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This article explores the role of Iraqi women in reconstruction processes by contextualising the current situation with respect to changing gender ideologies & relations over the past three decades. Before discussing the Iraqi case specifically, I provide a brief theoretical background about the significance of gender in reconstruction as well as nation-building processes. A historical background aims to shed light on the changing gender ideologies & relations during the regime of Saddam Hussein. The article focuses particularly on the impacts of the early developmental-modernist discourses of the state & the impacts of war (Iran-Iraq war 1980-88, Gulf wars 1991, 2003) as well as on the comprehensive economic sanctions regime (1990-2003). The latter involved wider social changes affecting women & gender relations but also society at large because of the impoverishment of the well educated middle-class, wide-scale unemployment, an economic crisis & a shift towards more conservative values & morals. It is against this historical background that contemporary developments related to ongoing conflict, occupation & political transition affect women & gender relations. 17 References. Adapted from the source document.

The article sheds light on the various ways women & gender relations in Iraq have been affected by war & economic sanctions. The discussion of the contemporary situation of women in Iraq under occupation is prefaced by a brief historical background about changing women's roles & gender relations during the regime of Saddam Hussein. 16 References. Adapted from the source document.

In this article I show how Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) refugees reproduce, contest and construct their ethnic and religious identities. Using 'ritual' in a broad sense to refer to everyday routinized activities and practices that characterize family hierarchies and gender relations, as well as more easily identifiable religious rituals, I show that rituals assert belonging to a community and an identity, but are also, in the process of construction and contestation, selectively evoked and ignored. 'The Other' constructed through certain rituals is not merely the non–Muslim Bosnian (Serbs and Croats), but also, for refugees, other Bosnian Muslims who stayed behind. Moreover, engagement in secular and religious rituals, and the wider issue of identity constructions cannot be understood fully without exploring the dynamics between refugees and people who have remained in Bosnia. Competing constituencies claiming 'Bosnianness' and 'Muslimness' can be found across national boundaries and complicate the attempt to construct a community of believers or nationals, or both.

Books reviewed in this article:Nira Yuval‐Davis, Gender & NationLois West (ed.), Feminist NationalismRick Wilford and Robert L. Miller (eds.), Women, Ethnicity and Nationalism: The Politics of TransitionCynthia Cockburn, The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict

A review essay on books by (1) Nira Yuval-Davis, Gender & Nation (London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: Sage, 1997); (2) Lois West (Ed), Feminist Nationalism (New York/London: Routledge, 1997); (3) Rick Wilford & Robert L. Miller (Eds), Women, Ethnicity and Nationalism: The Politics of Transition (London/New York: Routledge, 1998); & (4) Cynthia Cockburn, The Space between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict (London/New York: Zed Books, 1998). In keeping with the tradition set forth by her 1989 edited volume titled Woman -- Nation -- State (with Floya Anthias), Yuval-Davis begins by discussing the manner in which women are involved in ethnic & national developments. Yuval-Davis goes beyond her earlier premise by bring the concept of culture into her thesis. West's edited volume expands upon Yuval-Davis's line of thinking in an attempt to provide a theory of "feminist nationalism." In utilizing a methodology of relativism, however, Feminist Nationalism fails to adequately consider the voices of real women. Women, Ethnicity and Nationalism examines women's rights & the establishment of ethnic & national identities. It fails, however, to move beyond the theories established by Yuval-Davis. Cockburn provides a work of original thought that focuses on the ways in which women resist nationalist endeavors. Three women's projects in Northern Ireland, Israel, & Bosnia are examined in an effort to prove that women have been, for the most part, absent from conflict resolution strategies. 5 References. K. A. Larsen

Challenging recent scholarship which has dwelt on Islamic activism, Nadje Al-Ali explores the anthropological and political significance of secular-oriented activism by focusing on the women's movement in Egypt. The author frames her work around current theoretical debates in Middle Eastern and post-colonial scholarship and interviews with members of the movement

A close look at the content and context of women's organizations in contemporary Egypt sheds light on the ambiguities and contradictions existent in contemporary Egypt. On the one hand, women's organizations began to flourish since the 1985 UN women's conference in Nairobi, and particularly during the preparations for the International Conference on Population and Development (lCPD) held in Cairo in 1994. During this time there was increasing pressure on the Egyptian government by international organizations and western governments to adhere to UN conventions concerning women's rights. At the same time, a huge number of international donor organizations, NGOs and government bodies provided funds and resources for specific projects and campaigns related to women's issues. However, the increased confrontation with Islamists has pressured the Mubarak regime to legislate and implement more conservative laws and policies towards women and to diminish its support for women's political representation. It is no surprise then that women's organizations have been caught in the midst of contradictory state policies towards women and towards Egypt's growing NGO sector.

Abstract
This article explores the complex and intersectional identities and positionalities of Kurdish Islamist women activists in Turkey in the context of heightened violence and tensions linked to the ongoing Turkish-Kurdish conflict. While both female Islamist activists and Kurdish activists in Turkey and the wider region have been subject to in-depth research over the past decade, Kurdish Islamist women have largely been overlooked in the literature. The article focuses on the complex relationship between ethnicity and religion in understanding Kurdish Islamist women's mobilization, political views, perceptions of gender norms and relations, and self-ascribed identities. Based on original empirical research carried out in southeastern Turkey in 2015 and 2018, the article engages with the relevant literature on Islamist women's mobilization, particularly in relation to Turkey, to complicate discourses of empowerment and critiques of liberal notions of agency while also challenging prevailing depictions of Kurdish women's mobilization. It pays attention both to the intersecting power configurations enabling and challenging Kurdish Islamist women's everyday lives and political engagement, and to changing political economy locally, nationally, and transnationally.