Cassandra Balchin
# Cassandra Balchin

Cassandra Marlin Balchin (24 May 1962 – 12 July 2012) was a British journalist and women's rights campaigner.

## Early life and education

Balchin was born in England on 24 May 1962. Her mother Yovanka (later Jane), née Tomich, was a Yugoslavian refugee and a journalist; her father was psychologist and writer Nigel Balchin (1908–1970). She spent some of her childhood with her mother's family in Yugoslavia, and also spent time in Glemsford, Suffolk.

Balchin graduated from the London School of Economics in 1983 with a B.Sc. in government, having studied Russian government and history.

## Career

After graduating, Balchin moved to Pakistan to work as a journalist, and lived there for 17 years. During this time she became involved in women's rights, wrote Women, law and society: an action manual for NGOs and edited A handbook on family law in Pakistan. She returned to the UK in 2000, and helped to establish the UK office of Women Living Under Muslim Laws. She was a co-founder and chair of the Muslim Women's Network UK and a co-founder of Musawah, "Sisters in Islam", in Malaysia. She was involved with Women Against Fundamentalism, and was a senior research consultant with the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) on their "Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalism" project from 2007 until her death.

## Death

Balchin died from cancer on 12 July 2012, aged 50. She was survived by her two adult sons and her mother.

## Selected publications

* Balchin, Cassandra, ed. (1994). A handbook on family law in Pakistan. Lahore: Shirkad Gah. OCLC 1041948634.
* Balchin, Cassandra, ed. (1996). Women, law and society : an action manual for NGOs. Lahore: Shirkad Gah. OCLC 717767272.
* Balchin, Cassandra, ed. (1999). Reaching out changing our lives : outreach strategies and Women Living Under Muslim Laws. Colombo: Muslim Women's Research & Action Forum. OCLC 988864209.
* Balchin, Cassandra (2007). "'Muslim Women' and 'Moderate Muslims': British policy and the strengtheningof religious absolutist control over gender development". In Moncrieffe, Joy; Eyben, Rosalind (eds.). The power of labelling : how people are categorized and why it matters. London: Earthscan. pp. 113–127. ISBN 9781844073955.
* Balchin, Cassandra (2008). Ten myths about religious fundamentalisms (PDF). Toronto: AWID. OCLC 833249050.
