Cyprus has been partitioned into a Turkish Cypriot North and a Greek Cypriot South for 30 years. In 1974 Turkish troops invaded the north in response to a coup led by supporters of a union with Greece. Since then the famous Green Line guarded by soldiers has divided the island.
This week the island's leaders are resuming talks in Switzerland - aiming to secure a peace deal that could see Cyprus reunited ahead of EU accession in May. But while the heads of Government conduct their fraught negotiations, women in the island have been breaching the divide at grass-roots level.
Feminist academic Cynthia Cockburn's latest book, The Line, charts the activism of a unique women's group - Hands Across the Divide - the first to embrace women from both north and south Cyprus. She joins Martha to discuss the issues, along with Sevgul Uludag, founding member of Hands Across the Divide and Maria Spyrou, chair of the Greek Cypriot Woman's Association in London.
The Line: Women, Partition and the Gender Order in Cyprus by Cynthia Cockburn is published Zed Books ISBN 1842774204 .
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