March 2010
Women and Islam: Religion, Tradition, or Simply Human Rights?
WOMEN AND ISLAM: RELIGION, TRADITION OR SIMPLY HUMAN RIGHTS?
“Women – religion or belief – human rights”. When referring to the Islamic world we should change it into “Women – Islam or tradition – human rights”. As a matter of fact in the Arab-Islamic world it is sometimes hard to separate religion and tradition when talking about women. What is a clear derivation from Koranic teachings and what is a simple traditional custom? When it comes to FGM, honor killings, wife beating and other matters regarding female discrimination is it a matter of religion, of tradition, of tradition justified through a wrong interpretation of religion or what else?
Politicizing Islam: New Challenges for Indonesian Women
Politicizing Islam: New Challenges for Indonesian Women Sri Wiyanti Eddyono is a feminist lawyer, member of National Commission on Violence Against Women Indonesia, and Vice-President of Semarak Cerlang Nusa, Indonesia.
Keynote Address of the launch of the Global Campaign by Ms. Yakin Ertürk
On 25 November 1960, Mirabel sisters were assassinated under the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. The incident gave impetus to the anti-regime movement, resulting in the fall of the dictatorship the following year. The lives of the Mirabel sisters, now known as the 'unforgettable butterflies', became a symbol for women in Latin America and the Caribbean in their struggle to combat violence against women. They declared Nov. 25 as the day for no violence in 1981, the observance of which soon spread to other parts of the world. In 1999 the UN General Assembly adopted November 25th as the International Day to Eliminate Violence against Women. Women from around the world galvanized the 16 days from 25 Nov. to 10 Dec. – International Human Rights Day – as a period of activism to advance their agenda.
Stop Stoning Forever Campaign: An Unfinished Story
Stop Stoning Forever Campaign: an Unfinished Story
Shadi Sadr is a human rights lawyer, journalist, co-founder of Raahi Women’s Legal Centre in Iran, and winner of the Lech Wasela Prize.
Only one year after the appointment of a fundamentalist government in Iran, in spring of 2006, rumors spread that two people, a man and a woman, were stoned in Mash'had. In the beginning, no one would believe it. Although stoning exists as a punitive act in the rules and regulations of Iran, governmental authorities announced that the Judiciary had stayed the enforcement of the “stoning” execution as a death penalty while in Human Rights negotiations with the European Union in 2002.
Stoning is Not our Culture: A Comparative Analysis of Human Rights and Religious Discourses in Iran and Nigeria
Stoning is a cruel form of torture that is used to punish men and women for adultery and other 'improper' sexual relations. It is currently sanctioned by law and carried out by state actors in at least two countries, and at least seven individuals have been stoned to death in the last five years.
Criminalizing Sexuality: Zina laws as Violence against Women in Muslim Contexts
Abstract: Islamic legal tradition treats any sexual contact outside a legal marriage as a crime. The main category of such crimes is zina, defined as any act of illicit sexual intercourse between a man and woman. In the late twentieth century, the resurgence of Islam as a political and spiritual force led to the revival of zina laws and the creation of new offences that criminalize consensual sexual activity and authorize violence against women. Activists have campaigned against these new laws on human rights grounds.