Introduction

Transitional times appear to offer hope for real change. They invoke a sense of movement and space that might be effectively exploited to slot into place gender demands traditionally thwarted by a range of political, cultural and institutional obstacles. In recent times the plethora of societies and nations in transition from conflict to post-conflict, from authoritarian regimes to democratic ones, from colonial authority to sovereignty, from under-developed to developing/developed have presented numerous chances to intervene. Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq, Timor Leste and, more recently, the “Arab Spring,” are just a few of the places that have emerged on the international media-scape in this regard. In the contemporary globalized political environment dominated by neoliberal foreign policy agendas with accompanying “good intentions” (Žižek 2009), the spaces of political transition transpire as full of opportunities to activate neoliberalism’s devout sense of authority and agency. What is the place of women’s human rights in this grandiose international picture?

Under the pseudonym of Olympe de Gouges, Marie Gouze wrote prolifically (plays, works of prose and political pamphlets) on women’s rights and the abolition of slavery. Owing to their disobedient content and force, these writings earned her another pseudonym, that of “woman-man” – an “unnatural” being (Hunt 2007, 171). Here is a comment from a contemporary of hers, French politician Pierre Chaumette: