Collaborative Advocacy for Women’s Economic Rights in Muslim Majority Countries, AWID

A WLP breakout session at the 2012 AWID Forum will unearth links between religious family law, economic injustice and women’s economic exclusion by exploring national and regional initiatives pertaining to land rights, inheritance laws, community organization and advocacy.

The reform of religious family laws has been at the forefront of advocacy by feminist groups in Muslim majority countries in MENA as well as in other parts of the world. In several countries, concrete and positive steps have been made towards partial reforms of family laws especially in what concerns marriage, divorce, women’s mobility, child custody and, in some cases, protection from violence.  Despite incremental progress, the laws remain inequitable and women’s freedoms and opportunities within the family and public sphere remain limited.

Women’s economic rights and economic subordination within the boundaries of religious laws has by and large remained taboo grounds for reform. Simultaneously, research has indicated that women’s economic disenfranchisement and economic exclusion have played a powerful role in maintaining women in abusive relations as well as curtailing women’s public and political participation. It is safe to say that discriminatory religious family laws have maintained women in a situation of dependence and acted as a powerful challenge to women’s emancipation and gender equality. In response to this patriarchal and exclusionary system, a number of sophisticated and bold feminist initiatives have emerged and have focused essentially on challenging economic injustice and have targeted its root causes at the level of religious and family laws.

The talk show platform will build on WEEP’s mission to transform gender relations through empowering women and enhancing their capacities to become more economically autonomous and form and maintain their own NGOs by integrating the advocacy tools and training methodology for which WLP is renown.  Applying a rigorous analysis of the link between discriminatory religious laws and women’s disenfranchisement, the panel will identify and discuss advocacy methodologies for overcoming the challenges associated with religious law reform while revealing newfound and successful strategies for community organization and enhancing women’s economic empowerment.

This panel will explore the following initiatives:

• The fight to women’s right to land ownership in Morocco
• The campaign for women’s equal rights to inheritance in MENA
• Women’s organizing to challenge patriarchal market institutions in Lebanon
• Building women’s leadership for economic rights globally

Khadija Sherif, Tunisia, joins WLP representatives for this panel. Secretary General of the International Federation of Human Rights and former President of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, Khadija Sherif is a long-time, prominent feminist activist.