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Resumo

This article examines the workings of "empowerment" programs sponsored by the World Bank and a host of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Cairo, Egypt. It argues that the value of "culture" has become a key terrain in the struggle over the meaning and practice of development in the neoliberal era. The article focuses on an NGO project that teaches women how to make and market applique wall hangings. It analyzes how the project produces a particular understanding of Egyptian "national culture" as well as a specific notion of female empowerment. The article suggests that the project's emphasis on cultural authenticity and income generation works to obscure the structural conditions that produce poverty and gender subordination in Egypt.

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