DUBAI // The UAE will appoint what are likely to be the world’s first state-sanctioned female muftis next year, after the Grand Mufti announced details yesterday of plans to recruit and train them.
Six Emirati women are being considered for the training programme, said Dr Ahmed al Haddad, who is also the head of the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department. Once accepted they will begin the course, which will last several months, early next year.
The move follows a fatwa issued by Dr al Haddad in February that sanctioned women’s role as muftis. In May, he called on qualified Emirati women to apply for the programme, which includes instruction in Sharia law and legal thinking.
“We continue to accept new applicants until we begin the training,” said Dr al Haddad. “It is already part of the 2010 budget.”
The status of female muftis has caused controversy within the religious establishment elsewhere in the Muslim world, with Egypt’s Al Azhar University, a powerful centre of Sunni scholarship, rejecting the possibility of women becoming grand muftis.
However, Dr al Haddad said that debate did not affect whether women should serve in other roles.
“The controversy over female muftis is not necessarily over this point, but about whether or not a woman should be appointed as the grand mufti of a state,” he said. “And that is not what we’re trying to do at this point.”
The move is part of a broader push to recruit and train Emiratis to the department, especially in the role of advising and issuing decrees on religious matters.
They will be instructed according to the Maliki school of jurisprudence, one of four in the Sunni tradition and the one followed in the UAE. Instructors are typically from academic and religious institutions, including practising muftis.
Although women currently serve as religious advisers at the Abu Dhabi fatwa centre, their role is limited to advising women on “women’s issues”. The Dubai move would mark the first time women have acted as muftis on a par with their male counterparts.
In February 2008, the Egyptian family court appointed Amal Soliman as the first female Islamic notary with the ability to perform marriages and divorces. Her duties were not equal to those of a mufti.
Dr al Haddad, who has five daughters, one of whom is a student of Sharia, said his fatwa earlier this year was based on Islamic tradition, which he said was “rich in examples of highly learned women acting as muftis and issuing decrees on all matters”.
“A woman who is learned and trained in issuing fatwas is not limited in her role to issuing fatwas that relate to women only, but rather she is qualified to issue on matters of worship, jurisprudence, morality and behaviour,” he said.
He referred to a Quranic verse to support his decree that Islamic tradition has always sanctioned women to act as muftis on all matters that concern society.
A fatwa, or religious decree, is in effect a legal opinion derived from the Quran, hadith or precedents in the Islamic tradition.
“Evidence points to the fact that women too can order acts of virtue and ban acts of vice just like a man can,” he said, referring to the basic tenement of a mufti’s role.
“And of course she can do that only with acquired scholarship and training, which is what female contemporaries of the Prophet have done as well as the women who came after them.” (The National, Nov. 03, 2009)
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Kuwait: Protesters slam 'infidel' charge
Kuwait Times
Published Date: May 10, 2009
By Hussain Al-Qatari, Staff Writer
KUWAIT: A number of Kuwaitis held a rally in front of the National Assembly yesterday to protest recent accusations by an Islamist candidate. Thawabet Al-Ummah, a religious movement led by fourth constituency candidate Mohammad Hayef Al-Mutairi, issued a statement on Wednesday in which it claimed that what was said by third constituency candidate Dr Aseel Al-Awadhi in a widely-watched YouTube video makes her an "infidel" and that she must "repent and beg for forgiveness.
The YouTube video that appeared on May 5 shows a still picture of Al-Awadhi and edited audio clips previously recorded without permission during one of her classes at Kuwait University where she teaches. In the audio clips, she makes a reference to a verse in the Holy Quran that talks about hijab (the Islamic head cover) and its historical context in accordance with Tafsir Al-Tabari, a commentary and exegesis book on the Holy Quran written by prominent historian and scholar Muhammad Al-Tabari. Many extremi
sts accused her of corruption and immorality, the latest of which was a column in a newspaper calling her "irreligious".
Expressing irritation towards such allegations, first constituency candidate and former minister of health Dr Massouma Mubarak said at the rally yesterday that Kuwaiti women were slandered for asking for their political rights in 2005, and were attacked for running for elections in 2006 and 2008, but it is time for such accusations to stop. "They said that a woman who votes without taking permission of her husband or father is a sinner. This is not acceptable. We have to tell them to stop. Stop implementin
g religion to your own desire. Stop messing up democracy. Stop marginalizing humans for your own gain," she said to the applause of the protestors.
Political activist Ali Khajah objected the random and biased accusations of Al-Awadhi being an infidel, stressing that Kuwait is a democratic country. He said that everyone is entitled to have their opinion, but no one has the right to use religion for their own needs and to make such decisions regarding whether someone is an infidel or a Muslim, or whether they are going to heaven or hell. He warned against such extremist behavior, saying that it can lead to murder. "Kuwait is Kuwait of freedom. Kuwait is
Kuwait of culture, of advancement. Yes, there are dark aspects, but they will go away and Kuwait will come back as it was. Kuwait, my country, may you be safe and glorious!" he said.
A representative of Kuwait's National Democratic Alliance, Anwar Juma, said that the accusations of extremist Islamists must be answered to with the same level of ruthlessness. "They have not one speck of respect for Kuwaitis and nationalism. They attacked harshly with their statements." He elaborated that such religious affiliations have no positive stances to be remembered with, giving examples of how when they were in control of Kuwait University's students union, they simply called the invasion of Ira
q to Kuwait a "disagreement between the two countries." Juma asked "Is this how they describe the barbarian actions by Iraqi soldiers against Kuwait's citizens and residents?
Former MP Meshari Al-Osaimi in his speech predicted the end of extremist Islamic powers in Kuwait in the field of politics. "They only issued this fatwa because their faction is dying. It is dying, and they have noticed that people are leaning more towards nationalism after extremist Islamism failed to take the country anywhere towards advancement." He said that this does not mean Kuwaitis have no respect for religion, drawing the line between Islam as a religion and Islamism as the political employment of
Islam for political interests. "This is not the first time that women participate in the elections. But now that they (extremists) sensed the threat of women on their position, they felt the need to do anything in order to curb voters from supporting female candidates," he said.
Published Date: May 10, 2009
By Hussain Al-Qatari, Staff Writer
KUWAIT: A number of Kuwaitis held a rally in front of the National Assembly yesterday to protest recent accusations by an Islamist candidate. Thawabet Al-Ummah, a religious movement led by fourth constituency candidate Mohammad Hayef Al-Mutairi, issued a statement on Wednesday in which it claimed that what was said by third constituency candidate Dr Aseel Al-Awadhi in a widely-watched YouTube video makes her an "infidel" and that she must "repent and beg for forgiveness.
The YouTube video that appeared on May 5 shows a still picture of Al-Awadhi and edited audio clips previously recorded without permission during one of her classes at Kuwait University where she teaches. In the audio clips, she makes a reference to a verse in the Holy Quran that talks about hijab (the Islamic head cover) and its historical context in accordance with Tafsir Al-Tabari, a commentary and exegesis book on the Holy Quran written by prominent historian and scholar Muhammad Al-Tabari. Many extremi
sts accused her of corruption and immorality, the latest of which was a column in a newspaper calling her "irreligious".
Expressing irritation towards such allegations, first constituency candidate and former minister of health Dr Massouma Mubarak said at the rally yesterday that Kuwaiti women were slandered for asking for their political rights in 2005, and were attacked for running for elections in 2006 and 2008, but it is time for such accusations to stop. "They said that a woman who votes without taking permission of her husband or father is a sinner. This is not acceptable. We have to tell them to stop. Stop implementin
g religion to your own desire. Stop messing up democracy. Stop marginalizing humans for your own gain," she said to the applause of the protestors.
Political activist Ali Khajah objected the random and biased accusations of Al-Awadhi being an infidel, stressing that Kuwait is a democratic country. He said that everyone is entitled to have their opinion, but no one has the right to use religion for their own needs and to make such decisions regarding whether someone is an infidel or a Muslim, or whether they are going to heaven or hell. He warned against such extremist behavior, saying that it can lead to murder. "Kuwait is Kuwait of freedom. Kuwait is
Kuwait of culture, of advancement. Yes, there are dark aspects, but they will go away and Kuwait will come back as it was. Kuwait, my country, may you be safe and glorious!" he said.
A representative of Kuwait's National Democratic Alliance, Anwar Juma, said that the accusations of extremist Islamists must be answered to with the same level of ruthlessness. "They have not one speck of respect for Kuwaitis and nationalism. They attacked harshly with their statements." He elaborated that such religious affiliations have no positive stances to be remembered with, giving examples of how when they were in control of Kuwait University's students union, they simply called the invasion of Ira
q to Kuwait a "disagreement between the two countries." Juma asked "Is this how they describe the barbarian actions by Iraqi soldiers against Kuwait's citizens and residents?
Former MP Meshari Al-Osaimi in his speech predicted the end of extremist Islamic powers in Kuwait in the field of politics. "They only issued this fatwa because their faction is dying. It is dying, and they have noticed that people are leaning more towards nationalism after extremist Islamism failed to take the country anywhere towards advancement." He said that this does not mean Kuwaitis have no respect for religion, drawing the line between Islam as a religion and Islamism as the political employment of
Islam for political interests. "This is not the first time that women participate in the elections. But now that they (extremists) sensed the threat of women on their position, they felt the need to do anything in order to curb voters from supporting female candidates," he said.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Mauritania: Religious Leaders call for Ending Corporal Punishment in Mauritania
UNICEF
By Christian Skoog and Brahim Ould Isselmou
ATAR, Mauritania, 6 May 2009 – In the first hour after his arrival at a mahadra (Koranic school) in Atar, Ahmed was beaten several times. Over the next four months, he suffered daily.
His ‘Cheikh’, or teacher, used many different tools to punish Ahmed and his friends. Some of the boys who are considered troublemakers were tied up to the trunks of trees and left outside for hours, suffering from the heat and hunger.
“I pray to Allah that I no longer have to wear my torn shirt to cover the scars on my back,” said Ahmed.
Turning to the Imams’ Network
In this country, as in many others, corporal punishment is widespread in mahadras and secular primary schools, and within families. It is considered a suitable and effective educational method.
UNICEF Mauritania analyzed this widespread phenomenon in order to find the best way to address it. Given the pre-eminent position of religious leaders in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, a partnership with the Imams’ and Religious Leaders’ Network for Child Rights was deemed an appropriate entry point.
This approach is also in line with the recommendations of the UN Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children, which urges close collaboration with community and religious leaders.
No basis in the Koran
For its part, the Imams’ Network carried out a study to assess whether corporal punishment is allowed in Islam. The evidence was overwhelming: The study found that violence has no place in the Koran.
UNICEF Representative in Mauritania Christian Skoog, local authorities and the President of the Imams’ and Religious Leaders’ Network for Child Rights, Hademine Ould Saleck, attend a workshop on ending corporal punishment.
The results of the study will now form the basis of a fatwa (religious edict) barring physical and verbal violence against children in the educational system, including in the home.
“The evidence that corporal punishment is forbidden by Islam is clear and abiding for all of us,” declared Imams’ Network President Hademine Ould Saleck. “Let us stop arguing. We don’t have a choice, and we must apply Sharia [Islamic law], which fully protects children”.
‘A powerful tool’
A regional workshop to validate the study was held 20-21 April in Atar. Among the participants were 30 Imams from the Adrar and Inchiri regions, as well as UNICEF Representative in Mauritania Christian Skoog.
“We have to use this fatwa prohibiting corporal punishment as a powerful tool to disseminate and put an end to violence in mahadras, schools and religious events,” said Mr. Skoog.
This child-rights initiative coincides with the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the scaling up of the country programme in Mauritania. In fact, the regional workshop kicked off a series of commemorative events.
By Christian Skoog and Brahim Ould Isselmou
ATAR, Mauritania, 6 May 2009 – In the first hour after his arrival at a mahadra (Koranic school) in Atar, Ahmed was beaten several times. Over the next four months, he suffered daily.
His ‘Cheikh’, or teacher, used many different tools to punish Ahmed and his friends. Some of the boys who are considered troublemakers were tied up to the trunks of trees and left outside for hours, suffering from the heat and hunger.
“I pray to Allah that I no longer have to wear my torn shirt to cover the scars on my back,” said Ahmed.
Turning to the Imams’ Network
In this country, as in many others, corporal punishment is widespread in mahadras and secular primary schools, and within families. It is considered a suitable and effective educational method.
UNICEF Mauritania analyzed this widespread phenomenon in order to find the best way to address it. Given the pre-eminent position of religious leaders in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, a partnership with the Imams’ and Religious Leaders’ Network for Child Rights was deemed an appropriate entry point.
This approach is also in line with the recommendations of the UN Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children, which urges close collaboration with community and religious leaders.
No basis in the Koran
For its part, the Imams’ Network carried out a study to assess whether corporal punishment is allowed in Islam. The evidence was overwhelming: The study found that violence has no place in the Koran.
UNICEF Representative in Mauritania Christian Skoog, local authorities and the President of the Imams’ and Religious Leaders’ Network for Child Rights, Hademine Ould Saleck, attend a workshop on ending corporal punishment.
The results of the study will now form the basis of a fatwa (religious edict) barring physical and verbal violence against children in the educational system, including in the home.
“The evidence that corporal punishment is forbidden by Islam is clear and abiding for all of us,” declared Imams’ Network President Hademine Ould Saleck. “Let us stop arguing. We don’t have a choice, and we must apply Sharia [Islamic law], which fully protects children”.
‘A powerful tool’
A regional workshop to validate the study was held 20-21 April in Atar. Among the participants were 30 Imams from the Adrar and Inchiri regions, as well as UNICEF Representative in Mauritania Christian Skoog.
“We have to use this fatwa prohibiting corporal punishment as a powerful tool to disseminate and put an end to violence in mahadras, schools and religious events,” said Mr. Skoog.
This child-rights initiative coincides with the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the scaling up of the country programme in Mauritania. In fact, the regional workshop kicked off a series of commemorative events.
Kuwait: Controversy over voting for women gets heated
The National
James Calderwood, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: May 07. 2009 10:59PM UAE / May 7. 2009 6:59PM GMT KUWAIT CITY // Waleed al Tabtabai, who served in Kuwait’s last parliament, stoked controversy this week when he agreed with a member of the Salafi Movement in saying it would be a sin to vote for women in the elections on May 16.
Mr al Tabtabai, who said he is an independent Salafi, was speaking on the sidelines of an election rally on Tuesday.
Fuhaid al Hailam of the Salafi Movement (SM) had started the row on Monday when he said it would be a sin to vote for one of the country’s 19 female candidates, Al Arabiya reported. Salafism is an austere branch of Islam that rejects innovation and believes in a strict, literal reading of the Quran.
“In Islam, the heads of the state should only be men, and we think the parliament is part of the head of the state,” Mr al Tabtabai said. “Other things are OK for women but not to be a part of the parliament.
“It’s an old fatwa,” he said referring to Mr al Hailam’s remarks. “Some of the public are not aware of it, but it was issued 20 or 30 years ago by the ministry of awqaf [Islamic Affairs].
Mr al Tabtabai is likely to regain his seat – polls suggest he will finish in the top 10 in his constituency, earning him a place in the 50-member parliament.
The women who are trying to reach parliament for the first time lambasted the statements.
Naeema al Hai, a Third Constituency candidate, said yesterday: “Those guys say it’s OK for them to take the vote of a woman, but not OK for women to vote for each other. That’s very wrong. That’s not the freedom and democracy that the Quran gave us.”
Ms al Hai said some men are frightened of the idea of sharing power with a woman in parliament.
Kuwait’s mainstream Salafi party, the Islamic Salafi Alliance (ISA), was the largest political group in the last parliament with four seats. Kuwait’s MPs are mostly independent or belong to small political groups. This year they are fielding five candidates. The SM has no presence in the forthcoming election.
The emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, dissolved the last assembly and called for new elections in May when some MPs tried to question the prime minister, Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al Ahmad Al Sabah, who is a royal.
Mr al Tabtabai was involved in the previous political crisis in November as it was his request to question the prime minister that led to the resignation of the cabinet.
Two of the ISA’s candidates, Khalid Sultan bin Essa and Abdullatif al Ameeri, did address an exclusively female audience at a rally on Tuesday. The women passed questions to the former MPs on cards, but did not ask about the fatwa.
Instead, they focused Mr bin Essa’s involvement with supermarkets that sold pork and alcohol overseas. Mr bin Essa said he did not establish the companies, he bought into them, and they have now withdrawn the products.
Mr al Ameeri distanced his party from Mr al Hailam of the SM but did not take sides on the fatwa. “The Salafi Movement is different from us,” Mr al Ameeri said.
“For example, the alliance considers bin Laden as a criminal. They consider him a hero.
“We don’t know what the origin of the fatwa is,” he said. “This is not right. We have to find the correct origin in the Quran and Sunnah.”
Mr bin Essa clarified his party’s position in an interview yesterday. He said voting for women was not a sin. “We separated ourselves from the fatwa. We issued a statement that undermines theirs.”
But some of the women at the rally agreed with the fatwa. Waheeda Abdulwahab, a sister of Mr al Ameeri, said she supportsedit because nobody in her religion would issue a fatwa that was untrue, as doing so would be a serious sin.
Another woman at the event, Sheikha al Fahad, who is involved in running the ISA’s campaign, said: “I don’t agree with the fatwa 100 per cent, maybe 30 per cent. I know what they mean when they say it’s a sin. It’s too soon for Kuwaiti women to enter the parliament – maybe in a few years.”
At another campaign rally this week, a former MP and candidate for the ISA, Ali al Omair, said his religion did not permit women to serve in the assembly but “if a lady is either elected or nominated by the government, we have to deal with her.
“We can’t isolate ourselves because there is a woman in the parliament”.
This will be the third attempt by women to reach the National Assembly since they received full political rights in 2005. The polls predict three women will win seats in the next parliament.
James Calderwood, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: May 07. 2009 10:59PM UAE / May 7. 2009 6:59PM GMT KUWAIT CITY // Waleed al Tabtabai, who served in Kuwait’s last parliament, stoked controversy this week when he agreed with a member of the Salafi Movement in saying it would be a sin to vote for women in the elections on May 16.
Mr al Tabtabai, who said he is an independent Salafi, was speaking on the sidelines of an election rally on Tuesday.
Fuhaid al Hailam of the Salafi Movement (SM) had started the row on Monday when he said it would be a sin to vote for one of the country’s 19 female candidates, Al Arabiya reported. Salafism is an austere branch of Islam that rejects innovation and believes in a strict, literal reading of the Quran.
“In Islam, the heads of the state should only be men, and we think the parliament is part of the head of the state,” Mr al Tabtabai said. “Other things are OK for women but not to be a part of the parliament.
“It’s an old fatwa,” he said referring to Mr al Hailam’s remarks. “Some of the public are not aware of it, but it was issued 20 or 30 years ago by the ministry of awqaf [Islamic Affairs].
Mr al Tabtabai is likely to regain his seat – polls suggest he will finish in the top 10 in his constituency, earning him a place in the 50-member parliament.
The women who are trying to reach parliament for the first time lambasted the statements.
Naeema al Hai, a Third Constituency candidate, said yesterday: “Those guys say it’s OK for them to take the vote of a woman, but not OK for women to vote for each other. That’s very wrong. That’s not the freedom and democracy that the Quran gave us.”
Ms al Hai said some men are frightened of the idea of sharing power with a woman in parliament.
Kuwait’s mainstream Salafi party, the Islamic Salafi Alliance (ISA), was the largest political group in the last parliament with four seats. Kuwait’s MPs are mostly independent or belong to small political groups. This year they are fielding five candidates. The SM has no presence in the forthcoming election.
The emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, dissolved the last assembly and called for new elections in May when some MPs tried to question the prime minister, Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al Ahmad Al Sabah, who is a royal.
Mr al Tabtabai was involved in the previous political crisis in November as it was his request to question the prime minister that led to the resignation of the cabinet.
Two of the ISA’s candidates, Khalid Sultan bin Essa and Abdullatif al Ameeri, did address an exclusively female audience at a rally on Tuesday. The women passed questions to the former MPs on cards, but did not ask about the fatwa.
Instead, they focused Mr bin Essa’s involvement with supermarkets that sold pork and alcohol overseas. Mr bin Essa said he did not establish the companies, he bought into them, and they have now withdrawn the products.
Mr al Ameeri distanced his party from Mr al Hailam of the SM but did not take sides on the fatwa. “The Salafi Movement is different from us,” Mr al Ameeri said.
“For example, the alliance considers bin Laden as a criminal. They consider him a hero.
“We don’t know what the origin of the fatwa is,” he said. “This is not right. We have to find the correct origin in the Quran and Sunnah.”
Mr bin Essa clarified his party’s position in an interview yesterday. He said voting for women was not a sin. “We separated ourselves from the fatwa. We issued a statement that undermines theirs.”
But some of the women at the rally agreed with the fatwa. Waheeda Abdulwahab, a sister of Mr al Ameeri, said she supportsedit because nobody in her religion would issue a fatwa that was untrue, as doing so would be a serious sin.
Another woman at the event, Sheikha al Fahad, who is involved in running the ISA’s campaign, said: “I don’t agree with the fatwa 100 per cent, maybe 30 per cent. I know what they mean when they say it’s a sin. It’s too soon for Kuwaiti women to enter the parliament – maybe in a few years.”
At another campaign rally this week, a former MP and candidate for the ISA, Ali al Omair, said his religion did not permit women to serve in the assembly but “if a lady is either elected or nominated by the government, we have to deal with her.
“We can’t isolate ourselves because there is a woman in the parliament”.
This will be the third attempt by women to reach the National Assembly since they received full political rights in 2005. The polls predict three women will win seats in the next parliament.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Jordan: Recast as a ‘movement’, gender equality campaign expands its outreach
The Jordan Times
By Thameen Kheetan
AMMAN - Women's rights activist Zein Qandour had no idea that an Arabic rock concert in the capital earlier this week would introduce her to a local gender equality campaign.
The 26-year-old social worker, who went to King Hussein Park on Saturday with some friends to watch her favourite band Jadal perform, discovered that the concert was part of a launch ceremony for the Gender Equality Movement (GEM).
During the 10-hour event, around 1,500 Jordanians and foreigners discussed human rights and equality between the two genders in an open day that also featured a skit on women's rights by two Jordanian actors.
Qandour believes that gender equality depends on various factors, including people's "social level, financial situation and education".
She noted that those who have more money are better educated, and thus are more aware of gender equality.
Qandour attributed this relationship between economic status and equality awareness to less interest in the issue in remote areas of the country compared to the capital - the richest city in Jordan - according to an official study conducted last year by the Department of Statistics.
While some at the open day lauded and encouraged the GEM initiative, others said they considered the rights and responsibilities of men and women to be different.
Iraqi national Diaa Jamil, 54, described the movement's idea as “interesting”, but added that equality would only become possible through "educating people".
"I am with any sort of equality that does not contradict our values, norms and religious teachings," said 40-year-old Saleh Zioud, explaining that males and females have "different natures”.
A 60-year-old woman, who requested anonymity, told The Jordan Times that there is no such thing as gender equality noting that each side had its own duties and rights in accordance with her religion, Islam.
"There is cooperation, giving and taking, but not equality," she said.
But Rawan Bazzari disagreed.
The 30-year-old believes society, not religion, is an obstacle to equality. Calling for "total" equality between men and women, Bazzari acknowledged that she does not foresee such a situation in Jordan in the near future.
"Not any time soon… we are in a tribal society where customs and traditions do not favour gender equality," she told The Jordan Times, but added that she is treated as an equal by her brothers at home and her male colleagues at work.
According to Bazzari, women take advantage of their unequal status to gain favours and shirk responsibilities. "Being a female, she usually gets things done for her."
Saturday’s event, funded by Freedom House, also hosted awareness booths representing 13 local and international NGOs and civil society organisations, including the Jordan Breast Cancer Programme and the Jordanian National Commission for Women.
From campaign
to movement
Held under the official sponsorship of the Greater Amman Municipality, the launch marked the transformation of the former Gender Equality Campaign into a “movement”, a decision organisers said was aimed at emphasising the continuity of their action.
Contrary to "movement", the word "campaign" suggests that it will come to an end, according to GEM leader Dina Liddawi, who said the new name would tell the public the initiative is "endless".
To this end, she and six other GEM volunteers will now focus their efforts on fundraising for the movement's future activities.
During its first year, the campaign commenced with street dialogues in different cities where young activists used brochures, stickers and word of mouth to raise awareness on the issue of gender equality.
This week's event was part of a new approach that GEM activists will use to open a societal debate on the issue of gender equality among Jordanians, incorporating larger events and performances to make their cause more visible.
Liddawi noted that the movement’s expanding presence is in large part thanks to the energy of its volunteers.
"The boys and the girls working with us have become more committed," she said, adding that this made it easier for the movement to address the public.
"People are accepting the idea of gender equality more and more," she noted.
Among the newcomers in GEM is university student Tamara Abu Khader, who said she heard about the campaign through a friend.
"When you explain the professional, societal and educational aspects of gender equality to people, they accept the idea," she told The Jordan Times.
"We do not have anything to do with either religion, or customs and traditions… we’re talking about political, legal and civil rights."
By Thameen Kheetan
AMMAN - Women's rights activist Zein Qandour had no idea that an Arabic rock concert in the capital earlier this week would introduce her to a local gender equality campaign.
The 26-year-old social worker, who went to King Hussein Park on Saturday with some friends to watch her favourite band Jadal perform, discovered that the concert was part of a launch ceremony for the Gender Equality Movement (GEM).
During the 10-hour event, around 1,500 Jordanians and foreigners discussed human rights and equality between the two genders in an open day that also featured a skit on women's rights by two Jordanian actors.
Qandour believes that gender equality depends on various factors, including people's "social level, financial situation and education".
She noted that those who have more money are better educated, and thus are more aware of gender equality.
Qandour attributed this relationship between economic status and equality awareness to less interest in the issue in remote areas of the country compared to the capital - the richest city in Jordan - according to an official study conducted last year by the Department of Statistics.
While some at the open day lauded and encouraged the GEM initiative, others said they considered the rights and responsibilities of men and women to be different.
Iraqi national Diaa Jamil, 54, described the movement's idea as “interesting”, but added that equality would only become possible through "educating people".
"I am with any sort of equality that does not contradict our values, norms and religious teachings," said 40-year-old Saleh Zioud, explaining that males and females have "different natures”.
A 60-year-old woman, who requested anonymity, told The Jordan Times that there is no such thing as gender equality noting that each side had its own duties and rights in accordance with her religion, Islam.
"There is cooperation, giving and taking, but not equality," she said.
But Rawan Bazzari disagreed.
The 30-year-old believes society, not religion, is an obstacle to equality. Calling for "total" equality between men and women, Bazzari acknowledged that she does not foresee such a situation in Jordan in the near future.
"Not any time soon… we are in a tribal society where customs and traditions do not favour gender equality," she told The Jordan Times, but added that she is treated as an equal by her brothers at home and her male colleagues at work.
According to Bazzari, women take advantage of their unequal status to gain favours and shirk responsibilities. "Being a female, she usually gets things done for her."
Saturday’s event, funded by Freedom House, also hosted awareness booths representing 13 local and international NGOs and civil society organisations, including the Jordan Breast Cancer Programme and the Jordanian National Commission for Women.
From campaign
to movement
Held under the official sponsorship of the Greater Amman Municipality, the launch marked the transformation of the former Gender Equality Campaign into a “movement”, a decision organisers said was aimed at emphasising the continuity of their action.
Contrary to "movement", the word "campaign" suggests that it will come to an end, according to GEM leader Dina Liddawi, who said the new name would tell the public the initiative is "endless".
To this end, she and six other GEM volunteers will now focus their efforts on fundraising for the movement's future activities.
During its first year, the campaign commenced with street dialogues in different cities where young activists used brochures, stickers and word of mouth to raise awareness on the issue of gender equality.
This week's event was part of a new approach that GEM activists will use to open a societal debate on the issue of gender equality among Jordanians, incorporating larger events and performances to make their cause more visible.
Liddawi noted that the movement’s expanding presence is in large part thanks to the energy of its volunteers.
"The boys and the girls working with us have become more committed," she said, adding that this made it easier for the movement to address the public.
"People are accepting the idea of gender equality more and more," she noted.
Among the newcomers in GEM is university student Tamara Abu Khader, who said she heard about the campaign through a friend.
"When you explain the professional, societal and educational aspects of gender equality to people, they accept the idea," she told The Jordan Times.
"We do not have anything to do with either religion, or customs and traditions… we’re talking about political, legal and civil rights."
Iran: Women Call For Gender Equality Ahead Of Iran's Presidential Vote
Liberty Radio
May 03, 2009
By Golnaz Esfandiari
Former lawmaker and journalist Azam Taleghani is one of two women to have announced plans to run in Iran's presidential election in June.
In the unlikely event Taleghani were to become president, she would encounter obstacles not often associated with a head of state.
To attend state functions abroad, for example, she would need her husband's permission to leave the country.
If she were to testify before a court, her testimony would be worth half that of a man, and she would still not have equal divorce or inheritance rights.
is because, despite her status as the holder of the country's highest office, Taleghani would still be a woman, making her subject to the same forms of legal discrimination faced by all women in the Islamic republic.
The disparity between the sexes has led Taleghani and a number of other women's rights advocates and prominent figures such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi to call on presidential candidates to put equality for women on their agendas.
They have created a new coalition that includes secular members, national religious activists, former lawmakers, journalists, student activists, and others.
Joining the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and changing Iran's Constitution in order to include gender equality "without any conditions" are their main demands.
'Relatively Open Atmosphere'
Women's rights activists see the "relatively open atmosphere" in the run-up to the June 12 election as a good opportunity to renew their demands for equal rights.
Marzieh Mortazi Langarudi, one of the members of the new coalition, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that activists hope to increase awareness of the forms of discrimination women face in Iran.
They have learned that they should set their demands in a way that can be measured."It makes the candidates committed and brings their attention to women's demands," Langarudi says. "At the same time, it increases the demands in the society and in a way it helps the [democratization process]."
Activists fighting against legal discrimination in Iran have come under growing state pressure in the past four years and a number of them have been summoned to court, harassed, and detained. Several have even been jailed.
A leading women's magazine was closed down last year for "offering a dark picture of the Islamic republic" and for "compromising the psyche and the mental health" of its readers.
Activists says there have also been attempts by the government to keep women at home and limit their role in society, despite the fact that women account for more than 60 percent of students attending university.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has said that women in Iran enjoy the highest level of freedom.
In a comment made in 2005 during his election campaign, Ahmadinejad said that women's adherence to strict rules on dress and appearance, including that their hair be hidden, should not be an issue. Yet following his election, the crackdown on dress intensified, resulting in many women being detained and harassed for not respecting the full Islamic hijab.
Ways That Can Be Measured
Bahareh Hedayat, a women's rights campaigner and member of Iran's largest pro-reform student group, tells RFE/RL that Ahmadinejad's presidency has demonstrated that women cannot rely on election promises alone.
"It actually served as a good experience among women's rights activists and also among others who are fighting for their rights," Hedayat says. "They have learned that they should set their demands in a way that can be measured."
Bahareh HedayatHedayat said women's rights activists are calling on presidential candidates to announce concrete plans for giving women equal rights. She said they have not endorsed any of the candidates.
Hedayat and other women's rights advocates want several articles of Iran's Constitution to be amended, with the principle of unconditional gender equality to be included in them. Among the changes sought is an addition to Article 21 stating that "the government must ensure the rights of women in all respects, in conformity with Islamic criteria."
Some critics believe that such changes under the current Islamic establishment are not realistic. The president has limited power and the real power is in the hands of bodies controlled by the conservatives.
But activists believe a serious commitment to women's rights by the country's future government could lead to positive changes.
Powerful Guardians Council
During a press conference last week in which the activists laid out their demands, presidential candidate Taleghani said that some officials see women as "slaves and second-class citizens."
Taleghani, the daughter of a prominent ayatollah, has previously attempted to run for president, but in the end was disqualified by the powerful Guardians Council that must approve each election candidate.
In 2005, all 89 women who registered to run for president were rejected, including a conservative member of parliament. The Guardians Councils effectively said that women cannot run for the presidency, citing a passage in Iran's Constitution that says the president should be elected from among "religious and political rejal."
Rejal is an Arabic word that means "personalities." While many say "rejal" includes women, the Guardians Council has said in the past that the word refers only to men.
However, this year a spokesman from that same oversight body said that there are no "legal restraints" preventing women from seeking presidential office.
Guardians Council spokesman Abbas Ali Khadkhodayi was quoted as saying on April 11 that the council "has never disqualified candidates only because they have been men or women," and that disqualifications resulted only from potential candidates failing to have the necessary qualifications.
Some welcomed the comment, while others remain skeptical.
"The question is, why in the past 30 years has no woman been deemed qualified by the Guardians Council to run as a candidate
in a presidential election?" asks women's rights advocate Nasrin Sotoudeh.
May 03, 2009
By Golnaz Esfandiari
Former lawmaker and journalist Azam Taleghani is one of two women to have announced plans to run in Iran's presidential election in June.
In the unlikely event Taleghani were to become president, she would encounter obstacles not often associated with a head of state.
To attend state functions abroad, for example, she would need her husband's permission to leave the country.
If she were to testify before a court, her testimony would be worth half that of a man, and she would still not have equal divorce or inheritance rights.
is because, despite her status as the holder of the country's highest office, Taleghani would still be a woman, making her subject to the same forms of legal discrimination faced by all women in the Islamic republic.
The disparity between the sexes has led Taleghani and a number of other women's rights advocates and prominent figures such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi to call on presidential candidates to put equality for women on their agendas.
They have created a new coalition that includes secular members, national religious activists, former lawmakers, journalists, student activists, and others.
Joining the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and changing Iran's Constitution in order to include gender equality "without any conditions" are their main demands.
'Relatively Open Atmosphere'
Women's rights activists see the "relatively open atmosphere" in the run-up to the June 12 election as a good opportunity to renew their demands for equal rights.
Marzieh Mortazi Langarudi, one of the members of the new coalition, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that activists hope to increase awareness of the forms of discrimination women face in Iran.
They have learned that they should set their demands in a way that can be measured."It makes the candidates committed and brings their attention to women's demands," Langarudi says. "At the same time, it increases the demands in the society and in a way it helps the [democratization process]."
Activists fighting against legal discrimination in Iran have come under growing state pressure in the past four years and a number of them have been summoned to court, harassed, and detained. Several have even been jailed.
A leading women's magazine was closed down last year for "offering a dark picture of the Islamic republic" and for "compromising the psyche and the mental health" of its readers.
Activists says there have also been attempts by the government to keep women at home and limit their role in society, despite the fact that women account for more than 60 percent of students attending university.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has said that women in Iran enjoy the highest level of freedom.
In a comment made in 2005 during his election campaign, Ahmadinejad said that women's adherence to strict rules on dress and appearance, including that their hair be hidden, should not be an issue. Yet following his election, the crackdown on dress intensified, resulting in many women being detained and harassed for not respecting the full Islamic hijab.
Ways That Can Be Measured
Bahareh Hedayat, a women's rights campaigner and member of Iran's largest pro-reform student group, tells RFE/RL that Ahmadinejad's presidency has demonstrated that women cannot rely on election promises alone.
"It actually served as a good experience among women's rights activists and also among others who are fighting for their rights," Hedayat says. "They have learned that they should set their demands in a way that can be measured."
Bahareh HedayatHedayat said women's rights activists are calling on presidential candidates to announce concrete plans for giving women equal rights. She said they have not endorsed any of the candidates.
Hedayat and other women's rights advocates want several articles of Iran's Constitution to be amended, with the principle of unconditional gender equality to be included in them. Among the changes sought is an addition to Article 21 stating that "the government must ensure the rights of women in all respects, in conformity with Islamic criteria."
Some critics believe that such changes under the current Islamic establishment are not realistic. The president has limited power and the real power is in the hands of bodies controlled by the conservatives.
But activists believe a serious commitment to women's rights by the country's future government could lead to positive changes.
Powerful Guardians Council
During a press conference last week in which the activists laid out their demands, presidential candidate Taleghani said that some officials see women as "slaves and second-class citizens."
Taleghani, the daughter of a prominent ayatollah, has previously attempted to run for president, but in the end was disqualified by the powerful Guardians Council that must approve each election candidate.
In 2005, all 89 women who registered to run for president were rejected, including a conservative member of parliament. The Guardians Councils effectively said that women cannot run for the presidency, citing a passage in Iran's Constitution that says the president should be elected from among "religious and political rejal."
Rejal is an Arabic word that means "personalities." While many say "rejal" includes women, the Guardians Council has said in the past that the word refers only to men.
However, this year a spokesman from that same oversight body said that there are no "legal restraints" preventing women from seeking presidential office.
Guardians Council spokesman Abbas Ali Khadkhodayi was quoted as saying on April 11 that the council "has never disqualified candidates only because they have been men or women," and that disqualifications resulted only from potential candidates failing to have the necessary qualifications.
Some welcomed the comment, while others remain skeptical.
"The question is, why in the past 30 years has no woman been deemed qualified by the Guardians Council to run as a candidate
in a presidential election?" asks women's rights advocate Nasrin Sotoudeh.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Turkey: Religious-secularist mix impacts women's rights in Turkey
Common Ground News
Sertaç Sehlikoğlu Karakaş
Montréal, Canada - Turkey has strong ties both with its Muslim history and with secularism, understood as not mixing religion with politics. After decades of struggling between these two identities, this strategic NATO ally and EU contender has developed a hybrid identity that encompasses both. As a result, Turkey has been increasingly perceived as a liberal and progressive face of Islam on the global stage and, in congruence with the true spirit of the religion, it is demonstrating its commitment to the empowerment of women.
In order to positively affect women's daily lives, it will take engaged leadership by religious scholars and feminists in addition to government-initiated reforms.
The Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA), the government institution overseeing religious matters since it was established in 1924, and the highest Islamic authority in Turkey, is at the centre of the debate on religion and women. The PRA – which currently employs approximately 83,000 clerics in local mosques – was originally limited to the administration of mosques, but now focuses more on developing new interpretations of Islam.
Recently, the PRA initiated a review of hadiths (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) which was well-received by Turkish society and reverberated beyond national borders.
According to the PRA's explanation, the project's aim is to raise awareness about the inaccuracy of apocryphal hadiths accumulated after the death of the Prophet Muhammad by re-emphasising the importance of morally credible and viable sources. For example, many cultural traditions that were considered unfair to women were wrongly attributed to the Prophet and were added to hadith collections even though their chains of transmission were flawed.
The project is expected to yield a collection of hadiths on women combined in a five-volume publication. Its aim is to support women's rights activists in their fight against "honour" killings, violence against women and misogyny in general.
In addition, since 2005, the PRA has also offered its female employees the opportunity to upgrade their educational and professional skills so that they become better qualified for higher-ranking positions.
According to Ali Bardakoğlu, president of the PRA, the institution has suffered from a lack of women's contributions for decades. The PRA's goal in recent years has been to promote women to the highest levels of the institution, which Bardakoğlu hopes to accomplish by gradually incorporating them into the PRA structure. Women will be promoted to positions of assistant cleric, cleric and mufti (an official scholar of Islamic law). Bardakoğlu does not deny that men have thus far been more influential within Islamic institutions, but states that the absence of women in such positions has been due to their lack of higher education – a reality that can be changed.
Despite the women-friendly attitude and speeches of Bardakoğlu, parts of the institution appear reluctant to change. Soon after the PRA's declaration in 2005, which announced its intent to hire 200 new female preachers and appoint women as muftis and vice-muftis, a member of the institution authored an article on how women should behave around men so as not to arouse men's sexual desire.
Thanks to a vigilant feminist response, the article was removed from the PRA's website and the institute issued an apology. Strong female criticism – both from those outside the institution and those within it – is essential to holding the PRA to its goal of empowering women. Feminists continue to push the PRA to implement and institutionalise initiatives that are more inclusive of women.
Over the last four years, the PRA has successfully implemented target quotas for women in higher level positions – seven women have already been appointed to the position of vice-mufti – and established bureaus in 21 cities across the country to address concerns of local women.
The drive towards greater empowerment of women in Turkey has affected not only women's representation in the PRA, but also society more broadly. The well-known religious leader Fethullah Gulen wrote an article in the Turkish newspaper, Zaman, in September 2008 on the topic of domestic violence. He stated that a woman should be brave enough to take legal action against her husband if she is beaten. Gulen referenced a newer interpretation of religious texts with a Sufi perspective to support his advice.
Gulen explained that in the case of domestic violence the husband should be perceived as zalim, meaning tyrannical, and judged guilty of exercising unjust power. Such interpretations can give women the legal backing to press criminal charges against their husbands, or to achieve monetary retribution for mistreatment. His comments provide invaluable scholarly justification for the many women who have long been advocating similar views.
Developing modern religious interpretations to address women's issues provides a rich and strong foundation for feminist discourses. The PRA has made significant progress in developing modern and accurate religious interpretations generally and specifically on the subject of women. Though Muslim women still have a long way to go to achieve the rights due to them in Islam, the PRA's reforms – including giving women access to clerical positions and the prevalence of new interpretations of religious sources – are slowly paving the road to empowerment.
Feminists are prompting many of these changes in religious interpretation. In turn, strengthening women's rights by referencing religion provides guidelines for women living in other Muslim countries, a project which is consistent with Turkey's mission to become a model of a modern Muslim country.
Sertaç Sehlikoğlu Karakaş
Montréal, Canada - Turkey has strong ties both with its Muslim history and with secularism, understood as not mixing religion with politics. After decades of struggling between these two identities, this strategic NATO ally and EU contender has developed a hybrid identity that encompasses both. As a result, Turkey has been increasingly perceived as a liberal and progressive face of Islam on the global stage and, in congruence with the true spirit of the religion, it is demonstrating its commitment to the empowerment of women.
In order to positively affect women's daily lives, it will take engaged leadership by religious scholars and feminists in addition to government-initiated reforms.
The Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA), the government institution overseeing religious matters since it was established in 1924, and the highest Islamic authority in Turkey, is at the centre of the debate on religion and women. The PRA – which currently employs approximately 83,000 clerics in local mosques – was originally limited to the administration of mosques, but now focuses more on developing new interpretations of Islam.
Recently, the PRA initiated a review of hadiths (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) which was well-received by Turkish society and reverberated beyond national borders.
According to the PRA's explanation, the project's aim is to raise awareness about the inaccuracy of apocryphal hadiths accumulated after the death of the Prophet Muhammad by re-emphasising the importance of morally credible and viable sources. For example, many cultural traditions that were considered unfair to women were wrongly attributed to the Prophet and were added to hadith collections even though their chains of transmission were flawed.
The project is expected to yield a collection of hadiths on women combined in a five-volume publication. Its aim is to support women's rights activists in their fight against "honour" killings, violence against women and misogyny in general.
In addition, since 2005, the PRA has also offered its female employees the opportunity to upgrade their educational and professional skills so that they become better qualified for higher-ranking positions.
According to Ali Bardakoğlu, president of the PRA, the institution has suffered from a lack of women's contributions for decades. The PRA's goal in recent years has been to promote women to the highest levels of the institution, which Bardakoğlu hopes to accomplish by gradually incorporating them into the PRA structure. Women will be promoted to positions of assistant cleric, cleric and mufti (an official scholar of Islamic law). Bardakoğlu does not deny that men have thus far been more influential within Islamic institutions, but states that the absence of women in such positions has been due to their lack of higher education – a reality that can be changed.
Despite the women-friendly attitude and speeches of Bardakoğlu, parts of the institution appear reluctant to change. Soon after the PRA's declaration in 2005, which announced its intent to hire 200 new female preachers and appoint women as muftis and vice-muftis, a member of the institution authored an article on how women should behave around men so as not to arouse men's sexual desire.
Thanks to a vigilant feminist response, the article was removed from the PRA's website and the institute issued an apology. Strong female criticism – both from those outside the institution and those within it – is essential to holding the PRA to its goal of empowering women. Feminists continue to push the PRA to implement and institutionalise initiatives that are more inclusive of women.
Over the last four years, the PRA has successfully implemented target quotas for women in higher level positions – seven women have already been appointed to the position of vice-mufti – and established bureaus in 21 cities across the country to address concerns of local women.
The drive towards greater empowerment of women in Turkey has affected not only women's representation in the PRA, but also society more broadly. The well-known religious leader Fethullah Gulen wrote an article in the Turkish newspaper, Zaman, in September 2008 on the topic of domestic violence. He stated that a woman should be brave enough to take legal action against her husband if she is beaten. Gulen referenced a newer interpretation of religious texts with a Sufi perspective to support his advice.
Gulen explained that in the case of domestic violence the husband should be perceived as zalim, meaning tyrannical, and judged guilty of exercising unjust power. Such interpretations can give women the legal backing to press criminal charges against their husbands, or to achieve monetary retribution for mistreatment. His comments provide invaluable scholarly justification for the many women who have long been advocating similar views.
Developing modern religious interpretations to address women's issues provides a rich and strong foundation for feminist discourses. The PRA has made significant progress in developing modern and accurate religious interpretations generally and specifically on the subject of women. Though Muslim women still have a long way to go to achieve the rights due to them in Islam, the PRA's reforms – including giving women access to clerical positions and the prevalence of new interpretations of religious sources – are slowly paving the road to empowerment.
Feminists are prompting many of these changes in religious interpretation. In turn, strengthening women's rights by referencing religion provides guidelines for women living in other Muslim countries, a project which is consistent with Turkey's mission to become a model of a modern Muslim country.
Algeria: Women's Movement Still Going Strong
Samia Allalou
Common Ground News
April 27, 2009
Those who think that Algerians have been passive victims of their country's political problems need look no further than the Algerian women's movement for a change of mind. Twenty-five years ago, a unique relationship developed between Algeria and the non-profit organization, Women Living Under Muslim Laws (W.L.U.M.L.), which is going strong even today.
W.L.U.M.L. provides assistance to women whose lives are governed by so-called "Islamic" laws or customs. The organization opposes the use of faith to further political causes and builds awareness of women's rights violations committed in the name of Islam.
In 1984, Algerian women watched in amazement as the government passed a law that institutionalized women's legal status as "minors." Women had demonstrated against the ratification of this law for more than two decades, believing it stood in stark opposition to Article 29 of the Algerian constitution, which declares, "Citizens are equal before the law, regardless of birth, race, sex, opinion or any other condition of personal or social circumstance."
Algerian feminists responded immediately. Demonstrations against the law intensified and three women were put in solitary confinement without proper investigation or trial. In reaction to this injustice, nine women from Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Iran, Mauritius, Tanzania, Bangladesh and Pakistan founded W.L.U.M.L. to support the struggles of these women in Algeria and elsewhere.
W.L.U.M.L. member Marieme Helie Lucas, an Algerian sociologist, recalled: "The three Algerian women were released within a month and a half of campaigning, with telegrams arriving on the president's desk from everywhere in the world."
The non-profit organization continued playing an important role in Algeria during the civil war in the 1990's between the outlawed political party, the Islamic Salvation Front (F.I.S.), and the Algerian government. Despite the difficult environment, women continued the struggle to reinstate their legal rights as equal citizens while simultaneously enduring indiscriminate violence as a result of the war.
W.L.U.M.L. provided these Algerian women with a platform to voice their frustrations by inviting them to participate in international conferences, including the United Nations' World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, where they could publicly denounce the crimes against women that the F.I.S. and other armed Algerian groups had committed. Work on behalf of Algerian women continued even when violence from the war gradually lessened and international focus was diverted elsewhere.
In January 1999, the Algerian government presented its official report on discrimination against women to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women. In response, the W.L.U.M.L. and New York University's International Women's Human Rights Law Clinic collaborated on an unofficial report outlining "the rise and ongoing threat of politicized, violent religious fundamentalism [in Algeria] and its project to impose its particular view of Islam through the theocratization of the state and/or through violence and terror."
In 2001, female workers in the small Algerian town of Hassi Messaoud were savagely assaulted by a crowd of 300 men following a sermon by an extremist imam at the local mosque. W.L.U.M.L. encouraged international networks to respond to the incident by sending letters to the Algerian government. Along with several Algerian human and women's rights associations, they pressed for the defendants to be tried in court. Several perpetrators were convicted and found guilty in 2004, and the assaulted women were formally acknowledged as victims.
More recently, Cherifa Kheddar, the chair of Djazairouna, an association of families that are victims of terrorism, was threatened in 2008 with unfair dismissal and continuous harassment by Algerian authorities after she revealed to the public the government's reconciliation policy (the Law on Civil Concord) with armed Islamic political groups, including the Islamic Salvation Army (A.I.S.), the Armed Islamic Group (G.I.A.) and the Islamic Front for Armed Defense (F.I.D.A.), and for speaking out about crimes committed but pardoned without trial.
In the end, the government suspended Kheddar from her position, although it never formally dismissed her from the job. After a nomination bid from W.L.U.M.L., Cherifa was awarded the International Prize for Human Rights by the International Service Human Rights Awards on Dec. 8, 2008.
Today, the international spotlight is no longer on Algeria, but W.L.U.M.L. remains watchful of discrimination against Algerian women. This unfailing support of W.L.U.M.L.'s international network provides women's movements in the country with the necessary strength to stand up to all kinds of pressure and to continue the difficult path towards full acceptance of women's rights in Algeria and beyond.
Common Ground News
April 27, 2009
Those who think that Algerians have been passive victims of their country's political problems need look no further than the Algerian women's movement for a change of mind. Twenty-five years ago, a unique relationship developed between Algeria and the non-profit organization, Women Living Under Muslim Laws (W.L.U.M.L.), which is going strong even today.
W.L.U.M.L. provides assistance to women whose lives are governed by so-called "Islamic" laws or customs. The organization opposes the use of faith to further political causes and builds awareness of women's rights violations committed in the name of Islam.
In 1984, Algerian women watched in amazement as the government passed a law that institutionalized women's legal status as "minors." Women had demonstrated against the ratification of this law for more than two decades, believing it stood in stark opposition to Article 29 of the Algerian constitution, which declares, "Citizens are equal before the law, regardless of birth, race, sex, opinion or any other condition of personal or social circumstance."
Algerian feminists responded immediately. Demonstrations against the law intensified and three women were put in solitary confinement without proper investigation or trial. In reaction to this injustice, nine women from Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Iran, Mauritius, Tanzania, Bangladesh and Pakistan founded W.L.U.M.L. to support the struggles of these women in Algeria and elsewhere.
W.L.U.M.L. member Marieme Helie Lucas, an Algerian sociologist, recalled: "The three Algerian women were released within a month and a half of campaigning, with telegrams arriving on the president's desk from everywhere in the world."
The non-profit organization continued playing an important role in Algeria during the civil war in the 1990's between the outlawed political party, the Islamic Salvation Front (F.I.S.), and the Algerian government. Despite the difficult environment, women continued the struggle to reinstate their legal rights as equal citizens while simultaneously enduring indiscriminate violence as a result of the war.
W.L.U.M.L. provided these Algerian women with a platform to voice their frustrations by inviting them to participate in international conferences, including the United Nations' World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, where they could publicly denounce the crimes against women that the F.I.S. and other armed Algerian groups had committed. Work on behalf of Algerian women continued even when violence from the war gradually lessened and international focus was diverted elsewhere.
In January 1999, the Algerian government presented its official report on discrimination against women to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women. In response, the W.L.U.M.L. and New York University's International Women's Human Rights Law Clinic collaborated on an unofficial report outlining "the rise and ongoing threat of politicized, violent religious fundamentalism [in Algeria] and its project to impose its particular view of Islam through the theocratization of the state and/or through violence and terror."
In 2001, female workers in the small Algerian town of Hassi Messaoud were savagely assaulted by a crowd of 300 men following a sermon by an extremist imam at the local mosque. W.L.U.M.L. encouraged international networks to respond to the incident by sending letters to the Algerian government. Along with several Algerian human and women's rights associations, they pressed for the defendants to be tried in court. Several perpetrators were convicted and found guilty in 2004, and the assaulted women were formally acknowledged as victims.
More recently, Cherifa Kheddar, the chair of Djazairouna, an association of families that are victims of terrorism, was threatened in 2008 with unfair dismissal and continuous harassment by Algerian authorities after she revealed to the public the government's reconciliation policy (the Law on Civil Concord) with armed Islamic political groups, including the Islamic Salvation Army (A.I.S.), the Armed Islamic Group (G.I.A.) and the Islamic Front for Armed Defense (F.I.D.A.), and for speaking out about crimes committed but pardoned without trial.
In the end, the government suspended Kheddar from her position, although it never formally dismissed her from the job. After a nomination bid from W.L.U.M.L., Cherifa was awarded the International Prize for Human Rights by the International Service Human Rights Awards on Dec. 8, 2008.
Today, the international spotlight is no longer on Algeria, but W.L.U.M.L. remains watchful of discrimination against Algerian women. This unfailing support of W.L.U.M.L.'s international network provides women's movements in the country with the necessary strength to stand up to all kinds of pressure and to continue the difficult path towards full acceptance of women's rights in Algeria and beyond.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Jordan: Islamist movement calls on gov’t to withdraw from CEDAW
Jordan Times
By Mohammad Ben Hussein
AMMAN - The Islamist movement on Sunday called on the government to withdraw from the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on grounds that the treaty will lead to a myriad of social problems in the country.
In a press conference held at the Islamic Action Front (IAF) headquarters in Abdali, Islamist leaders joined hands with women activists in the party to sound the alarm about the possible consequences of CEDAW on the Jordanian family and society in general.
"Families in Jordan face the threat of total collapse under CEDAW," warned the IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, in a statement distributed during the press conference.
Activists from the IAF's Al Afaf women’s society said they are concerned about a recent Cabinet decision to lift its reservations on paragraph four of Article 15, which gives women freedom of mobility and choice of residence without consent of their husbands or other male family members.
According to IAF activists, the clause contradicts the teachings of Islam, under which authority over women's mobility is in the hands of their husbands if they are married, and in the hands of brothers or fathers if they are single.
"Both husband and wife should approve the choice of accommodation, not the wife alone," said Maisoun Darawseh, an Al Afaf society member.
"States Parties shall accord to women, in civil matters, a legal capacity identical to that of men and the same opportunities to exercise that capacity. In particular, they shall give women equal rights to conclude contracts and to administer property and shall treat them equally in all stages of procedure in courts and tribunals," the article states.
The convention also allows women freedom of mobility: "States Parties shall accord to men and women the same rights with regard to the law relating to the movement of persons and the freedom to choose their residence and domicile."
IAF Secretary General Zaki Bani Rsheid criticised the government for ratifying the agreement without first resorting to a national dialogue.
"The government should have conducted a genuine national dialogue with all segments of society regarding this agreement. They should have dealt with this matter based on its social and future dimensions, not its international and financial dimensions," he said.
He urged the government to launch a notational dialogue on CEDAW, raise public awareness of its contents and amend legislation to grant women their religious rights.
In July 1992, the Kingdom signed the convention, which was ratified and published in the Official Gazette in August 2007 with three reservations related to the citizenship, housing and women's mobility clauses in the Personal Status Law.
By Mohammad Ben Hussein
AMMAN - The Islamist movement on Sunday called on the government to withdraw from the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on grounds that the treaty will lead to a myriad of social problems in the country.
In a press conference held at the Islamic Action Front (IAF) headquarters in Abdali, Islamist leaders joined hands with women activists in the party to sound the alarm about the possible consequences of CEDAW on the Jordanian family and society in general.
"Families in Jordan face the threat of total collapse under CEDAW," warned the IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, in a statement distributed during the press conference.
Activists from the IAF's Al Afaf women’s society said they are concerned about a recent Cabinet decision to lift its reservations on paragraph four of Article 15, which gives women freedom of mobility and choice of residence without consent of their husbands or other male family members.
According to IAF activists, the clause contradicts the teachings of Islam, under which authority over women's mobility is in the hands of their husbands if they are married, and in the hands of brothers or fathers if they are single.
"Both husband and wife should approve the choice of accommodation, not the wife alone," said Maisoun Darawseh, an Al Afaf society member.
"States Parties shall accord to women, in civil matters, a legal capacity identical to that of men and the same opportunities to exercise that capacity. In particular, they shall give women equal rights to conclude contracts and to administer property and shall treat them equally in all stages of procedure in courts and tribunals," the article states.
The convention also allows women freedom of mobility: "States Parties shall accord to men and women the same rights with regard to the law relating to the movement of persons and the freedom to choose their residence and domicile."
IAF Secretary General Zaki Bani Rsheid criticised the government for ratifying the agreement without first resorting to a national dialogue.
"The government should have conducted a genuine national dialogue with all segments of society regarding this agreement. They should have dealt with this matter based on its social and future dimensions, not its international and financial dimensions," he said.
He urged the government to launch a notational dialogue on CEDAW, raise public awareness of its contents and amend legislation to grant women their religious rights.
In July 1992, the Kingdom signed the convention, which was ratified and published in the Official Gazette in August 2007 with three reservations related to the citizenship, housing and women's mobility clauses in the Personal Status Law.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Middle East: Muslim countries want own rights commision
CAIRO (AlArabiya.net)
A bloc of Islamic states accused of undermining human rights standards set by the United Nations have taken matters into their own hands and set out to establish their own independent human rights commission Sunday.
The Organization of Islamic Conference, a 57-nation bloc of Muslim nations and the largest organization after the U.N., met yesterday at its headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to establish an independent OIC human rights commission.
Eklemeddin İhsanoğlu, the OIC Secretary-General, stressed in a statement Monday that "human rights and man’s dignity are an integral part of Islam and core components of Islamic culture and heritage.”
Refining Cairo hr declaration
Member states also discussed "refining" the OIC’s 1990 Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI), which gave an overview of the Islamic perspective on human rights and stated that all human rights are subject to sharia, or Islamic law.
The OIC has over the past decades sponsored the "defamation of religion" resolution at the U.N. General Assembly, the latest of which was a resolution condemning the Danish cartoons of the Prophet.
It will seek assistance from other international bodies such as the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and the Geneva Institute for Human Rights in setting up the new commission. İhsanoğlu said in his speech that such a commission would drive OIC member states to reform intellectually and politically.
"An OIC human rights commission would promote tolerance, and fundamental freedoms, good governance, the rule of law, accountability, openness, dialogue with other religions and civilizations, the rejection of extremism and fanaticism, and the strengthening of the sense of pride in the Islamic identity," he said.
Sharia vs. human rights
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Muslim countries including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt and Tunisia among many others of human rights violations against women and religious minorities despite many states being signatories to international human rights conventions.
Western human rights groups argue that some of the ways Islamic law is applied can lead to discrimination against women, religious minorities and converts to other faiths.
However, Islamic scholars and leaders have continued to refute western claims that sharia is incompatible with international norms of human rights and freedoms, arguing instead that the interpretation and application of Islamic law is what can lead to negative human rights outcomes.
Just as U.S. courts ruled that detainees in the “war on terror” could be held indefinitely without trial or permitted torture in contravention of internationa human rights norms, some sharia-based courts twist Islamic law to sanction cruel punishments.
Compatible with the west
In their defense of Islamic law experts refer to its protection of women’s property rights and the rights of the socially marginalized like orphans or the elderly. Steven A. Cook, an expert on Islamic law and the west, said that interpretations of what Islamic law means are so variable that in some western societies it can be incorporated into non-Islamic political systems easily.
Ihsanoglu in his speech also suggested the compatibility of the Islamic notion of human rights and international norms, saying that refurbishing the Cairo human rights declaration will be "in keeping with the current global human rights discourse," though he did not specify how this would be done.
Several OIC member states follow sharia law, which has been compared to the Western tradition of common law, for personal status and criminal issues. None of the 14 OIC states that are considered "electoral democracies" are Arab.
A bloc of Islamic states accused of undermining human rights standards set by the United Nations have taken matters into their own hands and set out to establish their own independent human rights commission Sunday.
The Organization of Islamic Conference, a 57-nation bloc of Muslim nations and the largest organization after the U.N., met yesterday at its headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to establish an independent OIC human rights commission.
Eklemeddin İhsanoğlu, the OIC Secretary-General, stressed in a statement Monday that "human rights and man’s dignity are an integral part of Islam and core components of Islamic culture and heritage.”
Refining Cairo hr declaration
Member states also discussed "refining" the OIC’s 1990 Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI), which gave an overview of the Islamic perspective on human rights and stated that all human rights are subject to sharia, or Islamic law.
The OIC has over the past decades sponsored the "defamation of religion" resolution at the U.N. General Assembly, the latest of which was a resolution condemning the Danish cartoons of the Prophet.
It will seek assistance from other international bodies such as the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and the Geneva Institute for Human Rights in setting up the new commission. İhsanoğlu said in his speech that such a commission would drive OIC member states to reform intellectually and politically.
"An OIC human rights commission would promote tolerance, and fundamental freedoms, good governance, the rule of law, accountability, openness, dialogue with other religions and civilizations, the rejection of extremism and fanaticism, and the strengthening of the sense of pride in the Islamic identity," he said.
Sharia vs. human rights
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Muslim countries including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt and Tunisia among many others of human rights violations against women and religious minorities despite many states being signatories to international human rights conventions.
Western human rights groups argue that some of the ways Islamic law is applied can lead to discrimination against women, religious minorities and converts to other faiths.
However, Islamic scholars and leaders have continued to refute western claims that sharia is incompatible with international norms of human rights and freedoms, arguing instead that the interpretation and application of Islamic law is what can lead to negative human rights outcomes.
Just as U.S. courts ruled that detainees in the “war on terror” could be held indefinitely without trial or permitted torture in contravention of internationa human rights norms, some sharia-based courts twist Islamic law to sanction cruel punishments.
Compatible with the west
In their defense of Islamic law experts refer to its protection of women’s property rights and the rights of the socially marginalized like orphans or the elderly. Steven A. Cook, an expert on Islamic law and the west, said that interpretations of what Islamic law means are so variable that in some western societies it can be incorporated into non-Islamic political systems easily.
Ihsanoglu in his speech also suggested the compatibility of the Islamic notion of human rights and international norms, saying that refurbishing the Cairo human rights declaration will be "in keeping with the current global human rights discourse," though he did not specify how this would be done.
Several OIC member states follow sharia law, which has been compared to the Western tradition of common law, for personal status and criminal issues. None of the 14 OIC states that are considered "electoral democracies" are Arab.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Egypt: Egypt Wrestles With 'Female Genital Mutilation'
[Cairo, Egypt] In June 2007, 12-year-old Badour Shakour died as a result of a circumcision operation. The death sparked a battle within the country over the use of the controversial medical procedure.
Women’s and children’s rights groups were galvanized into action, pushing for more stringent penalties against those who carry out what is increasingly becoming known as female genital mutilation (FGM).
Shakour’s cause of death was an overdose of anesthetic, but her memory was the cause of an awakening that reached to the upper echelons of government.
In summer 2008, Egypt’s parliament passed a law that ostensibly bans the controversial procedure, not that it should have needed to legislate against FGM – it was already officially banned in the country during the mid-Nineties. But with doctors continuing to perform the procedure on girls as young as five, parliament felt it was necessary to intercede.
The new law stipulates a fine of 1,000–5,000 Egyptian pounds ($185–$900) and a prison term of anywhere between three months and two years if caught performing FGM.
A doctor could also lose his medical license. In the case of Shakour, the doctor who performed the procedure remains in prison after being convicted of manslaughter.
But despite the rising number of deaths and injuries that have resulted from FGM, including a young girl who was left struggling for her life in November after the procedure, many Egyptians are fighting against the ban.
A 2005 report by UNICEF contended that 97 percent of single Egyptian women between 15 and 49 have undergone some form of FGM, although other estimates put the number at 70 percent.
Member of Parliament Mohamed Al Omda, from a small opposition party, brought his three daughters to the floor of the People’s Assembly to protest the ban last year. One of his daughters carried a sign that read: “No to any attempt to forbid what is divinely allowed. No to any attempt to allow what is divinely forbidden.” Two of his three daughters are circumcised.
Many conservative Muslims in the country maintain that the practice is condoned in Islam. The country’s Muslim Brotherhood has come under fire over many of their members’ denunciations of the parliamentary bill. The powerful Islamic group and many Islamic scholars argue that the ban is akin to “imposing Western ideals” on Egyptian society, which they maintain is based in Shari’a (Islamic law).
"Religion does not prohibit or criminalize female circumcision," prominent Islamic scholar Mustafa Al Shaka said to the local press shortly after the bill was passed.
The Brotherhood told The Media Line that they were currently reviewing FGM in terms of its legitimacy within Islam and did not want to comment. Despite this assertion, last summer, their MPs – who won one-fifth of the People’s Assembly as independents – were the most ardent opponents of the bill.
Progressive Islamic scholar Gamal Al Banna – brother of late Brotherhood founder Hassan Al Banna – says there is simply no precedent in Islam for this kind of practice. He argues that it was imported into society as a means of forcing women into the background of everyday life.
“It didn’t exist in Islamic history and those who argue it is Islamic or part of the Shari’a are wrong,” the 87-year-old argued. “Religion does not subscribe to this kind of treatment that can cause death and other horrible results. It is un-Islamic.”
Al Azhar, the Sunni Islamic world’s leading religious authority, agrees with Al Banna. In 2007, the Council of Islamic Research issued a statement saying that FGM and cutting are “harmful, have no basis in core Islamic law and should not be practiced.”
But Egyptian society remains divided into opposing camps over the issue, says National Council for Motherhood and Childhood secretary-general Moushira Khattab. She believes that although the ban will remain permanent, it will take time to educate the population over the long-term effects of cutting a woman’s clitoris.
“Nobody is going to say no to something that has negative effects caused by the procedure and, in time, Egyptians will see this,” she begins. “So the punishments that are being handed out against those who conduct this practice are vitally necessary.”
UNICEF estimates that three million girls in Africa undergo FGM annually, including in Egypt. The practice is a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989.
The practice remains common in Egypt, especially among the rural communities outside the capital Cairo and Alexandria. According to a 2005 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey, the majority of FGM procedures have been performed by trained medical personnel.
Human rights groups and doctors in the country argue that the involvement of medical workers in the procedure is a major reason the procedure continues.
“We have to work slowly and cannot expect everything to change with one law. Egyptians are stubborn and if they believe this is part of their religion, then it is very difficult to convince them otherwise, even if they are trained doctors,” said a female doctor at the country’s Doctor’s Syndicate, who asked not to be named, as the controversy continues inside its doors.
With children in danger, the doctor argues that Egyptians must move forward in order to limit these sorts of practices.
“We are struggling as a country, and until everyone is being educated, it is so difficult to achieve progress on anything, let alone FGM.”
Like so many controversial issues facing Egypt today, the seemingly endless battle between secularism and Islam continues to put opposing sides on the defensive. Al Banna believes that issues such as FGM will not be resolved within society until there is space for open debate on all things, including religion.
“We need to be able to debate religion freely, or else we will not be able to have people making their own decisions; instead they will follow their local sheikh as if he were the only source for reason,” he concludes.
SOURCE: The Media Line
AUTHOR: Joseph Mayton
DATE: 20/04/2009
Women’s and children’s rights groups were galvanized into action, pushing for more stringent penalties against those who carry out what is increasingly becoming known as female genital mutilation (FGM).
Shakour’s cause of death was an overdose of anesthetic, but her memory was the cause of an awakening that reached to the upper echelons of government.
In summer 2008, Egypt’s parliament passed a law that ostensibly bans the controversial procedure, not that it should have needed to legislate against FGM – it was already officially banned in the country during the mid-Nineties. But with doctors continuing to perform the procedure on girls as young as five, parliament felt it was necessary to intercede.
The new law stipulates a fine of 1,000–5,000 Egyptian pounds ($185–$900) and a prison term of anywhere between three months and two years if caught performing FGM.
A doctor could also lose his medical license. In the case of Shakour, the doctor who performed the procedure remains in prison after being convicted of manslaughter.
But despite the rising number of deaths and injuries that have resulted from FGM, including a young girl who was left struggling for her life in November after the procedure, many Egyptians are fighting against the ban.
A 2005 report by UNICEF contended that 97 percent of single Egyptian women between 15 and 49 have undergone some form of FGM, although other estimates put the number at 70 percent.
Member of Parliament Mohamed Al Omda, from a small opposition party, brought his three daughters to the floor of the People’s Assembly to protest the ban last year. One of his daughters carried a sign that read: “No to any attempt to forbid what is divinely allowed. No to any attempt to allow what is divinely forbidden.” Two of his three daughters are circumcised.
Many conservative Muslims in the country maintain that the practice is condoned in Islam. The country’s Muslim Brotherhood has come under fire over many of their members’ denunciations of the parliamentary bill. The powerful Islamic group and many Islamic scholars argue that the ban is akin to “imposing Western ideals” on Egyptian society, which they maintain is based in Shari’a (Islamic law).
"Religion does not prohibit or criminalize female circumcision," prominent Islamic scholar Mustafa Al Shaka said to the local press shortly after the bill was passed.
The Brotherhood told The Media Line that they were currently reviewing FGM in terms of its legitimacy within Islam and did not want to comment. Despite this assertion, last summer, their MPs – who won one-fifth of the People’s Assembly as independents – were the most ardent opponents of the bill.
Progressive Islamic scholar Gamal Al Banna – brother of late Brotherhood founder Hassan Al Banna – says there is simply no precedent in Islam for this kind of practice. He argues that it was imported into society as a means of forcing women into the background of everyday life.
“It didn’t exist in Islamic history and those who argue it is Islamic or part of the Shari’a are wrong,” the 87-year-old argued. “Religion does not subscribe to this kind of treatment that can cause death and other horrible results. It is un-Islamic.”
Al Azhar, the Sunni Islamic world’s leading religious authority, agrees with Al Banna. In 2007, the Council of Islamic Research issued a statement saying that FGM and cutting are “harmful, have no basis in core Islamic law and should not be practiced.”
But Egyptian society remains divided into opposing camps over the issue, says National Council for Motherhood and Childhood secretary-general Moushira Khattab. She believes that although the ban will remain permanent, it will take time to educate the population over the long-term effects of cutting a woman’s clitoris.
“Nobody is going to say no to something that has negative effects caused by the procedure and, in time, Egyptians will see this,” she begins. “So the punishments that are being handed out against those who conduct this practice are vitally necessary.”
UNICEF estimates that three million girls in Africa undergo FGM annually, including in Egypt. The practice is a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989.
The practice remains common in Egypt, especially among the rural communities outside the capital Cairo and Alexandria. According to a 2005 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey, the majority of FGM procedures have been performed by trained medical personnel.
Human rights groups and doctors in the country argue that the involvement of medical workers in the procedure is a major reason the procedure continues.
“We have to work slowly and cannot expect everything to change with one law. Egyptians are stubborn and if they believe this is part of their religion, then it is very difficult to convince them otherwise, even if they are trained doctors,” said a female doctor at the country’s Doctor’s Syndicate, who asked not to be named, as the controversy continues inside its doors.
With children in danger, the doctor argues that Egyptians must move forward in order to limit these sorts of practices.
“We are struggling as a country, and until everyone is being educated, it is so difficult to achieve progress on anything, let alone FGM.”
Like so many controversial issues facing Egypt today, the seemingly endless battle between secularism and Islam continues to put opposing sides on the defensive. Al Banna believes that issues such as FGM will not be resolved within society until there is space for open debate on all things, including religion.
“We need to be able to debate religion freely, or else we will not be able to have people making their own decisions; instead they will follow their local sheikh as if he were the only source for reason,” he concludes.
SOURCE: The Media Line
AUTHOR: Joseph Mayton
DATE: 20/04/2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
West Bank: Two Palestinian women become judges in Islamic court
RAMALLAH (West Bank): The Islamic courts were among the last male-only bastions in Palestinian society, where women have been presidential candidates, police officers and even suicide bombers.
Now two stern-looking women in Muslim head scarves and long black robes have smashed through the thick glass ceiling.
Khuloud Faqih, 34, and Asmahan Wuheidi, 31, made history in February when they became the first female Islamic judges in the Palestinian territories.
Across the Arab world, only Sudan has had women judges in Islamic courts, West Bank-based academic experts on Islamic affairs said.
Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, all relatively progressive states in the region on women's rights, do not.
"I compare us to other Arab Muslim women, and I think we've done well," said Faqih, wearing a sash in the colours of the Palestinian flag across her robe. "I think I've opened a door for myself and other women."
She spoke between meetings with petitioners in her modest courtroom -- an office with a few couches, a desk and a coffee table with plastic flowers.
Muslim courts in the Palestinian Authority rule over family affairs like marriage, divorce, inheritance and custody, relying on Islamic jurisprudence rather than secular rules.
-- Associated Press
Now two stern-looking women in Muslim head scarves and long black robes have smashed through the thick glass ceiling.
Khuloud Faqih, 34, and Asmahan Wuheidi, 31, made history in February when they became the first female Islamic judges in the Palestinian territories.
Across the Arab world, only Sudan has had women judges in Islamic courts, West Bank-based academic experts on Islamic affairs said.
Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, all relatively progressive states in the region on women's rights, do not.
"I compare us to other Arab Muslim women, and I think we've done well," said Faqih, wearing a sash in the colours of the Palestinian flag across her robe. "I think I've opened a door for myself and other women."
She spoke between meetings with petitioners in her modest courtroom -- an office with a few couches, a desk and a coffee table with plastic flowers.
Muslim courts in the Palestinian Authority rule over family affairs like marriage, divorce, inheritance and custody, relying on Islamic jurisprudence rather than secular rules.
-- Associated Press
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Jordan Women’s participation in Islamist parties on the rise - study
By Taylor Luck, Jordan Times
AMMAN - The Kingdom is witnessing a rise in women’s participation in Islamist parties and organisations, according to a study recently released by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES).
Titled, “Women and Politics”, the study reveals that Islamist parties are increasingly relying on women to expand their membership base, and in turn are attempting to address certain issues of concern to women such as education and the right to work.
The party that boasts the highest number of women members among Islamist parties is the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, the study said.
Women represent some 10 per cent of the party’s general assembly and in recent IAF shura council elections they won nine seats in the 120-member body, the highest ever, the study noted.
IAF women have initiated a project with other Islamist women activists to clearly define “Islamic feminism” and “educate and raise the awareness of women of their legitimate rights under sharia,” according to the study.
The proposed Islamist feminism would define women’s liberation within Islam, rejecting Western versions of feminism for “undermining family values”.
The Muslim Brotherhood is not the only Islamist group targeting and gaining the support of women, the study noted.
The Islamist Centrist Party, whose 750 members include 12 women, has five females in its 50-member shura council, but no woman has yet been elected to the party’s political bureau, the study said.
The party’s platform for women is based on eradicating illiteracy among Jordanian women, particularly in rural areas, securing women’s rights as outlined in sharia and ensuring their legitimate right to work.
The 850-strong Duaa Party, meanwhile, boasts 350 female members, according to the study, while its “board of trustees”, or governing council, hosts seven women.
The party has yet to field a female member for Parliament, which Duaa Secretary General Mohammad Abu Bakr is quoted as attributing to a lack of confidence in women being elected under the current one-person, one-vote electoral system.
Also highlighted in the study is growing female membership in professional associations, which tend to be predominately Islamist. The number of women in the associations has risen to 21,000, over 20 per cent of the 100,000 members.
But all Islamist groups, including the IAF, are still struggling to form positions on controversial issues such as khuloe, the right for women to file for divorce, and so-called honour crimes, spurring internal debate on women’s future in Islamist movements, the study said.
Despite disagreements within Islamist groups on how best to incorporate women into activities, Jordanian women are increasingly moving towards political Islam to assert their rights, according to researcher and study author Hassan Abu Hani.
“What we are witnessing in Jordan is recent activism in women, particularly through Islamist movements,” he told The Jordan Times.
“In addition to social work in not-for-profit charities, women are becoming politically active on the ground, particularly through the Muslim Brotherhood, and have become a strong part of the movement’s base,” he said, noting the trend is new to Jordan, despite women’s long-standing participation in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Abu Hani predicted a continued increase in women’s participation in Islamist movements.
“Through political Islam, women are finding ways to enter the political arena they didn’t have before, and as long as there is a discourse in the movement allowing their participation, this trend will continue,” he said.
“Women in Politics”, available both in Arabic and English, is the second in a line of studies on political Islam published by FES, with the third instalment expected later this spring.
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung is a political foundation linked to the German Social Democratic Party which seeks to promote dialogue between decision makers in the region and abroad.
FES activities in the Middle East take place under the umbrella of a cooperation agreement between the organisation and the Arab League, carried out through offices across the region.
AMMAN - The Kingdom is witnessing a rise in women’s participation in Islamist parties and organisations, according to a study recently released by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES).
Titled, “Women and Politics”, the study reveals that Islamist parties are increasingly relying on women to expand their membership base, and in turn are attempting to address certain issues of concern to women such as education and the right to work.
The party that boasts the highest number of women members among Islamist parties is the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, the study said.
Women represent some 10 per cent of the party’s general assembly and in recent IAF shura council elections they won nine seats in the 120-member body, the highest ever, the study noted.
IAF women have initiated a project with other Islamist women activists to clearly define “Islamic feminism” and “educate and raise the awareness of women of their legitimate rights under sharia,” according to the study.
The proposed Islamist feminism would define women’s liberation within Islam, rejecting Western versions of feminism for “undermining family values”.
The Muslim Brotherhood is not the only Islamist group targeting and gaining the support of women, the study noted.
The Islamist Centrist Party, whose 750 members include 12 women, has five females in its 50-member shura council, but no woman has yet been elected to the party’s political bureau, the study said.
The party’s platform for women is based on eradicating illiteracy among Jordanian women, particularly in rural areas, securing women’s rights as outlined in sharia and ensuring their legitimate right to work.
The 850-strong Duaa Party, meanwhile, boasts 350 female members, according to the study, while its “board of trustees”, or governing council, hosts seven women.
The party has yet to field a female member for Parliament, which Duaa Secretary General Mohammad Abu Bakr is quoted as attributing to a lack of confidence in women being elected under the current one-person, one-vote electoral system.
Also highlighted in the study is growing female membership in professional associations, which tend to be predominately Islamist. The number of women in the associations has risen to 21,000, over 20 per cent of the 100,000 members.
But all Islamist groups, including the IAF, are still struggling to form positions on controversial issues such as khuloe, the right for women to file for divorce, and so-called honour crimes, spurring internal debate on women’s future in Islamist movements, the study said.
Despite disagreements within Islamist groups on how best to incorporate women into activities, Jordanian women are increasingly moving towards political Islam to assert their rights, according to researcher and study author Hassan Abu Hani.
“What we are witnessing in Jordan is recent activism in women, particularly through Islamist movements,” he told The Jordan Times.
“In addition to social work in not-for-profit charities, women are becoming politically active on the ground, particularly through the Muslim Brotherhood, and have become a strong part of the movement’s base,” he said, noting the trend is new to Jordan, despite women’s long-standing participation in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Abu Hani predicted a continued increase in women’s participation in Islamist movements.
“Through political Islam, women are finding ways to enter the political arena they didn’t have before, and as long as there is a discourse in the movement allowing their participation, this trend will continue,” he said.
“Women in Politics”, available both in Arabic and English, is the second in a line of studies on political Islam published by FES, with the third instalment expected later this spring.
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung is a political foundation linked to the German Social Democratic Party which seeks to promote dialogue between decision makers in the region and abroad.
FES activities in the Middle East take place under the umbrella of a cooperation agreement between the organisation and the Arab League, carried out through offices across the region.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Egypt: Women break new ground at the mosque
CAIRO, Egypt -- Amira Khairy is mobbed by housewives kissing her cheeks in greeting as she arrives to give a lesson on reciting the Quran to women at the Al-Sedeeq mosque in a Cairo suburb. Students set up chairs for the class, and soon the hum of chanting female voices fills one of the building's larger chambers.
Up to a 1,000 women may show up for the Quran lessons or twice-weekly religious lectures by women. On any given day, several hundred women buzz around the mosque, organizing clothing drives, cooking meals for the poor or teaching women to read. Al-Sedeeq also has medical clinics and a day care center for children of women who do volunteer work at the mosque.
All the activities are organized by women _ not the mosque's male administrators. On one recent day, the only men seen in the building were workers doing renovations and worshippers who popped in to perform one of the five daily prayers required by Islam.
It's a startling sight in Egypt, where mosques have long been a man's realm. The few Egyptian women who appeared at mosques in the past had come to pray _ usually in small, partitioned-off corners _ or to make appeals at the shrines of holy figures, hoping for marriage, pregnancy or good grades for their children.
While men often socialize in mosques, women have traditionally been encouraged to practice their religion at home, where they can care for their children and husband.
"When I was young, we wouldn't even go to pray in the mosque," said Khairy, the teacher. "It was a place for us to tour on holidays, like visitors."
Now, with religiosity increasing in Egypt overall, more women want to engage in public prayer, increase their knowledge of Islam and do volunteer work in the community. Many Egyptian women already have had to balance their traditional place in the home with public roles at universities and jobs, so they tend to ask, "Why not a place in the mosque as well?"
These women aren't Western-style feminists seeking to change the faith's teachings on women. But their presence is challenging assumptions on women's place and turning some mosques into women-friendly social hubs.
While no statistics exist on the increasing number of Egyptian women praying outside the home, several religious scholars in Cairo say there's a clear trend of more women attending mosques and playing a greater religious role.
Khairy is typical of many of the new breed of religious women. She is in her 50s, studied engineering at university but rather than pursue a career, she married and stayed home to care for her children. About 10 years ago, she wanted to deepen her faith, so she and a group of women started meeting in each other's homes to memorize the Quran.
More women joined the study circle, and several years ago they began meeting at the newly built Al-Sedeeq mosque, near Cairo's international airport. They found a woman with an Islamic studies degree who volunteered to give lectures on how to pray and perform other rituals and on why women should wear the hijab, or head scarf.
As hundreds of women from across Cairo joined in, the charity projects multiplied. The women are now so organized that the volunteers wear a uniform _ white scarf and blue dress.
The Al-Sedeeq mosque's administrators expanded its women's section to accommodate the volunteers. But not all are so welcoming.
Egypt is one of the most progressive Middle East nations on the issue of women attending mosques. In the Persian Gulf, many mosques have no space dedicated to women, and more women can be seen at prayers or Friday sermons in Egypt than in many other Arab countries.
Still, Egyptian women are often told, even by some female Islamic thinkers, that they should stay at home.
"The best place for a woman to pray remains her house," said one of them, Souad Saleh, who teaches at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, the pre-eminent Sunni Muslim institution for Islamic studies.
"It is better spiritually and generally more appropriate, since she will always be distracted by her children. There is really no need for women to go to the mosque," Saleh said.
Mosque administrators are universally male and many still are reluctant to allocate greater space to women, saying more men attend prayers. At most mosques, women must enter through side doors, and women's sections are not always air-conditioned or carpeted. Women often face complaints about the noise and distraction their children bring to the mosque.
But Abdel-Moeti Bayoumi, a theology professor at Al-Azhar University, says men must realize times are changing.
"I always tell men that the days of locking up women away from society and useful work or study is backward and dangerous," he said. "It is not permitted in Islam to prevent a woman from praying in the mosque."
Najah Naji, a 22-year-old woman who tries to visit different mosques around Cairo to pray and study, says she is often told the women's prayer section is closed or otherwise unavailable.
"Men feel like the leadership will be taken from underneath them," said Naji, who has memorized the Quran. "Even an educated man is raised with a mother who stayed at home and served his father, so he'd be worried I wouldn't be able to do the same for him. It's going to take a lot of time for that attitude to change."
The Al-Sedeeq mosque is one of the most dramatic examples of women taking a bigger role. More often, small groups of women make forays into modest neighborhood mosques.
At a tiny mosque tucked between apartment buildings near the Giza Pyramids on the outskirts of Greater Cairo, Hana Mohammed sits with a group of 12 older women. They cram into a small room every week to share stories, exchange news of grandchildren, vent about their lives at home and recite the Quran.
"The mosque is a softer place now that women have entered it," said Mohammed. "If a woman in need comes for help she'd never knock on the door if only men were inside."
Mohammed said she has taught women to read and to pray, as well as counseled young women about marriage.
"Women realized there was more to life than just cooking and taking care of a husband," said Mohammed. "Women wanted to understand how her faith really was a way of life _ why did she have to wear hijab, why were men allowed to marry four women."
Members of Mohammed's circle said a woman with several university degrees and a career shouldn't be told she can't enter a mosque. They said it's the education of women _ either in secular or religious studies _ that has emboldened them to demand change.
"Women started to force themselves on the mosque because they realized their faith allowed them to do so," said Mohammed. "It was a religious awakening. We understood we could do it, so we did."
By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI
The Associated Press
Up to a 1,000 women may show up for the Quran lessons or twice-weekly religious lectures by women. On any given day, several hundred women buzz around the mosque, organizing clothing drives, cooking meals for the poor or teaching women to read. Al-Sedeeq also has medical clinics and a day care center for children of women who do volunteer work at the mosque.
All the activities are organized by women _ not the mosque's male administrators. On one recent day, the only men seen in the building were workers doing renovations and worshippers who popped in to perform one of the five daily prayers required by Islam.
It's a startling sight in Egypt, where mosques have long been a man's realm. The few Egyptian women who appeared at mosques in the past had come to pray _ usually in small, partitioned-off corners _ or to make appeals at the shrines of holy figures, hoping for marriage, pregnancy or good grades for their children.
While men often socialize in mosques, women have traditionally been encouraged to practice their religion at home, where they can care for their children and husband.
"When I was young, we wouldn't even go to pray in the mosque," said Khairy, the teacher. "It was a place for us to tour on holidays, like visitors."
Now, with religiosity increasing in Egypt overall, more women want to engage in public prayer, increase their knowledge of Islam and do volunteer work in the community. Many Egyptian women already have had to balance their traditional place in the home with public roles at universities and jobs, so they tend to ask, "Why not a place in the mosque as well?"
These women aren't Western-style feminists seeking to change the faith's teachings on women. But their presence is challenging assumptions on women's place and turning some mosques into women-friendly social hubs.
While no statistics exist on the increasing number of Egyptian women praying outside the home, several religious scholars in Cairo say there's a clear trend of more women attending mosques and playing a greater religious role.
Khairy is typical of many of the new breed of religious women. She is in her 50s, studied engineering at university but rather than pursue a career, she married and stayed home to care for her children. About 10 years ago, she wanted to deepen her faith, so she and a group of women started meeting in each other's homes to memorize the Quran.
More women joined the study circle, and several years ago they began meeting at the newly built Al-Sedeeq mosque, near Cairo's international airport. They found a woman with an Islamic studies degree who volunteered to give lectures on how to pray and perform other rituals and on why women should wear the hijab, or head scarf.
As hundreds of women from across Cairo joined in, the charity projects multiplied. The women are now so organized that the volunteers wear a uniform _ white scarf and blue dress.
The Al-Sedeeq mosque's administrators expanded its women's section to accommodate the volunteers. But not all are so welcoming.
Egypt is one of the most progressive Middle East nations on the issue of women attending mosques. In the Persian Gulf, many mosques have no space dedicated to women, and more women can be seen at prayers or Friday sermons in Egypt than in many other Arab countries.
Still, Egyptian women are often told, even by some female Islamic thinkers, that they should stay at home.
"The best place for a woman to pray remains her house," said one of them, Souad Saleh, who teaches at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, the pre-eminent Sunni Muslim institution for Islamic studies.
"It is better spiritually and generally more appropriate, since she will always be distracted by her children. There is really no need for women to go to the mosque," Saleh said.
Mosque administrators are universally male and many still are reluctant to allocate greater space to women, saying more men attend prayers. At most mosques, women must enter through side doors, and women's sections are not always air-conditioned or carpeted. Women often face complaints about the noise and distraction their children bring to the mosque.
But Abdel-Moeti Bayoumi, a theology professor at Al-Azhar University, says men must realize times are changing.
"I always tell men that the days of locking up women away from society and useful work or study is backward and dangerous," he said. "It is not permitted in Islam to prevent a woman from praying in the mosque."
Najah Naji, a 22-year-old woman who tries to visit different mosques around Cairo to pray and study, says she is often told the women's prayer section is closed or otherwise unavailable.
"Men feel like the leadership will be taken from underneath them," said Naji, who has memorized the Quran. "Even an educated man is raised with a mother who stayed at home and served his father, so he'd be worried I wouldn't be able to do the same for him. It's going to take a lot of time for that attitude to change."
The Al-Sedeeq mosque is one of the most dramatic examples of women taking a bigger role. More often, small groups of women make forays into modest neighborhood mosques.
At a tiny mosque tucked between apartment buildings near the Giza Pyramids on the outskirts of Greater Cairo, Hana Mohammed sits with a group of 12 older women. They cram into a small room every week to share stories, exchange news of grandchildren, vent about their lives at home and recite the Quran.
"The mosque is a softer place now that women have entered it," said Mohammed. "If a woman in need comes for help she'd never knock on the door if only men were inside."
Mohammed said she has taught women to read and to pray, as well as counseled young women about marriage.
"Women realized there was more to life than just cooking and taking care of a husband," said Mohammed. "Women wanted to understand how her faith really was a way of life _ why did she have to wear hijab, why were men allowed to marry four women."
Members of Mohammed's circle said a woman with several university degrees and a career shouldn't be told she can't enter a mosque. They said it's the education of women _ either in secular or religious studies _ that has emboldened them to demand change.
"Women started to force themselves on the mosque because they realized their faith allowed them to do so," said Mohammed. "It was a religious awakening. We understood we could do it, so we did."
By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Egypt: Muslim woman defies male dominance
Amal Soliman, a 32-year-old Egyptian woman, has endured intimidation and ridicule in the year since she applied for a job as the Muslim world's first mazouna, or female marriage registrar, but she says her victory has been worth the fight.
Amal Soliman was ridiculed for wanting to be a marriage registrar
In late September, Soliman, who holds a Masters degree in Islamic Sharia law, broke into what has until now been an exclusively males-only club.
However, the Committee of Egyptian Mazouns, an all-male organisation, challenged Soliman's application saying the job would be inappropriate for a woman and voiced their opinion in a statement issued by the committee.
A marriage officer presides over a wedding (or divorce) ceremony, recites verses from the Quran and signs the official certificates making the union legally binding.
Al Jazeera recently spoke with Soliman shortly after she conducted her first wedding ceremony on October 25.
Al Jazeera: Why did you decide to apply for a position that has traditionally – and for centuries – been a male vocation?
Soliman: In 2007 one of the two marriage officers of my neighbourhood passed away, leaving behind a job opportunity.
For three months everyone wondered who would be able to replace Al Hajj Abou Mesalam and right before the deadline (October 2007) for applying I rushed over to the civil court in Zagazig, the heart of rural Egypt, to give in my application.
I had been interested in pursuing a doctorate degree in Islamic studies but also maintaining a flexible job that would allow me to spend time with my three children.
Legally, there is no reason why a woman can't do the job, and the Mufti (Islamic scholar and interpreter of Islamic law) said it was religiously acceptable as it is only an administrative position.
In October 2007, my husband and I formally submitted an application to the local family court clerk for the post of marriage officer.
Was your application accepted?
Well, I took my husband with me because I was afraid I would be made fun of, which I was.
When I applied the man at the desk laughed openly at me and said that is was just not possible.
He imagined I would go home and forget about it, but instead I argued and told him that I had studied Sharia Law and I know it is an administrative job.
Though the clerk refused to accept my submission, I turned to Ibrahim Darwish, head of the local magistrate in Zagazig for his opinion.
Darwish was puzzled; he said there was no precedent for this situation so he did not know what to say. I took that as a sign that there was a small window of opportunity.
I then consulted Khaled el-Shalkamy, the head judge of Zagazig's family court.
I told him it was my right to be nominee as I was extremely qualified.
I told him just to accept me and let the other people involved in the selection process do the rest.
Were there no other applicants for the job?
Actually, I was in competition with 10 other candidates, all men, but none of them held post-graduate degrees in Sharia law like I did.
So el-Shalkamy accepted my application.
On February 25, I couldn't hold back my tears as I stood in front of the local court and was appointed as my district's new mazouna.
But the battle was half-won. I would not be able to begin work as a mazouna until Mamdouh Marei, the Egyptian minister of justice, formally signed off and authorised my appointment.
But many males did not accept the idea that a woman could hold what has been a man's job and you were targeted in the media.
The chairman of the Committee of Egyptian Mazouns, Muhammad Abou Ayeeta, said "the Ministry [of Justice] should refuse the appointment, because it is unacceptable that women would work in this occupation."
How did you deal with the backlash?
Well, at first my optimism slowly started to fade as I saw so much opposition. Some
columnists wrote that I was out to destroy tradition, that I was a threat to the religion and should be punished for pursuing the post.
But there were two main reasons for the opposition I faced. Firstly, it is simply rooted in male chauvinism. These people believe the woman's place is firmly in her house.
The other group was comprised of uneducated people who have developed an image of women's role in Islam from television; usually based on the words of a sheikh with a turban on his head.
Arguments made against me claimed that a woman couldn't perform marriages because of menstruation, as religion prevents women from praying or entering a mosque during her monthly cycle.
Others claimed that it was inappropriate for a woman to sit amongst men during the signing of the marriage certificates, which is traditionally predominately a male gathering where the marriage officer sits directly between the groom and his father-in-law.
Did no religious authority or group support you?
Well, four months after contacting the Ministry of Justice and receiving no word, I contacted the National Council for Women for a louder voice and stronger backing.
Both my opponents and proponents were beginning to wonder if I would ever receive the approval of the ministry of justice.
From the first moment that my papers where accepted as a nominee, the national press caught wind of this unusual event.
A journalist in Al Akhbar, one of Egypt's leading newspapers, heard about the situation, and helped launch my cause as a national debate.
Eventually the news went global. I think the media was a catalyst and made my appointment go through faster than it would have.
It made me happy to have so much international coverage … Sometimes when I'm sitting alone I wonder if I'm dreaming. What is going on? Did we really pull this off?
I'm happy not just for me; I had always wanted to show the world Egypt's developments with regards to women rights and gender equality.
But you did not get ministry approval until September 27; why did it take the ministry so long?
Of course I was happy and relieved, but more importantly I regained my confidence when the minister finally signed my appointment. I had slowly started to doubt myself up to that point.
However, I now believe that the minister had to be cautious, as this case was the first of its kind.
But laws are not religion. We can develop them.
On November 14, the United Arab Emirates followed in Egypt's footsteps and appointed Fatima Saeed Obeid Al Awani as a mazouna in the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department.
By Farah El Alfy in Cairo, Egypt, Al Jazeera English
Amal Soliman was ridiculed for wanting to be a marriage registrar
In late September, Soliman, who holds a Masters degree in Islamic Sharia law, broke into what has until now been an exclusively males-only club.
However, the Committee of Egyptian Mazouns, an all-male organisation, challenged Soliman's application saying the job would be inappropriate for a woman and voiced their opinion in a statement issued by the committee.
A marriage officer presides over a wedding (or divorce) ceremony, recites verses from the Quran and signs the official certificates making the union legally binding.
Al Jazeera recently spoke with Soliman shortly after she conducted her first wedding ceremony on October 25.
Al Jazeera: Why did you decide to apply for a position that has traditionally – and for centuries – been a male vocation?
Soliman: In 2007 one of the two marriage officers of my neighbourhood passed away, leaving behind a job opportunity.
For three months everyone wondered who would be able to replace Al Hajj Abou Mesalam and right before the deadline (October 2007) for applying I rushed over to the civil court in Zagazig, the heart of rural Egypt, to give in my application.
I had been interested in pursuing a doctorate degree in Islamic studies but also maintaining a flexible job that would allow me to spend time with my three children.
Legally, there is no reason why a woman can't do the job, and the Mufti (Islamic scholar and interpreter of Islamic law) said it was religiously acceptable as it is only an administrative position.
In October 2007, my husband and I formally submitted an application to the local family court clerk for the post of marriage officer.
Was your application accepted?
Well, I took my husband with me because I was afraid I would be made fun of, which I was.
When I applied the man at the desk laughed openly at me and said that is was just not possible.
He imagined I would go home and forget about it, but instead I argued and told him that I had studied Sharia Law and I know it is an administrative job.
Though the clerk refused to accept my submission, I turned to Ibrahim Darwish, head of the local magistrate in Zagazig for his opinion.
Darwish was puzzled; he said there was no precedent for this situation so he did not know what to say. I took that as a sign that there was a small window of opportunity.
I then consulted Khaled el-Shalkamy, the head judge of Zagazig's family court.
I told him it was my right to be nominee as I was extremely qualified.
I told him just to accept me and let the other people involved in the selection process do the rest.
Were there no other applicants for the job?
Actually, I was in competition with 10 other candidates, all men, but none of them held post-graduate degrees in Sharia law like I did.
So el-Shalkamy accepted my application.
On February 25, I couldn't hold back my tears as I stood in front of the local court and was appointed as my district's new mazouna.
But the battle was half-won. I would not be able to begin work as a mazouna until Mamdouh Marei, the Egyptian minister of justice, formally signed off and authorised my appointment.
But many males did not accept the idea that a woman could hold what has been a man's job and you were targeted in the media.
The chairman of the Committee of Egyptian Mazouns, Muhammad Abou Ayeeta, said "the Ministry [of Justice] should refuse the appointment, because it is unacceptable that women would work in this occupation."
How did you deal with the backlash?
Well, at first my optimism slowly started to fade as I saw so much opposition. Some
columnists wrote that I was out to destroy tradition, that I was a threat to the religion and should be punished for pursuing the post.
But there were two main reasons for the opposition I faced. Firstly, it is simply rooted in male chauvinism. These people believe the woman's place is firmly in her house.
The other group was comprised of uneducated people who have developed an image of women's role in Islam from television; usually based on the words of a sheikh with a turban on his head.
Arguments made against me claimed that a woman couldn't perform marriages because of menstruation, as religion prevents women from praying or entering a mosque during her monthly cycle.
Others claimed that it was inappropriate for a woman to sit amongst men during the signing of the marriage certificates, which is traditionally predominately a male gathering where the marriage officer sits directly between the groom and his father-in-law.
Did no religious authority or group support you?
Well, four months after contacting the Ministry of Justice and receiving no word, I contacted the National Council for Women for a louder voice and stronger backing.
Both my opponents and proponents were beginning to wonder if I would ever receive the approval of the ministry of justice.
From the first moment that my papers where accepted as a nominee, the national press caught wind of this unusual event.
A journalist in Al Akhbar, one of Egypt's leading newspapers, heard about the situation, and helped launch my cause as a national debate.
Eventually the news went global. I think the media was a catalyst and made my appointment go through faster than it would have.
It made me happy to have so much international coverage … Sometimes when I'm sitting alone I wonder if I'm dreaming. What is going on? Did we really pull this off?
I'm happy not just for me; I had always wanted to show the world Egypt's developments with regards to women rights and gender equality.
But you did not get ministry approval until September 27; why did it take the ministry so long?
Of course I was happy and relieved, but more importantly I regained my confidence when the minister finally signed my appointment. I had slowly started to doubt myself up to that point.
However, I now believe that the minister had to be cautious, as this case was the first of its kind.
But laws are not religion. We can develop them.
On November 14, the United Arab Emirates followed in Egypt's footsteps and appointed Fatima Saeed Obeid Al Awani as a mazouna in the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department.
By Farah El Alfy in Cairo, Egypt, Al Jazeera English
Friday, November 14, 2008
UAE: Conservative UAE gets its first female marriage official
A Muslim woman on Thursday became the first ever female allowed to conduct marriages in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates and throughout the conservative Gulf, the official WAM news agency reported.
It said Fatima Saeed Obeid al-Awani, 33, a married mother of two boys, was named to the post in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi by the justice ministry.
Awani's appointment as "maazoun" -- a job traditionally held by men -- is aimed at "bolstering the role of women in society... in line with Emirati laws and without violating sharia" Muslim law, the agency said.
Awani holds a degree in theology from the faculty of law of the University of the Emirates.
She now becomes the first woman to be allowed to write up marriage contracts throughout the conservative Gulf, but she is not the first woman "maazoun" in an Arab state -- Egypt has already broken ground in that area.
In March Abu Dhabi got its first woman judge and in February the number of women in the cabinet was doubled to four. Last year Abu Dhabi got its first female Emirati taxi driver.
Agence France-Presse
It said Fatima Saeed Obeid al-Awani, 33, a married mother of two boys, was named to the post in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi by the justice ministry.
Awani's appointment as "maazoun" -- a job traditionally held by men -- is aimed at "bolstering the role of women in society... in line with Emirati laws and without violating sharia" Muslim law, the agency said.
Awani holds a degree in theology from the faculty of law of the University of the Emirates.
She now becomes the first woman to be allowed to write up marriage contracts throughout the conservative Gulf, but she is not the first woman "maazoun" in an Arab state -- Egypt has already broken ground in that area.
In March Abu Dhabi got its first woman judge and in February the number of women in the cabinet was doubled to four. Last year Abu Dhabi got its first female Emirati taxi driver.
Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Middle East: Cleric says women can beat husbands
CAIRO: Sunni Islam's highest authority has approved a woman's right to fight back if her husband uses violence against her, Egypt's Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported yesterday. The declaration by Sheikh Abdel Hamid Al-Atrash, who heads Al-Azhar University's committee for fatwas or religious rulings, comes after similar rulings by religious leaders in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. "A wife has the legitimate right to hit her husband in order to defend herself," Atrash was quoted as saying. "Everyone has the right to defend themselves, whether they are a man or a woman... because all human beings are equal before God," he said.
Over the last few days, Saudi Sheikh Abdel Mohsen Al-Abyakan stressed the fact that a wife should resort to "the same kind of violence" as her husband used against her, whether it be with a leather strap or a wire cable, the paper said. Prominent Turkish Muslim preacher and writer Fethullah Gulen went one step further and ruled that a woman should return the violence with interest. "She should give back two blows for each one received," the paper quoted him as saying. Rights groups quoted by Amnesty International say that 35 percent of Egyptian women killed each year die as a result of domestic violence.
Separately, a human rights group in Egypt yesterday slammed police for snooping on couples accused of wife-swapping in the conservative nation and arresting them on prostitution charges. The main accused in the case, a 48-year-old civil servant and his teacher wife, 37, were detained last week for allegedly organizing wife-swapping parties and orgies via a website run by an Iraqi Kurd, local media reported.
The Cairo couple, who have children and used the pseudonyms Magdy and Samira on the website and in emails, could face up to three years in prison if convicted of facilitating prostitution. "The case raises serious concerns about due process and the privacy rights of those arrested, especially in light of press reports about police interception of defendants' electronic correspondence," Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights told AFP. "We're also of course worried that police seem to be still going after many people based on the intercepted emails of the two main defendants.
The couple confessed to having sexual relations with three other couples, although at least 44 couples signed up for Cairo swinging sessions via the website, and several other suspects -including a lawyer - were arrested. Magdy reportedly insisted that couples present a marriage contract before indulging in any activities, fearing that they might be using a temporary, or orfi, Islamic marriage certificate in the pursuit of pleasure.
I refused couples who had an orfi marriage because they're completely different. One of them could tear up the marriage contract and file a complaint with the authorities," Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted Magdy as saying during questioning. Magdy told prosecutors that he had convinced his wife of the idea of "a swinger lifestyle as a form of physical recreation between consenting married couples," the English-language Egyptian Gazette said.
Through the website, the couple chatted with married Egyptian contacts who were all up for wife swapping, but the man rejected most of them because they were either "not sexy enough" or "not funny", Al-Masry Al-Youm said. Bahgat criticized the 1961 law that could be used to prosecute the suspects as it defines certain sexual acts as prostitution even if no money changes hands. "The way (the law) has been interpreted for decades is based on the idea that for prostitution to take place... someone has to have sex with different people, without distinction, within three years," Bahgat said.
Magdy, who has been charged with inciting debauchery, prostitution and immoral advertising, reportedly said he was particularly excited when he saw a stranger with his wife, Al-Masry Al-Youm said. "The case raises privacy concerns, whether with regard to the interception of private correspondence and (telephone) conversations or prosecuting people for consensual sexual acts between adults," said Bahgat.
- AFP
Over the last few days, Saudi Sheikh Abdel Mohsen Al-Abyakan stressed the fact that a wife should resort to "the same kind of violence" as her husband used against her, whether it be with a leather strap or a wire cable, the paper said. Prominent Turkish Muslim preacher and writer Fethullah Gulen went one step further and ruled that a woman should return the violence with interest. "She should give back two blows for each one received," the paper quoted him as saying. Rights groups quoted by Amnesty International say that 35 percent of Egyptian women killed each year die as a result of domestic violence.
Separately, a human rights group in Egypt yesterday slammed police for snooping on couples accused of wife-swapping in the conservative nation and arresting them on prostitution charges. The main accused in the case, a 48-year-old civil servant and his teacher wife, 37, were detained last week for allegedly organizing wife-swapping parties and orgies via a website run by an Iraqi Kurd, local media reported.
The Cairo couple, who have children and used the pseudonyms Magdy and Samira on the website and in emails, could face up to three years in prison if convicted of facilitating prostitution. "The case raises serious concerns about due process and the privacy rights of those arrested, especially in light of press reports about police interception of defendants' electronic correspondence," Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights told AFP. "We're also of course worried that police seem to be still going after many people based on the intercepted emails of the two main defendants.
The couple confessed to having sexual relations with three other couples, although at least 44 couples signed up for Cairo swinging sessions via the website, and several other suspects -including a lawyer - were arrested. Magdy reportedly insisted that couples present a marriage contract before indulging in any activities, fearing that they might be using a temporary, or orfi, Islamic marriage certificate in the pursuit of pleasure.
I refused couples who had an orfi marriage because they're completely different. One of them could tear up the marriage contract and file a complaint with the authorities," Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted Magdy as saying during questioning. Magdy told prosecutors that he had convinced his wife of the idea of "a swinger lifestyle as a form of physical recreation between consenting married couples," the English-language Egyptian Gazette said.
Through the website, the couple chatted with married Egyptian contacts who were all up for wife swapping, but the man rejected most of them because they were either "not sexy enough" or "not funny", Al-Masry Al-Youm said. Bahgat criticized the 1961 law that could be used to prosecute the suspects as it defines certain sexual acts as prostitution even if no money changes hands. "The way (the law) has been interpreted for decades is based on the idea that for prostitution to take place... someone has to have sex with different people, without distinction, within three years," Bahgat said.
Magdy, who has been charged with inciting debauchery, prostitution and immoral advertising, reportedly said he was particularly excited when he saw a stranger with his wife, Al-Masry Al-Youm said. "The case raises privacy concerns, whether with regard to the interception of private correspondence and (telephone) conversations or prosecuting people for consensual sexual acts between adults," said Bahgat.
- AFP
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Syria: Women want female muftis
Syria: Women want female muftis
IWPR, Syria - The Grand Mufti Ahmed Badr Hasun, the top Muslim cleric in Syria, announced that female graduates of Islamic law colleges are being trained to become muftis who will counsel women on religious matters.
The Grand Mufti Ahmed Badr Hasun also made it clear that some female muftis would be appointed to the Iftaa Council, a body which he chairs and which oversees the issuing of fatwas, or religious edicts.
Syrian women have largely welcomed the news that female muftis are to be trained up to fill a role that has generally been monopolised by men.
Muftis are Islamic scholars who are empowered to provide religious guidance on personal and political matters. Until now, women in Syria, as in many countries, have had to turn to male muftis even when their concerns are gender-specific or personal.
“Iftaa [the giving of counsel] is a difficult task and a huge responsibility that men are barely able to hardly shoulder,” said a 41-year-old devoutly Muslim woman from Damascus countryside.
“Iftaa for women’s matters is a good thing. It saves women being embarrassed about issues such as marital relations and other things that they are sensitive about, like menstruation.”
Hasun made the comments during a visit by American academics to Damascus [early June], but it was not the first time he has discussed the programme for women muftis. According to a February 2006 report by the United Nations Development Programme, Hasun told representatives of this UN agency of plans to appoint two female members of the Iftaa Council, and said women had served as muftis in earlier times. The news was not widely reported in Syria or abroad.
Hasun repeated the case for female muftis when he met the US scholars, and reportedly said dozens of women were being trained.
A male teacher of Sharia or Islamic law at a Damascus high school, speaking on condition of anonymity, welcomed the decision.
“Women are permitted to be appointed muftis under Sharia,” he said. “In Islamic history there have been a large number of female muftis and jurists.”
He said that female muftis must fulfil the same requirements as men by demonstrating the right level of knowledge of Islam, having a reputation as a pious individual, and receiving official permission to issue fatwas.
This unusual step has raised some debate on the internet. While many Arab women have praised the decision, some religious conservatives oppose it.
The decision is not expected to be controversial in Syria, as it comes from the top of the official Muslim clerical establishment.
A 22-year-old female student of Islamic law at Damascus University said the decision “pushed forward the rights that Islam accords to women, and elevates them as a result”.
Civil society activists generally welcomed the announcement but said women should be placed on the same footing as male muftis.
“From our point of view, it’s essential that women participate in fiqh [interpretation of Islamic law] and fatwa,” said Bassam al-Qadhi, director of Syria’s Women Watch.
But he added that the decision, as reported, “implies discrimination”.
“Women will only be able to give religious guidance for women and on specific issues, while men will still be able to provide guidance for both men and women,” he said.
Rather than use muftis, some devout Muslim women prefer to rely on their own resources.
One 49-year-old gynaecologist from Hama, for instance, said she would not be going to a female mufti for religious guidance, just as she has not consulted male muftis.
“I believe in thinking and using reason instead of referring to others in my life and religion,” she said. “I can refer to books on fiqh when I face a problem.”
The doctor noted that fatwas could be controversial, and said, “This trend should be limited, rather than expanded by allowing more people to provide guidance. If anyone is interested in empowering women, there are thousands of neglected areas to consider, instead of giving them the right to issue fatwas.”
---Human Rights Tribune, July 2, 2008
IWPR, Syria - The Grand Mufti Ahmed Badr Hasun, the top Muslim cleric in Syria, announced that female graduates of Islamic law colleges are being trained to become muftis who will counsel women on religious matters.
The Grand Mufti Ahmed Badr Hasun also made it clear that some female muftis would be appointed to the Iftaa Council, a body which he chairs and which oversees the issuing of fatwas, or religious edicts.
Syrian women have largely welcomed the news that female muftis are to be trained up to fill a role that has generally been monopolised by men.
Muftis are Islamic scholars who are empowered to provide religious guidance on personal and political matters. Until now, women in Syria, as in many countries, have had to turn to male muftis even when their concerns are gender-specific or personal.
“Iftaa [the giving of counsel] is a difficult task and a huge responsibility that men are barely able to hardly shoulder,” said a 41-year-old devoutly Muslim woman from Damascus countryside.
“Iftaa for women’s matters is a good thing. It saves women being embarrassed about issues such as marital relations and other things that they are sensitive about, like menstruation.”
Hasun made the comments during a visit by American academics to Damascus [early June], but it was not the first time he has discussed the programme for women muftis. According to a February 2006 report by the United Nations Development Programme, Hasun told representatives of this UN agency of plans to appoint two female members of the Iftaa Council, and said women had served as muftis in earlier times. The news was not widely reported in Syria or abroad.
Hasun repeated the case for female muftis when he met the US scholars, and reportedly said dozens of women were being trained.
A male teacher of Sharia or Islamic law at a Damascus high school, speaking on condition of anonymity, welcomed the decision.
“Women are permitted to be appointed muftis under Sharia,” he said. “In Islamic history there have been a large number of female muftis and jurists.”
He said that female muftis must fulfil the same requirements as men by demonstrating the right level of knowledge of Islam, having a reputation as a pious individual, and receiving official permission to issue fatwas.
This unusual step has raised some debate on the internet. While many Arab women have praised the decision, some religious conservatives oppose it.
The decision is not expected to be controversial in Syria, as it comes from the top of the official Muslim clerical establishment.
A 22-year-old female student of Islamic law at Damascus University said the decision “pushed forward the rights that Islam accords to women, and elevates them as a result”.
Civil society activists generally welcomed the announcement but said women should be placed on the same footing as male muftis.
“From our point of view, it’s essential that women participate in fiqh [interpretation of Islamic law] and fatwa,” said Bassam al-Qadhi, director of Syria’s Women Watch.
But he added that the decision, as reported, “implies discrimination”.
“Women will only be able to give religious guidance for women and on specific issues, while men will still be able to provide guidance for both men and women,” he said.
Rather than use muftis, some devout Muslim women prefer to rely on their own resources.
One 49-year-old gynaecologist from Hama, for instance, said she would not be going to a female mufti for religious guidance, just as she has not consulted male muftis.
“I believe in thinking and using reason instead of referring to others in my life and religion,” she said. “I can refer to books on fiqh when I face a problem.”
The doctor noted that fatwas could be controversial, and said, “This trend should be limited, rather than expanded by allowing more people to provide guidance. If anyone is interested in empowering women, there are thousands of neglected areas to consider, instead of giving them the right to issue fatwas.”
---Human Rights Tribune, July 2, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
Tunisia: Tunisians concerned over divorce fatwa
A religious edict issued by the Mufti of Tunisia regarding divorce has sparked a massive uproar over whether the move threatens gains made by Tunisian women over the last few decades.
The issue began when an unidentified woman solicited advice from Tunisia's Dar El Iftaa, the body of religious scholars which renders religious judgments on public and private issues and which reports directly to the Ministry of Religious Affairs. In a written message to Mufti of Tunisia Kameleddine Jait, the woman said her husband told her "you're divorced" three times.
According to the June 7th issue of the leftist Ettajdid Movement's Tarik Jadid newspaper, the Mufti answered the woman's question, "telling her that she could no longer live as wife with her husband [and] must proceed with the divorce". The article added, "The Mufti gave the woman a certificate to this effect."
The decision would have sparked little controversy in many Muslim countries, where sharia is applied in instances of marriage and divorce.
In a secular society like Tunisia, however, it is very different matter.
Since 1956, divorce – like marriage – has been governed by civil, not religious law. Under the Personal Status Code, divorce is only recognised when the two parties appear before a court of law to validate their separation and agree to the action, and only after the failure of judge-monitored reconciliation attempts between the husband and wife.
An official source in the Dar El Iftaa, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the issue had nothing to do with the laws of the country: "The woman's question was related to a religious matter, and the Mufti's answer was in line with Islamic sharia."
Some Tunisians have interpreted the Mufti's ruling as an attempt to circumvent the civil laws.
"[It is] a threat to the civil gains; something that would open the door for religious interpretations and fatwas at a time when we need to boost the process of modernisation, impose the respect of positive laws, and firmly establish the rule of law," Tarik Jadid editorialised.
"The Mufti of the Republic has no authority in the courts of law, and the Personal Status Code is the decisive factor in divorce issues," lawyer Kahna Abbas confirmed. She said she was concerned that the religious establishment could gradually turn into a source of legislation.
Khadija Cherif, President of the Tunisian Association for Democratic Women, which works to separate religion from state and achieve gender equality, also said she was astonished when she learned about the fatwa.
From his side, Khemais Khayati, a member of the Tunisian Association for the Defence of Secularism, said, "The Mufti of the Republic might have been correct if we had been a state governed by sharia and based on loyalty to faith. However, now that we are in a law-governed state, the Mufti has no right to breach the constitutional provisions that protect the citizens' right to safeguard their rights."
Khayati is worried that citizens "rush to the Mufti" instead of attempting to solve their own problems. "Who knows?" he asks. "They may work under the guidance of a religious state tomorrow."
Mohammed Ali Ennefzi, a young man in his 30s, welcomed the fatwa "because it makes our life easier and relieves us from the troubles of litigation and the problems of the Personal Status Code, which has turned men in Tunisia into slaves to their wives".
Manal El Hammi, a woman working in the pharmaceutical industry, commented sarcastically, "if all married women requested fatwas about the oaths of divorce they hear every week from their husbands, we wouldn't find any Tunisian women in their homes!"
-- Magharebia
The issue began when an unidentified woman solicited advice from Tunisia's Dar El Iftaa, the body of religious scholars which renders religious judgments on public and private issues and which reports directly to the Ministry of Religious Affairs. In a written message to Mufti of Tunisia Kameleddine Jait, the woman said her husband told her "you're divorced" three times.
According to the June 7th issue of the leftist Ettajdid Movement's Tarik Jadid newspaper, the Mufti answered the woman's question, "telling her that she could no longer live as wife with her husband [and] must proceed with the divorce". The article added, "The Mufti gave the woman a certificate to this effect."
The decision would have sparked little controversy in many Muslim countries, where sharia is applied in instances of marriage and divorce.
In a secular society like Tunisia, however, it is very different matter.
Since 1956, divorce – like marriage – has been governed by civil, not religious law. Under the Personal Status Code, divorce is only recognised when the two parties appear before a court of law to validate their separation and agree to the action, and only after the failure of judge-monitored reconciliation attempts between the husband and wife.
An official source in the Dar El Iftaa, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the issue had nothing to do with the laws of the country: "The woman's question was related to a religious matter, and the Mufti's answer was in line with Islamic sharia."
Some Tunisians have interpreted the Mufti's ruling as an attempt to circumvent the civil laws.
"[It is] a threat to the civil gains; something that would open the door for religious interpretations and fatwas at a time when we need to boost the process of modernisation, impose the respect of positive laws, and firmly establish the rule of law," Tarik Jadid editorialised.
"The Mufti of the Republic has no authority in the courts of law, and the Personal Status Code is the decisive factor in divorce issues," lawyer Kahna Abbas confirmed. She said she was concerned that the religious establishment could gradually turn into a source of legislation.
Khadija Cherif, President of the Tunisian Association for Democratic Women, which works to separate religion from state and achieve gender equality, also said she was astonished when she learned about the fatwa.
From his side, Khemais Khayati, a member of the Tunisian Association for the Defence of Secularism, said, "The Mufti of the Republic might have been correct if we had been a state governed by sharia and based on loyalty to faith. However, now that we are in a law-governed state, the Mufti has no right to breach the constitutional provisions that protect the citizens' right to safeguard their rights."
Khayati is worried that citizens "rush to the Mufti" instead of attempting to solve their own problems. "Who knows?" he asks. "They may work under the guidance of a religious state tomorrow."
Mohammed Ali Ennefzi, a young man in his 30s, welcomed the fatwa "because it makes our life easier and relieves us from the troubles of litigation and the problems of the Personal Status Code, which has turned men in Tunisia into slaves to their wives".
Manal El Hammi, a woman working in the pharmaceutical industry, commented sarcastically, "if all married women requested fatwas about the oaths of divorce they hear every week from their husbands, we wouldn't find any Tunisian women in their homes!"
-- Magharebia
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Yemen: MPS say no to genital mutilation, 18 is minimum marriage age, juveniles cannot be punished as adults
SANA'A, June 24 — A two-day workshop in Parliament concluded that the minimum marriage age in Yemen should be 18, and the sponsors of both brides and grooms should be punished if they allow them to marry under this age.
The workshop’s participants also concluded that juvenile delinquents between the ages of 15 and 18 are not equal to adult criminals. They further recommended laws banning female genital mutilation.
The workshop covered three main areas: the criminality of juveniles, female genital mutilation, and the minimum age of marriage. These three subjects were chosen because the existing laws concerning them are not specific enough and are often ignored.
This workshop was arranged by Parliament, the Higher Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and the Yemeni Network Combating Violence Against Women known as SHIMA, under the sponsorship of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), OXFAM International, and Save the Children, a worldwide children's rights organization. Attendees included members of the Sharia Committee, who matches the constitutional laws with Islamic sharia law, Parliament members (MPs), doctors and human rights activists.
“The main purpose of the workshop is to amend the laws that did not provide protection to children,” said Naseem Ur-Rehman, UNICEF's communications director.
Ur-Rehman said that he heard about Nojoud Al-Ahdal Nasser, the young girl who went to court to ask for a divorce from her almost 30-year-old husband. He added that there are many cases like Nojoud's which go unnoticed.
“We want to end the silent suffering,” he told the attendees.
In April, after Nojoud’s case was published in news sources around the world, the Safe Maternity Act presented by the health committee failed to pass in Parliament. The act included a minimum age of 18 for marriage, punishment for families who marry their children off earlier and a ban on genital mutilation.
The Sharia Committee refused the act because they said that the minimum age for marriage in Islam is not definite.
Parliament President Yahia Al-Ra'i and religious scholar Ahmed Abdul-Razaq Al-Rukaihi, who is also a member of the Sharia Committee, said that they will take these recommendations into account when drafting the laws.
Minimum age of Marriage
The suggestion to specify the marriage age faced more objections than the other two subjects addressed during the workshop. Specifically, the Sharia Committee found it difficult to define a specific minimum age of marriage. Hassan Al-Sheikh, a scholar and Sharia Committee member, said that he was confused after what he heard in the workshop.
“I am afraid that if we stop early marriage, we could create troubles for young people,” said Al-Sheikh.
Jabr Abdullah, a religious scholar, said that the ability to have sex could start from the age of nine. Law professor Ali Hassan Al-Sharafi told the scholars that nothing in the proposal should worry them.
He mentioned two main things about adopting a minimum age for marriage. First, he pointed out the dispute among Islamic scholars about the acceptability of early marriage. “This is a good thing to use in our favor; we should consider the most suitable opinion,” said Al-Sharafi.
He added that in Islam, there are things considered mobah [neither forbidden nor obligated], which he said would include creating a minimum age for marriage. The attendees objected to the current law that states that the young girl can be married if she is ready for sex.
Attendees said that readiness is not measurable, and that young girls are vulnerable to exploitation.
Scholar Al-Rukaihi said that he was really moved when he understood the negative health impacts of early marriage brought up during the workshop, such as obstetric fistula [a common ailment among child brides who give birth that causes permanent incontinence and physical pain].
“Honestly, I was affected by what I saw,” he said.
Another attendee, Huda Al-Yafe’i, the head of the orphan sector in Al-Saleh Social Foundation for Development, said that legislators have to differentiate between early marriage and early pregnancy. “As a teacher, I have seen many girls who go astray and to stop them from marrying is not good.”
Others objected to the idea of differentiating between early marriage and early pregnancy because to control that is not attainable, and marriage is not limited to pregnancy. PM Shawqi Al-Qadhi said that marriage is not only about sex, it is a whole new life for girls who are often unprepared for its stresses.
Attendee Jamila Al-Ra’abi said that early marriage does not solve any problems, but rather creates more. “Early marriages makes lots of orphans, and causes a lot of pain for young mothers,” she said.
According to a study by the Gender Development Research and Studies Center in Sana’a University in 2005 early marriages trigger social, psychological and health problems like obstetric fistula, malnutrition, psychological trauma, maternal and child mortality. Early marriage also increases a girl’s vulnerability to domestic abuse by both the husband and her in-laws.
Early marriage forces girls to drop out of school, which dramatically affects the country's development as a whole. Other groups like the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have also condemned the practice. Criminal Responsibility: Criminal responsibility was discussed in two respects: legality and the religious background for lawmaking.
Al-Sharafi said that there is a difference between puberty and adulthood. Al-Sharafi and other attendees quoted the Qur’anic verse that says, “And try orphans (as regards their intelligence) until they reach the age of marriage; if then you find sound judgment in them, release their property to them.”
They said that this verse showed that puberty does not mean adulthood, and criminal responsibility should be measured this way. A juvenile offender at the age of 15 can be punished with between 10 to 20 years in prison for a crime, but cannot be executed for murder.
“His young age should be taken as an extenuating circumstance in major crimes, and he should get half the sentence for minor ones,” said Al-Sharafi.
Scholar Al-Rukaihi objected to this, saying that some people might use juveniles to kill others. Al-Qadhi responded that he understood the fears of the religious scholars, but juveniles shouldn't be punished for others' mistakes.
Al-Sharafi agreed that the one who incited the child to commit a crime should be punished as if he was the perpetrator.
Genital Mutilation
Despite the fact that most of the PMs said that they did not believe that Yemenis perform female genital mutilation, the Health Survey of the Yemeni Family, conducted by the government in 2003, showed that over 21 percent of Yemeni women are exposed to this extremely harmful practice.
Yemen has five main governorates that still perform female genital mutilation: Hodeidah (97.3 percent), Mahrah (96.6 percent), Hadhramout (96.5 percent), Aden (82.2 percent), and Sana’a Capital Secretariat (45.5 percent).
“I do not think that genital mutilation is rampant, but it is neither forbidden nor an obligation and therefore it is acceptable if we stop doing it to prevent the damage,” said Al-Sheikh.
Genital mutilation has dangerous consequences for female reproductive health in both the short- and long-term, according to the UNFPA and the WHO, among a large number of non-governmental organizations.
By: Kawkab Al-Thaibani For the Yemen Times
The workshop’s participants also concluded that juvenile delinquents between the ages of 15 and 18 are not equal to adult criminals. They further recommended laws banning female genital mutilation.
The workshop covered three main areas: the criminality of juveniles, female genital mutilation, and the minimum age of marriage. These three subjects were chosen because the existing laws concerning them are not specific enough and are often ignored.
This workshop was arranged by Parliament, the Higher Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and the Yemeni Network Combating Violence Against Women known as SHIMA, under the sponsorship of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), OXFAM International, and Save the Children, a worldwide children's rights organization. Attendees included members of the Sharia Committee, who matches the constitutional laws with Islamic sharia law, Parliament members (MPs), doctors and human rights activists.
“The main purpose of the workshop is to amend the laws that did not provide protection to children,” said Naseem Ur-Rehman, UNICEF's communications director.
Ur-Rehman said that he heard about Nojoud Al-Ahdal Nasser, the young girl who went to court to ask for a divorce from her almost 30-year-old husband. He added that there are many cases like Nojoud's which go unnoticed.
“We want to end the silent suffering,” he told the attendees.
In April, after Nojoud’s case was published in news sources around the world, the Safe Maternity Act presented by the health committee failed to pass in Parliament. The act included a minimum age of 18 for marriage, punishment for families who marry their children off earlier and a ban on genital mutilation.
The Sharia Committee refused the act because they said that the minimum age for marriage in Islam is not definite.
Parliament President Yahia Al-Ra'i and religious scholar Ahmed Abdul-Razaq Al-Rukaihi, who is also a member of the Sharia Committee, said that they will take these recommendations into account when drafting the laws.
Minimum age of Marriage
The suggestion to specify the marriage age faced more objections than the other two subjects addressed during the workshop. Specifically, the Sharia Committee found it difficult to define a specific minimum age of marriage. Hassan Al-Sheikh, a scholar and Sharia Committee member, said that he was confused after what he heard in the workshop.
“I am afraid that if we stop early marriage, we could create troubles for young people,” said Al-Sheikh.
Jabr Abdullah, a religious scholar, said that the ability to have sex could start from the age of nine. Law professor Ali Hassan Al-Sharafi told the scholars that nothing in the proposal should worry them.
He mentioned two main things about adopting a minimum age for marriage. First, he pointed out the dispute among Islamic scholars about the acceptability of early marriage. “This is a good thing to use in our favor; we should consider the most suitable opinion,” said Al-Sharafi.
He added that in Islam, there are things considered mobah [neither forbidden nor obligated], which he said would include creating a minimum age for marriage. The attendees objected to the current law that states that the young girl can be married if she is ready for sex.
Attendees said that readiness is not measurable, and that young girls are vulnerable to exploitation.
Scholar Al-Rukaihi said that he was really moved when he understood the negative health impacts of early marriage brought up during the workshop, such as obstetric fistula [a common ailment among child brides who give birth that causes permanent incontinence and physical pain].
“Honestly, I was affected by what I saw,” he said.
Another attendee, Huda Al-Yafe’i, the head of the orphan sector in Al-Saleh Social Foundation for Development, said that legislators have to differentiate between early marriage and early pregnancy. “As a teacher, I have seen many girls who go astray and to stop them from marrying is not good.”
Others objected to the idea of differentiating between early marriage and early pregnancy because to control that is not attainable, and marriage is not limited to pregnancy. PM Shawqi Al-Qadhi said that marriage is not only about sex, it is a whole new life for girls who are often unprepared for its stresses.
Attendee Jamila Al-Ra’abi said that early marriage does not solve any problems, but rather creates more. “Early marriages makes lots of orphans, and causes a lot of pain for young mothers,” she said.
According to a study by the Gender Development Research and Studies Center in Sana’a University in 2005 early marriages trigger social, psychological and health problems like obstetric fistula, malnutrition, psychological trauma, maternal and child mortality. Early marriage also increases a girl’s vulnerability to domestic abuse by both the husband and her in-laws.
Early marriage forces girls to drop out of school, which dramatically affects the country's development as a whole. Other groups like the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have also condemned the practice. Criminal Responsibility: Criminal responsibility was discussed in two respects: legality and the religious background for lawmaking.
Al-Sharafi said that there is a difference between puberty and adulthood. Al-Sharafi and other attendees quoted the Qur’anic verse that says, “And try orphans (as regards their intelligence) until they reach the age of marriage; if then you find sound judgment in them, release their property to them.”
They said that this verse showed that puberty does not mean adulthood, and criminal responsibility should be measured this way. A juvenile offender at the age of 15 can be punished with between 10 to 20 years in prison for a crime, but cannot be executed for murder.
“His young age should be taken as an extenuating circumstance in major crimes, and he should get half the sentence for minor ones,” said Al-Sharafi.
Scholar Al-Rukaihi objected to this, saying that some people might use juveniles to kill others. Al-Qadhi responded that he understood the fears of the religious scholars, but juveniles shouldn't be punished for others' mistakes.
Al-Sharafi agreed that the one who incited the child to commit a crime should be punished as if he was the perpetrator.
Genital Mutilation
Despite the fact that most of the PMs said that they did not believe that Yemenis perform female genital mutilation, the Health Survey of the Yemeni Family, conducted by the government in 2003, showed that over 21 percent of Yemeni women are exposed to this extremely harmful practice.
Yemen has five main governorates that still perform female genital mutilation: Hodeidah (97.3 percent), Mahrah (96.6 percent), Hadhramout (96.5 percent), Aden (82.2 percent), and Sana’a Capital Secretariat (45.5 percent).
“I do not think that genital mutilation is rampant, but it is neither forbidden nor an obligation and therefore it is acceptable if we stop doing it to prevent the damage,” said Al-Sheikh.
Genital mutilation has dangerous consequences for female reproductive health in both the short- and long-term, according to the UNFPA and the WHO, among a large number of non-governmental organizations.
By: Kawkab Al-Thaibani For the Yemen Times
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