Wives, Mistresses and Matriarchs

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Throughout Asia, women occupy positions of extraordinary power and excruciating powerlessness. Despite having produced many female prime ministers, this is a region which still has not experienced the liberating consequences of a women's movement. Those who question the position of women in Islam are chased into exile; and in Burma the nation's hope of overthrowing the military dictatorship, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has only just been released from years of being under house arrest. Against a background of current economic and political situations in China, Singapore, India, Burma, Korea, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam and Pakistan, Louise Williams presents interviews with a wide range of women, from leaders such as Bhutto and Aquino to female Tamil soldiers and the mistresses of prominent Indian politicians.