Each year, KARAMAH holds a parallel event at the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) session that is held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York with the attendance of representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world.
This year, KARAMAH hosted a parallel event to the UN CSW60 on March 23, 2016 with the co-sponsorship of Women in Islam, Inc. The event was titled: “The Law and Leadership Summer Program: Training a New Generation of Muslim Women Change-makers.” Speakers at the event were: KARAMAH Executive Director Ms. Aisha Rahman, Founder of Women in Islam, Inc. and KARAMAH Board Member Ms. Aisha al-Adawiya, KARAMAH Board Member, Lawyer and Specialist in Islamic Law Mr. Abed Awad, and alumna of KARAMAH’s 2014 Law and Leadership Summer Program Ms. Zara Iqbal, esq., who is also a manager at Advanced Bio Behavioral Sciences.
The theme of this year’s CSW 60s session was “Women’s empowerment and its link to sustainable development.” KARAMAH believes that gender equity and women’s empowerment are crucial for achieving the economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainable development. We believe that, once women know their rights, they become powerful agents of change – one of the pre-requisites for sustainable development. Therefore, KARAMAH has worked hard for the past 23 years, to change the narrative surrounding gender equity in Islam and to empower Muslim women with knowledge of their faith and the skills they need to affect change in their communities.
After a brief introduction to KARAMAH’s mission and work by Ms. Aisha al-Adawiya, Ms. Rahman spoke about KARAMAH’s history and how the Law and Leadership Program came to being. KARAMAH was founded, she said, by three Muslim women lawyers who were disheartened when the Western feminist movement changed its tune. The same sisters along whom they fought for women to speak in their own voices, tried to take over Muslim women stories and identity and portraying them as helpless victims who needed to be “saved.”
This cemented for KARAMAH’s founders the need to have an organization that elevates the voices of Muslim women who speak for themselves and gives them the opportunity to learn from each other.
After the 9/11 attacks, KARAMAH found a growing desire among young Muslim women not only to learn about the rights Islam afforded them, but to achieve them in the real world. This is why the Law and Leadership Program was founded.
At LLSP, Ms. Rahman explained, KARAMAH gathers women from around the world to encourages them to reclaim their narratives. Because KARAMAH doesn’t only want these women to have a peace of mind knowing their rights, the program provides them with a combination of education starting from the basics of the faith to nuanced concepts of Islamic law, and leadership and conflict resolution skills. Our alumnae take these skills to their societies and make changes at a systemic level.
Given that “gender equality” is one of the CSW sustainable development goals, it was necessary to emphasize that KARAMAH advocates for “gender equity” and not “equality.” Ms. Rahman explained that the Qur’an differentiates between men and women, and affords them rights and privileges accordingly.
Ms. Zara Iqbal, an alumna of KARAMAH’s 2014 Law and Leadership Summer Program, spoke about the empowerment she experienced during the program and how she applied the principles she learned at KARAMAH at the personal level, professional and community levels.
Ms. Iqbal said that KARAMAH emphasizes on strengthening Muslim women’s voices and teaches women to be strong and speak up, especially in regards to issues of gender and faith. “At KARAMAH, I witnessed the most empowered women from all over the world. The most beautiful thing I saw was that when Muslim women—some in burqas, some in hijabs, and some with neither—came together as a team… it was a beautiful thing to see that we were all strong in our own ways.”
What makes LLSP unique is its combination of the theoretical and the practical. In addition to the theoretical framework based in Islamic jurisprudence, said Mr. Awad, LLSP provides women with practical skills to utilize these ideas to “reengage with the heart and soul of the Islamic heritage” that encourages women’s leadership contrary to the current shift and marginalization of women’s voices.
Mr. Awad went on explaining how LLSP is beneficial to lawyers. “Islamic law is implicated in many layers of international family law litigations,” he said. Marriages and assets are crossing boarders and so do diverse family issues. At LLSP, KARAMAH provides lawyers with the skills to better present their cases in American courts and protect their clients.
But LLSP is not only for lawyers. LLSP also provides practical advice to Muslim women advocates, and social workers on how to deal with issues relating to gender. Mr. Awad cited a recurrent issue he has experienced with local imams who fail to understand issues relating to family and immigration law through a gender equitable lens.
The presentation was followed by a Q&A session, in which the audience inquired about the nature of the LLSP program, including its availability to men, its effectiveness in mediating sectarian issues, and KARAMAH’s current work on developing a certificate program for imams on gender-specific Islamic work.
KARAMAH educates the entire community, men and women, through diverse educational programs including lectures, and training workshops for advocates, imams and attorneys. However, the Law and Leadership Summer Program is specifically designed for Muslim women, said Ms. Rahman, LLSP is meant to be a sisterhood and a safe space for Muslim women to learn from and inspire each other.
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