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India: Muslim family law
Author(s): the Forum Against Oppression of Women
Source: Off Our Backs, Vol. 15, No. 8 (august-september 1985), p. 16
Published by: off our backs, inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25775575
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international
news_
Canada: women in
print
meet
ST.-MARC-SUR-RICHLIEU, QUEBEC
Women from Canada's feminist
periodicals
held their fourth
conference in June. Previous
conferences were held in 1975,
1976 and 1980.
Fifty
women from
thirty
five
English
and French lan
guage periodicals
met in a two
day
conference.
There is a diverse
range
of
publications represented,
in
eluding
health newsletters like*
Vitality
from Nova
Scotia, lit
erary journals like Room of One1s
Own, academic
publications, Hys
teria,
a lesbian
magazine,
and
general
interest
publications.
Conference
participants
marked three "births" and one
"death" over the weekend: the
first issues of Women's Educa
tion des Femmes, The
Newsmaga
zine for Alberta
Women, and
the
upcoming journal of the
National Association of Women
and the
Law, and the demise of
the National Action Committee
on the Status of Women's Status
of Women News.
One of the
key
issues raised
at the
meeting
was recent attacks
levelled at HERizons
magazine, pub
lished in
Winnipeg.
HERizons has
been
targetted by
a
chapter
of the
Manitoba Catholic Women's
League
and anti-choice activist Jo Borowski,
for its stands on abortion and les
bianism, and for a cartoon that Bor
owski called
"man-hating."
These
attacks became a cause for concern
when the
funding
HERizons was re
ceiving
from the Canadian
govern
ment was called into
question.
Lobbying by
women's
groups
and
the Canadian Periodical Publishers
Association
(CPPA)
has been
pivotal
in
assuring
the continuation of HER
izons'
grant,
which was renewed the
day following
the feminist
press
conference.
HERizons is not the
only
Cana
dian feminist
publication
that has
come under fire for its content. In
a
resolution, conference
participants
voted to
rally
behind any other fem
inist
publication subject
to attacks
on its editorial
policy.
Workshops
at the conference re
fleeted the
range
of issues confront
ing
women involved in
putting
out
periodicals
on a low
budget,
with a
political message,
and via what
they
hope
are alternative ways
of
working.
Topics
include
Balancing
the Market
and the
Message, Working
with Writers,
Recruiting
and
Integrating
Volunteers
Burnout and
Energy Flow, Design
on
a
Shoestring, Subscription/Promotion
and
Writing
Grant
Applications.
There were also sessions at
which the
group
as a whole discussed
political
issues involved in
govern
. ment
funding.
Overall, the conference was ex
citing,
and offered a much needed
forum for discussion and
support.
A
great
deal of
practical
information
was
exchanged,
and
many
common
prob
lems were identified.
But
many
women felt that the
political
issues involved in the
role of
journalists in and for a
movement for social
change
were
not discussed
enough.
How do we
involve more women of color and
working
class women in our
publica
tions? How do we
improve
our cover
age
of their issues? What are the
difficulties involved in
covering
events in the Third World? Hotf do
we overcome them?
A committee of
representatives
from several
publications
will take
on
plans
for outreach to women in
other communities and work on these
, issues in the
coming year.
Other committees will tackle a
range
of tasks:
joint advertising,
joint
direct mail
promotion, exchange
of
publications,
research on the fea
sibility
of a staff
person
for a
national association, and the or
ganizing
of next
year's
conference.
Next
year's meeting
will be
held in Toronto in
May 1986, in
conjunction
with the Annual General
Meeting
of the CPPA. This
year's
conference was
organized by
Commu
niqu1elles,
a
bilingual magazine
from Montreal.
Excerpted from
an article
by
Emma
Kivisild in
Kinesis,
a
feminist
newspaper
in Vancouver. $15
a
year,
Vancouver Status
of
Women, 400A West
5th Ave., Vancouver,
B. C. V5Y US.
Canada.
Japan:
work law
TOKYO?Japan's
Diet
(parliament)
passed
a law on
employment
of
women that
merely suggests
rather
than
requires
that
employers
re
duce discrimination.
Feminist
groups
said that
the hill was too weak to be useful.
The bill, backed
by
the
country's
conservative Liberal
Democratic
government, says that
employers
"should endeavor" to
have
equal hiring
and
promotion
policies
for women and men.
The measure also
repeals
earlier laws
restricting
women's
hours and
banning evening
work
and some
occupations for women.
Being
unable to work
long
hours
has restricted women's
ability
to earn
higher
salaries.
But some feminist
groups
and labor unions
say that
shortening
men's hours would
have been better than
increasing
women's.
Japan's constitution,
which
was
imposed by
the U.S.
Occupa
tion
authorities after World War
II,
has a
provision extending equal
rights
to women. But women earn
less than half of men's
average
wage, according
to a 1983 study.
Many companies
have sex
segre
gated job categories.
For instance,
electronics
assembly
line
jobs
are
virtually
all filled
by
women. But
companies
often refuse to take
ap
plications
from women for
higher
level jobs.
The
government
is lukewarm on
changing
these
practices.
Kimie
iwata,
the
Department
of Labor's
spokesperson
on women's issues,
says,
"It is not
proper
for the
government
to force
employers."
?info from
the
Washington
Post
Egypt: family
law
CAIRO?The
Egyptian government
passed
a new
family
law in a hold
ing
action that
provides
no new
rights
for women.
In
1979,
a law decreed
by
President Anwar Sadat without the
consent of Parliament
required
husbands to inform wives if
they
divorced them or if
they
married
new wives
(polygamy
is
legal)
and
allowed divorced women the
right
to
stay
in the home while
they
have
custody
of the cMldren and do
not
remarry. (Under Islamic law,
mothers have
custody
of sons until
age
11 and
daughters
until
age 13.)
This moderate reform had
many
critics, who called it "Jinan's law"
after Jihan
Sadat, the late
presi
dent's wife, who
promoted
it. Re
ligious
fundamentalists wanted to
return to the
sharia3
Islamic law,
on
women, which allows wives still
fewer
rights.
This
spring,
a court declared
that the 1979 law was unconstitu
tional. President Hosni Mubarak's
government sponsored
an effort
to
pass
a bill in
parliament that
would restore
provisions of the
1979 law
(we
are not sure at this
time whether the new
government
sponsored-law includes all or
just some of the 1979 law's
provi
sions?cob).
But fundamentalists
in
parliament promoted
a bill of
their own
restoring
traditional
law with no
rights
for divorced
women and
feminists,
on the other
hand, criticized the
government's
proposal
as
inadequate.
The
government's version
passed.
?info from
the
Washington
Post
India: Muslim
family
law
BOMBAY--Eleven months ago,
there was
a small news item that a
young
Muslim woman Shehnaaz Sheikh nad filed
a
petition
in the Indian
Supreme
Court
challenging
the Muslim Personal Law
in the constitution, (oob jan.
1985.
India has
separate family
law
systems
for
people
of different
religions.)
By
a stroke of luck, members of
Forum
Against Oppression
of Women
contacted her for a discussion and
this started a
long
and consistant
campaign
which continues even
today.
Shehnaaz wanted to reach out to the
masses of women. The FAOW
agreeed
with her view that there is a
sexual
discriminatory
bias in Muslim
Personal Law.
FAOW launched a
signature
cam
paign
and drew the
signatures
of
famous
fi]m and theater
people
and editors. Three thousand
signa
tures were collected in the first
few months.
Support
came from
welfare
organizations
in
many cities
like the YWCA and SEWA
(Self-Em
ployed Women's
Association).
An action committee of women
living
under Muslim law was formed
at the
Hague (Holland) which has
set
up co-ordination committees in
many countries from Iran to the
Philippines,
the United
Kingdom
to
Bangladesh, including Morocco,
Sudan, Senegal
and
Egypt.
In
India, massive
support
from women and men of different
religions
led to
public meetings
and talks. The first one was or
ganized by
the Forum at Dabar.
Civil liberties
group representa
tives attended.
This
publicity
also
brought
criticism and threats. Shehnaaz's
life was threatened
by fanatic or
thodox Muslims
including women, who
criticized her for
tampering
with
divine
religious
law. Politicians
accused her of
being anti-Muslim
and
being sponsored by Hindu commu
nal ists. In
spite of this, there
was tremendous
support
and encour
agement.
The Forum felt it was time
that a
separate only
Muslim women's
committee be set
up,
so it could
take over the task of
reaching
out
to more Muslim women. The
group
decided to restrict the
petition
only
to
marriage (polygamy, purdah)
and divorce in the law.
So far the FAOW and Women's
Centre members have
helped
indivi
dually
to cover
expenses. Shehnaaz
had a full time
job
as a
secretary.
But the press of work,
travelling,
and constant
interviewing
led her
to lose her
job.
A donation cam
paign
was launched to raise
money
for
legal expenditures.
The future
plans include work
among Muslim women who are
poor and
illiterate, to
encourage
women to
petition for their
rights
and to
raise finances for a
long term, con
sistent
campaign
for
consciousness
raising regarding
Muslim women's
rights.
by
the Forum
Against Oppression of
Women
c/o Women's
Centre, 7-Yasmeen
Apart
ments, Yashwant
Nagar, Vakola,
Santa Cruz
(E)3
Bombay-400 OSS,
India.
Japan: rape
belittled
TOKYO?The
Tokyo Rape
Crisis Center
is
calling
for the
resignation
of
Shumon
Miura, the Director General
of Cultural Affairs for
Japan.
Miura was
quoted by
a
magazine
as
saying.that
if would be better
if
rapists
chose "unchaste" women
as their victims. Such women would
'
take
rape
as
lightly
as
tumbling
down in a
puddle,
he said.
The
Tokyo
Rape
Crisis.
Center women would like feminists
from other countries to
join
them
in their
protest
of this attitude
toward
rape.
Write to:
Agency for
Cultural
Affairs,
3-2-2
Kasumigaseki,
Chi
yoda-kuy Tokyo 100, Janpaa, Tokyo
Rape
Crisis Center9
Joto
p.o.
box
7S Koto-ku3 Tokyoy Japan.
?info from Spare Rib
Ireland: clinic sued
DUBLIN?The Dublin Well Woman Centre,
a feminist clinic,
is
being
taken to
court by the
"right
to life" movement.
Abortion is banned
by
Ireland's
constitution.
The
Society
for the Protection
of Unborn Children (SPUC) filed suit
against
the center and
Open
Line
Counselling
on the
grounds
that
they
legal
action
against
the center and
Open
Line
Counselling
on the
grounds
that
they
are abortion referral
agencies.
The
application
for an
injunction
was started after two
women members of SPUC went to the
center for
counselling
and were
referred to a clinic in
England.
The court
may slap
a
prelimin
ary injunction
against pregnancy
counselling
on the feminist
groups.
A trial in October is
likely.
Only
844 of the
70,000 people
who visit the clinic
every year
come for
pregnancy
counselling,
but in a
country where abortion is
illegal,
the service is
significant.
?info from Spare Rib
news
compiled by
cad
page 16/off our
backs/august-september
1985
This content downloaded from 61.17.206.139 on Thu, 21 Aug 2014 07:54:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions