Building Intersectional Solidarity in Feminist Coalitions in South Asia: Interrogating Frames, Praxis and Outcomes

How do internal and contextual factors influence feminist movements’ attempt to build intersectional solidarity and to what effect? We examine the choices made by four different feminist coalitions in framing their agenda and praxis around decision making and resource sharing and how these choices lead to different outcomes with respect to intersectional solidarity. These outcomes range from solidarity being short-term and issue-based to long-term around multiple aspects containing transformative potential. We draw on insights from four case studies in South Asia – the Comprehensive Sexuality Education movement in Bangladesh, Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) in India, Nepal Mahila Ekata Samaj (NMES) in Nepal, and Aurat March (AM) in Pakistan. These case studies were part of a five-year-comparative study of 16 feminist or women’s rights coalitions or networks in South Asia on how movements succeed in countering backlash.

Using Ciccia and Roggeband’s (2021) typology on the kinds of intersectional feminist solidarity vis-à-vis transformative praxis and framing of issues, we analyse how intersectional difference is framed for wider alliance building and praxis around representation and resource sharing that the four movements invest in to identify why solidarity outcomes vary. Our analysis contributes new empirical knowledge to emerging approaches to researching political intersectionality and feminist solidarity and deepens our understandings of how building feminist solidarity is a contentious, iterative, and ongoing process.

We argue that building transformative intersectional solidarity requires challenging hierarchy within feminist agendas and contains a range of intermediate outcomes in the journey to transforming power relations. Moving away from the conventional normative readings of solidarity practices (transformative or co-opted forms), we provide empirical evidence from South Asian feminist movements on different ways of envisioning solidarity and their long-term implications in the face of mounting anti-feminist backlash.