A Vision of Gender in Culture

Author : Mahnaz Afkhami, World Bank

My task is to talk about a vision of gender in culture to an assembly that wishes to integrate culture in its policies to achieve sustainable development. The reason why the World Bank is interested in this proposition, I assume, is two-pronged: On one hand, you cannot have long-term sustainable development if half the population…

Towards Global Feminism: A Muslim Perspective

Author : Mahnaz Afkhami, Spinifex Press

Waging their struggle in the colonial environment, Third World feminist thinkers have achieved a multicultural ethical and intellectual formation and a plethora of experience relevant to the development of an internationally valid and effective discourse addressing women’s condition on a global scale. The question is whether this foundation can become a springboard for a global…

Resisting Fundamentalisms

Author : Mahnaz Afkhami, Canadian Human Rights Foundation

Fundamentalism is a militant reaction to modernism; that is, to changes that have come about as a result of the development of science and technology, secular­ization of social relations, and movement from collective to indi­vidual forms of identity and moral valuation. Fundamentalists are found in all societies and reli­gions. Their approach to religion is basically…

Rethinking Women's Human Rights in the Middle East

Author : Mahnaz Afkhami, Kendall Hunt Publishing Company

I am privileged to speak here today, not only because it is an honor to be on the same forum with such distinguished colleagues, but also because of the issue that is the subject of the discus­sion. This, as I understand, is the first time that women’s human rights have been the subject of plenary…