[empower] women’s activism

This is an update to the January 2010 WLUML Statement on charges against Imrana Jalal: Women Living Under Muslim Laws warmly welcomes the July 30th decision by Justice Priyantha Fernando of the Fiji High Court to stay the remaining charge against Fijian human rights lawyer and longtime WLUML networker Imrana Jalal. Along with the rest of the international human rights movement, WLUML will now be closely watching the treatment of Justice Priyantha Fernando to make sure that he is not subject to adverse consequences of any kind for his appropriate ruling in this case. We note that according to the UN Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary, “it is the duty of all governmental and other institutions to respect and observe the independence of the judiciary.”

The Protection Project at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, in cooperation with the Alexandria University Faculty of Law in Alexandria, Egypt, will be hosting a conference on “Women’s Rights in Egypt and Arab States,” which will take place December 1 – 2, 2010 at the Helnan Palestine Hotel in Alexandria, Egypt. The conference will bring together professors of law, religion and social sciences and representatives from NGOs and other elements of civil society to discuss a broad array of topics related to the rights of women in the Arab world, including Islamic law, personal status and family laws, and labor and political rights, among others.

Armed only with the Camera, Iranian feminist and filmmaker, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, has documented the lives of women enmeshed in the country’s political issues such as the legitimacy of Almadinejad’s regime, women and the family law and stoning on grounds of adultery. She was once more arrested last 20 December 2009 while on her way to the funeral of Ayatollah Montazeri.

دعت الكاتبة الصحافية بجريدة "القبس" الكويتية دلع المفتي المرأة العربية إلى أن تسعى للتسلح بالعلم والتنوير والثقافة لتذب بها عن نفسها أمراض سطوة الرجل عليها ونظرته الدونية لها في المجتمعات العربية، ومحاولات البعض العودة بها إلى الخلف كلما تسارعت إلى الأمام، مشيرة إلى أن خوف الرجل الشرقي من ذلك التقدم هو مبعثه لمحاولة عرقلتها. وأعربت المفتي عن استيائها البالغ من أسلوب تعاطي الإعلام العربي مع قضايا المرأة، مؤكدة أنه يهتم بسيقانها لا بالتنادي بحقوقها واحترام فكرها.