Faith-based organizations have long been involved in charitable and development activities. However, the emerging openness to thinking about and engaging with religion in development raises some important questions. Does religious engagement in development policy and practice risk harming already fragile gender relations? What are the challenges and opportunities in negotiating the relationships between religion, gender, and development? Gender, Faith, and Development explores in different ways the relationships between religion, gender, and development. Subjects covered include attitudes towards sexual behaviour in areas with a high prevalence of HIV and AIDS; household disputes over the control of income; constraints on women’s time; the difficulties of introducing Western models of gender equity to those in Muslim societies who see feminism as a threat; and changes in abortion legislation. This book is essential reading for academics and researchers in development, gender, political science, sociology, or religious studies, and of interest to development policy makers and practitioners, voluntary sector workers, and social movement activists.

1 Introduction 1
Emma Tomalin
2 The challenges of incorporating Muslim women’s views into
development policy: analysis of a Dutch action research project
in Yemen 13
Brenda Bartelink and Marjo Buitelaar
3 Tackling HIV and AIDS with faith-based communities: learning
from attitudes on gender relations and sexual rights within local
evangelical churches in Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, and South
Africa 25
Mandy Marshall and Nigel Taylor
4 The Thai bhikkhuni movement and women’s empowerment 37
Emma Tomalin
5 Reflecting on gender equality in Muslim contexts in Oxfam GB 51
Adrienne Hopkins and Kirit Patel
6 Christianity, development, and women’s liberation 65
Bridget Walker
7 Conflict and compliance: Christianity and the occult in
horticultural exporting 75
Catherine S. Dolan
8 No time to worship the serpent deities: women, economic
change, and religion in north-western Nepal 85
Rebecca Saul
9 A double-edged sword: challenging women’s oppression
within Muslim society in Northern Nigeria 97
Fatima L. Adamu
10 Islam and development: opportunities and constraints for
Somali women 105
Sadia Ahmed
11 Abortion law reform in Latin America: lessons for advocacy 111
Gillian Kane
12 Conclusion: moving forward 127
Emma Tomalin
Annotated bibliography 137
Index 145