DOCSLIB.ORG

Male Authority in Muslim Contexts

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Male Authority in Muslim Contexts STORIES Male Authority in LIVESMuslim WOMEN’S Contexts A publication by Musawah, the global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family STORIES Male Authority in LIVESMuslim WOMEN’S Contexts Women’s Stories, Women’s Lives: Male Authority in Muslim Contexts © Musawah, 2016 Published in Malaysia by: Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.musawah.org Cover design and layout: The views expressed in this publication are those of Musawah and do not necessarily represent the views of any of the participating organizations or funders, including UN Women, the United Nations or any of its affiliated organizations. Any part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, adapted, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means to meet local needs, without permission from Musawah, provided that there is no intention of gaining material profits and that all copies, reproductions, adaptations and translations through mechanical, electrical or electronic means acknowledge Musawah as the source. A copy of any reproduction, adaptation or translation should be sent to Musawah at the address listed on its website. Participants in the Global Life Stories Project These are the women and men who participated in the project, with the names of the institutions that supported the teams in parentheses. All resource persons’ names have been changed to protect their identities. MUSAWAH Pilot Supporters Resource Persons SECRETARIAT Sri Wiyanti Naeema Project Coordinator Deni Rodendo Ganjar Samina Mulki Al-Sharmani Ninuk Pambudi Safia Lailatul Fitri Amina Knowledge Building Lila Working Group BANGLADESH Kulsum Ziba Mir-Hosseini Country Team Noreen Mulki Al-Sharmani (BRAC University) Jana Rumminger Samia Huq EGYPT Sarah Marsso Sohela Naznin Country Team Moushumi Khan (Women and Writing Team Maheen Sultan Memory Forum) Sarah Marsso Sahida Khondaker Maissan Hassan Jana Rumminger Hoda Elsadda Resource Persons Diana Abdelfattah PILOT PROJECT Rafia Omaima Abou-Bakr Indonesia Pilot Team Ranu (Alimat) Ruba Resource Persons Kamala Chandrakirana Sultana Amina Nur Rofiah Nadia Nani Zulminarni CANADA Sara Tati Krisnawati Country Team Dini Anitasari Sabaniah (Canadian Council of Muslim Women) Eman Ahmed Nabeela Sheikh Alia Hogben Sahar Zaidi GAMBIA Maria Johanita NIGERIA Country Team Ratu Dian Hatifah Country Team (GAMCOTRAP) Zaitun Abdullah (Musawah Nigeria, Isa Isatou Touray Wali Empowerment Amie Bojang-Sissoho Resource Persons Initiative, Center for Mary Small Sinta Women and Adolescent Sarjo Camara Nisrina Empowerment) Binta Bah Nurul Maryam Tauhida Ibrahim Isatou Jeng Murti Amina Hanga Asih Mariam Marwa-Abdu Supporters Amalia Asma’u Joda Omar Dibba Nawa Kaddy Touray Nadira Supporters Baai Jaabang Shafira Safinatu Dauda Mani Imam Baba Leigh Habsatu Dahiru Abubacarr Senghore IRAN Amina S. Koki Muhamad Sanuwo Country Team Fatima A. Ibrahim Sabarr Janneh Hoda Mobasseri Aliyu Alhassan Boubacarr Touray Zubainatu Yahaya Resource Persons Ruqayya Tijjani Ibrahim Resource Persons Elham Danjuma Natoma Zahra Fama Nasibah Resource Persons Maimuna Salamatu Penda MALAYSIA Safiya Anta Country Team Hauwa Balarabe Sally (Sisters in Islam) Rashida Adu Rusaslina Idrus Murja Kumba Suri Kempe Zainab Yama Azrine Razak Mariam Wan Zumusni Mustapha UNITED KINGDOM Binta Country Team Kaddy Resource Persons (Muslim Women’s Hawa Nadia Network UK) Mimi Mussurut Zia INDONESIA Mawar Country Team Wati Resource Persons (Alimat) Lola Rafeeqa Aida Milasari Nijat Dini Anitasari Sabaniah Sumera Nur Rofiah Shadiya Athiyatul Ulya Iffatul Umniati Lita Anggraini Table of Contents Preface 7 Acknowledgements 13 Introduction 17 On the Ground: Data, Trends and Stories by Country 27 Bangladesh 28 Women’s Economic Roles Male Guardianship and Anxieties about Gender Roles Women Speak…Ranu’s Life Story Canada 40 Identity Politics Legal Pluralism Spousal Roles and Sexual Relations within Marriage Women Speak…Naeema’s Life Story Egypt 53 Male Authority and Negotiation of Gender Roles Context and Pathways to Empowerment Women Speak…Nadia’s Life Story Gambia 62 Women’s Navigation of Gender Inequalities Women’s Struggle for Access and Rights in the Public Sphere Women Speak…Natoma’s Life Story Indonesia 77 Realities of Spousal Roles Women’s Self-Knowledge and Relationship to Religious Tradition Women Speak…Sinta’s Life Story Iran 91 Difficult Access to Divorce Male Authority and Women’s Autonomy Women Speak… Elham’s Life Story Malaysia 102 Realities of Spousal Roles Multidimensional Impacts of Polygamous Marriages Women Speak…Mimi’s Life Story Nigeria 114 Child Marriage Domestic Violence Women Speak…Rashida’s Life Story United Kingdom 123 Navigating Gender Roles in Minority Communities Transnational Arranged Marriages and Migration Women Speak…Nijat’s Life Story Women’s Experiences: A Transnational Overview 135 The Workings of Qiwamah and Wilayah within Family Laws 138 Child Marriage Economic Roles: Who Provides? Polygamy Domestic Violence and Sexual Relations within Marriage Divorce and Post-divorce Rights Custody and Guardianship of Children after Divorce Cross-Cutting Trends 168 Pathways to Equality 177 Conclusion: Building Egalitarian Marriages 183 Annex 1: Demographic Information 187 Annex 2: Glossary of Key Terms 193 Annex 3: Tools from the Countries 196 Annex 4: On the Ground: Data, Trends and Stories by Country - References 202 Preface Musawah is a global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family. Launched in 2009, it seeks to link scholarship with activism, bring fresh perspectives on Islamic teachings and contribute constructively to the reform of Muslim family laws and practices. The Global Life Stories Project is a central element in Musawah’s ongoing and multifaceted research programmes aimed at producing new egalitarian knowledge from within Muslim legal tradition. Democratizing the Production of Religious Knowledge In Musawah (‘Equality’ in Arabic), we draw on the latest Muslim reformist thought and feminist scholarship in Islam, and ground our claim to equality and our arguments for reform simultaneously in Islamic and human rights frameworks. We recognize two blind spots in approaches to gender issues in Islam and human rights. On the one hand, many scholars of Islam are unaware of the importance of gender as a category of thought and analysis. On the other hand, many feminists and human rights advocates have little knowledge or appreciation of religious categories of thought and religion-based laws, considering them The quest for gender equality in Muslim contexts involves reclaiming the egalitarian ethos of Islam’s sacred texts and creating a public voice for it. Women’s Stories, Women’s Lives: Male Authority in Muslim Contexts as antithetical to the feminist project. We believe these blind spots need to be addressed and that approaches from Islamic studies, feminism and human rights perspectives, far from mutually opposed, can be mutually reinforcing, particularly in mounting an effective campaign against gender discrimination. The quest for gender equality in Muslim contexts involves reclaiming the egalitarian ethos of Islam’s sacred texts and creating a public voice for it. We also recognize the political difficulties that we inevitably encounter: defenders of entrenched interests will not easily engage with proponents of arguments that they perceive as threatening beliefs and practices fundamental to their own tradition and indeed their interests and raison d’être. But for a feminist project to bring sustainable and meaningful change, it must develop arguments and strategies that can effectively break the tenacious bond between patriarchy and despotic politics that sustains unjust laws and structures, whether they come in a religious or a secular guise. In this sense, Musawah is part of a larger struggle for the democratization of the production of knowledge in Islam and for the authority to interpret its sacred texts. The Musawah Framework for Action We have developed a holistic Framework for Action that integrates Islamic teachings, universal human rights principles, national constitutional guarantees of equality and the lived realities of women and men. We take a critical feminist perspective, but most importantly we work within the tradition of Islamic legal thought and we invoke two of its main distinctions. The first, which underlies the emergence of the various schools of Islamic law and within them a multiplicity of positions and opinions, is between Shari‘ah and fiqh. Shari‘ah (‘the way’) in Muslim belief is God’s will as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. Fiqh (‘understanding’) is Islamic jurisprudence, the process and the methodology for discerning the Shari‘ah and extracting legal rulings (ahkam) from the sacred sources of Islam: the Qur’an and the Sunnah (the practices of the Prophet as contained in ahadith, Traditions). Like any other system of jurisprudence, fiqh is human, temporal and local. The second distinction is between the two main categories of legal rulings: ‘ibadat (ritual/spiritual acts) and mu‘amalat (social/contractual acts). Rulings in the first category, ‘ibadat, regulate relations between God and the believer. Here jurists contend that there is limited scope for rationalization, explanation and change, since such rulings pertain to the spiritual realm and divine mysteries. This is not the case with mu‘amalat, which regulate relations among humans 8 Preface and remain open to rational considerations and social forces, and to which most rulings concerning women and gender relations belong. These distinctions give us the language
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Islamic Feminism, a Public Lecture By
    SUDANWORKINGPAPER Islamic Feminism, a public lecture by Liv Tønnessen, Regional Institute of Gender, Rights, Peace & Diversity, Ahfad University for Women, Sudan SWP 2014: 1 Islamic Feminism Public lecture by Liv Tønnessen, Ahfad University for Women, Sudan SVP 2014 : 1 CMI SWP ISLAMIC FEMINISM 2014: 1 In the words of Pakistani-American Asma Barlas, “I came to the realization that women and men are equal as a result not of reading feminist texts, but of reading the Quran.”1 This position has come to be known as Islamic feminism. The term has been heatedly debated and both feminists and Muslims have rejected it as two fundamentally incompatible ideas. Secular feminists reject it because they argue religion generally and Islam in particular is oppressive to women2 and many Muslim women reject it because they feel ‘feminism’ is a secular invention imposed on them from outside, from the West. Islamic feminism is indeed highly contested, but it has also been widely embraced by both activists and scholars. As Margot Badran’s article from 2002 asks, What's in a name? What's behind a name? What is Islamic feminism?3 I will in a humble way attempt to address these questions in this talk. Let me first start by saying that this is a research paper on Islamic feminism. I am not a Muslim, but I find myself fascinated and genuinely interested in the question of women and Islam. I do not under any circumstances start my engagement with the topic from a position which neither reduces Islam to be monolithic and anti-women nor a position which states that secularism is the only route to women’s empowerment.
    [Show full text]
  • A Toolkit for Advocates
    A TOOLKIT FOR ADVOCATES SHARING THE MUSAWAH FRAMEWORK AND KEY MESSAGES 1 A TOOLKIT FOR ADVOCATES : SHARING THE MUSAWAH FRAMEWORK AND KEY MESSAGES © Sisters in Islam, 2013 Published in Malaysia by: Musawah an initiative of Sisters in Islam (SIS Forum Malaysia) 4 Jalan 11/8E, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia Tel: +603 7960 5121 Fax: +603 7960 8737 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.musawah.org Developed by: Cassandra Balchin with inputs from Musawah Advocates and the Musawah Secretariat. With thanks to the following for pilot testing and feedback: Anna Turley, Hadil el-Khouly, Imrana Jalal, Jana Rumminger, Johaira Wahab, Layali Eshqaidef, Manal Abdel Halim, Meghana Bahar, Rozana Isa, Zainah Anwar Creative Direction: Meghana Bahar Cover Design: Ezrena Hussain Illustrations: Shieko Reto & Rini Templeton (www.riniart.org) Layout: Ezrena Hussain Any part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, adapted, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means to meet local needs, without permission from Musawah, provided that there is no intention of gaining material profits and that all copies, reproductions, adaptation and translation through mechanical, electrical or electronic means acknowledge Musawah and the authors as the sources. A copy of any reproduction, adaptation or translation should be sent to Musawah at the above address. 2 A TOOLKIT FOR ADVOCATES : SHARING THE MUSAWAH FRAMEWORK AND KEY MESSAGES This Musawah Toolkit is dedicated to the memory of Cassandra Balchin, who researched and wrote this training guide. Cass was a founding member of Musawah and its first Communications Coordinator and a member of the Musawah International Advisory Group.
    [Show full text]
  • An Historical Overview of Conferences on Islamic Feminism: Circulations and New Challenges
    Margot Badran* An historical Overview of Conferences on Islamic Feminism: Circulations and New Challenges Conferences bringing people together in face-to-face encounters form an inte- gral part of the history of Islamic feminism and are intimately involved in the shaping and transmitting of Islamic feminist discourse and activist work. At the same time, conferences help consolidate transnational Islamic feminist networks and cement relationships. They also provide valuable records of the work and serve as markers of the trajectory of Islamic feminism1 The conference on “Islamic feminisms: boundaries and politics” that Stephanie Latte Abdullah organized at the Institute de Recherches et d’Études sur le Monde Arabe et Musulman in Aix-en-Provence in December 2009 occurred at a time when Islamic feminism is moving with increased acceleration from a primary focus on * Senior Fellow, The Reza and Georgeanna Khatib Visiting Chair in Comparative Religion at St. Joseph’s College, Brooklyn. 1 On global feminist networking in general see Valentine Moghadam, Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005). REMMM 128, 33-39 34 / Margot Badran theorization to the stage of social movement organizing. It is also a moment: (1) when expanding numbers of women affiliated with Islamist political parties and movements are gravitating toward the egalitarian model of religion that Islamic feminism explicates, and (2) when moves toward egalitarian Islam are discernable inside highly conservative Muslim majority societies such as Saudi Arabia. These trends may be seen as the new sociological layer in the quest for the implementa- tion of an egalitarian model of Islam as we get insights into from papers presented in the conference.
    [Show full text]
  • Musawah Thematic Report on Article 16: Kuwait and Oman
    Musawah Thematic Report on Article 16: Kuwait and Oman 50th CEDAW Session Geneva, Switzerland October 2011 Musawah c/o Sisters in Islam (SIS Forum Malaysia) No. 7, Jalan 6/10, 46000 Petaling Jaya Selangor, Malaysia Tel: +603 7785 6121 Fax: +603 7785 8737 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.musawah.org Musawah Thematic Report on Article 16: Kuwait and Oman 50th CEDAW Session Geneva, Switzerland October 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction 1 II. The CEDAW Committee and Article 16 3 III. Kuwait 4 IV. Oman 7 V. The Musawah Framework for Action 9 VI. Recommendations and Rights-Based Examples 11 VII. Vision 17 Annexe 1: Glossary of Terms 18 I. Introduction This Musawah report takes a critical look at the status of marriage and family relations, as encapsulated in Article 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (‘CEDAW’ or ‘CEDAW Convention’), in Kuwait and Oman, two of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states reporting before the 50th Session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (‘CEDAW Committee’). Musawah, the global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family, seeks to advance human rights for women in Muslim contexts, in both their public and private lives. Musawah’s objectives are: 1. To build and share knowledge that supports equality and justice in the Muslim family using a holistic approach that combines Islamic teachings, international human rights standards, national laws and constitutional guarantees of equality and non-discrimination, and the lived realities of women and men. 2.
    [Show full text]
  • CEDAW and Muslim Family Laws: in Search of Common Ground 
    The Musawah research project on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) examined States parties’ justifications for their failure to implement CEDAW with regard to family laws and practices that discriminate against Muslim women. The research reviewed documents for 44 Muslim majority and minority countries that reported to the CEDAW Committee from 2005-2010. This report documents the trends identified in the review, and presents Musawah’s responses to these justifications based on its holistic Framework for Action. It includes recommendations to the CEDAW Committee for a deeper engagement and more meaningful dialogue on the connections between Muslim family laws and practices and international human rights standards. Musawah is a global movement of women and men who believe that equality and justice in the Muslim family are necessary and possible. In the 21st century there cannot be justice without equality; the time for equality and justice is now! Equality in the family is the foundation for equality in society. Families in all their multiple forms are central to our lives, and should be a safe and happy space, equally empowering for all. Musawah builds on centuries of effort to promote and protect equality and justice in the family and in society. Musawah is led by Muslim women who seek to publicly reclaim Islam’s spirit of justice for all. CEDAW and Musawah acts together with individuals and groups to grow the movement, build knowledge and advocate for change on multiple levels. MUSLIM FAMILY LAWS Musawah uses a holistic framework that integrates Islamic teachings, universal human rights, national constitutional guarantees of equality, and the lived realities In Search of Common Ground of women and men.
    [Show full text]
  • Home Truths: a Global Report on Equality in the Muslim Family
    Musawah (‘Equality’ in Arabic) is a global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family. Musawah builds on decades of effort to reform Muslim family laws that discriminate against women and to resist regressive amendments demanded by conservative groups within society. Musawah was initiated by Sisters in Islam (Malaysia) and a planning committee of Muslim activists and academics from eleven countries. Musawah is pluralistic and inclusive, bringing together NGOs, activists, scholars, practitioners, policy makers and grassroots women and men from around the world. Participation is based on proven commitment to promoting rights in Muslim families, whether from religious, secular or other perspectives. Compiled from reports submitted by national level organisations and activists in 30 countries, Home Truths provides background information about the family laws and practices in these countries, including details of why equality in the family is necessary and the opportunities available that make equality in the family possible. Musawah calls for equality, non-discrimination, justice and dignity as the basis of all human relations; full and equal citizenship for every individual; and marriage and family relations based on principles of equality and justice, with men and women sharing equal rights and responsibilities. The time for realising these principles in our laws and in our daily lives is now. Home Truths: A Global Report on Equality in the Muslim Family c/o Sisters in Islam (SIS Forum Malaysia) 7 Jalan 6/10, 46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, MALAYSIA Tel : +603 7785 6121 Fax : +603 7785 8737 Email: [email protected] Web : www.musawah.org Home Truths: A Global Report on Equality in the Muslim Family Home Truths Introduction ...............................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Iran Overview of Muslim Family Laws & Practices
    IRAN OVERVIEW OF MUSLIM FAMILY LAWS & PRACTICES (Updated as at 3 June 2020)1 Description Procedure Family Law Matters Legislative Framework Case Law Policy Practice Equality of spouses in marriage Per Article 4 of the 1979 Iran has not yet Registering a According to the Constitution:2 “All civil, penal, joined CEDAW, but permanent 2016 UNDP Is there a Constitutional provision financial, economic, proposals to ratify it marriage is Human on equality and are there administrative, cultural, have been debated mandatory; any Development exceptions? Are there specific military, political, and other at three distinct man who fails to Report, Iran ranked laws that recognise marriage as a laws and regulations must be moments in post- register his 69 on the UNDP partnership of equals i.e. are based on Islamic criteria. revolutionary marriage contract Human family laws and/or other laws This principle applies politics. The first in a Register Office Development relating to marriage and the family absolutely and generally to was during the last shall be sentenced Index, and 118 on codified or uncodified? If codified, all articles of the Constitution years of the to up to one year of the UNDP Gender what are the titles of all the as well as to all other laws presidency of imprisonment Inequality Index.10 applicable laws? If codified, do and regulations. The Hashemi (Article 645, Islamic these laws apply to all citizens determination of such Rafsanjani (1989- Penal Code). According to a irrespective of religion? If not, do compatibility is left to the 1997), as part of Registering a study conducted by these laws apply to all Muslims or fuqahah (Islamic jurists) of the drive for temporary marriage Tehran University are there different codified laws economic is optional.
    [Show full text]
  • Islamic Feminism Transnational and National Reflections
    MULKI AL-SHARMANI Islamic Feminism Transnational and national reflections his article focuses on contemporary interpretive being produced predominantly by Muslim female knowledge projects that engage critically with scholars (and some male Muslim scholars) from dif- TIslamic religious sciences, and which are driven ferent disciplines and countries. The new scholarship by the question of gender justice. These projects, which has been called Islamic feminism. have been loosely termed as Islamic Feminism, are Some of the scholars who have been studying or undertaken by Muslim women scholars from different engaging in Islamic feminism see a great epistemic countries who are committed to their religious faith and political value in it, not only for Muslim women and who are working towards the production of alter- but also for the reform of religious tradition (Abou- native, gender-sensitive religious knowledge. The paper Bakr 2012, Barlas 2002, Badran 2005, Mir-Hosseini has three aims: 1) to review the contestations about 2006). Other scholars have critiqued Islamic femi- the definition, categorization, goals, and significance of nism as being an unsystematic and heterogeneous what has been termed Islamic feminism, 2) to provide body of knowledge, as having weak methodological an alternative description of these knowledge projects links to classical religious sciences and being politic- and identify some hermeneutical characteristics that ally insignificant, or even counterproductive, for link them and which perhaps could be the basis for de- women (Moghissi 1999, Moghadam 2002, Tohidi lineating them as a new field of knowledge, 3) to map 2003). out the trajectory of building new religion-based femi- Some of the women scholars undertaking such nist knowledge in Egypt, shedding light on light on cur- projects have also linked their production of knowl- rent knowledge projects that can be labelled as Islamic edge to building a global Muslim movement for feminism.
    [Show full text]
  • Towards a Model of Muslim Women's Management Empowerment
    administrative sciences Article Towards a Model of Muslim Women’s Management Empowerment: Philosophical and Historical Evidence and Critical Approaches Eugenie Samier 1,* and Eman ElKaleh 2 1 School of Education, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0LT, UK 2 Admissions and Registration Department, Zayed University, Dubai P.O. Box 19282, United Arab Emirates; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: This paper constructs a culturally appropriate model for Muslim women’s empowerment in management and leadership positions that addresses sustainability goals of quality education, gender equality, economic growth and reducing inequalities, as well as national and cultural differences from Western women’s empowerment models. The approach to model building begins with two sources of evidence for women’s empowerment—first, the empowerment of women recognised in the Qur’an and Sunnah, and in the historical-biographical record, particularly in the early Islamic period that draws to some extent on hermeneutics. This is followed by identifying four approaches that can be used in constructing a comprehensive model of Muslim women’s empowerment: Bourdieu’s social, cultural and intellectual capital theory; multiple modernities theory that recognises societal diversity; cultural security arguments for the preservation of cultures; and postcolonial critiques that argue for diversity through decolonising. The main argument of this paper is that sustainability goals cannot be achieved without a model appropriate to the valuational, cultural and societal context in which women are educated and work. The final section of this paper proposes a multidimensional and Citation: Samier, Eugenie, and Eman ElKaleh. 2021. Towards a Model of multilevel model that can be used as a guidance for empowering Muslim women in management Muslim Women’s Management and leadership positions.
    [Show full text]
  • Musawah Webinar: a Feminist Quest for Qur'anic Justice, Beauty And
    Musawah Webinar: A Feminist Quest for Qur’anic Justice, Beauty and Spiritual Care 5 May, 5PM KL | 11PM Cairo Transcript Note: Text edited for grammar and readability Sarah It's 11AM, so we will start in the interest of time. Assalamualaikum, welcome everyone and thank you for joining us in our first Ramadan webinar. We wish all of you who celebrate this sacred month Ramadan Kareem. We hope this month is giving you the space to nurture and heal your souls with love, compassion and kindness. My name is Sarah Marsso, and I will be your moderator during today's exciting feminist conversation for Quranic justice, beauty and spiritual care. I coordinate Musawah’s knowledge building activities and I’m thrilled to be hosting this session today, with the ground-breaking feminist scholars Omaima Abou Bakr, Asma Lamrabet and Mulki Al Sharmani. Our speakers will address 4 sets of questions: (1) experience of engaging with tafseer from a gender perspective, (2) introduce us to their new holistic interpretative methodology, and (3) reflect on their relationship to the Qur’anic text, and (4) explore the different ways in which the Qur’an gives us the path towards healing. Before we start, I have a few housekeeping items to cover about this presentation. Participants joining us on Zoom will be able to ask questions using the Q&A button at the bottom of the screen. If we don’t get to your question during today’s webinar, please follow up with us via email afterward. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to take questions from those viewing this ​ ​ webinar on FB.
    [Show full text]
  • Musawah Thematic Report on Art 16 Gambia
    Musawah Thematic Report on Muslim Family Law: The Gambia 61st CEDAW Session Geneva, Switzerland July 2015 Musawah c/o Sisters in Islam [SIS Forum (Malaysia)] No. 4, Lorong 11/8E, 46200 Petaling Jaya Selangor, Malaysia Tel: +603 7960 5121 Fax: +603 7960 8737 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.musawah.org Musawah Thematic Report on Muslim Family Law: The Gambia 61st CEDAW Session July 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION A. Objective B. Methodology II. KEY ISSUES: LIVED REALITIES, ISLAMIC JURISPRUDENCE, & REFORM A. Early & Forced Marriage B. Equal Rights & Responsibilities in Marriage C. Polygamy D. Access to Divorce E. Custody & Guardianship of Children III. CONCLUSION IV. MUSAWAH VISION V. ANNEX: GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS Musawah Thematic Report on Muslim Family Law: The Gambia ii Musawah Thematic Report on Muslim Family Laws: The Gambia 61st CEDAW Session July 2015 I. INTRODUCTION A. Objective Musawah, the global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family, submits its twelfth Thematic Report on Muslim Family Law (and related concerns) for consideration by the CEDAW Committee in its review of the Republic of the Gambia, reporting before the 61st Session of the CEDAW Committee.1 This is the CEDAW Committee’s second engagement with the Republic of the Gambia, which acceded to the CEDAW Convention on 16 April 1993, without any reservations.2 Musawah’s issues of concern and supplementary research take a critical look at the status of marriage and family relations, as largely encapsulated in Article 16 of the CEDAW Convention. Since the concerns of equality and justice in the family are crosscutting, issues in Article 2 (implementation of non-discrimination), Article 5 (gender stereotypes; harmful practices), Article 9 (equal rights with regards to nationality), and Article 15 (equality before the law; freedom of movement and residence) are also covered.
    [Show full text]
  • The Challenges of Islamic Feminism1 Ziba Mir-Hosseini
    ESEJ / ESSAY GENDER AND RESEARCH The Challenges of Islamic Feminism1 Ziba Mir-Hosseini Abstract: By the early 1990s there were clear signs of the emergence of a new gender discourse that came to be labelled ‘Islamic feminism’. In this paper, I fi rst set this new discourse against the backdrop of the global and local politics of Islam and gender in the latter part of the 20th century. Then I introduce the work of feminist scholar-activists who argue for equality and justice from inside the Muslim tradition, outline how they seek to change the terms of traditional Islamic discourses on gender, and consider their prospects of success. I shall focus on Musawah (www.musawah.org), a global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family. Keywords: Islam, Islamic feminism, family law, Musawah Mir-Hosseini, Ziba. 2019. ‘The Challenges of Islamic Feminism.’ Gender a výzkum / Gen- der and Research, Vol. 20, No. 2: 108–122, http://dx.doi.org/10.13060/25706578.2019. 20.2.486. The Muslim legal tradition does not treat men and women equally. At the heart of its unequal construction of gender rights lie two key assumptions: one theological – that God has given men authority over women; the other sociological, refl ecting an ancient premise – men are strong, they protect and provide, while women are weak and obey. These assumptions are reproduced in a set of legal rulings that the classical Muslim jurists derived from Islam’s sacred texts. They continue to constitute the established interpretations of the Shari‘a. With the expansion of human rights and feminist discourses in the course of the twentieth century, many Muslims came to see these interpretations as unjust and discriminatory and began to challenge them from within.
    [Show full text]