Islam women and Modernity

Introduction

The Arabic Dutch Women Circle ( ANVK ) will launch on 21 – 22 May 2005 a conference about “Islam, Modernity and Women “.
The conference will discuss the position of Muslim women in the Netherlands and in Islamic Countries.

Background

The crisis of modernity in Islamic societies, generally, and of Muslim women’s rights, specifically, has led some individuals to wonder whether Islam is able to assume a new attitude concerning women’s rights.

Women living in Muslim countries see their rights on the political, social and family levels violated in the name of Islam. Many women have been believed indeed that Islam has been attributing them on inferior role in society. Others however realize very well that their position is not due to religion but to a patriarchal society in which democracy and basic human rights are lacking for everyone .Yet they fight in their own way, sometimes with small steps, for equality and improvement of their position in society. During this conference a few of these women will speak out to tell us about their struggle for equal rights. Various questions will be central in their presentations.
*Are equal rights for women possible in states in which separation between church and state for long time has not yet been established?
*Is Islam in itself an obstacle for the emancipation of women in Muslim societies?
Is their any question of an “Islam” which prescribes a uniform view on the role of man and woman in society?
Has the time not come for Muslims to have the courage to re-examine old hierarchical principles that were acceptable in a different era and a different culture?
In re-examine these principles we should be guided by Shura {democracy} and the protection of Maslahat al Ibad. What we need then is a new body of laws reflecting a new set of Islamic human relations.

Aim of the conference

September 11 and the war in Iraq have focused unprecedented attention on the Muslim women especially in Arab countries. In the aftermath of these events there has also been increasing debate, information, and misinformation about Islam and the position and participation of women in the economy and in the social and political life in those countries .This Conference aims:

1-To clarify that class, ethnicity, political system, history and cultural factors are of wider influence than just law or religious factors themselves.

2-Many Muslims have come to believe that only males can produce legitimate religious knowledge. The patriarchal interpretations of the Qu`ran affected the status, roles, rights and religious self –identities of Muslim women. As a result, Muslim women have come to consider themselves as being inferior to men and even to regard sexual equality as being a Western and feminist concept, not an Islamic one, although in the Qu`ran there are thirty passages which confirm the equality of men and women

3-To engage an eminent group of Muslim intellectuals ( men and women ) in interactive, thought provoking discussions about how to reread the Qu`ran from a woman’s perspective

Organization of the Conference

The conference will last one day and be in the form of a public symposium, to be held on 21-22 May 2005.in The Hague.
The audience will in principle not exceed 150 participants, consisting of representatives of various sectors of Dutch society and of the Arab and Muslim communities in the Netherlands. Invited people will include scholars and representatives from relevant international organizations

Issues

· Is Islam able to be modernized?
· Islam and rights of women (marriage, divorce, heritage etc….)
· The participation by women – NGO`s in emancipation processes in Arab countries.
· Labor and property rights of women in Islam.
· Gender Equality in Nationality laws of Muslim Countries:
Is Islam against it).
· Islam and violence against women