South Asia

We the undersigned representatives of Muslim women’s organizations concerned about the negative media reports of the apparent transgressions and abuses against our Muslim sisters in Afghanistan.

Wish To:


Ask the leadership of the Taliban to clarify their position on the status and role of Afghan women in society.

Recall That:


Fourteen centuries ago Islam liberated women and guaranteed them dignity and full rights to participate in the building and well-being of their communities at all levels.

The right of women to work outside
We seek to have a large international response to stress to the Secretary- General the outrage that women feel. We also want to show our solidarity with our sisters in Afghanistan, who have been asking what we in the international community are doing to assist them. Therefore, it is important to have NGOs from as many countries as possible sign-on to this letter.
The research project on Women, Religion and Social Change in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka currently being undertaken by ICES provides a unique opportunity to explore the cross-cultural dimensions of continuing tradition and the process of change as these relate to women and in this the role of religion. A grey area of uncertainty, prejudice, and very little research, the role of religion in determining the possible for individual actors, particularly women, has rarely received the attention it deserves.
One of the crucial issues affecting women in South Asia today has been the growth of state sponsored religious fundamentalism. This is occurring in the context of increasing evidence of violence against women - dowry murders, sexual harassment, rape often by the police and army, and the throwing of acid on women in the streets. (1) As a result of campaigns and agitations by women's movements, these incidents have been highlighted and the governments have passed some preventive laws, albeit with many loopholes and limitations.
The legal status of the Muslim women (1) in Bangladesh is defined by the principles of Sharia through Muslim Personal Law along with the general law which is non-religious and secular in its character. The Muslim personal law covers the field of marriage, divorce, maintenance, guardianship of children and inheritance whereas the general law covers the rights under the Constitution, penal codes, the civil and criminal procedure codes, evidence act etc.
On 7th June 1988, the members of the controversially elected parliament of Bangladesh passed the Constitution (8th Amendment) Bill imposing Islam as the state religion of the country which broke away from another religious-based country - Pakistan - only 17 years ago. The four pillars of the Constitution of Bangladesh originally were nationalism, democracy, secularism and socialism. Secularism and socialism were dropped from the Constitution in 1977 to be replaced by ‘total faith in Allah’ and ‘social justice’.
The Muslim's Women's Research and Action Front considers the appointment of a committee to examine Muslim Personal Law in the light of reform as a positive step in the socio-legal and cultural upliftment of the community.

MWRAF as a group of committed and concerned Muslim women wishes to suggest a basis for reforms, though we would like to reiterate the fact that our framework is within the Qur'an and Sharia and the proposed changes would in effect be implementation of not only the letter of the law but also the spirit of the law- in other words the essence of the Qur'an
Introduction

Women in Pakistan like their counterparts elsewhere in the world have been victims of the double oppression of class and gender.
Introduction

The legal code of a nation ordinarily reflects, or should reflect, the values of the society that form that nation. It depicts the influence of its past history and its future aspirations or, at least, the aspirations of those in control. The structure, mode, content and intent of the code indicate the ethical concepts peculiar to that nation. All penal codes have ostensibly the same aims - to punish the offender, to prevent crime and to preserve the peace.
The text of the detailed judgment released by the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) in the case of Zafran Bibi.
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