Women Living Under Muslim Laws

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An international network that provides information, solidarity and support for all women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or governed by laws and customs said to derive from Islam.

Current site highlights

The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women! was launched in November 2007 and is hosted by Women Living Under Muslim Laws. The Campaign seeks to end the relentless mis-use of culture, tradition and religion to justify violence against women. Read more here: www.stop-stoning.org

News and Views

China: Woman imams play indispensable role in China's largest Muslim region (Xinhua)
6/10/2008: “At a tiny courtyard mosque in China's most populous Muslim region, Jin Meihua leads other women in prayer and chants."

France: Spurning secularism, French Muslims find haven in Catholic schools (New York Times)
6/10/2008: In France, which has only four Muslim schools, some of the country’s 8,847 Roman Catholic schools have become an alternative for Muslim students who wish to wear headscarves and incorporate spirituality into their studies.

Afghanistan: "Women who took on the Taliban – and lost" (The Independent)
5/10/2008: Three years ago, Kim Sengupta interviewed five women who wanted to build a new Afghanistan. Today, three are dead and a fourth has fled.

UK: Helpline for victims of forced marriages (The Independent)
4/10/2008: "Hundreds of children fearing for their lives have called a new national helpline set up to assist victims of forced marriages since its launch four months ago, The Independent has learnt."

Algeria: A Brief Introduction to the Position of Women Living in the Saharawi Refugee Camps (WLUML Networkers)
3/10/2008: "Life for Saharawi women living under the Moroccan occupation is tough, especially for those who dare to express a Saharawi nationalist sentiment."

USA: Documentary address 'purity pledges' in America (Channel 4)
3/10/2008: According to The Virgin Daughters, one in six American girls now takes a "purity pledge", vowing to abstain from all sexual activity until they are married.

Mali: Violence against women on rise (IRIN Africa)
3/10/2008: At least 300 women are victims of sexual violence every year in Bamako, according to local police records, but the actual figure is much higher said the president of the Bamako-based non-profit, Women in Law and Development in Africa.

International: Essay: "Peace is a mere illusion when rape continues" (Pambazuka)
3/10/2008: "Here is an unassailable truth: if sexual violence is not addressed during the course of a conflict, then sexual violence will haunt the post-conflict period, and make of the ostensible peace a mockery for half the population."

Morocco: Moroccan Ulemas Denounce Fatwa Authorising Underage Marriage (Magharebia)
3/10/2008: On September 21st, Moroccan Islamic scholars strongly rejected the fatwa authorising marriage for 9-year-old girls. An official inquiry has been launched.

Pakistan: An Interview with Farida Shaheed (AWID)
3/10/2008: AWID interviews Farida Shaheed - active in the women’s rights movement in Pakistan for over 25 years - about women’s rights activism in Pakistan, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and the hopes of the women’s rights movement.

Calls for Action

France: Ensure police protection for Mohamed Sifaoui
11/08/2008: Mohamed Sifaoui - an Algerian journalist, writer and director living in exile in France - was violently attacked by Islamists in Paris on Friday, June 13th 2008. Why? For his tireless and courageous struggle against fundamentalisms and his defence of secularism. Since 2003 he has benefited from police protection, but since January 2008 it has been withdrawn.

UPDATE: Nigeria: Local women's groups protest bill on 'indecent clothing'
8/08/2008: The following is an update provided by BAOBAB - For Women's Human Rights, a women's rights organization based in Nigeria. This is a brief report on the Public Hearing held in July 2008 regarding a proposed bill which, if made into law, would regulate styles of clothing on the grounds this would curb sexual intimidation and other sexual offences. The women who conducted research, presented their findings and demands, spoke out at the public hearing and aired their concerns with the world are to be commended for their actions and commitment to fighting discriminatory laws.

Canada: Polygamous communities persist on grounds of 'religious freedom'
17/07/2008: The polygamous communities of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) - a branch of Mormonism - have openly practiced forced and underage marriages, incest, and abuse for decades. Under the clause of 'religious freedoms', however, this practice has been permitted to continue in the Canadian province of British Columbia and lengthy court cases have been further delayed by repeated appointments of special investigators.

Publications

What's the Point of Revolution if We Can't Dance? Jane Barry and Jelena Djordjevic (UAF) (Published: 2007)
What's the Point of Revolution if We Can't Dance? brings us the experiences of more than 100 activists from around the world. Their fears. Hopes. Exhaustion. Exaltation. Grief and pleasure. Pain and loss and wicked black humour. Spirituality. Funding crunches. Backbiting and burnout. Self-worth, desire, selfishness, and selflessness. In Revolution activists from all walks of life talk about the intensely personal and inextricably important side of activism that leaves so many of us fatigued, isolated and ill. Together, we name a culture of activism that sometimes celebrates dying for the cause as a necessary and acceptable part of the activist bargain. We also talked about what keeps us strong the love and passion for the work, and for each other. The simple and complex strategies that activists use to stay well and safe. The book concludes with a call for a revolution within activism that will ensure that we can sustain ourselves and our movements.

WLUML Newsletter 6 WLUML (Published: June 2008)
We are delighted to present the sixth issue of the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) Newsletter! In this edition, we welcome new staff members at the International Coordination Office, cover new developments in the Global Campaign Stop Killing and Stoning Women!, and catch up with some of our networkers from around the world. A special section highlights the political aspects of women and sport in Muslim contexts.

WLUML Newsletter 5 WLUML (Published: Dec. 2007 / Jan. 2008)
Women Living Under Muslim Laws is delighted to present the fifth issue of the WLUML Newsletter! The objective of WLUML's newsletters is to present a platform for women's rights activists around the world to project their voices, and for networkers to share their experiences of activism across boundaries.

This issue features articles on the launch of the Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women! and our Feminism in the Muslim World Third Leadership Institute. This issue features networkers' submissions from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Burma, India and Pakistan, as well as book and film reviews, updates on solidarity cases and more.

WLUML Newsletter 4 WLUML (Published: August 2007)
We are delighted to present the Fourth Issue of the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) Newsletter! The overarching objective of WLUML's bi-annual newsletters is to present a platform to women's rights activists around the world to project their voices, and for networkers to share their experiences of activism across boundaries.

This issue, with an improved format, features the addition of 'Activists Reflections', which present a selection of the articles we received in response to our online Call for Submissions. Reflecting the transnational nature and philosophy of the WLUML network, the articles and reports included in this newsletter range from Growing Talibanisation in Pakistan to Expanding International Legal Protections for Victims of Gender-Based Violence in Iraqi Kurdistan and the lobbying of the Gambian Committee Against Traditional Practices.

Dossier 28: A Collection of Articles various (Published: December 2006)
This Dossier explores issues around ‘secularism’.

For more than two decades, feminists have discussed the impact and mechanics of extreme right politico-religious forces and shared strategies of resistance against fundamentalisms. But, as feminists, we have yet to develop a coherent analysis of the concrete alternatives. Yet we need such an analysis in order to move beyond resistance and be more pro-active in our advocacy for an alternative vision of society. In the context of globally rising extreme right politics justified with reference to religion and rising neo-liberalism’s impact on democratic governance and social inclusion, it is time to discuss secularisms in depth.

The articles in this volume look at some of the questions feminists need to begin discussing in order to define more clearly the changes we want to see and the systems that will work best for women, and in order to develop a movement that is more inclusive and more effective.

Dossier 28 seeks to contribute to these discussions by presenting various analyses of secularism, from the perspective of theory as well as lived experience in contexts as diverse as Algeria, Argentina, China, Egypt, France, India, Italy, Senegal, South Africa, and Sudan.

Occasional Paper 15: Iraq Women's Rights Under Attack Occupation, Constitution and Fundamentalisms Nadje Al-Ali, Mubejel Baban, and Sundus Abass (Published: December 2006)
This Occasional Paper features recent activities of Act Together, one of WLUML's networking organisations based in the UK. In July 2006 Act Together, Women's Action for Iraq, hosted Sundus Abass, Director of Women in Leadership Institute (Baghdad) in London for 15 days. WLUML helped to make the visit possible, as part of various network activities in support of women in post-conflict situations, such as in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka. This publication is a record of some of the activities that happened during those 15 hectic days. The aim of the visit was to highlight the work that Iraqi women are doing to try to amend the new Iraqi Constitution, in particular to ensure that the pre-existing Iraqi Personal Status Law, one of the more egalitarian family laws in the Middle East, is not replaced by Article 41.

The publication includes:

· Three talks that were given at a public meeting at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), in London
· The translated edited transcript of a film was by Maysoon Pachachi, of a two-hour discussion in Arabic between three highly experienced Iraqi women activists
· Briefing paper for Parliamentarians
· Act Together grassroots action leaflets

For Ourselves – Women Reading the Qur'an WLUML (Published: 2004/Originally published: 1998)
Due to popular demand, WLUML has reprinted the edited transcripts of a 6-day workshop 'Qur’anic Interpretations by Women Meeting' held in 1990. This publication presents the views and work of a dynamic group of activists, Islamic scholars, jurists and historians of Muslim jurisprudence. Their groundbreaking effort was to begin the process of a new approach to Qur’anic interpretation, reaffirming women’s right to read and interpret the Qur’an for themselves.