Alexandria S. McCarthy is the International Advocacy Programme Officer at Musawah, the global movement for equality and justice in the...
ABOUT US
WHO WE ARE
THE NETWORK
Women Living Under Muslim Laws is an transnational solidarity network that provides information, support and a collective space for women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or governed by laws and customs said to derive from Islam.
For more than three decades, the WLUML network has linked and kindled solidarity between and across women’s rights organizations and individual gender justice advocates working in a number of countries across the world – ranging from South Africa to Uzbekistan, Senegal to Indonesia, and Brazil to Egypt. It links:
- Women living in countries where Islam is the state religion, or secular countries with Muslim majorities, as well as in countries where minority Muslim communities are governed by minority religious laws;
- Women in secular states where political groups are demanding religious laws;
- Women from communities of Muslim heritage in Europe, the Americas, and around the world;
- Non-Muslim women who may have religious laws applied to them directly or through their children; and/or
- Women born into Muslim communities/families who may define themselves in non-religious terms, preferring to prioritise other aspects of their identity.
HOW WE WORK
The WLUML network aims to strengthen women’s individual and collective struggles for equality and their rights, especially in Muslim contexts. It achieves this by:
- Breaking the isolation in which women wage their struggles by creating and reinforcing linkages between women within Muslim countries and communities, and with regional and global feminist and progressive groups;
- Sharing information and analysis that helps demystify the diverse sources of control over women’s lives, and the strategies and experiences of challenging all means of control.
WLUML’s commitment to transnational solidarity is grounded in our recognition that women’s struggles are interconnected and complementary. The network consciously works to build bridges across identities – within our contexts and internationally.
The WLUML network’s structure has been designed to maximize participation of diverse and autonomous groups and individuals as well as collective decision-making. Network members can be either an organization or individual who subscribes to WLUML’s principles and values, and who may:
- Receive and engage with WLUML information;
- Participate in WLUML collective projects, urgent actions, and solidarity work; and/or
- Lead or contribute to WLUML’s projects, activities and strategic direction.
OUR BOARD
Amal Elmohandes
Amal Elmohandes completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts from the American University in Cairo (AUC) with a major in English...
Amna Nasir
Amna Nasir is a journalist and researcher from Pakistan, currently living in Sydney. She is a recent graduate of Gender...
Najia Haneefi
Najia Haneefi is a dedicated outspoken feminist activist and fearless radio journalist with extensive experience in leading campaigns and protests...
Mona Tajali
Dr. Mona Tajali has been a long-term collaborator with the research wing of the transnational feminist solidarity network, Women Living...
Homa Hoodfar
Homa Hoodfar is Professor of Anthropology, Emerita, at Concordia University, Montreal. Describing herself as an academic in the service of...
Vrinda Narain
Vrinda Narain is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, McGill University. Professor Narain is a Member of the Centre...
Zarqa Yaftali
Zarqa Yaftali is the Director of the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation which focuses on promoting and supporting civil...
OUR COUNCIL
Ada Romero
I am a young professional graduated in the newly-built degree Global Studies in Barcelona and an intern at WLUML. I...
Anniesa Hussain
Anniesa Hussain joined WLUML in 2020, initially as UK Coordinator for the “No Peace Without Women’s Rights in Afghanistan” campaign....
Camilla Gray
Camilla Gray graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor in Islamic Studies and Asian cultures. She will be...
Dana Kamour
Dana Kamour is a feminist with experience in non-profit project coordination and delivery. She joined WLUML in 2021 for a...
Fahima Hashim
Fahima Hashim was the Director of Salmmah Women’s Resource Center in Khartoum, Sudan. One of Fahima’s greatest characteristics is that...
Haddy Jatou Jonga
Haddy Jatou Jonga is a feminist activist focusing on the promotion of the wellbeing of women and children. She currently...
Hilal Işık
Hilal Işık, who worked professionally and voluntarily in many NGOs such as Transparency International and Climate Action Network, joined WLUML...
Humaira Saqib
Humaira Saqib has Prehension of honorary certificate in Finance and Business from North wood university – America, and from Kabul...
Ifra Asad
Ifra Asad is a researcher, writer, activist, and communications specialist. She studied Creative Writing at Franklin and Marshall College and...
Isabel Marler
Isabel Marler is the Communications Coordinator of the Challenging Fundamentalisms programme at the Associate for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID),...
Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh
Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh has been a long time WLUML networker who has played an important role in Iran since the 1990s....
Maria Kardashevskaya
My name is Maria Kardashevskaya but I go by the name Masha. I am a PhD Candidate in Peace and...
Najla Raheel
Born in Kabul (Afghanistan), Najla Raheel is an Afghan women’s rights activist, defence attorney and vice-president of Afghanistan Independent Bar...
Paky Eckerström
Paky Eckerström is a postgraduate student at the University of Helsinki with knowledge of human rights issues in cultural, social...
Saira K Zuberi
Saira is a Gender and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant hailing from South Asia, and currently based in T’karonto, the...
Salam Zada
Salam Zada received her a bachelor’s degree in English, from Salahaddin University, Iraq. she is a woman activist working in...
Setenay Mutlu Adisonmez
Setenay Mutlu Adisönmez is a London based women’s rights advocate who practices in UK immigration policy and law. She has...
Suzanna Eddyono
Suzanna Eddyono obtained her PhD in Sociology from the University of Pittsburgh. She is currently a member of teaching staff...
OUR FOUNDING MEMBERS
Marieme is a visionary, someone with women’s rights and gender politics written into her DNA. Born in Algiers to a family where politics was an integral part of everyday life, like many politicized young women of her time, she was influenced by Algeria’s war of independence and period of decolonization. However, it was the subsequent challenges to women’s rights posed by religious fundamentalists in Algeria and the rest of the Muslim contexts that coloured her political life the most… READ MORE
Marieme Helie Lucas
Co-founder of the Muslim Women’s Research and Action Forum in Sri Lanka, and one of the original founders of Women Living Under Muslim Laws. Zackariya has been at the forefront of the struggle for Muslim personal law reforms in Sri Lanka and beyond for decades… READ MORE
Faizun Zakaruya
Farida Shaheed is the Executive Director of Shirkat Gah – Women’s Resource Centre in Pakistan, that strives to empower women and further a gender-equality social justice agenda. Shaheed is the former UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, and has worked for many years to protect and promote cultural rights by fostering projects designed to support the rights of marginalized sectors, including women and religious and ethnic minorities.
Farida Shaheed
REMEMBERING WLUML
Cassandra Balchin
Cassandra Balchin was born in England in 1962 to Yovanka (née Tomich), a Yugoslav refugee and former journalist, and Nigel...
Salma Sobhan
Salma Sobhan Lives with us through her words and actions Salma Sabhan passed away suddenly late on Monday, 29th December (2003...