In June 1991, about thirty women activists, development workers and social researchers from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka participated in a month-long workshop on women and development organized by the Freedom From Hunger Campaign/Action for Development (FAO) held in Bangalore, India.

Discussions centered around women and environment; women and development; women and family; women, religion and ideology; women's organizations and strategies; women and law; women and health; and alternative/ sustainable development.

Participants had the opportunity to expand their understanding of how the dynamics of socio-economic and political change affect women, and what, historically, development has meant for women. The myth that access to education, modernization and economic development leads to women's "liberation'' was explored. For example, women in the West, inspite of their education, access to paid jobs, higher incomes and modem life-styles often suffer from gender oppression, and are ideologically tied down to the housewife /mother /lover image. Thus women's empowerment has to include political struggle against patriarchal oppression.

One of the most important outcome of the workshop was the reactivation of an informal network of women activists and researchers working in South Asia against exploitation and oppression of women, and towards regional solidarity.

SOURCE: ACCESS, Sept. 1991. From an article written by
Aleeze Sattar, a worker in the Research and Evaluation
Division of BRAC.