Rights Activists/Advocates
17
RF- Did not campaign
In your work, what were the issues that the most
influential religious fundamentalists did not
campaign on in the past 10 years?
Q23
18
RF Strategies
Over the past ten years, how important have the
following strategies been for religious
fundamentalisms in your work?
Q29
19
Attacks by RFs
Within the past 10 years, have you personally or
a colleague experienced any of the following
reactions from religious fundamentalists because
of your work on women's human rights issues?
Percent saying each has happened either sometimes
or frequently.
Q31
Base 1,490 Women's Rights Activists/Advocates
20
What would strengthen WRs responses?
  • Top 7 needs identified
  • More global efforts to find effective solutions
    to the causes of RFs
  • More information about womens strategies of
    resistance
  • More support from intl WR organizations
  • More information and understanding of RFs
  • More support from local/natl womens
    organizations
  • More capacity to communicate impacts of RFs
  • More support from HR organizations

21
  • Concluding Thoughts
  • www.awid.org
  • sanushka_at_awid.org
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