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AWID - Association for Women's Rights in Development

 

Call for Proposals of Case Studies: AWID: "Resisting and Challenging
Religious Fundamentalisms: Learning from Experience"

 

Proposals for case studies should be submitted to CF@awid.org by

13th June 2008

Are you confronting religious fundamentalisms or regressive
political-religious movements in your daily life and work? Are you
witnessing important links between different types of fundamentalisms
(economic, national, social, cultural and religious) and seeing
similarities in how these work across religions and regions? Have you or
your organization been involved in actions to resist and challenge
religious fundamentalisms that you would like to share more widely with
women's rights advocates from around the world?

As women's movements and organizations from different regions, we can learn
from each other and create new ways to cooperate and strengthen our
collective efforts. We need to share strategic information on how
regressive politico-religious groups and movements work and grow and affect
women's rights, and how we can launch successful strategies to resist,
challenge and present viable alternatives in return.

As part of it's initiative on "Resisting and Challenging Religious
Fundamentalisms" AWID is gathering insights into the contemporary workings
of religious fundamentalist movements and previously undocumented
strategies employed by women's rights activists to successfully challenge
them. We intend to share the selected case studies with AWID members and
other women's rights activists and advocates around the world.

This is a call to acknowledge the diversity and wealth of information
within women's organizations and movements and to share our experience and
knowledge of the actions and strategies at our disposal. We are seeking
proposals for case studies from a variety of contexts and regions of the
world. Selected proposals will receive an honorarium of $3000 USD upon
completion in order to assist in and offset costs of documenting the full
case studies (expected length of the full case study will be 15 to 20 pages
long). Selected contributions will also be highlighted at the 11th
International AWID Forum on "The Power of Movements" which will be held on
14th-17th November, 2008, in Cape Town, South Africa. The authors of the
selected case studies will be invited to present their experiences in a
session at the AWID Forum and the case studies will also subsequently be
published by AWID.

Acknowledging that safety may be a concern for some submitters, please note
that elements of the final case studies may be made confidential and
anonymous for dissemination (e.g., individual or organization names,
localities, etc.). Whether or not anonymity is required, and to what degree
it is necessary, will be up to the submitter to determine.

Submission Guidelines for Case Study Proposals

Proposal submissions may be made in English, Spanish, French or Arabic.
They must be no longer than 1000 words (approximately two and a half
pages).

All submissions must contain the information outlined in this section.

Contact person:
Country:
Organization name (if any):
Position in the organization (if relevant):
Contact information (e-mail and telephone):

Please briefly address all of the following points within 1000 words:

1. What is your understanding of "religious fundamentalisms"?

2. Briefly describe the local context in which you/your organization work,
outline the issue/problem that was being presented by religious
fundamentalisms in that context, and summarize how it is/was affecting
women's human rights.

3. Briefly describe the religious fundamentalists involved, including the
name of individual party/organization/group, their local presence and
strength, and any international links.

4. Briefly describe the strategy that you or your organization employed (or
is currently employing) to resist or challenge religious fundamentalisms.
Why did you act? What was the provocation (if any)? How was your resistance
carried out? What allies did you have? What other social movements or actors
are challenging religious fundamentalisms in your context? What were the
intended or unintended consequences of your strategy?

5. Include in your conclusion responses to the following: What links (if
any) do you see between the different types of fundamentalisms and the way
they work across regions and religions? What are the root causes,
motivators and appeal, as you see them, of religious fundamentalisms in
your context? What can women's rights activists and women's movements learn
from your strategy?

Submission Contact Information and Deadline

Proposals for case studies should be submitted to CF@awid.org by 13th June,
2008 at the latest. Any inquiries can also be directed to this address.

For more information on AWID's "Resisting and Challenging Religious
Fundamentalisms" initiative, please visit
http://www.awid.org/go.php?pg=challenge_fundamentalisms.

_______________________________________________________________________

 

http://www.awid.org/go.php?pg=challenge_fundamentalisms

 

Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms

 

An Advocacy Research Project of AWID

BACKGROUND

Religious fundamentalisms are gaining strength in many countries, manifesting themselves in control over women's sexuality, bodies, family relationships, movement, dress codes, and participation in public, etc. Religious fundamentalist forces are gaining undue influence in setting social norms and architecture; dominating everyday facets of life; defining laws in particular family laws which most impact women; controlling the media; influencing national policy-makers and international institutions; undermining human rights institutions and norms; putting religion at the center of state business; increasing the dominance of religion in public life; and undermining spaces for plurality and dissent.

Women's rights advocates have done considerable work detailing how religious fundamentalisms impact on women's rights, such as the demand for regressive reform of family law in Muslim contexts or the rise of the Christian evangelical movement in the United States. There has also been some documentation of strategies to resist and challenge religious fundamentalisms. However, there has yet to be feminist research which synthesizes the broad trends of the impact of religious fundamentalisms on women's rights and lives, that is cross-comparative across religions and regions which is credible, accessible and widely shared. We also need a greater in-depth and cross-comparative documentation of concrete examples of strategies being used by women to resist and challenge religious fundamentalisms.

Research and documentation which attempts to address these gaps should contribute to greater strategic thinking by women's rights movements around religious fundamentalisms, and help make the case that the rise in religious fundamentalisms is a global phenomenon which needs serious attention. We need to have a more open and honest dialogue, to better understand religious fundamentalisms as well as develop shared analysis and strategies if we hope to effectively meet the challenge posed by regressive political-religious movements.

This initiative, builds on the work of AWID's Challenging Fundamentalisms website project which was a joint project with Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) and Rights and Democracy.

THE PROJECT'S GOAL AND KEY OBJECTIVES

In keeping with AWID's mission, this initiative aims to strengthen the impact and influence of international, regional and national women's rights advocates, organizations and movements resisting and challenging fundamentalist projects, which undermine women's human rights around the world.
Towards this goal, the project's two objectives are:

THE PROJECT'S ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY

To ensure we have as broad a perspective as possible on religious fundamentalisms, and to share the results as widely as possible with women's rights advocates and beyond, the project will engage in a variety of activities and use a variety of research tools.

Activities for the project in 2007-2008 will include:

Plans for 2008
The late 2007 stakeholders meeting will also help develop the project's 2008 activities, specifically a possible 'fundamentalisms report card' for individual countries, regional workshops, and capacity-building in communications and resisting religious fundamentalisms.

Defining Fundamentalisms
The project acknowledges that the term 'religious fundamentalism' and its definition are contested, and because definitions are central to building a shared understanding of a phenomenon, part of our research shall examine some issues relating to definitions. However, our focus shall remain the lived realities of women's lives which may help traverse this hugely contested territory.

SHARING AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS

As the project progresses, materials and information generated by the project will be shared with AWID members and beyond, and profiled through the AWID website and e-lists.

Following a review of the draft at the late 2007 stakeholders meeting, a final project report, with an executive summary, bringing together the research findings and addressing the project's research questions will be launched at the AWID Forum in November 2008. The final report will additionally address an overarching research question:

While the research questions and actual questionnaires/framework for the project's various research vehicles are not framed in human rights language, the final report, to be published by AWID in English, French and Spanish, will refer to international human rights standards, where applicable.

The findings will form the basis of advocacy actions or a campaign that AWID staff will launch at the 2008 AWID Forum.

 

 





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