Muslim Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML)
From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations
Muslim Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML)
Africa & Middle East Coordination Office
Groupe de Recherche sur les Femmes et les Lois au Senegal (GREFELS)
PO BOX 5330, Fann
Dakar, Senegal
Email: grefels@sentoo.sn
Website: http://www.wluml.org
Asia Coordination Office
Shirkat Gah Women's Resource Centre
PO Box 5192
Lahore, Pakistan
Email: sgah@sgah.org.pk
Website: http://www.shirkatgah.org
International Coordination Office
PO Box 28445
London, N19 5NZ, UK
Email: wluml@wluml.org
Website: http://www.wluml.org
Description
Formed in 1984 by nine women, 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. WLUML’s purpose is to facilitate access to information and to each other.
WLUML believes that the seeming helplessness of a majority of women in the Muslim World results from being economically and politically less powerful. It also stems from the erroneous belief that the only existence possible for a Muslim woman is the dominant one delineated for her in her own national context. By effectively mobilizing against and overcoming adverse laws and customs, WLUML hopes to channel this helplessness into power.
WLUML was founded in response to three cases in which women in Muslim countries were being denied rights by reference to laws said to be ‘Muslim’. 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; in 1986 the Action Committee transformed into the network known as WLUML. For more than two decades, WLUML has connected women with other women and compatible organizations. It now extends to more than 70 countries ranging from South Africa, Uzbekistan, Senegal, Indonesia, Brazil and France.
WLUML focuses on the laws and customs of Islam and the concrete realities of women’s lives. This includes the often-diverse practices and laws classified as Muslim that result in different interpretations of religious texts and/or the political use of religion and the effects these have on women. With a focus on marginalized women, including non-Muslims in Muslim majority states, Muslim minorities facing discrimination, oppression, or racism and women whose assertions of sexuality are either criminalized or deemed socially unacceptable.
WLUML puts women in direct contact with each other to facilitate a receptive exchange of information, expertise, strategies and experience. Networking involves documenting trends, circulating information among other networks and allies, generating new analysis, and supporting the participation in exchanges and international events. While WLUML prioritizes the needs of its net workers, it also responds to requests for information from, academics, activists, the media, international agencies and government institutions.
The network aims to strengthen women’s individual and collective struggles for equality and their rights, especially in Muslim contexts, 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; and 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: 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
Track Record
One of the network's most ambitious activities involves deciphering and reinterpreting Muslim laws. Since the early 1990s, network members have worked on the Women and Laws Project, a major research and action program that has received support from IDRC. Under this project, female research teams in 26 countries are using a common methodology to trace the evolution of laws, identify the contradictions between them, and point out gaps. When publicized, this comparative examination of Muslim laws help women understand their rights and help them influence legislation that affects them.
In November 1995, a Muslim religious leader in Chad called for the murder of a woman named Zarah Yacoub. Zacoub had made a film denouncing excision, the genital mutilation of women that is practiced by both Muslims and non-Muslims in several countries. Fearful lest someone act on the imam's execution order, the filmmaker went into hiding. The story could have ended bloodily, had it not been for the help of a WLUML solidarity network that alerted hundreds of women's and human rights groups to Zacoub's death sentence. Their combined protests to the Government of Chad ultimately led the imam to withdraw his edict
In conjunction with networking, collective projects have played a large role in the work that they do. These projects include topic-specific initiatives that arise out of the shared needs, interests and analysis of members. These projects have included training sessions, workshops and advocacy research. Collective projects have involved three to twenty networking groups and have lasted from a few months to ten years. Network groups coordinate and implement the projects; WLUML staff provides assistance when necessary. Previous projects include; Qu’ranic Interpretation in Francophone West Africa, Feminism in the Muslim World’s Leadership Institutes, and Initiatives for Strengthening Family Law in Afghanistan.
WLUML also collects and circulates information regarding women’s diverse experiences and strategies in Muslim perspectives using a variety of media. Publications include; a Quarterly Newsletter, occasional papers, journals, and a theme based Dossier. To cover as many networks as possible documents are produced in French, English and Arabic.
