Women at the head of states and governments have become a regular phenomenon in South and Southeast Asia in the last decades, even though patriarchal structures have endured. This book discusses the relationship of the state and secularism, the significance of religion in society, the concept of the goddess, the perception and interpretation of martyrdom and sacrifice, and the question of moral capital as background for the emergence of women political leaders.

Dagmar Hellmann-Rajanayagam is researcher at the Ludwig- Maximilians-University Munich (Germany).

Andrea Fleschenberg is researcher at the University of Hildesheim (Germany).