Overview of Documented Stories

 
 
The nine country teams that completed the project documented a total of 55 life stories from resource persons ranging in age from 16 to 78 years and representing all walks of life. Note that in this report, all resource persons’ names have been changed to protect their identities. As mentioned above, we call these women ‘resource persons’ because, in sharing their stories and lives, they have contributed valuable resources to the movement. 

These women come from different regions in their countries, including both urban and rural settings. Their education levels range from no schooling or little schooling to university graduates. Most are economically active in diverse kinds of work: street vendor, farmer, domestic worker, migrant domestic worker, taxi driver, paralegal, teacher, administrator, community development worker, businesswoman, village head, politician, singer, etc. You will find here a table with demographic information on all the resource persons. 

Teams selected resource persons based on a number of factors, with emphasis on the process rather than statistical significance. Most of the teams sought people whose stories exhibited issues of concern and/or were key issues in advocacy campaigns in their countries, or whose stories highlighted the gaps between marriage as experienced and normative models of gender relations and rights in juristic and societal understandings of qiwamah and wilayah.
 
In addition, teams sought women who, because of personalities, temperament, and/or previous trusting relationships, were comfortable talking about and reflecting on their sensitive and sometimes traumatic life experiences and describing the transformation in their sense of self and their understanding of the world around them. Documentation teams and resource persons met multiple times over the course of a year to document and reflect on the life stories.
 
Given these requirements as well as limited time and resources and the presence of other organizational priorities, most country teams documented four to six stories over the two-year process. The Gambian team documented 12 life stories; the researcher working alone in Iran documented three life stories.