Resources

30/1/2003

Dossier 14-15: The Hidden Politics of Cultural Relativism

Editor’s note

Women migrants in Europe or North America have long started to denounce the dangerous softness with which oppressive laws, customs and practices against women, imported from our countries and cultures, are tolerated or encouraged in the host countries, - in the name of tolerance, of respect of the Other, of the right to difference, of putting at par different cultures or religions, etc...

Like our own governments, governments of the countries of immigration are prepared to sell out the well being, the human rights and the civil right

30/1/2003

Dossier 17: Letter to the Taliban

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

29/1/2003

Dossier 14-15: From Confiscation to Charges of Apostasy

Freedom of Academic Research

CHRLA is greatly alarmed by the Cairo Court of Appeals ruling of June 14, 1995, which ordered the divorce of Nasr Hamed Abu-Zeid (the Cairo University professor) from his wife, Dr. Ibthal Younis, on the grounds that he was an apostate because of the opinions contained in his published research.

The argumentation of the ruling raises problems related to freedom of thought, religious interpretation and belief, and the privacy of family relationships.

29/1/2003

Dossier 14-15: Women in Iranian Civil Law 1905-1995

Only the blind overlook the worsening condition of women under the Islamic regime.

28/1/2003

Dossier 5-6: Equal Before Allah? Woman-man equality in the Islamic tradition

I have been asking questions such as “What is the Islamic view of women?” and “What does it mean to be a Muslim woman?” for a long time. I was born female to a Muslim family living in Lahore, a Muslim city in a Muslim country, Pakistan. Not until 1974, however, did I begin my serious study of women’s issues in Islam and — I am still shocked to reflect — this happened almost by accident.

I was, at that time, faculty adviser to the Muslim Students’ Association chapter at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.

15/1/2003

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.

15/1/2003

Dossier 3: Women's movement in Pakistan: State, Class, Gender

Introduction

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

15/1/2003

Dossier 3: Sexual Mutilation and Women's Health in Africa

Why are women circumcised? These operations are medically unnecessary, agonisingly painful and extremely dangerous. Some girls die from shock and loss of blood. Others develop psychiatric problems from the trauma. Many have chronic infections lasting a lifetime and there are numerous troubles with childbirth, intercourse and menstruation.

Most of the estimated 70 million circumcised women and girls live in certain parts of Africa and the Middle East. There the practice thrives for a variety of social reasons.

1/1/2003

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.

1/1/2002

Don't Let Them Get Away With Murder (Booklet on criminal procedures)

A booklet which aims to break the cycle of impunity in cases of honour killings by clarifying common misconceptions about the law and by providing information on some basic aspects of the law and the operation of the legal machinery in Pakistan as it relates to murder.