Women Living Under Muslim Laws is an international solidarity
network that provides information, support and a collective space
for women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or governed by laws
and customs said to derive from Islam.
For more than two
decades WLUML has linked individual women and organisations. It now
extends to more than 70 countries ranging from South Africa to
Uzbekistan, Senegal to Indonesia and Brazil to France. It links:
- women living in countries or states where Islam is the state
religion, secular states with Muslim majorities as well as those
from Muslim communities governed by minority religious laws;
- women in secular states where political groups are demanding
religious laws;
- women in migrant Muslim communities in Europe, the Americas,
and around the world;
- non-Muslim women who may have Muslim laws applied to them
directly or through their children;
- women born into Muslim communities/families who are
automatically categorized as Muslim but may not define themselves
as such, either because they are not believers or because they
choose not to identify themselves in religious terms, preferring
to prioritise other aspects of their identity such as political
ideology, profession, sexual orientation or others.
Our
name challenges the myth of one, homogenous ‘Muslim world’. This
deliberately created myth fails to reflect that: a) laws said to be
Muslim vary from one context to another and, b) the laws that
determine our lives are from diverse sources: religious, customary,
colonial and secular. We are governed simultaneously by many
different laws: laws recognised by the state (codified and
uncodified) and informal laws such as customary practices which vary
according to the cultural, social and political context.
HOW DID WLUML START?
WLUML was formed in 1984
in response to three cases in Muslim countries and communities in
which women were being denied rights by reference to laws said to be
‘Muslim’ requiring urgent action. Nine women from Algeria, Morocco,
Sudan, Iran, Mauritius, Tanzania, Bangladesh and Pakistan came
together and formed the Action Committee of Women Living Under
Muslim Laws in support of local women’s struggles. This evolved into
the present network in 1986. The network is guided by Plans
of Action which are reviewed periodically.
WHAT ARE
WLUML’S AIMS AND FOCUS?
The network aims to strengthen
women’s individual and collective struggles for equality and their
rights, especially in Muslim contexts.
It achieves this by:
- Breaking the isolation in which women wage their struggles by
creating and reinforcing linkages between women within Muslim
countries and communities, and with global feminist and
progressive groups;
- Sharing information and analysis that helps demystify the
diverse sources of control over women’s lives, and the strategies
and experiences of challenging all means of control.
WLUML’s current focus is on the three themes of,
fundamentalisms, militarization, and their impact on women’s lives,
and sexuality. As a theme, violence against women cuts across all of
WLUML’s projects and activities.
HOW IS WLUML
ORGANISED?
WLUML’s open structure has been designed to
maximize participation of diverse and autonomous groups and
individuals as well as collective decision-making. WLUML does not
have formal membership and networkers are a fluid group of
individuals and organisations who maintain regular two-way contact
with the network.
The Programme Implementation Council (PIC)
comprises 20-30 women and men involved in aspects of cross-regional
networking within WLUML for a significant period of time. They take
primary responsibility for developing and implementing the Plans of
Action.
The International Coordination Office (ICO) has
primary responsibility for facilitating coordination between
networkers. Regional Coordination Offices are in Pakistan (Asia) and
Nigeria (Africa and Middle East) and are responsible for
coordinating network activities in their respective regions.
Although legally and financially autonomous, they are key components
of WLUML. Based on their connections with networkers, and their
knowledge and understanding of networkers’ activities and contexts,
the ICO and Regional Offices ensure that the relevant people in the
network are meeting, strategizing, planning and acting so as to
support each other and thereby strengthen local, regional and global
effectiveness.
WHAT ARE WLUML’S PRINCIPLES?
WLUML focuses on laws and customs and the concrete realities
of women’s lives. This includes the often diverse practices and laws
classified as ‘Muslim’ (resulting from different interpretations of
religious texts and/or the political use of religion) and the
effects these have on women, rather than on the religion of Islam
itself.
The network consciously builds bridges across
identities - within our contexts and internationally. We are
especially concerned about marginalized women. This includes
non-Muslims in Muslim majority states, especially where spaces for
religious minorities is rapidly dwindling; Muslim minorities facing
discrimination, oppression, or racism; women whose assertions of
sexuality – including but not limited to sexual orientation - are
either criminalized or are socially
unacceptable.
WLUML
recognises that women’s struggles are interconnected and
complementary, and therefore has a commitment to international
solidarity.
WLUML actively endorses plurality and autonomy,
and consciously reflects, recognises and values a diversity of
opinions. Individuals and groups linked through the network define
their own particular priorities and strategies according to their
context.
The personal has always played an important part in
the work of WLUML, which values the solidarity and active support
that the networkers extend to each other by way of personal links.
WHAT DOES WLUML DO?
Solidarity &
Alerts
WLUML responds to, circulates and initiates
international alerts for action and campaigns as requested by
networking groups and allies. WLUML also provides concrete support
for individual women in the form of information on their legal
rights, assistance with asylum applications, and links with relevant
support institutions, psychological support, etc.
Networking & Information Services
WLUML puts
women in direct contact with each other to facilitate a
non-hierarchical exchange of information, expertise, strategies and
experience. Networking also involves documenting trends, proactively
circulating information among networkers and allies, generating new
analysis, and supporting networkers’ participation in exchanges and
international events. While WLUML prioritises the needs of
networkers, it also selectively responds to requests for information
from, for example, academics, activists, the media, international
agencies and government institutions.
Capacity
Building
WLUML consciously builds the capacity of networking
groups through internships at the coordination offices, and
exchanges, trainings and workshops.
Publications and
Media
WLUML collects, analyses and circulates information
regarding women’s diverse experiences and strategies in Muslim
contexts using a variety of media. It translates information into
and from French, Arabic and English wherever possible. Networking
groups also translate information into numerous other languages.
An active publications programme produces:
- A theme based Dossier, an occasional journal which provides
information about the lives, struggles and strategies of women in
various Muslim communities and countries;
- A quarterly Newsheet on women, laws and society by Shirkat
Gah, WLUML Asia Regional Coordination Office;
- Occasional Papers - specific studies and materials which, for
reasons of length or style, cannot be included in the Dossier
series and;
- Other publications on specific issues of concern such as
family laws, women's movements, initiatives and strategies, etc.
For more information and to download WLUML publications,
please visit www.wluml.org/english/publications.shtml
The WLUML website is in English, French and Arabic and
updated regularly with news and views, calls for action and
publications.
Collective Projects
Collective
projects have included topic-specific initiatives that arise out of
the shared needs, interests and analysis of networkers. Networking
groups and individuals are free to participate, or not, according to
their needs and capacity, and collective projects have involved from
three to over twenty networking groups and lasted from a few months
to ten years. Projects are principally coordinated and implemented
by networking groups or individual networkers in their respective
countries or communities; the coordination offices provide
facilitation when necessary.
Collective projects have
included training sessions, workshops, research for advocacy,
meetings and exchanges around specialised topics.
Previous
projects include:
- Exchange programme (1988)
- Qur’anic interpretations meetings (1990) and for West African
networkers (2002) and Francophone West Africa (2004)
- Women and Law in the Muslim world programme (1991-2001)
- Feminism in the Muslim World Leadership Institutes (1998 and
1999)
- Gender and displacement in Muslim contexts (1999-2002)
- Initiative for Strengthening Afghan Family Laws – INSAF (2002
- present)
CONTACT USAfrica & Middle East Coordination
Office
Groupe de Recherche sur les Femmes et les Lois au Senegal
(GREFELS)
PO BOX 5330, Dakar Fann, Dakar,
Senegal
Email: grefels@sentoo.sn
Asia Coordination Office
Shirkat Gah Women's
Resource Centre
PO Box 5192, Lahore, Pakistan
Email:
sgah@sgah.org.pk
Website:
www.shirkatgah.org
International
Coordination Office
PO Box 28445, London, N19 5NZ,
UK
Email: wluml@wluml.org
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