The Jordan Times
By Hani Hazaimeh
AMMAN - Women activists this week reiterated their call on the government to remove its reservations on the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), while other parties described the agreement as a form of cultural globalisation.
Earlier this year, the government decided to lift its reservations on paragraph four of Article 15 of the convention, which gives women freedom of mobility.
Speaking at a workshop to discuss the convention, Jordanian National Commission for Women Secretary General Asma Khader welcomed the government’s decision, noting that women activists have strongly advocated for lifting the reservations.
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.
"We call on the government to lift the two remaining reservations," Khader said, pointing out that Islam stresses gender equality and protects women rights, but "individual malpractices restrain some of these rights".
"Differences in opinion over the agreement should not stop us from exchanging views and remarks on CEDAW till we reach a common ground," Khader added.
Criticising the convention and describing it as "a cultural globalisation", Marwan Faouri, president of the Moderation Assembly for Thought and Culture, said it was a type of control practised by the UN on member countries.
"The agreement is not consistent with our religion and traditions and it will change our national identity," he told The Jordan Times, adding that it adopts the views of the liberals who do not represent Arab Muslim communities.
Other participants at Tuesday’s workshop, organised by Al Urdun Al Jadid Research Centre, focused on the citizenship clause and urged the government to grant nationality to children of Jordanian women married to foreigners.
According to a study by the Arab Women’s Organisation released last year, based on the 2004 national census, around 12,000 out of 1.7 million married women in the Kingdom are wed to non-Jordanians, with 5.5 children per woman.
Earlier this week, the Islamist movement called on the government to withdraw from the CEDAW, saying the treaty will lead to a myriad of social problems in the country.
"Families in Jordan face the threat of total collapse under CEDAW," warned the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Showing posts with label equality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label equality. Show all posts
Monday, May 4, 2009
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
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.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Iran: Iran women to get equal insurance
BBC News
Insurance companies in Iran will have to pay the same compensation for women and men in the case of death or injury, the Iranian government has said.
Previously, insurance policies have paid women or their families half of what a man or his relatives receive.
Iranian Justice Minister Gholamhoseyn Elham said the companies would also have to make equal payouts to Muslims and non-Muslims.
Non-Muslims and their relatives also currently receive less than Muslims.
The new requirements come into force at the start of the Iranian new year on Saturday.
Insurance companies in Iran will have to pay the same compensation for women and men in the case of death or injury, the Iranian government has said.
Previously, insurance policies have paid women or their families half of what a man or his relatives receive.
Iranian Justice Minister Gholamhoseyn Elham said the companies would also have to make equal payouts to Muslims and non-Muslims.
Non-Muslims and their relatives also currently receive less than Muslims.
The new requirements come into force at the start of the Iranian new year on Saturday.
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