Privately Empowered responds to the lack of adequate attention paid to Islam in Africa in comparison to Islam in the Middle East and the Arab world. Shirin Edwin points to the tight embrace between Islam and politics that has rendered Islamic feminist discourse historically and thematically contextualized in regions where Islamic feminism evolves in tandem with the nation-state and is commonly understood in terms of activism, social affiliations, or struggles for legal reform. In Africa itself, Islam bears the burden of being a “foreign” presence that is considered injurious to African Muslim women’s success. Edwin examines the fictional works of the northern Nigerian novelists Zaynab Alkali, Abubakar Gimba, and Hauwa Ali due to the texts’ emphases on personal and private engagement, Islamic ritual and prayer in the quotidian, and observance of Qur’anic injunctions. Analysis of these texts connects the ways in which Muslim women in northern Nigeria balance their spiritual habits in ever changing configurations of their personal and private domains. The spiritual universe of African Muslim women may be one where Islam is not the source of their problems or their legislative and political activity, but a spiritual activity that can exist devoid of activist or political forms.

Transforming the Lives of Impoverished Girls in Patriarchal Societies Since 2003 a privately funded high school in India has provided desperately needed education for girls from impoverished families in Lucknow, the capital and largest city in Uttar Pradesh. Urvashi Sahni, the founder of Prerna Girls School, has written a compelling narrative of how this modest school in northeast India has changed the lives of more than 5,000 girls and their families. Most important, it is through the perspectives of the girls themselves, rather than through a remote academic viewpoint, that Prerna’s success unfolds. The book focuses on the importance of education in bringing about gender equality in a patriarchal society. It shows how girls learn to be equal and autonomous persons in school as part of their official curriculum and how they use this learning to transform their lives and those of their families. The book’s central argument is that education can be truly transformative if it addresses the everyday reality of girls’ lives and responds to their special needs and challenges with respect and care. The example of just one relatively small school in one corner of India, the message and the stories it tells will inspire anyone concerned about the necessity of girls’ education, especially in developing countries. The lives of the girls at Prerna Girls School are largely representative of those of millions living in poor regions in countries where patriarchal structures and norms prevail.

Focusing on the term empowerment this book examines the various meanings given to the concept of empowerment and the many ways power can be expressed - in personal relationships and in wider social interactions.

In his late twenties, Doug Meyer-Cuno decided to abandon his budding corporate career to found his own company. He would go on to grow Carolina Ingredients from a one-person operation into a multimillion-dollar manufacturing company with an international customer base, eventually selling the company to Mitsubishi. The pages within detail and examine the recipe Doug used for his own success to help others find their own, categorized into five main principles: Vision, Core Culture Values, Authenticity, Transparency, and Gratitude. The Recipe for Empowered Leadership: 25 Ingredients for Creating Value and Empowering Others recounts the lessons Doug learned along that journey, from facing down his micromanager tendencies to embracing servant leadership as a coach and mentor to his team. Brimming with easy-to-read leadership strategies and the life-changing "defining moments" that developed them, Doug reveals the value that a strong, yet grateful leader adds to any organization and how to incorporate those principles into your own leadership practice and life.

This book is the outcome of interdisciplinary research investigating female participation in politics in rural India. The participants were all rural and mostly illiterate women who dared to explore the public space by entering into grassroots political institutions as a result of the quota introduced in 1992. This ruling stipulated that ‘no less than one third of the seats’ in India’s rural political units, the Panchayats, were to be filled by women, and created a social revolution in the countryside of India. The book presents an interesting investigation into about how women representatives negotiated their new roles by converting the strong patriarchal set-up in India into a support system for their new endeavour. This is an interesting work on women in local political institutions, and reveals the gradual social and economic empowerment of women through gender quotas in politics.

Outsourcing state functions and the limits of existing regulatory regimes -- Contract as transnational regulatory governance -- The emergence of a transnational private regime for the regulation of PMSCs -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 14. Conclusion: Empire through contract: A private international law perspective -- Abstract -- Introduction -- Self-constituting regimes: Private international law's libertarian view of contract -- Possible antidotes: From the undiscovered DNA of contract law to new global forms of legal pluralism -- Notes -- References -- Index