Raising awareness on the status of women globally and addressing issues of violence against women are central foci of KARAMAH’s work. KARAMAH capitalizes on every opportunity to advocate in support of these issues, and we know the importance of networking with women leaders from around the globe in order to build a stronger movement and pursue our similar missions more effectively. For these reasons, KARAMAH regularly looks forward to hosting parallel events at the annual session of the UN Commission on the Status (CSW) of Women. Marking the 57th session, this year’s theme for the CSW was prevention of violence against women and girls.
This year, KARAMAH hosted two events aimed at addressing two different, but related, topics. The first event, held on Tuesday, March 5th, was titled “Religious Solutions to Ending Violence against Women: A Maldivian Case Study.” For this event, KARAMAH invited the Maldivian Ambassador, H.E. Ahmed Sareer, to speak. Ambassador Sareer spoke about steps the Maldivian government has taken to reform its legal code and better protect women and children. During the event, he stated that the government sees these changes as promoting Islamic values of ending violence against women. Ambassador Sareer also echoed KARAMAH’s position, stating that quality Islamic education is needed in order to promote a more well-balanced society overall.
During the event, KARAMAH’s Executive Director, Aisha Rahman Esq., discussed KARAMAH’s overall organizational mission by presenting a case study of our work in the Maldives. KARAMAH believes that proper education, scholarship and jurisprudence on Islam, are the keys to increasing gender equitability in Muslim communities (to read more about KARAMAH’s work on Domestic Violence click here). Ms. Rahman described KARAMAH’s processof addressing these issues, beginning withobtaining scholarship and jurisprudential analyses on a variety of issues. Followed with, KARAMAH’s Jurist and Leader Network are carefully selecting and using traditional sources—namely the Qur’an and Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad—to review the issues from traditional Islamic jurisprudential viewpoints. Finally, KARAMAH educates leaders in the country on these issues, to promote action inspired by KARAMAH’s scholarship.
After Ambassador Sareer and Ms. Rahman spoke, they took questions about KARAMAH’s work and scholarly approach, which were generally enthusiastic. One curious skeptic asked whether KARAMAH’s success in the Maldives should be viewed as an anomaly. Ms. Rahman’s answer was unequivocally “no.” While challenges continue to exist around the world, Ms. Rahman concluded her statements by stating that KARAMAH’s approach to advocating for women’s and human rights through Islamic jurisprudence is sustainable, and is working.
The second event, hosted on the afternoon of March 7th, was titled, “Violence against Women in War Zones: Prescriptions for Ending Systemic Failures in Preventing War Crimes against Women.” To address this topic, KARAMAH invited Prof. Dina Francesca Haynes, Professor of law at New England School of Law. She is a leading international scholar on immigration law, human rights law, human trafficking, post-conflict reconstruction, migration and humanitarian law.
Professor Haynes addressed many issues associated with the topic, including, but not limited to, the problem of sexual violence against women in post-conflict areas. One of the difficulties women face is the international community’s focus on seeking justice, while many victims are more concerned with basic issues of survival. She cited examples of women from Darfur and Bosnia who are victims of sexual violence, sharing reports that many survivors simply “wanted to get on with their lives.” Overall security, namely food and shelter, commonly trumped complaints about sexual abuse. Professor Haynes added that current mechanisms for seeking prosecutions against perpetrators of sexual violence in war zones are generally inadequate. Current methods leave much room for failure. She stated also that are not “cookie-cutter” solutions for addressing the issue, and that prescriptions tend to be context-specific. Professor Haynes did say, however, that prescriptions for combating this strain of violence in conflict areas should seek to become more inclusive of women in informal peace talks.
Ms. Rahman followed this by presenting the Islamic analysis on the issue of sexual violence, specifically explaining the different between “zina”, or illegal sexual relations, and rape. In order to understand and combat the issue of violence against women and girls in war zones, particularly in Muslim-majority countries, one must first understand the stark distinction between sex outside of a legal marriage and rape. Because of the cultural stigma attached to the issue, many women fail to report crimes against them for the fear being accused of zina. KARAMAH would like to foster in the Muslim World an attitude of disclosure, without shame to the victim or her family, of acts of coercion, especially those of rape, and demand punishment for the perpetrators at the highest levels of international legal bodies. These are neither women’s problems nor parental problems, “honor problems” nor even problems of one nation against another. They are human rights problem of the highest order.
EN 
AR