Democracy in Development » Ongoing Struggles for Women’s Rights in Libya and Egypt

A woman shouts slogans against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood during a march against sexual harassment and violence against women in Cairo on February 6, 2013 (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Courtesy Reuters). by 

Isobel Coleman
March 8, 2013

This week at the Council on Foreign Relations, I hosted two women’s rights leaders visiting New York from Libya and Egypt for the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The two leaders, Zahra Langhi and Fatemah Kafaghy, are participating in the CSW as part of a delegation from Karama, a nonprofit that aims to empower Arab women leaders...........

FULL ARTICLE: Democracy in Development » Ongoing Struggles for Women’s Rights in Libya and Egypt

Democracy in Development » Women’s Security in the Middle East and North Africa

  A woman holds a placard during a protest to mark International Women's Day in downtown Sanaa, Yemen on March 8, 2013. The placard reads "Not with weapons we build the country." (Khaled Abdullah/Courtesy Reuters).


BY ISOBEL COLEMAN:

“It is time for an uprising of women in the Arab world,” writes Hanin Ghaddar, managing editor of NOW News in Lebanon in the second annual publication to mark International Women’s Day by the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Middle East Program............

FULL ARTICLE: Democracy in Development » Women’s Security in the Middle East and North Africa

EPISCOPAL WOMEN-TO-WOMEN MINISTRY GROWING FOR Democratic Republic of the Congo

Women-to-Women Ministry Statement:

“The women of the Diocese of Virginia stand in partnership with the women of the Diocese of Bukavu, Congo in a partnership of hope, empowerment, shared prayer and resources.”

The Diocese of Virginia is forming a women-to-women ministry between the women of the Diocese of Virginia and the Mothers’ Union of the Diocese of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Mothers’ Union of the Diocese of Bukavu is responding the gender-based violence in the region through vocational and literacy training, support, love and frienship.

The Diocese of Virginia visited the Dioceses of Boga, North Kivu, Bukavu and Kisangani in February 2010. In May 2012, three representatives of the diocese visited the Dioceses of Bukavu and Katanga to continue forming deep, valuable relationships.

The women-to-women ministry is looking for women all around the Diocese to help spread the word and gain support for the wonderful work being done by the Anglican Church in one of the most dangerous parts of the world.

Watch the video of pictures from the May 2012 trip:




LINK FOR MORE INFO and TO HELP: WOMEN-TO-WOMEN Democratic Republic of the Congo

Why Do They Hate Us? - By Mona Eltahawy

In "Distant View of a Minaret," the late and much-neglected Egyptian writer Alifa Rifaat begins her short story with a woman so unmoved by sex with her husband that as he focuses solely on his pleasure, she notices a spider web she must sweep off the ceiling and has time to ruminate on her husband's repeated refusal to prolong intercourse until she too climaxes, "as though purposely to deprive her." Just as her husband denies her an orgasm, the call to prayer interrupts his, and the man leaves. After washing up, she loses herself in prayer -- so much more satisfying that she can't wait until the next prayer -- and looks out onto the street from her balcony. She interrupts her reverie to make coffee dutifully for her husband to drink after his nap. Taking it to their bedroom to pour it in front of him as he prefers, she notices he is dead. She instructs their son to go and get a doctor. "She returned to the living room and poured out the coffee for herself. She was surprised at how calm she was," Rifaat writes.

In a crisp three-and-a-half pages, Rifaat lays out a trifecta of sex, death, and religion, a bulldozer that crushes denial and defensiveness to get at the pulsating heart of misogyny in the Middle East. There is no sugarcoating it. They don't hate us because of our freedoms, as the tired, post-9/11 American cliché had it. We have no freedoms because they hate us, as this Arab woman so powerfully says.

Yes: They hate us. It must be said. 

FOR THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE: Why Do They Hate Us? - By Mona Eltahawy

To The U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives: Protect Afghan Women's Human and Civil Rights Gains in Afghanistan

SIGN HERE: To The U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives: Protect Afghan Women's Human and Civil Rights Gains in Afghanistan

  

Why This Is Important

When the Taliban were driven from power in Afghanistan in 2001, the reign of a brutally misogynist state ended. Since then, women have been able to gradually achieve more freedoms, legal constitutional rights, education and opportunities.

For instance, violence against women was finally declared a crime in 2009, Before then, such violence had been considered a de facto male prerogative. Private and public beatings, stonings, honor killings, public floggings, even mutilations and disfigurements had become routine under the Taliban, with such crimes still persisting against women even today in areas beyond enforcement of the new law. Worse still, elements of the Taliban, in league with al Qaeda, even ran human trafficking rings enslaving women before their overthrow, as highlighted in this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban#Oppression_of_women.

Some of the major gains for Afghans in general and women and girls since the overthrow of the Taliban include: 

- Nearly seven million children in school, compared to less than one million in 2001 (mainly boy students of madrassahs);
- More than 90% of Afghans have access to basic healthcare; unlike in 2001, when less than 10% had access;
- Girls and women are free to work, attend school, and seek medical care-rights that were denied to them under Taliban rule;
- A Constitution is in place, and it grants men and women equality in the eyes of the law;
- There is a democratically evolving government and a parliament that is gradually becoming a more forceful check on the executive and has a higher percentage of women members than in Canada actually.
- Afghanistan once had the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, however this has steadily been decreasing since 2002 as midwife training programs have been established and access to healthcare is increased
- Early reforms to the judiciary are underway, and Afghan women have played an active role in introducing legislation that will better protect their rights such as the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) Law
- Successful introduction of country-wide inoculations for children
- The growing impact of a strong Afghan feminist movement on reform and rights efforts. (source: http://www.cw4wafghan.ca/PolicyStatement )

But, as Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch recently wrote, "With international interest in Afghanistan waning, negotiations with the Taliban in the offing, and Karzai's endorsement of the Ulema Council's [paternalistic] statement, Afghan women are more vulnerable than at any time in the past 10 years. Now President Obama and other backers of the Afghan government should make it clear that they will not support any deals that sacrifice women's rights, and press Karzai to make his position clear. The risks for Afghan women are too high to do anything less." (source:http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/03/08/are-afghan-women-better-after-decade-war)

Concerned citizens around the world cannot and will not allow millions of Afghan women and girls to be sacrificed upon the altar of political expediency. It is thus incumbent upon Congress to lend a strong and positive voice and its full support to maintaining and strengthening women's rights in Afghanistan. There can be no surrender to the horrors of the past nor tolerance in the present for ongoing assaults against women, as well as their fundamental human and civil rights.

Accordingly, we invite you to contact your senators and congressmen and women, and in particular the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Senator John Kerry and the Chairwoman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to do what is needed to hold the line and strengthen it for women and girls in Afghanistan.

 SIGN HERE: To The U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives: Protect Afghan Women's Human and Civil Rights Gains in Afghanistan