Vision Newsletter September

Vision
September, 2017
8 YEARS ALREADY!

CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
P.2
MILESTONES
P.3
HEAD TO HEAD
P.5
IN PLAIN TERMS
P.11
SPOTLIGHT
P.13
MUSAWAH DIGEST
P.15

Editorial
SPEAK THE TRUTH..BE
ANGRY IN THE FACE OF
INJUSTICE
F
or
decades now, all of
us living in Muslim cou-­‐
ntries and minority com-­‐
munities in different parts of
the world have been pushing for law
reform to recognise equality between
men and women, and to protect positive
provisions in our laws against attempts
to roll back the rights we have gained.
WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED
AND INTIMIDATED
ZAINAH ANWAR
But we will not be silenced and
intimidated. As activists, we all know
that in order to bring change we must
not be afraid to speak the truth as we
see it, to be angry in the face of
injustice, to take difJicult positions and
to be marginalised and condemned.
For many of us, it is an article of faith
that Islam is just and God is just. If
justice is intrinsic to Islam, then how
could injustice and discrimination
result from the codiJication and
implementation of laws and policies
made in the name of Islam?
Opposition to our efforts comes from
very powerful forces, and they come in
the name of religion and state-­‐sanctioned
patriarchy. Very often Muslim women
who demand justice and want to change
discriminatory laws and practices are
told, ‘this is God’s law’ and therefore not
open to negotiation and change.
To question, challenge, or demand
reform will supposedly go against
Shari‘ah, weaken our faith in God and
lead us astray from the straight path. We
are often accused of being westernised
elites, anti-­‐Islam, anti-­‐Shari’ah , women
who have deviated from our faith – our
aqidah and our iman are weak. Reports
are made against us to the police, to the
religious authorities to take action
against us, to silence us, to charge us for
insulting Islam, to ban our groups.
This is the twenty-­‐Jirst century. And
today, we once again assert there
cannot be justice in this world, without
equality.
In a world where women’s rights are
considered part of human rights, where
modern constitutions of Muslim
countries recognise equality and non-­discrimination,
where women’s daily
realities make them the providers and
protectors of their families, the
continuing discrimination found in
family laws in much of the Muslim
world is untenable and indefensible.
There is clearly a disconnect between
the realities of our lives today, and the
family laws that govern us. We will not
be silenced anymore. We will stand up
and speak out
This editorial is part of an opening speech delivered by Zainah Anwar at the launch of Musawah in Kuala Lumpur, 14 February 2009
2

M USAWAH
ILESTONES
Through meetings, workshops and
conversations, members of Sisters
in Islam (SIS) perceive both
interest in and need for building an
international network to share
scholarship, strategies, and best
practices on work related to family
laws in Muslim contexts.
March 2007
Musawah is formally launched at its
Jirst Global Meeting in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia with 250 participants from
47 countries. Four outputs were
launched:
-­‐ Musawah Framework for Action
-­‐ Wanted: Equality and Justice in the
Muslim Family
-­‐ Home Truths: A Global Report on
Equality and Justice in the Muslim
Family
-­‐ Musawah website
June 2009
2000-­‐2006
A 12-­‐person Planning Committee
comprised of activists and scholars from
different regions meets in Istanbul,
Turkey, at the invitation of SIS. The
group decides that instead of simply
holding one international meeting on
family law reform, what is needed is a
global movement to bring together
activists and scholars to shape a new
dominant discourse that reconciles Islam
with human rights and build public
support for the necessity and possibility
of equality and justice for women in
Islam.
February 2009
Musawah Secretariat is established,
hosted by Sisters in Islam, Kuala
Lumpur. Three key areas of work
identiJied: Knowledge Building,
Movement Building and International
Advocacy, with Communications as
cross-­‐cutting.
3

An Outreach Strategy Meeting with
29 participants from 17 countries is
held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to
develop strategies and activities
based on the needs, strengths, and
challenges of various Advocates.
January 2010
Musawah launches its report on
CEDAW and Muslim Family Laws: In
Search of Common Ground.
Egypt Outreach visit.
October 2011
Musawah new seven-­‐day
curriculum on Islam and Gender
Equality and Justice (I-­‐nGEJ) is
launched.
March 2015
Tunisia Outreach visit
October 2016
January 2017
Musawah opens independent
Secretariat ofJice in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.
August 2010
Musawah begins a Jive-­‐year research
initiative to rethink the issue of male
authority over women and children in
Muslim legal tradition.
January 2011
Musawah submits its Jirst Thematic
Reports and Oral Statements on Article 16
on marriage and family relations to the
CEDAW Committee -­‐ on Kuwait and Oman.
August 2013
Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in
Muslim Legal Tradition is published.
September 2016
Launch of Women’s Stories, Women’s
Lives: Male Authority in Muslim
Contexts in Rabat.
October 2016
The Arabic translation of Men in
Charge? Rethinking Authority in
Muslim Legal Tradition is published.
June 2017
4

Head to Head
MUSAWAH 8
TH
ANNIVERSARY
Celebrating Beginnings
« God cannot be God if God is
Unjust »
Nothing captures Musawah’s ethos like
this statement by Zainah Anwar, its co-­founder
and Executive Director.
This longing for justice, for correcting the
inequitable power dynamics in Muslim
families and for giving Muslim women
their due at last, provided Musawah with
all the reasons to exist and to take up the
challenge of rethinking family law from
within the tradition.
For Musawah, Islam is a just religion. It is
the interpretation of the Qur’an and the
Sunnah by classical jurists that was guided
by the social and political realities of their
age and a set of assumptions that reJlected
the state of knowledge, normative values and
patriarchal institutions of their time.
Injustices result from a disconnect between
these outdated laws and present-­‐day
realities.
Through scholarship and activism, Musawah
is challenging the patriarchal monopoly on
the interpretation of the sacred texts of Islam
to claim back the Qur’anic values of justice,
fairness and equality and emphasize the
temporality of law.
In this section, Musawah Programme
Manager Suri Kempe discusses the
beginnings of a global movement with the
founding members and founding staff:
Zainah Anwar, Ziba Mir-­‐Hosseini, Rozana
Isa and Jana Rumminger.
5

From left to right: Suri Kempe, Zainah Anwar, Ziba Mir-­‐Hosseini, Jana Rumminger and Rozana Isa.
Suri: How did the idea of Musawah come about?
Ziba: I think it was in early 2000.
I came to Malaysia for a workshop that Zainah
organized. I was working on Islam and
feminism but it was the Jirst time I was out of
the Middle Eastern/Iranian/Turkish contexts.
I really felt at home here because there was no
tension between the secular and religious
approaches. There was open-­‐mindedness. It
was at that time that the idea of Musawah
came into existence.
As an academic, I felt that the old way of
approaching inequality and injustice for
women needed to change. I was inspired by a
new type of activism -­‐ working from within
religion. Sisters in Islam was the only group
that I had come across throughout my
research that was both feminist, in its true
sense, and at the same time religious,
combining these two frameworks together.
That was the beginning of the idea.
Zainah: In 2003, Sisters in Islam organized a
meeting on the impact of Islamic extremism
on women’s rights.
We brought groups from South East Asia and
the Arab world together in a meeting where
we talked about the legal, social and
We thought, if Morocco
can do this, why can’t we?
educational impacts of extremism. As women,
we were all suffering from it – extremism -­‐ and
impacted by it. And yet so many women's
groups in Muslim countries were not grappling
with the issue head-­‐on. So many were reluctant
to engage with religion, in spite of the violence
and killings and extremism. We thought that
needed to change.
We were very inspired by what had happened in
Morocco, how the Moudawana was introduced
in 2004 based on the framework of equality and
justice and that marriage is a partnership of
equals. We thought, if Morocco can do this, why
can’t we?
It was then that we decided that there was a
need to bring, in one big international meeting,
women’s groups that have been working on
family law reform for decades, facing so much
resistance from governments, from Islamic
activists and from religious authorities.
6

We needed to bring everyone
together to really strategize how to
push this forward.
SIS is a Malaysian civil
society organisation co-­founded
by Zainah Anwar
committed to promoting
the rights of women within
the frameworks of Islam
and universal human
rights.
Suri: The initial intention was just to host a global meeting.
How did that suddenly become a movement?
Ziba: As Zainah said, the Moroccan experience inspired
us because they used a framework which brought
together human rights, Islamic teachings, constitutional
law and lived realities.
In the 2006 meeting, we had Amina Lamrini (Moroccan
human rights activist and currently president of the High
Audiovisual and Communications Authority in Morocco),
Amal Abdel Hadi (long standing Egyptian feminist and
political activist) and a number of excellent activists from
all over the Arab world. The intention then was to bring
scholarship and activism together.
We hoped our big meeting would become something of a
big bang that will change the world. The next day Amal
Abdel Hadi said: wait a moment, what we have here is a
movement. And that really changed the conversation.
It Yirst got together in 1987
to deal with the challenges
women faced under the
new Islamic Family Law. It
then evolved into a study
group of eight women who
met every week to
understand the Qur'an and
what it says on women's
rights on many contested
issues, such as polygamy,
domestic violence, dress,
divorce, equality and
justice.
SIS went public in 1990
with its Yirst letter to the
editor, boldly asserting
that polygamy is not a
man's right in Islam.
SIS breaks new ground to
create a public space for
women to speak out and
shape a new understanding
of Islam that promotes
equality and justice.
Zainah: Yes, Amal said we
can’t just have one big
meeting and then everybody
just goes back to their own
countries and continue doing
whatever they had been
doing. That’s not going to
bring any change. We were
really serious about achieving
equality and justice and
reforming Muslim family
laws and given the
challenges we were
facing, we were really
talking about a
movement that will take
years to build, one global
meeting was not going to
be enough.
Then Amal said: Wait, what we have here is a
movement. And that really changed the
conversation.
7

Suri: But why is Musawah a
movement as opposed to, say a
network ?
Zainah: I think one major
reason is that we see ourselves
as a movement of ideas, a
movement of knowledge.
We looked at the Violence
Against Women movement, and
how they came out with a
feminist analysis of why
violence against women
happens, what are the
principles in the law if you want
to criminalize domestic
violence, what are the principles
for providing shelter services.
Nobody really owns that
movement. All that scholarship
is being produced, but it is really
up to activists on the ground to
decide how they would want to
use it.
So we looked at the VAW
movement as a model and
decided we wanted to produce
the knowledge, the analyses, the
strategies on how do we build
an alternative discourse on
equality and justice in Islam
and how do we push for law
reform: the arguments that
make change possible.
We wanted to develop that body
of scholarship and we felt that in
the end, it’s really up to groups
at the national level to decide
how they want to use our
scholarship, the strategies we
share at national levels.
We see ourselves
as a movement of
ideas; a movement
of knowledge.
Rozana:There was a concerted
effort to ensure that the agenda
on the ground, at the national
level is led by local groups, not
us. They are the ones working
on law reform while we help to
support their efforts with
knowledge resources and
strategies that might be relevant
to their efforts.
Jana: One last thing to add is
that the Jirst two years, from
2007 until the launching in
2009, were about principles
and values. Our Framework for
Action was originally called
Declaration of Principles.
There were i n t e n s e
discussions about how do we
formulate those values and
principles so that they can be
universal but then still apply to
the different contexts. And I
think that’s actually one of the
things that Musawah,
throughout the years, has
continued to work on.
Suri: Can you tell us a little bit
about the planning process for
the launch, especially for
something as ambitious as a
global movement?
Rozana: Much work was done
in terms of building the
movement principles, values
and resources but one other
thing was reaching out to the
groups of women working on
law reform all over the world
8

and trying to convince them through email to
come on board.
For that we really relied on the planning
committee. They were well established activists
with lots of contacts. So they were the ones who
actually did much of the outreach work. They kept
giving us names, made introductions and we
followed-­‐up by email and phone calls. We reached
out to hundreds of activists in some 50 countries.
The response was overwhelming. In the end, we
had to cap the number at 250 as we could not
manage more.
Zainah: We had reached out to 50 countries
and at the end, 48 countries were represented,
32 of which are OIC countries, so there was
great interest, and we just kept increasing
numbers. We had to look for more funding to
bring in more people as we had only budgeted
for a 100 participants.
The Global movement we
wanted to create was about
bridging the divide which
didn’t exist in South East
Asia but was very much
present in the Arab world.
Suri: Musawah in 2009 launched explosive
debates for secular and religious feminists. How
did that come about and how did you reach a
consensus on it?
2009 Musawah Communications Strategy Meeting, Kuala Lumpur
Jana: It’s 2008, a planning committee of 12
people had decided that we are going to hold this
gigantic global meeting with 250 people.
Zainah was managing Sisters in Islam, I was full-­time
and Rozana comes on board. In that time, the
Planning Committee had to write the Framework
for Action. We chose every word very carefully.
And we needed to translate the document into
Arabic and French, the languages we work in, and
also into Persian and Bahasa. We published
Wanted as well. The book was eight chapters long,
and we had to commission the papers, edit them
and discuss them internally. All this within a year,
then we were planning the meeting for 250 people
in Kuala Lumpur. SIS had never planned a meeting
that big. So SIS basically decided that all work had
to stop from December through February as all its
staff had to be involved in running various
committees to plan for this big meeting.
How can we not engage
with religion when it is
used to discriminate and
oppress us?
Zainah: Sisters in Islam had always been a
group that bridged the gap between Islam and
human rights. We didn’t see any contradictions.
We saw the possibility of engaging with religion
to push for change. As Muslims living in a country
where Islam is a source of law and public policy
and practice, how can we not engage with
religion when it is used to discriminate and
oppress us? How can we just ignore it and leave it
to the religious authorities and the Islamists to
deJine what Islam is and what it’s not?
This global movement we wanted to create then
was really about bridging the divide which didn’t
exist in Southeast Asia, but was very much
present in the Arab world and in South Asia. We
wanted to exist because Jirst of all, there is this
gap of knowledge, on understanding Islam from
a rights’ framework, and second, the gap of
knowledge among secular feminists and human
rights activists in terms of engaging with
religion.
We wanted to bridge that binary that we feel is
deliberately constructed to keep us – secular and
religious feminists -­‐ apart instead of bringing us
together.
9

Suri: What would you say are the key achievements of Musawah?
Rozana: I think we’ve come a long
way with very limited resources and
with a lot of borrowed time as well.
People involved had so many more
commitments, yet they gave a lot of
themselves to the process, to
producing the outputs, to carrying
out the work. It is so wonderful to be
able to be here today and to see how
we can take it forward.
Ziba: One main achievement is that we are
still here, talking to each other, and growing. I
personally think that Musawah has been
really a source of inspiration for many people.
It is the Jirst group of women that came
together both as scholars and activists.
Musawah also values the knowledge that is
produced by women. Most importantly we
developed a methodology. We have a clear
idea of where we want to go but at the same
time, we are open to change.
we’ve come a long way
with very limited
resources and with a
lot of borrowed time
as well
Musawah has been
really a source of
inspiration for many
people
Musawah has been so
grounded in values for
its whole existence
Musawah is not a job,
it’s a mission. This is
our resistance
Jana: I think one of the key
achievements in my mind is not
necessarily related to outputs or
activities or anything, but just the fact
that Musawah has been so grounded in
values for its whole existence, and that
in being a knowledge building
movement, we are not prioritizing only
the scholars among us, who we respect
and are grateful for, but also the
knowledge of people and their
experiences.
Zainah: I am proud of the passion that
everybody in Musawah has. I am proud of the
alignment in values between what Musawah
stands for and the values that our staff holds,
because it’s not a job, it’s a mission where you
know the risks, the attacks, the fact that you
are going to be demonized and yet still be
willing to do it. This is our resistance to
oppressive patriarchy, misogyny, and the use
of God and religion to keep us down. So, no
matter what the risks are, something has to
happen and we are willing to make it happen.
10

In Plain Terms
In Plain Terms is dedicated to Musawah Knowledge Building
Briefs. This series attempts to provide the reader with an accessible
understanding of key concepts and ideas related to the Muslim legal
tradition and family laws.
The second issue sheds light on what makes reform from within the
tradition possible.
Download your copy here
KNOWLEDGE
BUILDING
BRIEFS 02
11

Spotlight
Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal
Tradition.
April 6 2017, Musawah launched the Arabic edition of
Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal
Tradition at the American University in Cairo. The book
critically engages with the juristic assumption that God has
given men authority over women, and challenges male
authority and gender discrimination from within Muslim
legal tradition.
I-­‐nGEJ
In the Jirst half of 2017 Musawah organised two
‘Islam & Gender Equality and Justice (I-­‐nGEJ)’
course, in Amman, Jordan and Cairo, Egypt
respectively.
The course helped build the knowledge and
courage of participants from Egypt, Jordan,
Morocco, Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and Saudi
Arabia to open up the public space for debate
on Islam and women's rights, arguing for the
possibility and necessity of equality and justice
in Islam.
For more information about I-­‐nGEJ visit www.musawah.org
The Global Life Stories Website
May 18 2017, Musawah launched the Global
Life Stories Website featuring Women’s
Stories, Women’s Lives: Male Authority in
Muslim Contexts. This report sheds light on
how qiwamah-­‐and wilayah-­‐based norms and
practices shape contemporary
women’s experiences.
www.musawah-­‐lifestories.org
13

The Arabic edition of Women’s Stories, Women’s
Lives: Male Authority in Muslim Contexts.
June 29, 2017 Musawah launched the Arabic edition of
Women's Stories, Women's Lives: Male Authority in
Muslim Context Researchers and activists from
Bangladesh, Canada, Egypt, The Gambia, Indonesia, Iran,
Malaysia, Nigeria and United Kingdom have joined
efforts to produce a report documenting the experiences
of 55 Muslim women with male authority and
guardianship.
Download your copy here
Compilation of Resources Related to Women’s Rights in
Muslim Family Laws
The Compilation of Resources outlines and brings together
resources from the four corners of Musawah’s holistic
framework – Islamic teachings, universal human rights,
national and constitutional guarantees of equality and the
lived realities of women and men – broken down according
to speciJic topics related to women’s rights in Muslim family
laws.
Download your copy here
Musawah Vision for The Family
Musawah Vision for the Family proposes a model of
Muslim family relations that upholds equality and justice
for all family members and promotes the well-­‐being of
families and society. The document outlines how and why
we must rethink notions of male authority and
guardianship (qiwamah and wilayah) over women on the
basis of Qur'anic values, Muslim legal tradition, human
rights principles, and the lived realities of women and men.
Download your copy here
International Advisory Group meeting
On 15-­‐18 July 2017, Musawah held the
InternaConal Advisory Group and Strategic
DirecCon MeeCng in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
14

Vision Digest
In this section, we take the reader through a collection of recently published articles
from around the world depicting the peaks and valleys of gender equality.
Triple talaq: How Indian
Muslim women fought, and
won, the divorce battle
Abolition of Article 308
in Jordan receives
international praise
Lebanon Repeals
marry-your-rapist law
Tunisian president calls
for gender equality in
inheritance law
Saudi Arabia approves
four decisions in 10 days
to ‘boost women’s rights’
The debate on gender
equality in inheritance
resurfaces in Morocco
Why Afghan women are
campaigning for their
names to be heard
Can feminism be Islamic?
A New Tune on
Women’s Rights in the
Arab World
15

CONGRATULATIONS
The Supreme Court of India struck down the controversial practice
of triple talaq, calling it void, unconstitutional and un-Islamic
Legal change alone is not enough. There is a
lot more that needs to be done. We have to
educate the girls of our community above
14 years about their rights. We now expect
a lot of people to join us.
Zakia Soman
Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan
(one of the six petitioners in the Triple Talaq case)
& a Musawah Advocate
16