The Future of Asian Feminisms: Confronting Fundamentalisms, Conflicts and Neo-Liberalism

Nursyahbani Katjasungkana · Saskia E. Wieringa

Oct 2011 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

About this ebook

This book on the future of Asian feminisms, confronting fundamentalisms, conflicts, and neo-liberalism is a critical contribution to the rising voices of Asian women’s studies scholars and activists. It is based on the ongoing research and advocacy work of the Kartini Asia Network, founded in 2003 in Manila. The five overlapping themes of the network are women/gender studies, fundamentalisms, conflicts, livelihood and sexuality. Considering that the economic and political weight of the region is growing fast, and that the 21st century has been named the “Asian century,” Asia is increasingly recognised as the continent to which economic, if not political power, will shift in the coming decades. The chapters brought together in this volume demonstrate the great diversity of the “transversal cultural flow” that women’s movements within Asia provide. Members of the Kartini network stimulate the articulation of a particular “Asian voice” in women’s studies and in the global women’s movement. Considering the existing patriarchal structures all over the continent, a continuum of oppressions enfolds, from the global sphere of market exchange to emerging fundamentalisms and to bitter conflicts and struggles around sexualities. The present volume provides elements for the critical dialogues that are needed between women in the region, between women and men, between people in all sorts of strategic positions, and between theoreticians in the Global South and the Global North to create a world in which human dignity is not eroded by predatory economic processes and in which democracy, diversity, pluralism, and inclusivity are the guiding principles of governance.

About the author

Nursyahbani Katjasungkana is a human rights lawyer and has been working for 30 years with several NGOs focusing on human and women’s rights organizations and environmental issues. She was a director of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute and a President of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (WALHI). From 1998–2003, she was a Commissioner of the National Commission on Violence Against Women. She is the co-founder of APIK, Asosiasi Perempuan Indonesia untuk Keadilan (Indonesian Women’s Association for Justice), an organization that gives direct legal aid to women who are victims of violence and discrimination, and active in the field of legal advocacy, training and conduct research. Presently she is the National Coordinator of the Indonesian Federation of Women’s Legal Aid Society with 15 branches from Aceh to Papua. She has published five books on legal issues and violence against women as well as numerous articles on those topics.

Saskia E. Wieringa is the Director of Aletta, the Institute for Women’s History in Amsterdam and an honorary Professor at the University of Amsterdam, holding the Chair on Gender and Women’s Cross-cultural Same-Sex Relations. She has a long experience of activism in both the women’s and third world solidarity movements. Since the mid-1970s, she has co-founded several women’s groups, mainly in the area of women’s studies, and has co-founded a journal. She has published over 20 books and more than 100 articles on the above topics. Her latest books include: Female Desires: Same-Sex Relations and Transgender Practices Across Cultures; Sexual Politics in Indonesia; Lubang Buaya, a novel in Indonesian; Tommy Boys, Lesbian Men and Ancestral Wives: Women’s Same Sex Experiences in Southern Africa; Engendering Human Security; Women’s Sexualities and Masculinities in a Globalizing Asia; and Traveling Heritages, Amsterdam Aksant.