In the news, a new Arab feminist network holds its first conference, a Mali Imam receives threats after backing women’s rights, films on Islamic law and women are released in Indonesia, Pakistan considers a ban on domestic violence, a vigil is held in New York for slain victim of domestic violence, Italian police slap a 500-Euro fine on a woman for wearing a veil, and a court in San Francisco says holding cells are not covered by religious freedom laws.
Twenty participants came together from across seven Arab countries, last week, for the launch of the Young Arab Feminist Network, reports the Daily News Egypt. The network is determined to seek gender equality and bridge the gap amongst all varieties of feminists, young and old, as well as the staunch secularists to the Islamic feminists.
An Imam in Mali is receiving death threats after supporting a new family law which no longer obliges women to obey their husbands, reports BBC News. When the law was introduced in August 2009, the parliament building was attacked and continues to anger some Muslim groups. President Amadou Toumani Toure refused to sign the law and sent it back for parliamentary review for the sake of national unity.
Filmmakers in Indonesia release documentaries on the effects Islamic law has on women, reports
Voice of America News. The director hopes the films provide a lens for non-Muslims to better understand Islam in the lives of Muslim women.
Pakistan is considering a law that would ban domestic violence and broaden the definition to include emotional and financial abuse, stalking, and wrongful confinement, reports the Associated Press. The bill aims to cover all members of a household including elderly parents, children and even husbands. It also requires the set up of local “protection committees” to help victims file reports as there is a stigma associated with women going to the police. A leading Islamist lawmaker, Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, opposes the bill saying that domestic violence was not a big problem in Pakistan until advocacy groups created the “issue” of women’s rights.
The Arab-American Family Support Center, Beit Amal, and TAMKEEN: The Center for Arab-American Empowerment held a vigil for Khadija Mahel on April 30th. Mahel, mother of two young children, was strangled to death by her partner, Muhammad Iqbal, in their Brooklyn apartment. Her body was found two days later in a Queens cemetery wrapped in a carpet, reports the
New York Daily News.
North-western Italian city, Novora, takes its first police action since a by-law banning the veil, or any clothing that prevents immediate identification in public, was introduced in January, reports BBC News. A police official told the AFP that the woman of Tunisian nationality was fined 500 Euros for the offense.
A federal court of appeals in San Francisco ruled 2-1 that Sheriff’s deputies did not violate Souhair Khatib’s rights when they required her to remove her hijab while in a holding cell as she awaited an appearance for a community service deadline extension, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Khatib sued Orange County for damages under a federal law that requires the protection of religious practices while in jail, prison, or in pretrial detention facilities. The ruling said that since a holding cell is not any of those facilities it is not covered by federal law. Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, wrote an indignant dissent calling the holding cell a “full-fledged jail,” and noted that congress had declared that the law be interpreted “in favor of broad protection of religious exercises.”
Shazia Riaz is Events and Publicity Editor for Altmuslimah.
