by Kamla Bhasin

There are a large number of examples in Asia of women's power, their militancy, their unity. Very often peasant women, tribal women or urban working class women are in the frontline of struggles against deforestation, mining, usurpation of tribal lands, exploitation of landlords, corruption of bureaucrats, sexual abuse and violence. They are in the forefronts of peace movements everywhere; in Japan it is the housewives who are getting organized to say " NO! " to nuclear power plants. In Pakistan, it was the women who challenged the religious laws imposed on them in the name of Islam. In the Philippines, in Thailand and Sri Lanka it is the women who are organizing against sex tourism and the exportation of housemaids.

In Bangladesh, Nijera Kori (In Bengali, this means "we'll do it ourselves.") is an organization that has helped thousands of rural women workers to get organized to fight for their rights to be respected and to attack oppressive structures. As a result they have managed to acquire common lands for collective farming, to raise wages, to obtain loans, to create health services, to get rapists punished, to preserve popular theatre traditions from pornographic intrusions. These women have also used songs and drama to mobilize people and stimulate debate. One of the Nijera Kori workers, when asked why women were always in the forefront in confrontations with the police or thugs answered: "We women have been beaten so often. We are not afraid anymore. Once we decide to fight, we fight till the bitter end."

Excerpted from:
Asian Women Against Mai-Development.
Fenix Number 00, 1990
Published by:
Friends of Ideas and Action Foundation.
P.O. Box 10.133, 2130 CC
Hoofddorp, Holland.