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An international network that provides information, solidarity and support for all women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or governed by laws and customs said to derive from Islam.
 
 
 
 Current site highlights 
The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women! was launched in November 2007 and is hosted by Women Living Under Muslim Laws. The Campaign seeks to end the relentless mis-use of culture, tradition and religion to justify violence against women. Read more here: www.stop-stoning.org

 News and Views 

Bangladesh: Acid Attacks Continue Despite New Laws (IRIN via WUNRN)
6/01/2009: Acid attacks against women and girls are continuing despite legal campaigns to halt their spread.

Kurdistan: Women protest against polygamy in Kurdistan (VOI via AWID)
5/01/2009: Nearly 200 women from 40 women’s organizations staged a demonstration in front of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) building in Erbil calling to amend a Personal Status Law article allowing polygamy.

Pakistan: Militants Announce Ban on Girls’ Education in Swat (IRIN)
3/01/2009: "He said we must take our daughters out of all schools - private or public - by 15 January 2009 at the latest. Failing this, he said the schools will be bombed and violators would face death..."

International: Conference: Security Without Empire: National Organizing Conference on Foreign Military Bases (WiB)
2/01/2009: "Security Without Empire: National Organizing Conference on Foreign Military Bases"; American University, Washington, DC; Feb. 27-Mar. 2, 2009

Saudi Arabia: Mufti objects to women working in lingerie shops (AFP)
1/01/2009: Saudi Arabia's grand mufti has objected to women working in lingerie shops, despite the labour ministry's approval and rising complaints from female customers about male-only staff, papers said.

India: Arundhati Roy on the terror attacks in Mumbai (The Guardian)
25/12/2008: "The Mumbai attacks have been dubbed 'India's 9/11', and there are calls for a 9/11-style response, including an attack on Pakistan. Instead, the country must fight terrorism with justice, or face civil war."

Iran: United Nations General Assembly “Deeply Concerned” about Human Rights Conditions (Iran Human Rights)
24/12/2008: By a vote of 69 to 54 the United Nations General Assembly has repudiated and expressed “deep concern” for Iran’s human rights record.

Iran: Closure of Human Rights Defenders Center led by Nobel Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi (Washington Post / iranhumanrights.org)
23/12/2008: Iranian authorities on Sunday closed the office of the country's main human rights organization, headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi.

Serbia: Attacks against the Dah Theater (WiB-Belgrade)
23/12/2008: Dah Theater, which has crafted street performances and theatrical plays protesting militarism, nationalism, gender inequality, and the clericalization of Serbian society for over 15 years, has had their offices ransacked and property stolen.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi girl, eight, married off to 58-year-old is denied divorce (The Guardian)
23/12/2008: An eight-year old Saudi Arabian girl who was married off by her father to a 58-year-old man has been told she cannot divorce her husband until she reaches puberty.

 Calls for Action 

Somalia: Stoning to death of a 13-year old girl
4/11/2008: 13-year-old Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was killed on Monday, 27 October 2008, by a group of 50 men who stoned her to death in a stadium in the southern port of Kismayu, Somalia in front of around 1,000 spectators. She was accused of adultery in breach of Islamic law but, her father and other sources told Amnesty International that she had in fact been raped by three men, and had attempted to report this rape to the al-Shabab militia who control Kismayo, and it was this act that resulted in her being accused of adultery and detained. None of men she accused of rape were arrested.

UPDATE: Algeria: Samia Smets acquitted
30/10/2008: Samia S., accused of having damaged a Quran and sentenced last September to 10 years imprisonment, was acquitted on 28 October 2008 by the judge of the criminal division of the Court of Biskra.

Algeria: Woman sentenced to 10 years for allegedly damaging a Quran
23/10/2008: According to Algerian Newspaper El Watan, last September a young women aged 26 was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Biskra, southern Algeria, where she is already detained for previous offence. She is accused of having damaged a Quran.

 
 Publications 

Dossier 29: A Collection of Articles various (Published: July 2008)
Dossier 29: "Mechanisms and Structures to Promote and Protect Women's Human Rights and Gender Equality"

What's the Point of Revolution if We Can't Dance? Jane Barry and Jelena Djordjevic (UAF) (Published: 2007)
What's the Point of Revolution if We Can't Dance? brings us the experiences of more than 100 activists from around the world. Their fears. Hopes. Exhaustion. Exaltation. Grief and pleasure. Pain and loss and wicked black humour. Spirituality. Funding crunches. Backbiting and burnout. Self-worth, desire, selfishness, and selflessness. In Revolution activists from all walks of life talk about the intensely personal and inextricably important side of activism that leaves so many of us fatigued, isolated and ill. Together, we name a culture of activism that sometimes celebrates dying for the cause as a necessary and acceptable part of the activist bargain. We also talked about what keeps us strong the love and passion for the work, and for each other. The simple and complex strategies that activists use to stay well and safe. The book concludes with a call for a revolution within activism that will ensure that we can sustain ourselves and our movements.

WLUML Newsletter 6 WLUML (Published: June 2008)
We are delighted to present the sixth issue of the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) Newsletter! In this edition, we welcome new staff members at the International Coordination Office, cover new developments in the Global Campaign Stop Killing and Stoning Women!, and catch up with some of our networkers from around the world. A special section highlights the political aspects of women and sport in Muslim contexts.

WLUML Newsletter 5 WLUML (Published: Dec. 2007 / Jan. 2008)
Women Living Under Muslim Laws is delighted to present the fifth issue of the WLUML Newsletter! The objective of WLUML's newsletters is to present a platform for women's rights activists around the world to project their voices, and for networkers to share their experiences of activism across boundaries.

This issue features articles on the launch of the Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women! and our Feminism in the Muslim World Third Leadership Institute. This issue features networkers' submissions from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Burma, India and Pakistan, as well as book and film reviews, updates on solidarity cases and more.

WLUML Newsletter 4 WLUML (Published: August 2007)
We are delighted to present the Fourth Issue of the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) Newsletter! The overarching objective of WLUML's bi-annual newsletters is to present a platform to women's rights activists around the world to project their voices, and for networkers to share their experiences of activism across boundaries.

This issue, with an improved format, features the addition of 'Activists Reflections', which present a selection of the articles we received in response to our online Call for Submissions. Reflecting the transnational nature and philosophy of the WLUML network, the articles and reports included in this newsletter range from Growing Talibanisation in Pakistan to Expanding International Legal Protections for Victims of Gender-Based Violence in Iraqi Kurdistan and the lobbying of the Gambian Committee Against Traditional Practices.

Dossier 28: A Collection of Articles various (Published: December 2006)
This Dossier explores issues around ‘secularism’.

For more than two decades, feminists have discussed the impact and mechanics of extreme right politico-religious forces and shared strategies of resistance against fundamentalisms. But, as feminists, we have yet to develop a coherent analysis of the concrete alternatives. Yet we need such an analysis in order to move beyond resistance and be more pro-active in our advocacy for an alternative vision of society. In the context of globally rising extreme right politics justified with reference to religion and rising neo-liberalism’s impact on democratic governance and social inclusion, it is time to discuss secularisms in depth.

The articles in this volume look at some of the questions feminists need to begin discussing in order to define more clearly the changes we want to see and the systems that will work best for women, and in order to develop a movement that is more inclusive and more effective.

Dossier 28 seeks to contribute to these discussions by presenting various analyses of secularism, from the perspective of theory as well as lived experience in contexts as diverse as Algeria, Argentina, China, Egypt, France, India, Italy, Senegal, South Africa, and Sudan.

Occasional Paper 15: Iraq Women's Rights Under Attack Occupation, Constitution and Fundamentalisms Nadje Al-Ali, Mubejel Baban, and Sundus Abass (Published: December 2006)
This Occasional Paper features recent activities of Act Together, one of WLUML's networking organisations based in the UK. In July 2006 Act Together, Women's Action for Iraq, hosted Sundus Abass, Director of Women in Leadership Institute (Baghdad) in London for 15 days. WLUML helped to make the visit possible, as part of various network activities in support of women in post-conflict situations, such as in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka. This publication is a record of some of the activities that happened during those 15 hectic days. The aim of the visit was to highlight the work that Iraqi women are doing to try to amend the new Iraqi Constitution, in particular to ensure that the pre-existing Iraqi Personal Status Law, one of the more egalitarian family laws in the Middle East, is not replaced by Article 41.

The publication includes:

· Three talks that were given at a public meeting at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), in London
· The translated edited transcript of a film was by Maysoon Pachachi, of a two-hour discussion in Arabic between three highly experienced Iraqi women activists
· Briefing paper for Parliamentarians
· Act Together grassroots action leaflets

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