NEWS & ARTICLES
 
WOMEN’S RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
“Alliance of 149” for Reform of Rape Law in Sudan
Coalition of Women for Peace on Goldstone Deadline in Israel/Palestine
 
WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVISM
Women Reclaiming and Re-defining Cultures
Saudi Human Rights Commission to Review Child Bride Case 
Empower Women to Counter Extremism in Yemen
Women Fight Polygamy Proposal in Iran
Widows Organization harnessing women's economic contributions in Iraq
 
GENDER RIGHTS
Judiciary Council Overturns Forced-Divorce Decision in Saudi Arabia
Son of Former Mufti says Women Should Be Allowed to Drive in Saudi Arabia
British Woman Facing Lashes over ‘Subversion’ in Iran
Any Agreement with Taliban Must Include Women’s Rights in Afghanistan/UN
Ms Shiva Nazarahari and Six other Human Rights Defenders at Risk in Iran
Women Need Political Space for Peacemaking in Pakistan
 
GENDER BASED VIOLENCE
Assault on Human Rights Organizations and Defenders in Israel
Girl, 16, Buried Alive for Talking to Boys in Turkey
Female Circumcision Ban Urged
Pope Condemns Gay Equality Laws Ahead of First UK Visit
Shadi Sadr's Testimony of Her Arrest and Detention in July 2009
15-year-old Kurdish Girl Convicted of 'Terrorist' Offences in Turkey
Denial of Citizenship to Man with Veiled Wife in France
GENDER & PERSONAL STATUS LAW 
New FGM/C Law Possible "Within Four Years" - Minister in Yemen
WLUML Statement on Arrest of Lawyer Maryam Ghanbari in Iran
 
BOOKS & REPORTS
 
GENDER AND SOCIETIES
Gender Perspectives on the Global Economic Crisis – New
Amnesty Comments on National Report presented by Islamic Republic of Iran
Interview With Ziba Mir Hosseini: Understanding Islamic Feminism
 
RESOURCES
Muslim Woman Preacher in Egypt - Photos
 
 
NEWS & ARTICLES
 
WOMEN’S RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
 
“Alliance of 149” for Reform of Rape Law in Sudan
“Alliance of 149” targets reforming article 149 embedded in the criminal law of 1991. This article is defined as rape; one of the ugliest crimes that violates the privacy of human being and has consequences that correlates the victim in all his life. For more information, follow this link http://www.wluml.org/node/5900
 
Coalition of Women for Peace on Goldstone Deadline in Israel/Palestine
Coalition of Women for Peace have posted a call for Action to Mark the UN Goldstone Report Deadline. Friday, February 5th, marks the deadline given by the UN General Assembly to Israel and to  Hamas to launch independent committees to investigate the findings of the Goldstone Report. The Goldstone Report has concluded that Israel's offensive against Gaza during Operation Cast Lead was "a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population". For more information please follow this link http://www.wluml.org/node/5952
 
WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVISM
Women Reclaiming and Re-defining Cultures
The aim of the Women Reclaiming and Re-defining Cultures (WRRC) Program, a joint initiative of the international solidarity network Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) and the Institute for Women’s Empowerment (IWE), is to enable women to repossess and reconstruct cultural resources (including within ‘religion’ and ‘tradition’); to claim rights, empowering women vis-à-vis those who use cultural/religious discourse to deny women’s rights.  For more information plz follow this link http://www.wluml.org/node/5962
 
Saudi Human Rights Commission to Review Child Bride Case 
Activists see the divorce proceedings as a test case that could pave the way for introducing a minimum age for marriage in the kingdom, where child marriage is common in poorer tribal areas. Saudi Arabia’s state human rights body has hired a lawyer to review the case of a girl whose mother sought her divorce from an 80-year-old man, a move activists hope is a first step against child marriage. For more information:
http://www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?id=507406&news_type=Top&lang=en
 
Empower Women to Counter Extremism in Yemen
 Although women are the most vulnerable to extremists in Yemen, their voices are the least likely to be heard and their role in fighting terrorism is restricted by social and legal status, say human rights activists.
Sisters Against Violent Extremism (SAVE Yemen) brought together a group of women representing human rights groups, academic institutions, the press, and university students to discuss how Yemeni women can be involved in the fight against extremism and terrorism.
http://www.wunrn.com/news/2010/02_10/02_01_10/020110_yemen.htm
 
Women Fight Polygamy Proposal in Iran
Iranian women’s groups and other rights organizations are fighting a much discussed proposed law which they say would encourage polygamy by allowing a man to take a second wife without the permission of the first in certain circumstances. The proposal comes at a time when the country has been rocked by protests, in which women have played a major part, following the disputed re-election last June of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For more information: http://www.wluml.org/node/5929
 
Widows Organization harnessing women's economic contributions in Iraq
I.M.O.W. Global Council member Rajaa Khuzai argues that the hundreds of thousands of widows in Iraq must no longer be ignored, and that their economic contributions must be harnessed to help the war-torn country recover. Dr. Khuzai is a physician and former member of the Iraqi National Assembly. She is currently the President of the Iraqi Widows' Organization, a role which earned her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in 2004. For more information please follow this link http://www.wluml.org/node/5944
 

GENDER RIGHTS
Judiciary Council Overturns Forced-Divorce Decision in Saudi Arabia
Over four years after a judge in Jouf annulled the marriage of Fatima and Mansour at the behest of Fatima’s half brothers, the Supreme Judiciary Council in Riyadh on Saturday overruled the decision and ordered that the couple be reunited in matrimony. “The divorce ruling is void, therefore the return of the couple together is inevitable now and does not require (another) marriage ceremony,” Ahmad Al-Sudairi, who has been providing the couple pro bono representation, told Arab News. http://www.wluml.org/node/5916
 
Son of Former Mufti says Women Should Be Allowed to Drive in Saudi Arabia
The issue of women driving in Saudi Arabia is again a topic of public discussion, following an extraordinary incident that took place during the recent flooding in the city of Jeddah. A 15-year-old girl named Malak Al-Mutairi managed to extricate herself from a partially submerged car, and then got in the family jeep and towed other vehicles and their occupants to safety, saving her own family and eight others. For more information plz follow this link http://www.wluml.org/node/5920
 
British Woman Facing Lashes over ‘Subversion’ in Iran
A British national has begged forgiveness from an Iranian revolutionary court after being put on trial in Tehran for subversive activities, Iranian websites reported yesterday. An unidentified woman, 24, the daughter of a British mother and Iranian father, has admitted some of the charges against her including encouraging and attending demonstrations, consorting with foreigners and drinking alcohol, government and opposition websites said. For more information plz follow this link
http://www.wluml.org/node/5942
 
Any Agreement with Taliban Must Include Women’s Rights in Afghanistan/UN
The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women said Friday that “any agreement reached with the Taliban in Afghanistan should include a clear commitment to respect and protect women’s human rights.” The Committee urged the Afghan government and its international allies “to ensure that women representatives are included in the upcoming peace and development dialogues and negotiations with the Taliban.”
http://www.wluml.org/node/5967
 
Ms Shiva Nazarahari and Six other Human Rights Defenders at Risk in Iran
Human rights defender Ms Shiva Nazarahari and six other members of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR), Mr Kouhyar Goudarzi, Mr Saeed Kalanaki, Mr Mehrdad Rahimi, Ms Parisa Kakaie, Mr Saeed Haeri and Mr Saeed Jalalifar are being pressurized to falsely confess that the CHRR is affiliated with the Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO). Affiliation with the MKO is considered a very serious crime in Iran which carries a possible sentence of execution. Front Line previously sent an appeal in relation to Shiva Nazarahari on 23 June 2009 and in relation to Parisa Kakaie on 5 November 2009.
http://www.wluml.org/node/5925
 
Women Need Political Space for Peacemaking in Pakistan
As a political activist and president of the women’s wing of the Awami National Party (ANP), Zahira Khattak has been working relentlessly for the empowerment of women in the war-torn North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in Pakistan. She believes that by empowering them, they can contribute more to the peace efforts in the region. "We are holding a peace jirga in the near future in which women from the whole province will be invited to speak on the prevailing situation," Khattak said, referring to the spate of violence in the NWFP, one of Pakistan’s four provinces. Women have also been providing comfort to the bereaved families of the victims of militant attacks in NWFP, she said. For more information plz follow this link http://www.wluml.org/node/5922
 
GENDER BASED VIOLENCE
Assault on Human Rights Organizations and Defenders in Israel
A number of prominent human rights organisations in Israel, including B'Tselem, The Public Committee against Torture in Israel and The Association for Civil Rights in Israel have published an open letter to the President of Israel, Shimon Peres, Member of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin, and Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyhau, urging them to condemn the assault and delegitimization of human rights organizations in Israel by by extremist organizations (NGO Monitor, Im Tirtzu and others). Please see the letter attached while following this link  http://www.wluml.org/node/5924
 
Girl, 16, Buried Alive for Talking to Boys in Turkey
Turkish police have recovered the body of a 16-year-old girl they say was buried alive by relatives in an "honour" killing carried out as punishment for talking to boys. The girl, who has been identified only by the initials MM, was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre hole dug under a chicken pen outside her home in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman. http://www.wluml.org/node/5943
 
Female Circumcision Ban Urged
New survey reveals that majority of women in Kurdistan have undergone genital mutilation. Mariam Nadr, 77, has a fine home in an upscale neighbourhood of Erbil and is a prominent member of the community. She has a bright smile, a calm demeanour and wears the white shawl of a respected Kurdish matron. Part of Nadr’s social standing stems from her past: for many years mothers came to her to perform genital mutilations on their daughters. For these women, the act was a cultural and religious rite. For more information plz follow this link http://www.wluml.org/node/5970
 
Pope Condemns Gay Equality Laws Ahead of First UK Visit
Pope Benedict XVI has condemned British equality legislation for running contrary to "natural law" as he confirmed his first visit to the UK later this year. For more information plz follow this link http://www.wluml.org/node/5919
 
Shadi Sadr's Testimony of Her Arrest and Detention in July 2009
Violation of rights in Iran, a window from my experience to a broader picture, By Shadi Sadr: When I was sitting in an interrogation room, with my face to the wall, my eyes covered with a blindfold and my body with a chador, I never imagined that one day I would be at the United Nation Headquarters giving my testimony about this very day. So, I am very glad that I have the chance to be here, especially when many other political prisoners are still locked up inside the prisons or, even among those who were released, have to remain silent and neutralized out of fear. Let me start with my own experience, which is just one example of the many human rights violations that have occurred in Iran since the July 2009 Presidential Election. For more information plz follow this link http://www.wluml.org/node/5966
 
15-year-old Kurdish Girl Convicted of 'Terrorist' Offences in Turkey
The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers is deeply concerned at reports (The Guardian, 1st Feb 2010) that a 15-year-old girl, a Turkish Kurd, named Berivan, has been jailed in Turkey for nearly eight years after being convicted of "terrorist" offences. She was arrested at a demonstration in the south-eastern city of Batman in October 2009. The 13-and-a-half-year sentence originally imposed on her was later reduced on appeal to seven years and nine months because of her age. She was found guilty of "crimes on behalf of an illegal organisation" after prosecutors alleged she had hurled stones and shouted slogans. She was also convicted of attending "meetings and demonstrations in opposition to the law" and "spreading propaganda for an illegal organisation". There are substantial concerns as to the fairness of her trial and conviction. For more information plz follow this link http://www.wluml.org/node/5956
 
Denial of Citizenship to Man with Veiled Wife in France
French authorities have denied citizenship to a man who forced his French wife to wear a face-covering veil, saying he had rejected national values of secularism and gender equality.
The government has been speaking out strongly against head-to-toe veils, and is moving toward banning them in public after a long public debate over French national identity in the age of globalization. http://www.wluml.org/node/5939
 

GENDER & PERSONAL STATUS LAW 
New FGM/C Law Possible "Within Four Years" - Minister in Yemen
Nearly a decade after a ban on health workers performing female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in Yemen, the harmful practice continues unabated, with the government saying more research is needed before an outright ban can be imposed. “Nine years after the ban we see that it works the opposite of what was intended,” said Wafa Ahmad Ali, a leader of the Sanaa-based Yemen Women’s Union (YWU). “Now instead of going to the hospital where the tools are at least clean, FGM is carried out at home.” The Ministry of Human Rights supports a new study on the practice. “If the study proves that the practice is still being carried out, we will push for a new law,” Huda Ali Abdullatef Alban, minister of human rights, told IRIN. “We hope this new law can be in place within the next four years,” he said . For more information plz follow this link http://www.wluml.org/node/5961
 
WLUML Statement on Arrest of Lawyer Maryam Ghanbari in Iran
On the morning of Monday 8 February, 3am local time, Maryam Ghanbari, a 27 years-old lawyer and an active member of Meydaan (Women’s Field), was arrested at her home in Tehran by five Iranian security officers, according to her lawyer, Mina Jafari. The location to which Ms. Ghanbari was taken and where she is currently being held is unknown, as well as any formal charges she might be facing. For more information plz follow this link http://www.wluml.org/node/5953
 
 
BOOKS & REPORTS
 
GENDER AND SOCIETIES
Gender Perspectives on the Global Economic Crisis – New
A new paper Gender Perspectives on the Global Economic Crisis by Richard King, Oxfam GB policy researcher, and Dr Caroline Sweetman, Editor of Gender & Development journal is published  by Oxfam International. The economic crisis continues to affect many women and men living in poverty. But how these effects are felt depends, to a large extent, on their relationships with the people and institutions with whom they interact. These relationships are profoundly different for women and men.
www.oxfam.org.uk/economiccrisis
 
Amnesty Comments on National Report presented by Islamic Republic of Iran
In this document Amnesty International describes a number of key human rights challenges that must be effectively addressed to ensure concrete improvements in the situation of human rights across Iran. These include discrimination against women and minorities in law and practice, as well as entrenched failings in the administration of justice leading to arbitrary arrest, torture and other ill-treatment, unlawful killings, restrictions on freedoms of expression, association and assembly, unfair trial, and the death penalty and other cruel punishments. For you to read the document plz follow this link http://www.wluml.org/node/5980
 
Interview With Ziba Mir Hosseini: Understanding Islamic Feminism
Born in Iran and now based in London, Ziba Mir Hosseini, an anthropologist by training, is one of the most well-known scholars of Islamic Feminism. She is the author of numerous books on the subject, including Marriage on Trial: A Study of Family Law in Iran and Morrocco (l.B.Tauris, 1993) and Islam and Gender, the Religious Debate in Contemporary Islam (Princeton, 1999). She is presently associated with the Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand she talks about the origins and prospects of Islamic feminism as an emancipatory project for Muslim women and as a new, contextually-relevant way of understanding Islam. http://www.wluml.org/node/5965
 
 
RESOURCES
Muslim Woman Preacher in Egypt - Photos
My priority in life is my calling to Islam. I can’t compromise. Writing books, defending Islam, answering misconceptions. There is a big difference between the misapplication of religion and the truth. If you want to criticise someone, learn the truth first. Some questions cannot be answered by men. I feel it is my job. I hope that I’m a role model for these women. For you more information please follow this link
http://www.wunrn.com/news/2010/02_10/02_08_10/020810_egypt.htm