Critical Chatter: Women and Human Rights in South East Asia (Book Review‪)‬

Critical Chatter: Women and Human Rights in South East Asia. Caroline Lambert, Sharon Picketing and Christine Alder. 2003. North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press. pp. 193. Includes bibliographical references and index. $23.00, paperback. This book is very much about understanding women's human rights in terms of women's words, women's shared meanings, and women's identities. I was fortunate to read this book at the 2004, World Social Forum in India, surrounded by many of the women who contributed to this publication. This was particularly fortunate in the case of Critical Chatter, which takes as its focus the chatter among South East Asian women activists. So as I read about the chatting, I was also part of the chatting--over tea and coffee, over dinner, while waiting for the toilet, while shopping. As Eleanor (2) says 'critical chatter' is ... "intimate sessions, candlelit, squatting on the floor, just being women".