Empowerment

Pakistan: Women Human Rights Defenders Day marked in Lahore

South Asia Partnership Pakistan (SAP) in collaboration with Women Workers Help Line, Kashf Foundation and Shirkat Gah organised a walk in solidarity with the women rights activists outside Lahore Press Club on Monday.

مصر: نظرة للدراسات النسوية تصدر تقرير عن أعمال الدعاية للمرشحات

أصدرت نظرة للدراسات النسوية عضو الائتلاف المستقل لمراقبة الانتخابات تقرير عن أعمال الدعاية الانتخابية لمرشحات الانتخابات التشريعية 2010.وقد تناول التقرير أداء المرشحات لمجلس الشعب خلال مرحلة الدعاية الأنتخابية من خلال تحليل لأنشطتهن وبرامجهن الانتخابية ومدى اهتمامهن بإدماج قضايا المرأة في البرنامج الانتخابي. وقد رصد التقرير حالات تعسف الجهة الادارية في تنفيذ أحكام القضاء الاداري وما ترتب عليه من أنفراد مرشحتان بالترشيح على مقعد المرأة (عمال فلاحين) بمحافظتي 6 أكتوبر وبني سويف، مما يضمن فوز سهل في حال حصولهما على 10% من أجمالي عدد الأصوات المقيدة بالدائرة الانتخابية.

Indonesia: Islam and Democratisation from Below

In Indonesia, Islamic NGOs have become the backbone of the country's tolerant civil society. While Islamic women's organisations are demonstrating how the Sharia can be used effectively to combat misogynist policies, Islamist parties are losing ground in elections. Alfred Stepan and Jeremy Menchik report

Palestine: Women's volleyball in Bethlehem

The Palestinian Volleyball Union organized its first Women's Championships in 2010, won by a team from Bethlehem's Ibda center in the Duheisheh refugee camp. The team beat the Beit Sahour Orthodox Club three to one in the finals, hosted by the Catholic Action Center in Bethlehem on 12 November 2010.

Iran/US: Shadi Sadr wins Katharine & George Alexander Law Prize

The Katharine & George Alexander Law Prize brings recognition to lawyers who have used their legal careers to help alleviate injustice and inequity. The 2010 Award winner is Shadi Sadr, Iranian Human Rights and Women's Rights lawyer, and WLUML Council Member. The Committee selected Shadi Sadr because of her ceaseless dedication to championing the cause of Iranian women and risking her freedom to defend those who are wrongfully accused and imprisoned. Below is the text of Sadr's acceptance speech at Santa Clara University in California on 11 November.

Bahrain: Poll Win Gives Women Candidates A Push

The recent election of Bahrain’s first female municipal councilor is boosting hopes among women here that they are seeing the beginning of the end to gender-based voting in this country. Indeed, even the women who failed in their own poll bids – some for the second or third time – are upbeat following the Oct. 30 win of Fatima Salman as councilor in Muharraq, the second largest city in Bahrain. Mariam Al Ruwai, president of Bahrain’s Women Union, is also raring to run again in the next polls, scheduled for 2014, despite her elimination from the first round of the recent parliamentary election.

International: Campaign to Promote Sexual & Bodily Rights across Muslim Societies One Day Struggle 2010

On November 9, 2010, the 2nd international “One Day One Struggle” Campaign to promote sexual and bodily rights in Muslim societies will take place in 12 countries across Middle East, North Africa, South and Southeast Asia. With diverse, groundbreaking actions and events, almost 50 participating Human Rights organizations, Universities and Municipalities will simultaneously call for public attention to issues like Right to Information, Sexuality Education, Sexual Health, Bodily Autonomy and Sexual Rights of Individuals, LGBTTQ Rights, Sexual Diversity and Islam, Sexuality and Shari’a as well as the struggle to stop sexual rights violations ranging from Polygamy to killings of women, gay people and transsexuals.

Bahrain: First woman elected to municipal council

Bahrain has made history by electing its first woman to a municipal council, as the country went to the polls for the second time in a week. Independent candidate Fatima Salman sealed victory in the second round of voting in Muharraq against male opponent Mohammed Abdulla Al Senan. She is the first woman to be directly elected to public office since Bahrain's parliament and five municipal councils were formed in 2002. Latifa Al Gaoud, the first woman to make it to parliament in 2006, was re-elected again this year - but ran unopposed both times.

Pakistan: Victory of Ms. Asma Jahangir as the President of the Supreme Court of Pakistan

The Asian Human Rights Commission extends its congratulation to Ms. Asma Jahangir and her colleagues for their victory of different offices at the Supreme Court Bar Association elections. Her victory as the president of the highest bar association of Pakistan will strengthen the lawyer's movement for an independent bar, the supremacy of the judiciary and the rule of law. Her success is a victory for the democratic forces, lovers of freedom of expression and the independence of the media.

International: ‘Islamic feminism’ as the ‘unwanted child’ of political Islam

This is an exclusive excerpt from the paper Ziba Mir-Hosseini gave at the October 2010 Islamic Feminism Conference in Madrid: "As the term ‘Islamic feminism’ gained currency in the late 1990s, most of those so labelled by academics and journalists rejected either the ‘Islamic’ or the ‘feminist’ part of the term. If they came from a religious background and addressed women’s rights within an Islamic frame of reference, they wanted to avoid any kind of association with the term ‘feminism’, and their gender activism was a mixture of conformity and defiance. If they came from a secular background and addressed women’s rights from within broader feminist discourses, they rejected being called ‘Islamic’—even though many of them located their feminism in Islam. Those associated with political Islam took contradictory positions and made confusing statements with respect to gender equality; for them, the wider project of gaining power and establishing an Islamic state took priority over equality and democracy.

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