Niswa September, 2016 | Page 5

IN a region largely plagued with poverty, turbulent political transitions, violence and an alarming rise of radicalization, I work for gender equality with the utmost belief that women’s rights is the answer to the unfathomable question of the Middle East.

I am a man, an Arab Muslim and a feminist. Every day, I watch Arab women actively changing their communities and our religion.Those courageous women are spearheading the fight of change, tolerance and reform on behalf of a world that is still preoccupied with trying –and often failing- to reconcile different components of their identities and mine.

The many afflictions of the region are stifling voices of inclusiveness and tolerance. The exclusionary rhetoric we hear every day from the west is not helping either!

Syria, Yemen and Iraq are officially home to three of the four worst humanitarian crises in the world. In the raging conflicts of the region, women are exposed to some of the worst forms of sexual violence including sexual enslavement, rape and forced and child marriages. In the rest of the region, the majority of women are unemployed, and their participation in the decision-making process, although improving, is still severely limited. Gender-based violence is at pandemic rates from honor killing in Jordan, to child marriage in Yemen, to female genital mutilation in Egypt and domestic violence everywhere. But from Morocco to the Arab Peninsula, Arab women are challenging the status quo, gaining new grounds every day and changing the cultural fabric of their communities in the process.

In most Arab countries, laws regulate politics, the economy, international relations and internal governance without much reference to religion or citation of Quranic verses. It is where women’s bodies and rights are concerned that rigid literalism surfaces as talk of “virtue” and “faith” silences all dissent. There is simply no way around this discourse. There is only a way through it. And the success of this endeavor means a new way to look at Islam altogether- it is the key to change everything.

Across the Muslim world, incredible work is being done to engender our reading of Islam without compromising our faith- a mighty undertaking in the face of considerable resistance. Instead of dismissing our value system and alienating the millions of Muslim we are trying to serve, feminist scholars are advocating for the inevitable separation between culture and religion, between governance and jurisprudence.

My good friend and scholar, Marwa Sharafeldin specifically examines the concept of “Qiwama”- one of the pillars of conservative jurisprudence on marriage, traditionally understood as reference to the husband’s superiority, financial obligation and guardianship towards the wife. It is Qiwama that is cited when jurists tell women they cannot leave the house, work or travel without their husbands’ permission. Sharafeldin re-defines Qiwama as the responsibility for the care and financial maintenance of the family, which may be shared by both spouses. Her redefinition is also supported by evidence from the scripture.

Sharafeldin and many more scholars have formed Musawah – a global movement of men and women scholars and activists who advocate for justice and equality in the Muslim family. Movements like Musawah and women like Sharafeldin are challenging our communities to rethink our relationship with Islam and what it means for women. It is this cross-section that is so important to find equality and inclusiveness within our culture and religion.

The examples of how women are pushing the boundaries of our understanding of this world and the next are endless. Across the region, Muslim women are finding a voice of reason and peace amidst chaos. The space is not allowing these voices to be heard and they are often muffled by the heavy rhetoric of security solutions, violence and counter-violence.

“These battles are, to a large extent, being fought over the bodies of women and girls, which are treated as contested male terrain,” said Zainab Hawa Bangura, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflicts after a visit to the region.

I go a step further: the battle for human rights, reform and change in the Arab region is a battle fought over the bodies of women and girls- a battle that is incidentally being fought by women and girls. Investing in the region’s women and in a broad rights movement that challenges the conservative, stagnant view of what it means to be Muslims is the most rewarding investment in the region’s future. This is an investment that we, feminist Muslim men and women, are actively making. It is difficult enough as it is without having to stop at every turn to defend our faith.

Mohammad Naciri

UN Women Regional Director for Arab States

Magazine / April, 2013 11

Hope Amidst the Chaos

Women of the Region as a Line of Defense against Extremism

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