Middle East

Iraq: Protect Iraqi Women's Rights in Family Laws

WLUML strongly urges you to join Iraqi women's efforts and take action to oppose the Iraqi Governing Council's (IGC) 'Resolution 137' dated 29 December 2003 that proposes the introduction of Sharia law in personal status matters and to cancel all laws which are incompatible with this decision.

Dossier 25: Gender and the Struggle over Public Spaces

Read this chapter and the complete publication here.

Dossier 25: Practices in the Shari’a Court of Appeal in Israel; Gendered Reading of Arbitration Decisions

Issues related to the ‘public sphere’,1 such as laws which concern work or political participation, have undergone many developments. Personal status, however, has remained the last bastion of male dominance. It has become, in many contexts (e.g. Muslim countries or minority or immigrant communities), a symbol of religious/cultural differences and closely intertwined with the group religious/national identity. It has remained, in most cases, under the authority of the religious institutions and any attempts at reform always spur strong reactions.

Dossier 25: The Role of the International Community in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

23 April 2002

Thank you for inviting me here to give a Palestinian perspective on the Role of the International Community in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In fact, the perspective I will be speaking from is that of human rights. I consider myself to be a human being first, and my ideology is human rights.

Dossier 25: A Border Passage

She ran from the table and locked herself in the bathroom. He had had no idea, he said later, weeping out loud, that what she was doing was climbing out the window.

I remember going to their apartment the day after her death for ‘aza (condolence). She had survived for only a few moments on the pavement, a crowd forming round her as she moaned in great pain, and then had died, no one she knew at her side. She was buried the same day. She was forty-two.

UPDATE: Bahrain: The case against The Committee of Women’s Memorandum

On 11 November 2003, the High Court of Appeal decided not to transfer the case to the Constitutional Court but that the case would continue to be dealt with in the High Penal Court. The next hearing date has not yet been announced.

Bahreïn: Soutenez les membres du Comité du mémorandum des femmes

En septembre 2003 nous vous avions demandé de soutenir l’action des membres du Comité du mémorandum des femmes, (Committee of Women's Memorandum) (Bahreïn), des intellectuels bahreïnis ainsi que les défenseurs des droits humains et droits de la femme.

Bahrain: Defend members of the Committee of Women’s Memorandum

Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) strongly urges you to take action in support of the members of the Committee of Women’s Memorandum (Bahrain), other Bahraini intellectuals, and defenders of human and women’s rights.

Dossier 20: L’Islam est la solution[1]: Les islamistes jordaniens et le dilemme de la “femme moderne”

Ces dix dernières années, la question des relations de genre et du comportement et du mode d’habillement des femmes a occupé une place de plus en plus importante dans le discours des mouvements islamistes. Cet article essaie de situer l’intérêt des islamistes arabes pour la question des femmes dans le cadre de l’héritage du colonialisme et des transformations sociales relatives au genre et à la classe.

Dossier 9-10: Les femmes, le hijab et l’Intifada

Si l’on peut créditer ce mouvement de quelques développements positifs, il reste qu’il a été aussi le cadre d’une campagne vicieuse à Gaza visant à imposer le port du hijab (foulard) à toutes les femmes. La campagne était faite de menaces et du recours à la violence et s’est transformée en une offensive sociale totale. La complicité sociale, l’inaction politique, la pression familiale conjuguées à une transformation idéologique ont donné naissance à une situation où seules quelques femmes engagées (de Gaza) ont continué à ne pas porter le foulard, un an après l’Intifada.