nasawiya: a feminist collective » solidarity

Message of Solidarity to Occupy Wall Street from the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq

farah — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:34:37 +0000

November 4, 2011

Dear Occupy Wall Street,

The people of the world are watching you, following your news and hoping that – rather than just vent your anger and frustration – you achieve all of your dreams.

While democracy should guarantee all people an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives, you find yourselves forced to take to the streets, as politicians and bankers make decisions behind closed doors and hire an army of police to send you back home with nothing.

While a wealthy 1% ravages your jobs, health, and very lives, their focus is always on their banks and not on the welfare and future of innocent, unsuspecting millions of people. In times of growth, those banks are sustained by your labor, resulting in extravagant luxuries for the 1%; while their economic failures and crises deny you basic resources and economic rights.

This is the same 1% that pursued the war on Iraq without hearing the millions who marched – in the United States and around the world – expressing their opposition. While claiming democracy, the 1% builds vast armies to be launched not just against people all over the world, but also within their own borders.

A second wave of global revolutions has begun as the 99% (that is, the global working class) rejects the tyranny, marginalization, and poverty which capitalist authoritarian governments force onto billions of us. Despite all claims of representation, capitalist states make the people pay the price of the economic failures of their political systems with unemployment and government cuts, while the banks get bailed out by the same resources that people’s toil has created. Avoiding the poverty and starvation of billions is never the concern of these so-called democracies as much as the stability of their own political rule. Moreover, that same 1% re-creates the same failing model of “democratic” capitalist political structures in newly-invaded countries around the globe.

The so-called democracy of Iraq, created by the western capitalist states, divides Iraqi oil reserves between the 1% politicians and a massive, newly-built army, which is now well trained to crush the Iraq’s Tahrir square demonstrations (active since Feb 25th), with live ammunition, torture, and beatings. While the 99% of Iraqis seethe with anger waiting for the right conditions to claim what is theirs, they eagerly follow your progress in occupying Wall Street, as our enemy is one whether they are American or Iraqi. That enemy is the 1% of ruthless exploiters.

Although plans of US withdrawal from Iraq have been publicized worldwide, we are certain that US bases will remain around our cities and villages in one form or another, fully ready to attack and crush any popular uprising, whenever deemed necessary. Although the US administration has already installed Iraqis to maintain systems of inequality and suppression in Iraq, they will continue to keep their military arsenals on full guard for a worst case scenario. This is what our newly-installed democracy grants us: poverty, inequality, suppression of dissent, and a lack of civil liberties for the vast majority of the people, especially women.

People of the world have come to refuse a culture of wars and also the “democracy” of the rich. It is time for a political system of equal wealth for all, in other words, a socialist system, where free market rules cannot starve billions while filling the pockets of a few. Connecting such a movement globally was beyond even the wildest dreams of most visionaries, but has proven to be within reach in 2011. And your #Occupy movement has played a leading role in igniting it.

While hunger and wars are planned and organized by a ruthless 1%, it is the responsibility of the 99% to create a better world, built on values of humanity, equality and prosperity for all. In this world, decision-making will not be taken by World Banks, capitalists, and their representative statesmen, but by the immediate representatives of the working class.

Putting demands to the 1% is not the solution, as they have failed repeatedly and can only proceed with their methods of starving working people and bringing on more economic failures.

The time has come for a second step. After occupying the street, it is time to break into the castles and palaces of the 1%, and claim what is rightfully yours, to start a new era based on global peace, equal division of wealth, and humanity.

We stand behind you and carry on our continuous resistance to the rule of the 1% in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and the entire world.

Long live the struggles of the 99%, and down with the 1%!

Yanar Mohammed
Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq

Statement of Solidarity with the Queer Palestinian Call for Action “IGLYO Out of Israel”

farah — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:58:27 +0000

Statement by Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Society

Palestinian queer activists from alQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian society, Aswat — Palestinian Gay Women, and PQBDS (Palestinian Queers for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) have issued a joint statement on June 1st 2011 calling on organizations, groups and activists to tell the International Gay and Lesbian Youth Organization, IGLYO, to reject Israeli government funds and to relocate its General Assembly out of Tel Aviv, Israel.

CSBR is an international solidarity network, striving to promote sexual, bodily and reproductive rights as human rights in Muslim societies across the Middle East, North Africa, South and Southeast Asia. In our core values, we recognize that sexuality cannot be disentangled from systems of power politics and domination in society.

In light of the Palestinian queer call for action, and as members of the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies, CSBR, we cannot stand “neutral” towards Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid policies, and violations of international law.

We join the campaign to urge IGLYO’s member organizations and board of directors to move their General Assembly out of Israel, and stop being active participants in Israel’s multi-million dollar ‘pinkwashing’ campaign, “which aims to re-brand Israel as a haven for queers while drawing attention away from its crimes against the Palestinian people.”

In Solidarity,
Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies
Nasawiya – A Feminist Collective (LEBANON)
Muntada – The Arab Forum for Sexuality, Education and Health (PALESTINE)
GaYa NUSANTARA (INDONESIA)
Women’s Health Foundation (INDONESIA)
Helem – Lebanese Protection for LGBTIQ (LEBANON)
Pilipina Legal Resources Center (PHILIPPINES)
Meem – A Community of Lesbian, Bisexual, Queer & Questioning Women and Transgender Persons (LEBANON)
Aahung (PAKISTAN)
Vision (PAKISTAN)
WWHR, Women for Women’s Human Rights (TURKEY)

Saudi Arabia: Call for release of activist challenging ban on women drivers

farah — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:40:01 +0000

The international solidarity network, Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) calls for the immediate release of Manal Al-Sharif. Saudi authorities have arrested an activist who launched a campaign to challenge a ban on women driving in the conservative kingdom. The media spokesman of the Directorate General of Prisons in Saudi Arabia, Colonel Dr Ayoub Ben, has confirmed that Manal Al-Sharif has been charged with breach of public order and security, and with ‘deliberately inciting the media and other Saudi women’ to drive cars. She will be detained for a further five days pending investigation. There are reports that Al-Sharif has signed a pledge in prison not to drive again in Saudi Arabia. UPDATE: Al-Sharif’s prison sentence has been extended for a further ten days, starting from Thursday 26 May. Women’s rights activist Wajeha al-Huwaider was called in for questioning by her employers, Saudi Aramco, regarding her support for Manal, and forced to sign a pledge not to support
the 17 June campaign. Al-Huwaider added the disclaimer that she will continue demanding the right of women to drive through different channels until it is codified into law.

Manal Al-Sharif, a 32 years old IT security consultant at Saudi Aramco, posted a video on the internet of her behind the wheel, talking about the challenge of having to rely on drivers. The YouTube video, posted on Thursday 19 May, and which appears to have been taken down, attracted more than 500,000 views and shows Manal Al-Sharif, who learned to drive in the US, driving her car in Khobar in the oil-producing Eastern Province. “Police arrested her at 3am this morning,” said Maha Taher, another activist who launched her own campaign for women driving four months ago to spread awareness of the issue (Source: Reuters in Jeddah).The campaign Al-Sharif launched is aimed at teaching women to drive and encouraging them to start driving from 17 June, using foreign-issued licences. Anti-driving campaign have called for punishment for women who seek to drive men. Among these calls is a campaign demanding all men to beat up women attempting to drive. The men have been told to use the
ir igals (head bands) to strike women behind the wheels in the streets.

“I’m worried a lot about Manal because they might make a court case against her. The problem is there’s no written laws in Saudi Arabia. It all depends on the judge’s mood and his interpretation.” said Al-Huwaider. Although there is no written law that specifically bans women from driving, there are fatwas issued against women driving and citizens must use locally issued licences which are not issued to women, making it effectively illegal for them to drive. “When the police stopped her they told her she violated the ‘norms’. There is no law that says women can’t drive in Saudi Arabia and this arrest is unjust. She is a role model for a lot of people and the arrest will provoke her supporters. Now more women want to drive,” Taher said (Source: Reuters in Jeddah). In the early 1990s, members of a similar campaign were arrested and some were fired from their jobs.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) noted in its concluding comments on Saudi Arabia in 2008 that the concept of male guardianship over women (mehrem), although it may not be legally prescribed, severely limits women’s exercise of their rights under the Convention: “It is concerned that the concept of male guardianship contributes to the prevalence of a patriarchal ideology with stereotypes and the persistence of deep-rooted cultural norms, customs and traditions that discriminate against women and constitute serious obstacles to their enjoyment of their human rights. Other practices prevalent in Saudi Arabia, such as the de facto ban of women from driving, which is a limitation of their freedom of movement, also contribute to the maintenance of such stereotypes.”

In the Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences on her 2009 Mission to Saudi Arabia, Yakin Ertürk found that “the modern practices concerning women in Saudi Arabia stand in contrast to not only the role women played during early Islam but also vis-à-vis the laws and religious principles prevailing in the country. The contradictions in this regard are most apparent in the areas of women’s autonomy and participation in the public sphere.” Ertürk recommended that Saudi Arabia “Take measures, including through awareness-raising campaigns, to end the practice of guardianship and abolish existing legal provisions that require a guardian’s authorization, such as those pertaining to women’s travel or access to services or employment.”

“Justice and equality are the very basis of Islam as a religion for our times,” says Dr. Ziba Mir-Hosseini, a legal anthropologist, specializing in Islamic law, gender and development. “This ban goes against the spirit of Islam and cannot not be defended or justified in the name of religion; it is a patent manifestation of outdated social norms based on patriarchal readings of Islam’s sacred texts.”

What you can do?

“Not in my name”

farah — Wed, 11 May 2011 23:16:03 +0000

Revolution’s women strongly participate in a march against “sectarian strife” and condemn being used in it due to their religion

(Cairo, May 10, 2011) A large number of Egyptian women participated in a march entitled “No to sectarian strife” which appeared with its ugly face in the district of Imbaba. They participated in this march to stress the values of citizenship and tolerance and to prevent the strife that has been witnessed in the district and in many different places in Egypt after the revolution. The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights affirms that the incidents that happened between Muslims and Christians are a clear attempt to abort the 25th of January revolution through the use of women to fuel strife.

ECWR praises women who participated in this march: they included women from all political sides and also from the district of Imbaba. The women participants in this march were from all categories: housewives, employees, female Muslims carrying the cross and female Christians affirming the values of full citizenship with their chants. ECWR thought that women’s participation in this march came to affirm their refusal to be used, and to affirm their refusal to use the religion in their name in terms of trading with religion by the two sides.

The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights calls on the Armed Council to act, not to confront the crisis by preserving negative neutrality and not simply to use the conventional methods in dealing with incidents of strife. It should apply the laws to save the nation. ECWR had affirmed in its annual report 2010 on Egyptian women’s status its “refusal of forced disappearances of women and restrictions of their freedom of religion, pointing out that [1]demonstrations are only using the issue for political and sectarian reasons. In the meantime, tens of thousands of girls suffer from living in the streets as “street girls and mothers”, or those women whose houses collapsed, have to stay in the streets and are exposed to humanitarian, institutional and sexual violations.”

However, none of the parties who claimed that they speak in the name of women cared about those female children or women.

The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights

135 Misr-Helwan El Zeraay, Floor 2, Ste. 3

Hadayek el Maadi, Cairo, Egypt

Telephone: (+202) 25271397 / 25282176

Fax: (+202) 25282175

Email: ecwr@ecwronline.org

Website: www.ecwronline.org _____

خدنا الجنسية المصرية

farah — Sat, 07 May 2011 05:32:09 +0000

الثورة تبدأ أولي خطوات الانتصار لحقوق الإنسان عامة وحقوق المرأة على وجه التحديد

القاهرة في 5 مايو -2011

تلقي المركز المصري لحقوق المرأة بترحيب قرار اللواء منصور العيسوي وزير الداخلية بمنح الجنسية المصرية لأبناء المصريات
المتزوجات من فلسطينيين،

يأتي هذا القرار تتويجاً لجهود الجمعيات الأهلية النسائية التي ناضلت من اجل إعطاء حق الجنسية لأبناء المصريات إعمالا لقيم المواطنة.

ويشيد المركز المصري بهذا القرار الذي يأتي لتدعيم جهود المجتمع المدني عامة والجمعيات النسائية بصفة خاصة بما يضمن حقوق المرأة وتعزيز مكانتها في المجتمع المصري في ظل الهجمة الظلامية التي تحاول السيطرة علي المجتمع المصري واستخدام النساء كوقود لها،

ويدعو *المركز المجلس العسكري وكذلك كافة القوي السياسية والحقوقية* بمواصلة العمل للحفاظ علي الانجازات المتواضعة التي تمت فيما يتعلق بقوانين الإصلاح الاجتماعي (مثل قانون الأحوال الشخصية وقانون الطفل ) والتي تم إجراء بعض التعديلات فيها بما يضمن الحد الأدنى من حقوق الإنسان والمرأة والطفل ، ولم تصل هذه التعديلات إلى الإقرار الكامل لحقوق كلا من المرأة والطفل على أسس المواطنة الكاملة .

وبهذا القرار تبدأ الثورة بإدراج حقوق الإنسان ضمن عملها بإعطاء أبناء المصرية المتزوجة من فلسطيني الجنسية المصرية، وهو ما يتوافق مع قانون الجنسية المصري والمادة رقم (9) من اتفاقية إلغاء كافة أشكال التمييز ضد المرأة التي تنص علي:

1-تمنح الدول الأطراف المرأة حقوقا مساوية لحقوق الرجل في اكتساب جنسيتها أو تغييرها أو الاحتفاظ بها.

2- تمنح الدول الأطراف المرأة حقا مساويا لحق الرجل فيما يتعلق بجنسية أطفالهما.

كذلك الإعلان العالمي لحقوق الإنسان في مادته رقم (15 ) والتي تنص علي :

(1 ) لكل فرد حق التمتع بجنسية ما.

( 2 ) لا يجوز حرمان شخص من جنسيته تعسفاً أو إنكار حقه في تغييرها.

ويعد هذا القرار بدايةالحد الأدنى للمواطنة إذ لا يتضمن القانون المصري معاملة المرأة علي قدم المساواة مع الرجل وذلك في نقل جنسيتها للزوج والأبناء، واقتصر علي الأبناء فقط.

ويطالب المركز كافة القوي الوطنية بمزيد من الجهود من اجل الانتصار الكامل لحقوق الإنسان بشكل عام وحقوق المرأة بصفة خاصة. كما يطالب المركز بتنفيذ مواد قانون الجنسية مباشرة من لحظة الميلاد لتأكيد قيم المواطنة.

The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights
135 Misr-Helwan El Zeraay, Floor 2, Ste. 3
Hadayek el Maadi, Cairo, Egypt

Telephone: (+202) 25271397 / 25282176
Fax: (+202) 25282175
Email: ecwr@ecwronline.org
Website: www.ecwronline.org

Check video.

Libya: Release Women Human Rights Defender and victim of rape, Iman al-Obeidi

farah — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:55:39 +0000

The Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) international solidarity network joins other human rights organizations and civil society groups calling for the Libyan authorities to immediately release 29 year-old lawyer and defender of women’s human rights, Iman Al-Obeidi. We also demand that those who have allegedly subjected her to a violent sexual assault, and false imprisonment, be brought to trial following a thorough and independent investigation. On Saturday 26 March, Al-Obeidi approached a group of foreign reporters in a hotel in Tripoli, and in a state of considerable distress, she told them she had been repeatedly raped by Muammar Gaddafi’s militiamen. In an effort to silence her and in front of rolling television cameras Al-Obeidi was attacked and dragged away by government officials. Al-Obeidi is now facing criminal charges herself, according to a government spokesman. Her parents say their daughter is being held hostage at the Libyan leader’s compound in Tripoli.

Al-Obeidi said she had been arrested at a checkpoint in the capital because she is from Benghazi, a stronghold of the anti-Gaddafi rebellion in the east. “They swore at me and they filmed me. I was alone. There was whiskey. I was tied up. They peed on me.” She said she had been raped by 15 men and held for two days. (The Guardian, 26 March).

In an attempt to discredit her, Libyan government spokesmen have claimed that Al-Obeidi was a prostitute and is mentally unstable. Spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said on Tuesday 29 March that charges of slander had been brought against her by some of the men she had accused: “It’s a legal case,” Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli. “The boys who she accused of rape are making a case against her because it’s a grave offence to accuse someone of a sexual crime.”

Al-Obeidi is a victim of rape, which has been classified by The United Nations Security Council as a weapon of war. The Security Council noted that “women and girls are particularly targeted by the use of sexual violence, including as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instill fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group.” Resolution 1820, passed in 2008, demanded the “immediate and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence against civilians.” WLUML condemns the tactics used by the government to try to discredit Al-Obeidi’s account of the crimes committed against her. This is a cynical attempt to exploit cultural prejudices towards sexual relations outside of marriage. Furthermore, the behavior of the men who publically attacked her shows how militarism and patriarchy, a decades-long oppressive political system, and the misuse of religion have created a situation of impunity for men who practice violence against women. In the name of ‘Islamic values’, Libyan women and girls, including rape victims, have been placed in “social rehabilitation” centres which are used as an ideological brainwashing tool by the authorities, Human Rights Watch claimed in a 2006 report. Women and girls who have no male guardian have also been placed in the centres, where they are treated like criminals.

WLUML also salutes Al-Obeidi’s courage in drawing attention to her plight. In doing so, she has become an inspiration to women in other contexts who have come to fear the political and social consequences of speaking out in the face of violence, even by state forces.

31/03/2011

Worldwide Feminist Statements in Solidarity with Gaza Freedom Flotilla

Nadine Moawad — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:52:09 +0000

Nasawiya calls on the international feminist community to add their voices to these wonderful women’s organizations who have issued statements condemning the vicious Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla on May 31, 2010. We urge you to stand in solidarity with the 700 brave activists who put their lives on the line in order to break the siege in Gaza, Palestine. There is no real justice for women anywhere without justice for the millions of Palestinian women living in exile, under occupation, under the apartheid regime of Israel, in illegal prisons, and/or under daily military economic, political, gender, and sexual violence. Please add your voices to the Avaaz petition, read the following statements by international women’s rights organizations, and leave us a comment if you know of any other feminist statements made so we can add them here.