"Women in the Middle East" Number 15
August 2003
Bulletin
of Committee to Defend Women's Rights in the Middle East
Editor: Azam Kamguian
Assistant Editor: Mona Basaruddin
In this issue:
· Iran: Women at the Forefront of the Movement against Political Islam
· Afghanistan: Taliban-style Oppression of Women is
Back
· Iraq: Founding Statement
of Organization of Women’s Freedom
· Jordan:
Counselling Website for Victims of
violence
· Iraq: The climate of Fear
& Sexual Violence against Women
· Iraq: Founding Statement of Iraqi Women’s Rights Coalition
· U.K: New
Law to Punish Mutilating Girls Abroad
· Scotland:
Islamic School Damned by Inspectors
· Iraq:
Prostitutes Back on the Streets After Saddam
· UK:
Lancashire Riot Town to Have State-funded Islamic School
· Senegal: FGM,
the Silent Tragedy
· Afghanistan: Women Fighting for the Right to Sing
·
Pakistan: Forced Marriage of Girls
Abroad
·
Morocco : The
Persistent Discrimination against Women
· Iran: Women at the Forefront of the Movement against Political Islam
The slogan of 'Down with the Islamic Republic of Iran.' has become the dominant decree in any political move in Iran. The June 10 and 11 protests have once more shown that the Islamic Republic of Iran is the obstacle to freedom and happiness and the source of poverty and despair in Iran. Protests against any issue, namely the privatisation of universities, lack of water and electricity, price rises, poverty, unpaid wages, and for improvements people's lot and attempts to just live, are directly vis-à-vis the Islamic Republic of Iran and result in the slogan 'Down with the Islamic Republic'. Everyone now agrees that the reform of the Islamic Republic - whoever's agenda it might be is not that of the people of Iran. The people do not want the Islamic Republic of Iran. 'Down with the Islamic Republic' is People’s verdict. It is the verdict of the freedom loving people who have been pushed into misery and despair by the Islamic regime. 'Down with the Islamic Republic of Iran' is the spark of hope in the eyes of women and teenage girls who have not yet lost the hope of liberation from Islamic slavery. 'Down with the Islamic Republic of Iran' is the cry for freedom, joy and liberation. This movement must be consolidated and advanced. The overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran is near. This is also the verdict that recent protests prove. One of the significant characteristics of the recent protests is the role of women in it. Women are taking active part in the demonstrations and protests. They are militant and brave. Throwing off the veil and burning it in a country in which non-observance of the codes of veiling is punished by floggings, imprisonment and torture is an act of tremendous bravery and militancy. The burning of the veil is not only an act of defiance; it is tantamount to burning the flag of the Islamic Republic; it is the symbol of throwing all that is Islamic or representative of the Islamic Republic and political Islam away. Women in Iran are at the forefront of the anti-regime protests and a formidable force against political Islam. The Islamic Republic established its grip on power over twenty years ago by forcibly veiling women, by terrorizing women to submission, and now women are taking to the streets, shouting 'Down with the Islamic Republic', and throwing their veils away and burning this symbol of oppression and humiliation. The people’s movement against the Islamic Republic has entered a new phase, has been transformed and has more directly voiced the desire to overthrow this brutal regime. A great movement to overthrow one of the bloodiest and most brutal regimes of the 20th century shapes the current political environment in Iran. The overthrowing the Islamic Republic will bring about the demise of political Islam in the region.
In December 2002, President
Karzai decreed that women had the right to choose whether to wear a burqa, the
head-to-toe veil that came to symbolize women's oppression under the Taliban.
Despite this announcement, women inside and outside Kabul continue to wear the
concealing garment. Since the fall of the Taliban, Afghan girls have been
permitted to go to school and women have been allowed to rejoin the work force.
But recent events may indicate that Islamic restrictions on women are taking
hold in Afghanistan once again.
Later in the year, the Afghan
government established the Department of Islamic Teaching under the Ministry of
Religious Affairs. Akin to the Taliban-era Department of Vice and Virtue, the
new department trains and deploys women to stop public displays of
"un-Islamic" behaviour among Afghan women. In January, Afghanistan's
Supreme Court Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari banned cable television
broadcasts, declaring that the images violate Islamic morals.
Even more disheartening is the
situation of women in Afghan's warlord-ruled provinces. According to a U.N.
report on women in Afghanistan, there have been arson attacks on girls' schools
in several provinces. The report also indicates that forced marriages, domestic
violence, kidnapping of young girls, harassment and intimidation of women
continue unabated.
· Iraq: Founding Statement of Organization
of Women’s Freedom
Women’s freedom is the measure of
freedom and humanity in society. Not only in Iraq, where women endure the most
severe types of discrimination and injustice, but also in the more developed
countries in the world today, the realization of full equality among women and
men still requires continuous struggle and serious and rapid steps. The Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq
considers itself basically an indivisible part of the great, historic, and
universal struggle for women’s liberation. Women’s rights are universal. They
do not submit to any divisions based upon country borders, cultures,
ethnicities and religions. Furthermore, women’s liberation from male
chauvinistic shackles in Iraq will have a profound ripple effect on women’s status
and people’s lives in the Middle East.
The suffering of women in Iraq
during the past eras due to deprivation, lack of rights, and oppression, is one
of the most malicious phenomena and bitter fact in the Iraqi society. Women
were officially and legally deprived even from the trivial and limited rights
and freedoms that the men enjoyed. In addition to starvation and destitution
resulting from the economic sanctions and the absence of opportunities for
women, women were the first victims of oppressive regimes, especially the
fascist Ba’th regime, and the regressive political changes whether originating
from the United States and their destructive wars or the nationalist and
Islamist movements in Iraq.
Nowadays, the simplest personal
freedoms of women are subject to pressure and restriction that may threaten
women’s right to life. Women are considered second rate citizens and officially
dependant on men. In Iraq, we confront male chauvinism and religious
backwardness and tribalism that threaten women’s humanity and strongly question
her presence in all fields.
The freedom of women and their full
equality with men will always be a hope and aim for the protesting masses and
freedom lovers in Iraq. The marginalization, violence against women,
discriminatory laws and misogynist policies were encountered by continuous
masses denunciation of contemporary Iraqi society. There is a huge emancipatory
and secular force in this society that aims at achieving freedom and a better
life for women. Women’s situation needs to be changed as the women in Iraq
deserve another kind of life; one that is full of freedom, equality and
prosperity. Therefore, the need arises to found the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq for the immediate
realization of this human cause.
Our objective is the unconditional
freedom of women and full equality among women and men in Iraq. The
Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq thereby struggles to realize the
following demands:
The Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq strives to attract women’s
masses outside the dark corners of their houses and to organize their ranks
along a struggle that develops the status of women and assures their participation
in economic, political and social life. The Organization
of Women’s Freedom in Iraq calls upon all women, men and groups protesting
against the abnormal situation of women to join its ranks and struggle to
strengthen and support the emancipatory and egalitarian movement for a better
life for women.
Nasik
Ahmad, Yanar Mohammed, Nadia Mahmood, Independent Women’s Organization June
2003
Reaching out through cyber-space to abused women in
the Arab world, a Jordanian nongovernmental organisation is an on-line
counselling service offering all forms of guidance. The service is being
provided by AmanJordan website, run by the Sisterhood Is Global Institute
(SIGI) and its Amman Resource Centre on Violence Against Women. In its
launching, 16 Arab legal, social, religious and psychological experts expressed
readiness to offer electronic counselling services to needy women in the Arab
world.
Anyone seeking any type of help could log onto the
website - www.amanjordan.org - fill out a form with
their problems or questions, and be provided an expert's answer.
The
insecurity plaguing Baghdad and other Iraqi cities has a distinct and debilitating
impact on the daily lives of women and girls, preventing them from
participating in public life at a crucial time in their country's history. The
failure of Iraqi and U.S.-led occupation authorities to provide public security
in Iraq's capital lies at the root of a widespread fear of rape and abduction
among women and their families.
Women and girls
today in Baghdad are scared, and many are not going to schools or jobs or
looking for work. According to Records and interviews of rap and abduction
victims and witnesses by Human Rights Watch, Iraqi police and health
professionals, and U.S. military police and civil affairs officers, twenty-five
credible allegations of rape or abduction is recorded. The Human Rights Watch
reports have found that police officers gave low priority to allegations of
sexual violence and abduction and, that victims of sexual violence confronted
indifference and sexism from Iraqi law enforcement personnel.
Human Rights
Watch said this inadequate attention to the needs of women and girls has led to
an inability and in some cases unwillingness, by police to conduct serious
investigations. In some cases, reports of sexual violence and abduction to
police were lost.
Cases documented in the report include:
On June 17, two
young women reported to the U.S. military and Iraqi police that their friend
had just been kidnapped. U.S. military police went to the scene of the
abduction, but the perpetrators had long-since fled. Iraqi police failed to
take a statement from the witnesses and thus no investigation was opened into
the abduction of that young woman.
Human Rights Watch, The 17-page report, "Climate
of Fear: Sexual Violence and Abduction of Women and Girls in Baghdad www.humanrightswatch.org
We are a group of Iraqi women who are extremely
concerned about women’s rights and freedom in Iraq. We have decided to set up
this coalition due to the regime change in Iraq. We are working together to
make sure that the new constitution will exclude all the existent codes and
laws which are based on Sharia law and which discriminate against women.
Iraqi women have suffered from many forms of discrimination which has led to
the infliction of violence – rape, torture, domestic violence and ‘honour
killings’ - under the Ba’athist regime for more than two decades.
Women have also suffered institutionalised oppression in the form of the
prohibition of choice of marital and sexual partners; the lack of rights concerning
divorce; denial of freedom of expression in political life; denial of access to
independent travel and enforced veiling in certain regions of Iraq.
Now that the war is over there is a chance for us, as Iraqi women, to impose
our fair demands on the new Government and to put an end to the active
discrimination that has been practiced in Iraq against women.
We advocate the separation of religion from the state and the replacement of
Sharia law with a secular law. This is the only way that a gender-inclusive
society can be established. We advocate the abolition of the principles of
Iraqi ‘Personal Status Law’, which governs the codes of practice and legal
rights (or what we term ‘non-rights’) of women, based on Sharia law principles.
Personal Status Law should be re-established to include unconditional equal
rights between men and women in the political, economic and social spheres. We
advocate for the abolishment of torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading
punishments against women.
The following rights of women to be enshrined in law:
-Equal rights between women and men in all spheres of social, family life,
inheritance, marriage, and divorce.
-The total abolition of killings based on ‘honour’. Honour killings must be
recognised as a crime, and the perpetrators must be brought to justice and
sentenced to a prison term according to the law.
-The criminalisation of all forms of rape, sexual harassment, physical and
psychological torture, domestic violence and beheading women under any excuses.
The right to have abortion for up to 12 weeks of pregnancy for women, and there
should be no restriction by the state or her family.
-The abolition of marriages for girls under the age of sixteen, and the
abolition of polygamous marriages and the practice of temporary marriage
(SIGHA), and also the right to total freedom of choice regarding sexual
partners and spouses.
-The right to enjoy equal rights in employment and education.
-The right to have individual freedom to live alone, and to travel freely
without being accompanied.
-The right to refuse Islamic veiling by the family or the state or any other
person, without any penalty.
-The right to join political parties and the right to establish women’s rights
organisations, advocacy centres, and refugees. Recognition of women’s rights in
participating in every governmental post without any discrimination or
obstacles by the state. The members of this coalition are as follows, and this
list is open for any individuals and groups who believes in unconditional equal
rights between men and women to join:
This is a network of various women’s rights activists and organisations aiming
to influence the policy-making of the new Government in Iraq. It aims to ensure
that women’s equal rights are secured and a secular constitution is
established. We wish to make it clear that we believe in the rights of each and
every individual to practice their freedoms in all spheres as they choose. We
are proposing the complete separation of Government and religion in Iraq, to
establish the only possible chance of secular rule, which is inclusive of all
Iraqis, regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity, and political opinion.
Houzan Mahmoud
E-mail: iraqwrc@hotmail.com
Parents who take their daughters abroad to have
their genitals mutilated could face up to 14 years in prison if a new law gets passed. Home
Secretary David Blunkett has given his backing to a private members bill to
make it illegal for girls to be “taken on holiday” in order to have their
genitals cut. Penalties would be increased from 5 years to 14 years.
FGM is practised in Britain among Somali, Ethiopian, Eritrian, Yemeni,
Malaysian and Indonesian communities. It is more common among Muslims, although
not exclusively an Islamic practice. It is believed some 74,000 first
generation African immigrant women in Britain have undergone FGM, and that up
to 7,000 girls under 16 are at risk of being subjected to it in this country.
FGM is usually performed on girls between the ages of 4 and 13, but newborn
babies and young women before marriage or pregnancy can also be targeted.
Reasons given for carrying it out include: religious demands, custom and
tradition, family honour, hygiene and “prevention of promiscuity”.
A report from Soroptimists, a worldwide group of professionals that advocates
for the rights of women in the world, says that 120 million women have been
mutilated in this way. It says this figure rises by 1 million each year.
School inspectors have published
a damning report on one of Scotland’s two independent Islamic schools. They
said the education provided for secondary pupils and boarders at Iqra Academy,
in Glasgow, is unsatisfactory and that the welfare of the school’s students was
not being safeguarded.
The report reveals that the girls in the school are receiving a significantly
inferior education, are being bullied and don’t like the time they spend in the
school. Half teaching time is spent on “Islamic studies” and the rest on a very
narrow curriculum restricted to maths, English and science – although none of
them were satisfactorily taught. The Scottish Executive has served notice,
giving the academy six months to implement the report’s recommendations, or
face possible closure.
Among other problems, the inspectors said the school “was not promoting a
healthy lifestyle”, with poor exercise provision and a lack of fresh fruit and
vegetables for boarders. In a statement, school officials said: “We are
seriously concerned about the issues raised and we will immediately implement
points of actions outlined in the report.” Newsline, The National
Secular Society www.secularism.org.uk
Um Jenan used to wear gold jewellery, tight jeans
and see-through blouses to attract VIP clients to her apartment in Baghdad -- until
the masked men in black packed her into a minibus and drove her away. When they
laid out her body in front of her home the next day, she was dressed in
loose-fitting sweat pants
and a T-shirt. A banner on the wall above said "God is greatest!"
Beside her lay her severed head.
"I couldn't stop looking at her," said
Ali Waad, who was 11 when Um Jenan was murdered by a death squad loyal to
Saddam Hussein in 1999. "Other boys burst out crying, but I just stood
there staring at the head."
Such was
the brutal justice meted out to prostitutes under the rule of Saddam, driving
the world's oldest profession deep underground in recent years. But since
U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam three weeks ago, Baghdad's sex workers have
slowly crept back to the capital's bombed-out streets.
Prostitutes face new dangers in a city ravaged by
looting and lawlessness, but most are keen to take advantage of the power
vacuum until a new government is established and religious leaders clamp down
on their trade. In a country where many women dress all in black and
most wear headdresses, high-buttoned loose blouses and long skirts, heavily
made-up streetwalkers stand out on the curb.
They open their shawls to reveal tight trousers and
bright-coloured tops for drivers passing slowly by. "They are all over the
place now -- I see them everywhere," said Ahmed Sabri, a taxi driver.
"I could always spot them before, but now it's so obvious. They are not
afraid and do it far more openly."
ARBITRARY
JUSTICE: Prostitution flourished in Iraq in the 1990s as U.N. sanctions,
imposed after Saddam's troops invaded Kuwait in 1990, brought economic
hardship, forcing many women to offer their bodies for cash -- a trade abhorred
by devout Muslims. Officials in BMWs and Mercedes, with pistols strapped to
their waists, used to come to see Um Jenan and about 30 other prostitutes in
the drab "Saddam Complex" of sand-coloured apartment blocks here they
lived.
Shop owner Wisam Mohammed remembers seeing Um
Jenan, who was in her 40s, dressed in revealing outfits, buying cigarettes,
make-up and perfume in his general supplies store. Then one day in 1999, the group of men dressed in black with
their faces covered took Jenan away and decapitated her.
After that, the slick cars stopped coming to the
"Saddam Complex" and the prostitutes quietly moved away. Baghdad
residents say such gruesome punishments were meted out on prostitutes across
the capital that year in a sudden crackdown on an illegal trade that had been
tacitly tolerated by Saddam's secular government. Media restrictions meant
Iraqis heard about the executions only by word of mouth, and estimates vary on
how many people were killed -- from dozens to hundreds.
Still, most agree on the cause of the crackdown --
foreign pornographic videos of Iraqi prostitutes wrapped in the black, white
and red national flag, and, according to many versions, dancing on a portrait
of Saddam.
The insult sparked the attacks by Saddam's Fedayeen
loyalist militia on prostitutes, pimps and particularly anyone suspected of
selling girls abroad.
"DANGEROUS
WORK": Baghdad's prostitutes no longer fear attacks
from the Fedayeen. But the city is fraught with new dangers. One woman, who was
repeatedly approached by drivers as she stood by a major Baghdad thoroughfare
-- ostensibly selling soft drinks said a friend, was killed by a client the
night before. With chipped black nail polish, faded pink lipstick and missing
teeth, the woman, who gave her name as Mawah and her age as 20, said
prostitutes were terrified just before the war because of rumours there would
be a fresh beheading spree.
"It's great that Saddam has gone because we no
longer live in fear," she said. "But it's dangerous work. There's no
control and everybody has got guns -- even the boys."
Across the
street there is more evidence. Sexual repression left the city with Saddam's
fall -- business is brisk at the Atlas cinema that no longer shows censored
films with even the kissing edited out.
The dingy cinema has two posters touting soft-porn
movies. One pre-war film, "Miranda," has the low-cut blouse of the
star blacked out but alongside it this week's release advertises a blonde in
black suspenders and bra writhing on a bed.
Amar Adnan, the cinema manager, shows off the
"Blue Chill" poster with a wide grin. "This is freedom. It's so
wonderful they kicked Saddam out," he said. Soldiers who man checkpoints
and guard government buildings sitting on tanks say men approach them to offer
cigarettes, Pepsi Cola, gum -- and frequently prostitutes.
“W have orders not to buy anything from the Iraqis.
And hookers -- that's a big no-no," U.S. Private Hassan Seyhun said.
Shopkeeper Mohammed is also not buying. He worries the sudden resurgence of
prostitution will spread through the city and stain the reputation of his quiet
neighbourhood again. "When I saw Um Jenan's body lying on the pavement, I
felt no pity at all," he said. "That's what should be done with
them." Reuters April 2003.
·
UK:
Lancashire Riot Town to Have State-funded Islamic School
The 700-place
girls' school for 11 to 16-year-olds will be created by one of the town's seven
private Islamic schools within the control of the local education authority.
And all schools in the borough are to be 'twinned' in a bid to end what the
council has described as segregation in Lackburn with Darwen's schools.
Blackburn would be only the fifth education authority to have an Islamic girls'
school. The Government will have the final say on the scheme but no objections
are expected, according to sources.
Coun Bill Taylor, leader of the council, said:
"We have read carefully several documents, including the Clarke report
following the disturbances in Burnley. We plan to take various steps, including
twinning schools together so they work closely, to ensure that youngsters
understand and respect each other."
The report
to be studied by the executive board reports that 'de facto segregation'
currently exists. In Blackburn, Beardwood High School's roll is 93 per cent
Asian, while St Wilfrid's is 98 per cent white. The report states that only
three of the nine high schools can claim to have a mix that reflects the
diversity of the borough. It adds that this segregation is worsening, with
Asian parents opting more and more for Islamic Schools, which the Council interprets
as strengthening the case for bringing one into the LEA so that integration
with other schools can be promoted.
But Simon Jones, National Union of Teachers
Blackburn with Darwen secretary, said: "This school is uniquely for girls
which makes it even more divided."
But maybe the Canon is celebrating too soon. Other
proposals to turn a community high school - which has
no affiliation to any one faith - into a
church school to meet the over-subscription for places, have been scrapped
after failing to win support during a consultation which began in November
2001.
And another proposal to turn a primary
school into a Muslim primary school
has also been shelved after Muslim leaders said they were happy
with the
provision on offer. Source: Newsline, The National
Secular Society www.secularism.org.uk
·
Senegal:
FGM, the Silent Tragedy
In parts of Senegal, where FGM has been practised for centuries,
campaigns like the one now before African leaders in Ethiopia to end the
"silent tragedy, are brushed off as misinformation.
African leaders and international organisations were taking part in a
conference in the Ethiopian capital set to end with a call for zero- tolerance
of the practice of female genital mutilation.
"My parents did it, and, there is no question in my mind, I am going to
continue the tradition," Cherif Koundoul, a 22-year-old shopkeeper, said
in the town of Kolda, in south-eastern Senegal where female genital mutilation
is still practised, despite being banned in the West African country since
1999.
In Senegal, official figures published in 2001 put the number of women who
undergo female genital mutilation at 20 percent of the female population.
But in the town of Kolda in the southern Zuguinchor province, that
rises to 88 percent, and in some areas in the north of the country, 100
percent, according to Senegal's national action plan for stopping female
genital mutilation.
That plan sets 2005 as a
target date for eradicating female circumcision in Senegal. But organisations
working on the ground say that while the goal of wiping out female genital
mutilation is a noble one, it will probably not be met.
"None of the 'official
declarations' stopping the practice have any effect. Excision is still widely
practised in some villages that claim to have 'laid down the knife” said
Abdourahmane Fall, head of regional social services in Kolda.
This article was
originally published in The Mercury on 05 April 2003
Although the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan ended 18 months ago, women in the country are still faced with a huge number of restrictions in their everyday life. Included among them is a ban on singing in public, on the radio or on television.
"I don't understand
why we can't record our songs and hear them on radio and on television."
Although Ms Samin is allowed to sing in the Kabul music school, a gunman has to
sit at the doorway just in case extremists decide to
deliver judgment. I think what's happened is that the
people who were responsible for the atrocities of the past are in control of
this, and they're doing it all over again," she said. "But I tell
myself the fight has to continue, even though there are people determined to
stop us."
'Prisoners in
own homes': Ms Samin's situation is indicative of the
problems facing women in the new Afghanistan. Although TV screens around the
world were filled with images of women taking off the burqa as the Taliban
fell, women's rights agencies are still trying to realise the idea of
emancipation in Afghanistan. They concede there had not been much change.
"You can see that there's an obvious increase of women going to school, or
having access to higher education, and there are some professional women who
have been able to go back to being lawyers or teachers - but I think that is a
very, very small step," said Rachel Wareham, who works for the German
agency Medica Mondial.
"The
majority of women are still more or less prisoners in their own homes.
"The legal system is not functioning in any area or any way that protects
them or advances them."
Trading in
women: And
further out of Kabul and beyond the reach of government, restrictions deteriorate
into outright abuse of women's rights. The province of Shinwari, near the
Pakistan boarder, is notorious for opium smuggling - and also for the sale of
women. "I was sold 10 years ago - at the time I'd had three children from
my first husband - but when he took a second wife, he sold me," one woman
said. "He and I grew up together, but after I was sold he prevented me
from seeing the children. "My son died. I think his heart broke after I
was forced to leave. I'm not allowed to see my daughter. "When I left my
breast used to leak milk. They tore my baby from me."
In Shinwari
women are sold for around $3,000 each - either as punishment or purely to earn
money for their families or first husbands. "We are innocent in this - we
are just like chickens kept and tied," another told Everywoman.
"Wherever you send us, we go."
Punishments: Activist Pawina Heila has tried to raise
the issue with local authorities, but said they have done nothing. "There
is no difference between now and when the Taliban were in control," she
told Everywoman. One woman she knew of fled the home she had been sold to and
returned to her brother's house. But there she was punished. She was first
scalded with hot water, then tied behind a car with a cable, dragged into the
desert, and shot. "These are the lessons women are taught so they go
quietly when they're sold," she said. The women's ministry in Afghanistan
is - like the rest of the government - short on authority. The minister Habibi
Serabi is under pressure from both international donors and Afghan women
themselves to deliver. "I'm often faced with this problem... people,
particularly men, say that it's custom and culture." Ms Serabi
acknowledged.
"But this is not impossible. We can change the
culture and custom but of course it takes time." "We have to work
very hard, and also not very quickly. We have to take care with each of our
steps." She added that it was not only Afghanistan's women who needed to
be made aware of women's rights, but also the country's men. "Not only women,
but we have to educate the men too," she stressed. "The men should
know about the rights of women, about human rights, about everything. After
that, maybe they can give women the opportunity to take part in society." BBC News, July 4, 2003
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – When
Neelum Aziz visited Kashmir for the first time last year, the young British
girl couldn't wait to explore her family's home village. But her parents had
something else in mind. Two weeks after arriving in Kotli - in the
Pakistan-administered part of the disputed territory - Ms. Aziz was told she
had to marry her cousin.
"[My father and uncle] took away my [British] passport, money, and other
belongings and locked me up," she says. "I screamed and shouted and
kept on crying. My tears dried up, but my family elders did not listen to me
and married me to a cousin of mine without my consent," she says.
Aziz's story is only the most recent example of hundreds of young girls who
become victims of their families' desire to preserve an age-old tradition.
According to human rights activists, 250 girls like Aziz - daughters of British
citizens from Pakistan - were forced into marriages with relatives in 2002
alone.
For many Pakistanis living abroad, sending their child to marry in the home
country is a sure way to preserve culture and lineage. But for many of the
girls themselves, who chafe at harsh parental control after relishing freedom
in their adopted country, this clash of cultures is a breach of fundamental
human rights. It's a cultural clash that diplomats and law- enforcement
officials find difficult to resolve, because it takes place in two separate
countries and legal systems.
"[These Pakistanis] opt to live in the West but want to keep alive the
traditions of the East which victimize women," says Zia Awan, the head of
Madadgaar, a nongovernmental organization that provides legal aid and is a
crisis centre for women in Karachi, Pakistan. "Bringing the girls back to
Pakistan makes coercion simpler and easier, as the young girls being brought up
in the West are alienated from their known environment," he says.
Most of the reported cases are of British-born Pakistanis; about a million Pakistanis
live in England. But activists say girls of Pakistani descent from Norway, the
Netherlands, and Ireland have also been brought to Pakistan by their parents
and forcibly married to relatives.
The practice is not new, but seemingly on the rise, according to Mr. Awan.
"We are witnessing an extremist return to Islam, especially among
Pakistanis living abroad. They perceive the changing policies of the West to
combat terrorism as a direct hostility toward Muslims living in the West, and
we believe that the rise in forced marriages is linked to the changing
attitudes."
In Pakistan, forced marriages usually go uncontested. "Here girls are
treated as animals. They are bought, sold and even bartered to settle the
tribal feuds," says a well known, independent human rights activist in
Karachi, Attiya Dawood. "The girl is a symbol of honour in our society and
is targeted at every level." Her consent in a marriage has "no
importance," she adds.
Some observers point out that forced marriages are a cultural, rather than
religious, issue. Marriage in Islam is a civil contract, requiring that the
woman vocally express her consent three times in front of witnesses.
"Islam is not a religion of extremism or coercion. It does not allow this
practice," says Anis Ahmed, a professor of comparative religion at the
Institute of Policy Studies in Islamabad. "There is a difference in the
social and cultural ethos in civilization of the East and the West. Here girls
have to take their families and parents into consideration while marrying; it
is not just one person's decision. So there is a difference between the
perception about marriage in the West and East."
Attempts by women to protest arranged marriages often backfire. In one widely
reported case, Samia Sarwar was murdered at a women's shelter in Lahore in
April 1999. A resident of Peshawar, she fled to Lahore seeking legal assistance
to file for divorce from her abusive husband and to marry a man of her own
choice. But, according to Amnesty International, Ms. Sarwar's educated and
influential parents considered her request for divorce dishonour and hired a
hit man to shoot her during a meeting with her lawyers.
Five years ago, Rukhsana Naz, a British girl of Pakistani origin, was strangled
to death by her brother in Britain. Her crime was that she had refused to stay
in a marriage arranged when she was 16. A court in Britain sentenced Ms. Naz's
brother and her mother - who assisted in the murder - to life in prison. The
incident triggered a movement within the British community against this illegal
practice of forced marriages, and a liaison was established by British and
Pakistani authorities in Islamabad to help victims of forced marriages.
Aziz herself managed to escape her parents' decision, taking advantage of this
liaison. When she refused to marry her cousin and threatened to return to
Britain, Aziz says the family elders locked her in her room. "I was kept
there and provided meals. My elders would ... try to convince me that it would
be better for my family if I marry my cousin. It went on for almost 12 days,
and then a cleric was called, and I was wedded to a person whom I did not want
to spend the rest of my life with."
Eventually, Aziz sent a letter calling for help to the British High Commission
in Islamabad. Within a few days, British officials learned that Aziz was
already married and being detained against her will.
Aziz appeared in high court May 2 in Muzaffarabad, the capital city of
Pakistan-administered Kashmir. With help from the British High Commission, the
chief justice ordered her release. "If I am sent back to [Kashmir], I fear
they will kill me," Ms Aziz told the court. "I am told not to speak
the truth otherwise I will be shot,"
Last week, she returned to Britain. Her lawyer, Raja Shafqat Khan Abbasi, who
handled 14 cases like hers within the past year, says she still fears for her
life. But, he adds, "the best part is she is now in Britain, and she can
live her life."
www.csmonitor.com
·
Morocco :
The Persistent Discrimination against Women
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women has begun its examination of Morocco's implementation of the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. In
its alternative country report entitled "Violence against Women in
Morocco", which has been submitted to the Committee, the World
Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) expresses its grave concern at reports of
widespread violence against women in the private and community spheres.
Discrimination against women persists in Morocco in both de jure and de facto
forms. The government of Morocco has registered numerous reservations to the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,
thus seriously hampering the potential effectiveness of the treaty. Further,
Moroccan legislation discriminates against women with regard to the minimum
marriageable age, ability to contract a marriage, polygamy, and divorce, among
other areas. Women in Morocco also display lower literacy levels than men and
low levels of participation in higher segments of the labour market.
OMCT's report expresses concern that although domestic violence is little
documented and seldom reported, it appears to be a serious problem. There are
several barriers that prevent women and girls from lodging complaints in
relation to domestic violence. These include: traditional social beliefs
concerning the inferiority of women; the social unacceptability of denouncing
your husband; the lack of specific legislation on violence against women in the
family; and the lack of sensitivity on the part of law enforcement officials. Furthermore,
there is a lack of adequate structures to shelter and help battered women and
women face difficulties in obtaining a judicial divorce on the grounds of harm
and proving physical assault in the domestic sphere as this requires a medical
certificate as well as the testimony of a witness. The report explains that
these obstacles perpetuate the message that domestic violence is to a certain
degree acceptable and allow the perpetrators of domestic violence to enjoy
impunity. OMCT insists that the government develop a comprehensive policy and
legislative response to the problem of domestic violence, which at the same
time should dissolve the mentioned obstacles.
Rape also appears to be heavily underreported due to the social stigma attached
to the loss of virginity and the difficulties women face in proving that they
have been raped due to the lack of a witness to the crime. Another fact that
may discourage women from filing a complaint is the risk of being charged with
having had unlawful sex in cases when she is pregnant and cannot prove that she
was raped. OMCT recommends that the Government of Morocco repeal the
evidentiary rules regarding rape, which place a large part of the burden of
proof on the rape victim.
Another topic of concern in the report is the increase in trafficking in women
and girls for prostitution and the exploitive situation of child maids. OMCT
notes that prostitutes may be doubly victimised; first forced into prostitution
and then detained since prostitution is illegal. As there is currently no
specific legislation to combat trafficking in persons, OMCT recommends the
adoption of new legislation to criminalise trafficking in persons and to ensure
that women and girls who are the victims of sexual exploitation are not held
criminally culpable.
Overall, OMCT's report concludes that while Morocco has a duty under
international law to act with due diligence to prevent, investigate, prosecute
and punish all forms of violence against women, irrespective of whether this
violence is committed by public or private individuals, this obligation has not
been adequately implemented at the national level.
For further
information on or copies of the alternative report on violence against women in
Morocco, contact: cbb@omct.org.
*********************************
Committee to
Defend Women's Rights in the Middle East
Coordinator & Spokesperson: Azam
kamguian
Email: azam_kamguian@yahoo.com
Tel: + 44(0)
788 4040 835
Fax: + 44 (0) 870 831 0204
Web site: www.middleastwomen.org