A question that is sometimes posed is whether women in Muslim contexts are entitled to equal rights. Are their culture and religion opposed to women having equal rights? To answer this, let us recognize the fact that nearly all the countries with Muslim majorities are signatories to international agreements advancing women's rights.
These include the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and other relevant agreements1. Most recently, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25 November 2007), the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference issued a statement that said: "The observance of this day serves as a reminder to the entire international community of the 1999 UN General Assembly resolution 54/134, motivating the need to increase the status of women. Respect and upholding of women's rights in Islam are enshrined in its most valuable principles because Islam recognizes the religious, social, economic, legal and political rights of women. . Unfortunately, a great majority of women in most societies, in particular in the developing and least developed countries, continue to face discrimination and suffer social injustice, and violence2."
The public commitments of States with Muslim majorities explicitly contradict the stereotype of Muslim women as choiceless, voiceless victims of their culture and religion. Such a stereotype, which is unfounded, in fact becomes pernicious when it is institutionalized in policy and law, for example, when women in Muslim minorities are denied equal rights as citizens, on the grounds of their supposed culture and religion.
The UN Secretary-General's 2006 report, In-depth study on all forms of violence against women, notes that "violence against women is not confined to a specific culture, region or country, or to particular groups of women within a society3". This point was highlighted when the report was presented to the General Assembly's Third Committee, noting that at least one in three women is subjected to violence at some point in her lifetime4. Indeed, gender-based violence and discrimination are global problems, not uniquely Muslim problems.
There is an urgent need to make visible initiatives for gender equality for women in Muslim contexts, so that their right to have rights is not discounted, a priori, by fallacious ideas about their culture and religion. As Chair of its Consortium Advisory Group, I am proud to introduce the work of the Research Programme Consortium on "Women's Empowerment in Muslim Contexts" (WEMC). This is a multi-country initiative focusing on women's empowerment -- indigenous assertions of and struggles for rights in diverse Muslim contexts -- and upholding women's rights as an unequivocal principle5. Furthermore, women's assertions of rights are not merely modern phenomena, but have been well-documented throughout Muslim history6.
Unfortunately, at this historic juncture, women's right to gender equality is being challenged in both Muslim and non-Muslim contexts, by the rise of modern extremist political agendas, commonly called religious "fundamentalisms". Opportunistically using religion to disguise political agendas, these extremists seek to disempower women by means of constructing closed constituencies. At the same time, fundamentalist agendas are reinforcing existing patriarchies that are also disempowering women. Women who resist these converging impositions are condemned, ostracized, threatened, abused and dehumanized, with culture and religion used to excuse the systemic violence inflicted on them.
Therefore, as WEMC and the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) have pointed out, it is particularly crucial at this time to reject the use of culture and religion as a means to legitimize the disempowerment of women. As part of this endeavour, UNIFEM has a major campaign on "Say No to Violence" and WEMC observed the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, with the theme "No excuses for violence against women". These campaigns seek to garner public opinion on strategies for mobilizing the State, society and the international community to reject cultural justifications for violence against women7.
As noted in the Secretary-General's In-depth study on all forms of violence against women: "Tension between cultural relativism and the recognition of women's human rights, including the right to be free from violence, has been intensified as a result of the current heightened attention to State security issues. The resort to cultural relativism has been made worse by the policies adopted since 11 September 2001 by many groups and societies that feel threatened and under siege. This tension poses a notable challenge in ensuring that violence against women is kept firmly on the international and national agendas with the priority it requires."
In this context, it is therefore of utmost importance to ensure that women's rights advocates and women asserting their rights are not silenced. Such silencing would make acceptable spurious claims that women's rights and gender equality are alien and illegitimate in Muslim contexts and would condone the use of violence as a mechanism of control over women. It is more important than ever before to amplify women's voices and give support to their national strategies for individual and collective empowerment in ways that would promote democratization from the inside out. This will promote the right to gender equality as the inalienable right of the 600 million women who constitute half of the Muslims in the world.
Notes1. Lists of the signatories of these agreements are available on various websites; see, for example, WomenWatch.
2. Saudi Press Agency, Jeddah, 25 November 2007.
3. Report of the Secretary-General: In-depth study on all forms of violence against women. United Nations General Assembly, Sixty-first session (6 July 2006).
4. "Violence against women not confined to specific culture or region, Third Committee told, as debate begins on advancement of women", United Nations Sixty-first General Assembly Third Committee, 8th and 9th Meetings (AM PM), (New York: UN Department of Public Information, 9 October 2006).
5. For more information on WEMC, see .
6. F. Shaheed, Great Ancestors: women asserting rights in Muslim contexts (Lahore: Shirkat Gah/WLUML, 2007).
7. See WEMC.
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