On March 15, 2016, KARAMAH founder Dr. Azizah al-Hibri spoke at the University of Pennsylvania Law School about “KARAMAH’s Challenging Journey.” The event was organized by the Penn Law Women’s Association, the Muslim Students Association, and the International Human’s Rights Advocates.
Dr. al-Hibri presented the audience with the rationale behind the founding of KARAMAH; that is to give Muslim women a chance to speak in their own voices and to provide them with knowledge of their faith and the skills to approach gender issues from a learned perspective.
One of the first challenges that faced KARAMAH was dealing with negative consequences of western feminist secular NGO’s that worked before us in Muslim countries and didn’t succeed, said Dr. al-Hibri. Many of these NGO’s were accused of being infiltrators and of corrupting the culture, and were closed down by the local governments. Since KARAMAH is an American based women’s rights organization, its work in Muslim countries was often viewed from the same prism. KARAMAH had to spend 1/3 of its time during its programs or conferences in Muslim countries dispelling suspicions of hidden agendas, said Dr. al-Hibri. While time consuming, the task was usually successful due to KARAMAH’s faith based approach that understands the local cultures and contexts. Yet, lack of freedom of assembly and freedom of expression there was very restricting.
Dr. al-Hibri soon realized that Muslim women couldn’t obtain their rights within an oppressive society. Therefore, she embarked on developing scholarship about the compatibility of Islam with democracy. Islam not only is compatible with democracy, but it preaches it, she said. All components of democracy can be found in the Islamic system: consent of the people, consultation with the people, a just government, judiciary independence, the balance of powers in the government…etc.
Dr. al-Hibri also talked about KARAMAH’s civil rights work post 9/11 and presently. In 2002, law enforcement agencies conducted raids at Muslim leaders institutions, homes, and businesses, confiscating computers, and documents and often violating these people’s civil rights. KARAMAH embarked on civil rights work then by organizing a town hall meeting for Muslims to testify and air their fears and complaints and get answers from members of the Department of Justice, who were also present.
Today, KARAMAH is continuing its civil rights advocacy work especially with the rise of Daesh, the political anti-Muslim rhetoric that incites to civil rights violations of Muslims, the rising Islamophobia, discrimination and profiling of Muslims, bullying of kids, and targeting women who wear the headscarf, to name a few. KARAMAH has a big task at hand: defending the rights of Muslims and the rights of others.
Ms. Aisha Rahman concluded the presentation by clarifying how KARAMAH moved to litigation. KARAMAH’s primary advocacy method is through education. She noted that while this empowered many psychologically, it was too difficult for many to feel that they had achieved justice actually. Many women don’t have access to justice, courts, interpreters, lawyers. Realizing this need in the community, KARAMAH started its litigation work offering pro-bono legal services in domestic violence cases. “We are looking to you future generation of lawyers to help fix the system which is unfair to poor people,” said Ms. Rahman.
The presentation was followed by a Q&A where members of the audience asked about examples of cultural practices that are done under the guise of Islam.
It was very inspiring for attendees, most of whom were law students, to meet Dr. al-Hibri, an alumna of their school and to learn about KARAMAH’s journey. They were also interested in learning more about KARAMAH’s work and many of them expressed interest in interning with the organization.
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