Cassandra Marlin Balchin (24 May 1962 – 12 July 2012) was a British journalist and women's rights campaigner.^[1][2][3][4]

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,^[1] and also spent time in Glemsford, Suffolk.^[5]

Balchin graduated from the London School of Economics in 1983 with a B.Sc. in government, having studied Russian government and history.^[1]

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^[6] and a co-founder of Musawah, "Sisters in Islam", in Malaysia.^[3] She was involved with Women Against Fundamentalism,^[7] 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.^[4]

Balchin died from cancer on 12 July 2012, aged 50.^[8] She was survived by her two adult sons and her mother.^[5]

• 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.