Gender & Development

ISSN: 1355-2074 (Print) 1364-9221 (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/cgde20

Feminist Advocacy, Family Law and Violence

Against Women: International Perspectives
edited by Mahnaz Afkhami, Yakın Ertürk and Ann Elizabeth Mayer,
Abingdon, UK and New York: Routledge, and Ottawa: IDRC, 2019, 268
pp., £34.99 (pbk), from £17.50 (ebook), ISBN: 9781138344938, and free to
download PDF from IDRC, www.idrc.ca/en/book/feminist-advocacy-family-
law-and-violence-against-women-international-perspectives last accessed 2
December 2019)

Rothna Begum

To cite this article: Rothna Begum (2020) Feminist Advocacy, Family Law and Violence
Against Women: International Perspectives, Gender & Development, 28:1, 218-220, DOI:
10.1080/13552074.2020.1717196

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2020.1717196

Published online: 10 Mar 2020.

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218 BOOK REVIEWS

Notes
1. By poststructural feminist political economy, I refer to a diverse body of feminist and gender
political economy research that critiques both the production of knowledge in and for the global
political economy and the practices of power that shape it. This research challenges the taken-
for-grantedness of dominant ideas and assumptions in the global political economy to show
how these rest on gendered foundations, such as the myth of Economic Man that underlies
modern Economics, or the central figure of the market in the neoliberal globalisation thesis.
Poststructural feminist political economy challenges conventional, rationalist accounts of
what drives our socio-economic systems while eschewing dichotomised, hierarchical, and essen-
tialised thinking, revealing the constitution and effects of gendered privilege across economic
knowledge and practice (in the privileging, for example, of liberal values in the conditionalities
and ‘benchmark’ standards of international organisations, or the exploitation of gendered
stereotypes to maintain state war machines, flexibilised labour conditions, or corporate globa-
lisation, and so on).
2. Poststructural approaches to gender and development take seriously that the dominant mean-
ings of both gender and development are produced by and through social, cultural, political,
and economic relations of power (or the way power is organised and diffuses across societies).
These relations include, but are not limited to, the practices and processes of neoliberal restruc-
turing, governmental planning and policymaking, economic organisation, poverty, social repro-
duction, globalisation, and labour markets. In particular, poststructuralists interrogate critically
the formation and effects of Eurocentric and gendered development discourses and assump-
tions, which means that they examine how development is written and practised in ways
that privilege certain types of identity, behaviour, or knowledge, and what the effects of this
might be.

Penny Griffin
Senior Lecturer, Politics and International Relations,
School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
penny.griffin@unsw.edu.au
© 2020 Penny Griffin
https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2020.1717180

Feminist Advocacy, Family Law and Violence Against Women: International

Perspectives, edited by Mahnaz Afkhami, Yakın Ertürk and Ann Elizabeth Mayer,
Abingdon, UK and New York: Routledge, and Ottawa: IDRC, 2019, 268 pp., £34.99 (pbk),
from £17.50 (ebook), ISBN: 9781138344938, and free to download PDF from IDRC, www.
idrc.ca/en/book/feminist-advocacy-family-law-and-violence-against-women-international-
perspectives (last accessed 2 December 2019)

Around the world, the body of laws governing areas such as marriage, divorce, child custody, and
inheritance are known as family law, also called personal status laws in some countries. Often reli-
giously based, these laws have long been the focus of protest from women’s rights activists, who
argue that they discriminate against women, and are used to justify violence against them.
Feminist Advocacy, Family Law and Violence Against Women; International Perspectives is a
useful book for anyone engaging in women’s rights advocacy in this area. The book showcases a
range of strategies and tools deployed by women’s rights activists in their pursuit of legal reform
 GENDER & DEVELOPMENT 219

in relation to violence against women, and provides insights into obstacles encountered and lessons
learnt.
Part 1 of the book comprises case studies from Brazil, India, Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Nigeria,
Senegal, and Turkey. Part 2 presents interviews with campaign leaders from Egypt, Morocco, and
Jordan. This broad range of experiences allows the reader to draw comparisons between contexts,
strategies, and challenges.
The cross-country overview (Chapter 2) sets out these challenges and lessons learnt very clearly,
and is a helpful guide for women’s rights activists who are navigating their own advocacy cam-
paigns. For example, it includes an instructive discussion on how the pluralistic societies of
countries like India and Lebanon, while providing space for democratic engagement, also compli-
cate the drive to advance women’s rights reforms because family law differs between religious
groups.
The case study of India focuses on violence against women in the family, and the linkage
between domestic violence and gender-based discrimination in family laws. This is a particularly
well-written analysis of the movements that drove reforms, including the use of courts to challenge
discrimination in religious laws, such as the Supreme Court of India’s ruling to strike down the
arbitrary practice of triple talaq (divorce) against Muslim women.
The interview with Moroccan women’s rights campaigner Rabéa Naciri provides fascinating
first-hand insights into the reform of the Family Code in Morocco, including on how the women’s
movement pushed for such reforms. One lesson learned is that by being debated in Parliament it
allowed for a democratic discussion on the proposed reforms.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
appears to have been useful to the women’s rights movements in a variety of contexts, helping to
create momentum and moving the needle on various issues. The Brazil case study highlights how
the movement used the CEDAW Committee’s recommendation to push for the adoption of the
Maria de Penha Law relating to domestic violence, in 2006.
The case study on Iran reflects on the long history of women’s rights activism in the country, key
areas where gains, if only marginal, have been made in the wake of the Islamic Revolution of 1979,
and how, despite the repressive measures imposed against it, the women’s rights movement has
remained persistent, particularly in reaching out to society at large. The One Million Signatures
Campaign for reform of family law is well-known for its grass-roots advocacy.
The case study on Palestine details the complex legal history and divides between the West Bank
and Gaza, as well as the most significant women’s rights issues. It delves into campaigns such as the
Palestinian Model Parliament (PMP), initiated by the women’s rights movement to insert women’s
interests into the national discourse and agenda, advocating for laws and policies based on equality
and respect for women’s rights. It also provides a listing of the strengths and weaknesses of such
campaigns, for example, how they helped to mobilise widespread discussion in Palestinian society
but failed to involve Islamists or their Muslim women sympathisers in the process.
What comes across clearly is that there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for achieving equality for
women in family laws. Context matters for every campaign, as does the need to balance achieving
the objective without losing ground in the long term.
The contributors to this edited collection adopt a variety of approaches. A few case studies are
geared towards readers new to the issues: they briefly discuss some women’s rights issues or sum-
marise campaigns. Several other chapters offer keen insights into evolving movements, contexts,
and strengths and challenges in relation to advocacy. A couple of chapters are more academic,
but nevertheless remain accessible to the general reader.
One disappointment is that the book as a whole does not examine, apart from in one or two
instances, issues of intersectionality, such as those relating to migrant women, older women, or
LGBT persons. Nor does it discuss in any detail the long-standing critiques of some women’s rights
groups of being elite, educated, urban, and removed from the experiences of women from more
220 BOOK REVIEWS

rural areas. The inclusion of such critiques could have helped improve learning on outreach and
coalition building with non-traditional allies, including the challenges that come with that.
These caveats aside, I highly recommend this book for women’s rights activists, policymakers,
and students. While some of the language used does assume some prior knowledge on the part
of the reader, it is for the most part accessibly written, and the breadth of its scope, in terms of issues
and countries covered, means that it will help guide anyone engaging in feminist advocacy on
reforms to family laws and violence against women.

Rothna Begum
Senior Women’s Rights Researcher, Human Rights Watch, UK
begumr@hrw.org
© 2020 Rothna Begum
https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2020.1717196

The Global Gag Rule and Women’s Reproductive Health: Rhetoric Versus Reality, by
Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, New York: Oxford University Press, 2018, 224 pp., £25.99
(hbk), ISBN: 9780190876128

I am feminist, woman, and mother to three tween/teenage daughters – and I believe to my very core
in women’s rights to abortion under all circumstances. It feels appropriate to declare this: abortion
is an emotive subject, and in this book, Yana van der Meulen Rodgers clearly documents how the
views, personality, and politics of different US governments through time have shaped the sexual
and reproductive experiences and rights of women across the globe.
As I write this review, there is widespread media discussion about the US state of Alabama
restricting abortion in all cases, and a spotlight is being shone on abortion illegality nearer to
home, in Northern Ireland. It is the first time I have seen my daughters and their friends outraged
about restriction on women’s sexual and reproductive rights, and they are even more angry when I
explain to them about the impact of US policy overseas – through what is widely known as the glo-
bal gag rule1 – and how this has become more restrictive with each subsequent Republican admin-
istration. There is, however, surprisingly little research to date on the impact of successive global
gag rules. This is precisely why this book – which presents and synthesises evidence and dismantles
rhetoric – is so important.
The Global Gag Rule provides robust and systematic analysis, using multiple methods, with a
strong global lens. Its content is presented across seven chapters, and includes the history and poli-
tics of US assistance for family planning and the global gag rule itself, global abortion policies and
practices, and new estimates of the impact of the global gag rule. Yana van der Meulen Rodgers
draws three core conclusions from this analysis, which are convincing and clearly grounded in
the multiple and mixed-methods data-sets presented. First, in most countries that receive US
family-planning assistance, the global gag rule has failed to achieve its goal of reducing abortion,
and the 2017 reinstatement of the rule is likely to result in more abortion globally. Second, there
is no clear relationship between restrictive national abortion laws and the chances of a woman hav-
ing an abortion. Put simply, restricting and/or making abortion illegal increases unsafe abortion,
the need for post-abortion care, and maternal mortality. Globally, there are about 300,000 deaths
associated with pregnancy and childbirth and an estimated 8–15 per cent of these are attributed to
abortion. Third, the reinstatement of the global gag rule will have ‘adverse impacts across a