What is the AGM
Overview
About Providence
Accessibility
AGM Site & Hotel Information
Alternative Housing
Smart Travel Options
AIUSA Resolutions & Eligibility for Voting
Pre-registration Form
Schedule of Events
The AGM 2000 A-Z GUIDE
SPECIAL PROGRAMS:
AGM Service Project
Student Activist Participation
Visions for Growth
AGM Panels
Ideas Fair
AGM WaterFire Action
"Women, Human Rights, and Islam: Exploring the Complexities"
Panel Summary/Goals:The status of women in Islam is an often-discussed concern of human rights activists. However, there is much misinformation and ignorance about the actual relationship between Islam and women. Activists often speak in generalities about "the condition of women in Islam," referring to the celebrated abuses (the Taleban regime, female genital mutilation, lack of suffrage, etc.) without recognizing the incredible diversity of Islam worldwide. This point of this panel was to emphasize the absolute necessity of nuance when discussing Islam, women, and human rights. It was to provide a brief historical overview of the relationship between Islam and women, and to consider the wide range of situations in which Muslim women find themselves in the world today (from the extreme abuses of the Taleban regime in Afghanistan to the common presence of women judges in Malaysia; from the prohibition of women driving in Saudi Arabia to the prohibition of polygamy in Tunisia; from uncovered heads in Bosnia to full-covered bodies in Iran). The panel was then to highlight a few case studies and look briefly at the ways in which Muslim women activists are fighting for rights, on their own terms, today.
Speakers (biography and summary of what they said)
- Dr. Haleh Vaziri, a former activist with Sisterhood is Global and a researcher on the impact of global media on the Middle East, has co-authored books about women and human rights in Muslim societies. Her role on the panel was to offer an overview of the current situation of Muslim women and human rights throughout world, and describe the work of some Muslim women activists.
Dr. Vaziri gave a short autobiography of herself, a "secular" Iranian Muslim, to show how she became interested in fighting for the rights of Muslim women and girls. She went on to highlight briefly the human rights situations as she observed them in several countries, including Iran, Malaysia, and Jordan. She fielded questions about women's rights in Iran and about how Sisterhood is Global distributed their human rights education manuals to women in Muslim countries, and how these women adapted the manuals to suit their particular needs.
- Dr. Riffat Hassan is a professor at the University of Louisville who has worked with Amnesty International to fight honor killings in Pakistan. Her role on the panel was to discuss the current situation in that country, focusing on the misuse of Islam to justify honor killings.
Dr. Hassan focused her comments on the misuse of religion/religious texts by Jews, Christians, and Muslims to justify discrimination against women and to support patriarchal practices that actually are against the spirit of these religions. She discussed her grassroots work in Pakistan, which includes helping to inspire largely uneducated village women to become activists in this cause. She discussed the development of her Network to fight violence against Pakistani women.
- Dr. Azizah al-Hibri is a professor of law and Islamic jurisprudence at the University of Richmond and president of Karamah (Muslim women lawyers for human rights). Her role on the panel was to provide a scholarly historical overview of the relationship between women and Islam.
- Dr. al-Hibri gave several examples of independent, powerful women in the early history of Islam to refute the claim that Islam is anti-woman. She discussed the necessity of changing the law to improve the situation of women in Islamic countries today, and as an example she mentioned the recent improvements in family law in Egypt. She emphasized the fact that changing the law requires grounding one's arguments in Qur'anic texts and Islamic jurisprudence. She also pointed out that many Muslim men are in fact working with Muslim women to restore to women the rights Islam has always intended for them to have.
