Muslim Women’s Gender Justice Demands Change in Personal Law in India
New Age Islam News Bureau
13 March 2023
• Harassment, Patriarchy and Inflation Come Under Fire
in Aurat March in Pakistan
• Lebanese Cleric Urges Choice of Female Candidate for
the Presidency
• International Centre for Human Sciences Conference
Highlights Role of Arab Women in Judiciary
• 'The Nook' Unfurls Women's Elegance across Ottoman,
Republic Eras
• German Embassy in Egypt Celebrates Women Leaders
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/gender-justice-muslim-personal/d/129313
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Muslim Women’s Gender Justice Demands Change in
Personal Law in India
Writer Khadeeja Mumtaz,
activist Shareefa Khanam, and veteran actor Nilambur Ayisha in discussion at
Uyirppu 2023, a get together of Muslim women activists in Kozhikode on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: K. Ragesh
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March 12, 2023
The Forum for Muslim Women’s Gender Justice has
demanded the State and Central governments consider gender inequality and
violation of constitutional rights of Muslim women in the Indian Muslim
Personal Law and support the rights of Muslim women in connection with the
Special Leave Petition that has already been filed in the Supreme Court in
2016.
‘Uyirppu 2023’, a State-level get together under the
forum in Kozhikode on Sunday pointed out the need to democratise the Muslim
community to resist the anti-Muslim campaign going on in the country. Realising
that a uniform civil code will only serve to convert India into a country
without diversity, the Muslim community should stay united to come up with a
means to ensure gender equity within it, a motion passed at ‘Uyirppu’ said.
The get together was inaugurated by Shareefa Khanam,
known for her fights for the rights of Muslim women in Tamil Nadu. She was
instrumental in forming the first completely women’s jamaat in the State and a
mosque for women. In her address, Ms. Khanam said that Muslims, including
religious leaders, were not questioning the injustices against women in their
community. She said that the discrimination against women in personal law was
not a religious issue, but an attitudinal issue.
Convenor of the forum M. Sulfath said that an
amendment to Muslim Personal Law was not impossible as the country had no
problem changing the Hindu and Christian personal laws and the respective laws
of inheritance long ago without connecting it to the Uniform Civil Code.
The get together particularly questioned the law of
inheritance for daughters upon their father’s death and the women’s equal right
to seek divorce.
Chairperson of the Forum V.P. Zuhra presided over the
event while vice chairperson Khadeeja Mumtaz presented the motion.
Celebrities such as director P.T. Kunhumuhammed, actor
Nilambur Ayisha, writers K.E.N. Kunhammad, P.K. Parakkadavu, Shihabuddeen
Poithumkadavu, and activist K. Ajitha took part in the get together.
A discussion on ‘Islamic laws and creativity’ was led
by Mumtaz Kuttikkattor while Nilambur Ayisha inaugurated the session in which
victims of the current personal law shared their experiences.
Source: The Hindu
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Harassment, Patriarchy and Inflation Come Under Fire
in Aurat March in Pakistan
Aurat March in Pakistan
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Shazia Hasan
March 13, 2023
KARACHI: Raising voice over the many injustices in
society, raising awareness on multiple issues, standing up for each other, Hum
Aurtein managed to gather, in no particular order, women, men, transgender
persons, workers, peasants, members of minority communities, students and
children at the sixth Aurat March in all its unapologetic, unabashed brazenness
at the Burns Garden here on Sunday.
There were stories to listen to, faces to read along
with interesting posters and placards.
There were also taboos to be broken. One placard had
the words ‘Sunno, Samjho, Seekho, Badlo [Listen, understand, learn, change],
another read ‘We Are Not Ovary-Acting’. Some other interesting messages on
placards included ‘I Want To Exist Without Apology’, ‘Abort the patriarchy’,
‘Anti-hero’ and ‘Bachay Paida Kerne Hain Tau Inn Ki Perverish Bhi Kerna Seekh
Lo [You want children, then learn to bring them up also].
The stories were all around you, and not just up on
the main stage. Rukhsana Paveen Khokhar had her eight-month-old daughter,
Mashal, in her arms who was looking around inquisitively while taking in her
surroundings and the happenings. “I have named her ‘Mashal’ because I want her
to light up the path for everyone. Similarly, I have named my other daughter,
who is six, Mazaib, meaning beautiful like the moon. The moon also lights the
night sky,” she explained, adding that her mother, Khandul Mai, was also there
at the Aurat March with her.
“My mother struggled a lot to get me educated. I’m the
first female in my family who studied right up to master’s. I have a master’s
in English literature. Throughout my schooling I stood first in class and in
intermediate, BA and MA I passed in the first division. And this despite all
the men in my family, save my father who was a poor labourer, being dead set
against educating girls,” she said.
People from all walks of life pour their heart out as
fiery slogans heat up Burns Garden
Meanwhile, up on the stage there were people coming up
to tell you about their struggles, their issues. There were performances,
singing of songs, acting out skits and tableaux. There were chairs if you would
like to sit on them and watch, there were also carpets spread out on the grass
if you would like to sit down on the ground. The Network of Organisations
Working For People With Disabilities Pakistan, or NOWPDP, had arranged for
wheelchairs too, for the disabled or the elderly. You could also just roam
around and mingle or watch from under the big shady trees of Burns Garden.
There was an air of ease, of freedom to do as you
please, women came dressed in pretty cotton saris, ghararas, ghagras, skirts,
pants, jeans, plain shalwar kameez, there were several men with long hair who
wore their hair in buns or in pony tails, girls had pink, blue and purple
streaks in their hair, many of them were smoked, too, filling their lungs with
smoke. Why why not? They were their lungs, they could do whatever they jolly
well felt like doing with them bringing up the famous, or infamous most
misunderstood slogan from the first Aurat March ‘Mera Jism Meri Marzi’! It was
repeated several times up on the stage, too, along with Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s
inspiring poem ‘Hum Dekhenge’.
Speaking about the Aurat March, economist Dr Kaiser
Bengali, who has attended all the six marches, said that it was an opportunity
to express themselves, which was an important pillar of our social ideology.
“It tells us how society should be organised, pluralised with freedom,” he
said.
Architect and town planner Arif Hasan, who was also
there, said that he had so far attended five marches and that the Aurat March
was a movement.
“Such movements build up slowly but they should happen
as they point out the ills in society which people don’t usually talk about,”
he said, adding that the media should also write about these ills to spread the
word and raise awareness.
Fatima Majeed from the fisherfolk community came up to
talk about the hardships fisherfolks face, about pollution in the seas, about
dirty fuel for power generation such as coal.
Labourers and workers lamented loudly about inflation
and the rising costs of fuel, Pastor Ghazala Shafique spoke about minority
rights, sanitation workers, crimes and injustices against minor girls abducted
and made to change their faiths.
Radha Bheel spoke about bonded labour and how girls
were chained as they worked. How they are also raped as they work like slaves.
“We are fighting against child labour, we are fighting for education, for
respect,” she said.
Women from Lyari spoke about how the skin of their
hands burn and their nails crack while peeling red chillies, tamarind and
garlic. Other women spoke about harassment at the workplace.
Laali from Mirpurkhas came up to talk about the
difficulties women of the flood-affected areas have been facing.
Transgender community member Bindiya Rana, Shahzadi
Rai, Dr Mehrub Moiz Awan and rapper Jaan-e-Hasina brought up the difficulties
faced by their community.
Arzoo Raja, Neha Pervaiz and other teenage Christian
girls, who have now been recovered after they married Muslim men as old as
their fathers, came up to tell their own stories in the form of a tableau. “I
have a body, I have a soul and I have my faith,” they sang.
“We don’t speak about any one woman, we raise voices
for all women, from all communities, classes, faith and sects. We raise voice
for all genders, too,” said social activist and classical dancer Sheema
Kermani.
Finally, there was a small celebration of Holi as all
the participants of the Aurat March rubbed colour on each other’s cheeks. Many
participants, who felt they have been wronged in any way in life, were also
invited to dip their palms in red colour and leave their palm impressions on a
long white cloth that had inscribed in red the words ‘The injustice done to you
will not be forgotten’.
Chanting slogans then and reading out their charter of
demands, the Aurat March then moved out of Burns Garden to march to the Fawwara
Chowk.
Source: Dawn
https://www.dawn.com/news/1741862/harassment-patriarchy-and-inflation-come-under-fire-in-aurat-march
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Lebanese cleric urges choice of female candidate for
the presidency
NAJIA HOUSSARI
March 12, 2023
BEIRUT: A Lebanese clergyman has expressed his support
for a woman candidate for the presidency.
Beirut’s Metropolitan Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elias
Aoude asked during his Sunday sermon: “What would the situation be like if a
female candidate was chosen for the presidency?”
He added: “Since the establishment of the Lebanese
state, we’ve been having only male presidents, who were powerful sometimes and
impotent other times.”
Aoude considered that “electing a female president
will expose the weakness of men who consider their positions as properties,
while women — in their capacity as housewives, mothers, employees, or any other
role — are always restless.
“So, why not let women take charge of the country’s
affairs, just like many other countries that have become pioneers thanks to
their female presidents?”
Lebanese political forces have been struggling to name
a successor to former President Michel Aoun since last year, to put an end to
the vacuum that is paralyzing state institutions.
With male party leaders holding the keys to the
country’s political decisions for decades, Lebanese women are still excluded
from the main decision-making positions in the country — including the
presidency, premiership and parliamentary speaker — despite their wide presence
in other areas.
Randa Al-Yasir, an expert on women’s affairs, told
Arab News that “the main pretexts used against the political participation of
women stem from the societal culture and traditions, which have always allowed
the male mentality to be the final arbiter in naming female candidates,” adding
that clerics’ opinions played a big role in influencing people.
She added: “Archbishop Elias Aoude’s stance in his
sermon was remarkable, as he broke the stereotype against women in positions of
power.
“He clearly encouraged the assumption of power by
patriotically equal men or women to rule the country.
“This recognition by clergymen will contribute to
changing that culture, which has deprived women from accessing higher national
positions.”
Two women from outside the traditional political
system have announced their candidacy for the presidency — a position allocated
for a Maronite personality — in succession to Aoun.
The first candidate is Tracy Chamoun, who is Lebanon’s
former ambassador to Jordan and the granddaughter of Camille Chamoun, the
second post-independence president.
The second candidate is May Rihani, who is an author,
and an expert on girls’ education and women’s empowerment.
The names of Chamoun and Rihani were absent during the
11 parliamentary sessions held for the presidential elections.
The female candidates were not elected by any of the
current deputies, including reformist and independent MPs, due to the ongoing
political tensions.
Although Lebanese women won the right to vote in 1952,
and despite the presence of an active feminist movement, women’s representation
in political affairs remains below expectations.
Eight women won parliamentary seats in the 2022
elections, some of whom were active protesters during demonstrations in 2019.
The feminist movement in Lebanon, in cooperation with
international bodies, is currently working on increasing female representation
in municipal councils and helping more women assume the position of mayor.
It is undecided whether municipal elections will be
held next May, or if the terms of the current councils will be extended amid
the presidential vacuum.
Meanwhile, during a seminar organized by the UN
Development Program, the head of the Seeds for Legal Initiatives organization
said that laws that are unfair to women have turned them into “second-class
citizens who always depend on male guardians.”
She reaffirmed that “women’s engagement in politics is
not a privilege, but an inherent and obvious right in the face of the
aggravation of political forces stigmatized by blatant masculinity resulting
from the accumulation of public impotence and corruption.”
Joelle Abou Farhat, president of the Fiftyfifty
nongovernmental organization in Lebanon, expressed her fear of “the limited
political representation of women in parliament, and the presence of only 600
women in municipal councils out of 12,000 municipal positions.”
She added that “women do not need guidance, but
empowerment.”
Hezbollah is against women’s participation in
politics, and none of the electoral lists supported by the party included a
female candidate.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2267291/middle-east
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International Centre for Human Sciences Conference
Highlights Role of Arab Women in Judiciary
13 Mar 2023
Doha: The International Centre for Human Sciences
(under the auspices of Unesco and in partnership with the German Konrad
Adenauer Foundation – the Rule of Law Program in the Middle East and North
Africa) and QU College of Law recently held a regional conference, titled:
“Arab Women in the Judiciary: Achievements and Challenges,” at Qatar University
(QU).
The event was held in alignment with the United
Nations General Assembly resolution No.75/274 on April 28, 2021, with Qatar an
active participant in its drafting to celebrate the International Day of Women
Judges.
The resolution states that “The General Assembly calls
upon all its members and the agencies of the United Nations, the other
international and regional organisations and civil society including,
non-governmental organisations and academic institutions and networks of women
judges, wherever they are and all concerned stakeholders to celebrate the
International Day of Women Judges every year in the most suitable manner they
view, including through cultural and public awareness activities to enhance the
full participation of women, as men at all levels of the judiciary.”
It was also passed in response to the UN 2030
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In a statement, organisers said, “The Qatari
experience in women’s leadership in the judiciary has witnessed every success.
The participation of a group of Qatari female judges – who are QU alumni – in
our conference as a panel was a showcase of which we are proud. Thus, academic
institutions, including law schools, are important in framing and motivating
women to join judicial institutions.
“In this regard, it is worth noting that the program
of “Judges of Tomorrow,” which is implemented by the Supreme Judiciary Council
in cooperation with the College of Law at Qatar University, aims at encouraging
Qatari students of both genders to join the judiciary, and according to high
academic standards. There are also law clinics and moot courts which we think
of high importance in this regard, and to promote women’s rights according to
international comparative models.”
The statement also added that the Islamic heritage is
replete with honourable examples of women assuming high judicial positions and
tasks. Women can bring about change from the position of “leadership” to
advance the movement of history forward and to benefit society in its various aspects.
“We value our partnership with Dr. Darina Saliba, the
Director of the International Center for Human Sciences partnership and Philipp
Bremer, the Director of the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation the Rule of Law
Program (MENA),” it added.
The event lauded Qatar’s leading educators and
champions of education and life-long legal learning, including the Permanent
Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, H E Sheikha Alya
Ahmed Al Thani, first Qatari judge Court of the Appeal, Dr. Hessa Al Sulaiti,
President of the Supreme Judiciary Council and President of the Court of
Cassation, H E Dr. Hassan Lahdan Al Mohannadi, QU President, Dr. Hassan Al
Derham, QU fifth President and first female President, Prof. Sheikha Abdulla Al
Misnad, Dean of QU College of Education Dr. Hessa Hamad Al Thani, and HBKU
College of Law Dean, Susan Karamian.
Source: The Peninsula Qatar
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'The Nook' unfurls women's elegance across Ottoman,
republic eras
MAR 12, 2023
Kalyon Kültür enters the new art year with a unique
exhibition called "The Nook" ("Kuytu") consisting of works
that have not been brought to light, from the socio-cultural life of the
Ottoman period to the first years of the republic.
Bringing together 1,203 ethnographic works and objects
reflecting the social life of women from the 17th to the 20th centuries, the
exhibition sheds light on the elegance and colorful world of women from the
East to the West by showcasing a special selection reflecting women's fashion
and the characteristics of the period, such as traditional headwear, belts,
bags, purses, jewelry, hand mirrors and wristwatches.
Although "The Nook" means "isolated,
silent and unremarkable place," the exhibition takes us on a journey
through the rich world of women who lived in a relatively secluded environment
and allows us to witness the period. The exhibition focuses on the fashion and
lifestyle culture of women from different segments of Ottoman society and the
republic.
The opening date of the exhibition, March 9, is
intentionally selected as March 8 marks International Women's Day. For this
reason, "The Nook" showcases a total of 1,203 rare works and objects
reflecting the taste and soul of women and serves as an example of an East-West
synthesis. Businessperson and collector Yusuf Iyilik's private collection,
consisting of selected works and objects from various regions that he has
gathered and restored, forms the essence of the exhibition, curated by design
and mosaic artist Meyçem Ezengin.
Reyhan Kalyoncu, chairperson of the Kalyon Holding
Social and Cultural Affairs Committee, said, "We started our journey with
the understanding of 'Gratitude to the Past, Value to the Future' at Kalyon
Kültür, and now we are in our third year. We have hosted many valuable national
and international exhibitions and workshops on different topics. The space we
are in, the Stone Mansion, has existed throughout history with art and art
lovers."
"We support all disciplines of art in this
building as our loyalty to the city. We will continue our program with our
vision of being able to touch society with the idea of art being everyone's
right. Due to the earthquakes that deeply affected our country, we had concerns
about the exhibition's opening. However, believing that the healing power of
art would be good for all of us, we went ahead with the exhibition for art
lovers," she added.
The exhibition is open free of charge at Kalyon Kültür
between March 9 and June 30.
Stone Mansion
The exhibition being held at the Nişantaşı Stone
Mansion, which was restored by the Kalyon Foundation in 2019 and opened as
Kalyon Kültür in 2020, as part of the mission "Gratitude to the Past,
Value to the Future." The Stone Mansion is the birthplace and inspiration
of the poet Ihsan Raif and has always been a meeting place for artists.
The Stone Mansion was built by Sultan Abdulhamid II
and was allocated to Mehmet Raif Pasha, who would give the mansion its name, in
the last months of 1889. Mehmet Raif Pasha (Köse) was a statesman who served as
a governor, minister, vizier and president of the Council of State in the final
phase of the Ottoman Empire. (1836, Crete-1911, Istanbul)
Servet Hanım and poet Ihsan Raif Hanım (1877,
Beirut-1926, Paris), the daughter of Mehmet Raif Pasha, lived in this mansion
in different periods. According to her, the Stone Mansion was a place where
poetry, music and art were nourished.
Ihsan Raif Hanım was the first female poet to use the
"syllabic meter." In addition to 19 works of poetry and music with
lyrics and compositions of her own, she also had poems written by others. The
poem "Kimseye Etmem Şikayet," which she wrote when she was only 13
years old and also worked on a composition for, was later arranged into the
Turkish "nihavent" mode by Kemani Sarkis Efendi and became one of the
most important classics of Turkish art music.
After Ihsan Raif Hanım's death, the mansion was
inhabited by the Mardin family in 1929. Public relations specialist Betül
Mardin lived in the mansion for a while, and her music producer brother Arif
Mardin was also born here. In 2019, the Kalyon Kültür Foundation leased the
mansion.
Since 2020, the Stone Mansion has been serving as
Kalyon Culture, continuing its life as a young social gathering place where
contemporary culture and art are nourished by its past connections.
Interior embellishments
The interior decoration of the mansion displays the
traces of three different periods. The first period is the program that was
applied during the initial construction of the mansion and was revealed through
scraping work.
Then comes the second period, when the second floor
was added to the building. The decorations of this period consist of pen work
decorations on canvas on the ceilings of two sitting rooms and a corridor
facing Rumeli Avenue on the second floor, as well as a creation rediscovered
after the restoration of one of the rooms' walls.
At one point, the building underwent a radical
renovation. As a result, the decorations of the ornate rooms on the ground
floor and the ornate large salon on the first floor were changed to a gilded
plaster relief technique, and the original pen work decorations seen in the
ornate rooms on the ground floor and the first salon walls on the second floor
were covered. The baroque character generally stands out in terms of style in
all three periods. On the facade of the building, neo-Gothic elements are
prominent.
In the context of the transformation process that
began with the Tulip Era in Ottoman art, elements referred to as
"Baroque," "Rococo," "Empire," "neo-Classical,"
"neo-Gothic," and "Orientalist" with European origins also
become widely popular, influencing architectural ornamentation, either alone or
in an eclectic manner. Instead of the traditional style, arches of
"C" and "S" curves were decorated with acanthus or oyster
motifs, Corinthian and Ionic column capitals, entwined spring branches, flower
bouquets, curtain motifs, traditional motifs and surfaces framed by these
motifs were induced.
Source: Daily Sabah
https://www.dailysabah.com/arts/events/the-nook-unfurls-womens-elegance-across-ottoman-republic-eras
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German embassy in Egypt celebrates women leaders
Ahmed Kotb
12 Mar 2023
The German embassy in Cairo hosted on Thursday the
closing ceremony of the “Women Leadership” programme to support female managers
in Egypt’s financial sector.
The programme is organised by the German Agency for
International Development (GIZ), the German Development Bank (KFW), and the
German embassy in Egypt.
The goal of the three-month programme is to give the
participants the confidence to build on their authentic, feminine strengths as
leaders in their careers through a mix of monthly online training, in-person
group discussions, one on one mentoring sessions, and a tandem system whereby
two women leaders empower each other.
Out of 160 applicants, 20 women entrepreneurs have
participated in the programme with the aim to take their businesses to the next
level by focusing on areas including business resilience, business
digitisation, and sustainability growth.
The German Ambassador to Egypt Frank Hartmann said
that the ceremony comes on the occasion of International Women’s Day and as
part of the Gender Equality Week activities.
It is also a chance, he said, to recognize the
importance of women and their contributions to society, both in Egypt and
internationally.
“We are celebrating the success of flourishing
start-up businesses run by Egyptian women,” he said, adding that such a
programme and similar activities show that the more diverse and inclusive we
are, the more we can achieve together as a society, a company, or an embassy.
“We see that women’s voices, ideas and resources are
crucial for societal progress and stability,” Hartmann stated.
The ambassador also pointed out that in order to
tackle today’s complex challenges, in climate, social, economic, or political
development, policies must be driven by diverse voices from all parts of the
society.
Hartmann added that Germany is adopting a ‘Feminist
Foreign Policy’ to help build a secure, sustainable, and prosperous future for
all.
“Societies which thrive for equality and work towards
more peaceful, just, and inclusive development are economically more successful
than those that exclude women and others from equal participation,” he
concluded.
Source: Ahram
https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/491568.aspx
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