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Speakers at Conference Urge Gender Equality in Muslim World

Misunderstanding of women's rights under Islam cited at meeting

Women took center stage at the 8th annual conference of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), presenting their views on women's rights in Islam and Muslim societies.

Most of the audience at the April 27 conference was made up of women; almost all of the panelists at the daylong session and all but one of the moderators were women.

Presenters ranged from a University of Richmond law professor who quoted extensively from the Quran to back her contention that the Muslim holy book supports gender equality, to a pair of Canadians who told of their own experience in engaging minority Muslim women in the political process in that democratic nation. Other participants came from Great Britain, Iran and the Philippines.

The targeted focus on one issue was a departure for CSID, a Washington-based nonprofit advocacy group whose past annual conferences have addressed the broader concept of the compatibility between Islam and democracy.

Opening the conference, CSID President Radwan Masmoudi cited what he termed substantial misunderstanding over the issue of women's rights in Islam, "both in the Muslim world and in the West." Going back to the roots of the religion, he said the Prophet Muhammad, in his farewell speech, emphasized the rights of women and urged all Muslims to ensure they had equality with men.

But Masmoudi acknowledged that, "while Islam gave rights to women that were revolutionary 1400 years ago, compared with other religions and civilizations, ...unfortunately that status was not always maintained." Now, he said, "If anything, we are unfortunately behind."

As women are the ones responsible for raising and educating children, he said, "they determine the future of the Muslim society," making their treatment as full partners vital to the future of the Muslim world.

Masmoudi took favorable note of the emergence of an Islamic feminist movement - one that he said is still young but strong and growing quickly. "Women must take the lead in this effort [to secure equality]. ... Rights are never given, they are always taken. ... Nobody is going to come and give you your rights on a silver platter," he declared.

In an interview between sessions, Masmoudi said the conference amounted to one front in "a battle of ideas for what Islam means in the 21st century," countering "the opinions of the extremists who say that democracy and women's rights are un-Islamic."

"We need to show that they are not only compatible with Islam, they are required by Islam. This is what Islam demands," he said.

Erica Barks-Ruggles, the U.S. State Department's deputy assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor, said in conference opening remarks that as she has traveled throughout the Middle East, she has been "very impressed by the strength, the intelligence, the education and the determination of women ... to play a strong role in ... the future of their societies."

"Their voices are increasingly being heard," Barks-Ruggles said, adding, "Sometimes we forget how much has changed in the last several years" in the region. In terms of participation in the political process, she cited advances - in voting, election to office, or both - in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Morocco and Jordan, and even in Iran. There, she said, some women now serve in the parliament, and others have been "demonstrating actively for the last several years" despite government crackdowns and jailings.

Throughout the region, she said, "It's been my pleasure to cooperate with women who are leading efforts to improve education and health care, bring better training so that women can play a role in the new global economy, to ensure justice for women and children in their societies."

Recalling meetings in Jordan in 2006, Barks-Ruggles said she found it "enormously impressive what these women were doing ... to build the skills of women in their communities and give the opportunity for women and girls to fully participate in the lives of their families, in their communities, and in their society at large."

Like Masmoudi, Barks-Ruggles stressed that successful efforts to expand women's rights must be "driven from within, for the community, from the community," with outside institutions playing only a supporting role.

"We in the U.S. government ... want to work in partnership with those governments, civil society, the business community, and everyday citizens ... as they are working to build societies that respect the rights of all their citizens and build opportunity for all their citizens," she said. "We want to do this in a manner that is respectful of the sensibilities and diverse cultures ... and we want to do this while also focusing on the fundamental core rights" enumerated in the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights - rights in the areas of free speech, assembly, privacy, worship and equality before the law.

"As a woman, I am very pleased that my sisters in the region are working hard as they try to figure out how to assert themselves" and enhance their rights "in a way that's respectful within their own societies," Barks-Ruggles said.

At a dinner session, Masmoudi presented his group's "Muslim Democrat of the Year" award to Amina Rasul-Bernardo, founder and president of the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy - a group modeled on CSID. She was the first woman to receive the annual award.

Rasul-Bernardo observed that "most of you may see us Southeast Asians as living in the periphery, far from the heartland" - even though they actually constitute the largest number of Muslims in the world.

But, she suggested, the fact that Muslim women in her region "enjoy liberties denied many of our sisters in the Middle East" could provide a model for that "heartland."

"In most communities, women have been silenced, and I think it is time ... for us to come out of the silent mode and join hands with our brothers ... who speak out for what we know to be true in our faith, who speak out for the need to democratize our communities," she said.

The specifics of that democracy must be developed within Muslim society, she stressed, declaring, "Democracy has got to be homegrown, it has got to be nurtured, it cannot be imposed on a people."

For more information on U.S. policies, see Women in the Global Community.

Source: U.S. Department of State