Miscellaneous

Dossier 14-15: Statement of Rights from an Independent Women’s Court

We, the women participating in the Arab Court of Women, held in Beirut, June 28-30, 1995, as testifiers and audience to those testimonies; we, who had the opportunity to take part in this great event, jointly assume the responsibility of what we heard of words of truth which broke the ring of silence that had long stifled our voices and sufferings of women.

Dossier 17: The Muslim Religious Right ('Fundamentalists') and Sexuality

As increasing numbers of scholars have pointed out, the study of Muslim peoples and their societies - including their faith, histories, behaviours etc. - has often been made difficult by a number of essentialisms and conflations. Before turning to the specific concern of this paper, I want to deal with some of these because of their implications for the issue of sexuality.

Dossier 4: Turkey ’the fight is against power’

There are 15-20,000 political prisoners in Turkey. Student, worker and ecologist demonstrations are regularly broken up and demonstrators arrested and tortured. There is a state of emergency in five eastern provinces as the large Kurdish community continues to fight for its survival. Meanwhile, the regime makes the superficial move towards liberalism, which are necessary for its application to join the EEC to be accepted.

In the following interview Jill Bend from Off Our Backs (OOB) talks to three Turkish radical feminists.

Dossier 4: Feminist Theology and Women in the Muslim World: An Interview with Riffat Hassan

Riffat Hassan, a native of Pakistan, received her doctorate in Islamic Philosophy at Durham, England. Since 1976 she has been a professor in Religious Studies at University of Louisville, Kentucky. Currently, she is a visiting lecturer at the Divinity School Harvard University, where she is working on a forthcoming book entitled "Equal Before Allah". The following interview was recorded on April 16, 1986 and formed the basis for a November, 1987, Asian Communiqué radio program produced by Betty Milstead of the Center of Asian Studies, University of Texas, Austin.

Dossier 3: Sexual Mutilations: Case studies presented at the workshop African women speak on female circumcision Khartoum (October 21-25, 1984)

Female circumcision in Sudan

Introduction

Female circumcision (the partial or complete removal of the external female genitalia) is widely practised in the Sudan. It has persisted for centuries because of lack of awareness and knowledge about its adverse physical and psychosocial consequences and because of a firm belief in its supposed benefits of ensuring female chastity and securing marriage and subsequent harmonious family life.

Dossier 21: Muslim Women on the Threshold of the 21st Century

In the West, Islam has come to epitomize the worse kind of oppression of women, usually symbolized by the veil, polygyny, and more recently, by stoning.

Publications by Muslim Women’s Research and Action Forum

The titles listed below can be ordered directly from the Muslim Women’s Research and Action Forum. Write to them at mwraf@sltnet.lk for more details.

Can We Women Head a Muslim State?
Fatima Mernissi
Translated into Tamil by M. Nuhman
In her own words, in this slim volume Mernissi attempts to provide the young and uninformed reader with the basic facts about the ‘yes and No' debate on a woman's right to lead a Muslim state.

Vatican: Un appel a la responsabilisation

Demandez au Vatican de se lever en défense des femmes.

Dossier 20

Ce Dossier commence par un exposé de Deniz Kandiyoti sur la position et le rôle des femmes dans les luttes anti-coloniales et dans le projet nationaliste. Les mouvements nationalistes, presque partout, ont bénéficié de la mobilisation des femmes chaque fois que c’était nécessaire, même au front. Cependant, l’indépendance nationale obtenue, les femmes ont été, encore une fois, reléguées au second plan et renvoyées à la sphère privée.

Dossier Spécial: Vol. 1: Les frontières mouvantes du mariage et du divorce dans les communautés musulmanes

Les Dossiers Spéciaux s’articulent autour du programme collectif de recherche et d'action sur les Femmes et les Lois (Women and Law). Ce programme international a été initié et mis en oeuvre par WLUML. Les informations inclues dans ces Dossiers Spéciaux proviennent en grande partie des données produites grâce au programme Femmes et Lois et par les équipes travaillant au niveau national dans différents pays. Il a néanmoins été décidé de faire aussi appel aux contributions de personnes travaillant sur des thèmes proches du programme Femmes et Lois mais qui ne sont pas nécessairement directement impliqués dans le programme.