2013 – 10 Leading Muslim Women from Around the World – IMOW
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: December 16, 2013
WUNRN
2013 -10
Leading Muslim Women From Around the World
By Samina Ali, Curator: Muslima – Muslim Women’s Arts & Voices
IMOW-International Museum of Women
December 31, 2013 – As 2013 draws to a close, “Top 10 of the
year” lists are predictably ubiquitous. But here’s a list I doubt you’ll
see elsewhere — 10 Muslim women artists and leaders from around the world who
are shaking up the status quo. This handful of incredibly talented visionaries
and change-makers are all selected from the hundreds included in the International Museum of Women‘s virtual
exhibition, Muslima: Muslim Women’s Art & Voices.
No matter what part of the world these women hail from, not one of these
exceptional leaders is limited by her faith or gender. Instead, each uses her
identity to courageously overturn conventional roles and blaze an extraordinary
path for herself — an unthinkable accomplishment that will leave you deeply
moved and inspired. (For my picks of change-makers closer to home, check out
“10 American Muslim Women You
Should Know.”)
1. Zainah Anwar is a founding member of the
revolutionary Malaysian organization, Sisters in Islam. The pioneering work of
SIS aims to understand Islam from a women’s rights perspective and create an
alternative public voice for Muslim women demanding equality and justice. This
mission led it to create Musawah in 2009, where Anwar is currently the
Director. For over 20 years, Anwar has been at the forefront of the women’s
movement pushing for an end to the use of Islam to justify discrimination
against women. She says,
“First of all, there is nothing in the Quran that denies a woman’s right
to drive, to be educated, or to be treated as equal to men. There are of course
verses that have been misinterpreted to justify all these forms of
discrimination and ill-treatment of women… The Muslim world desperately needs
a paradigm shift on how we regard and treat women. If we had been true to the
message of the Quran, we really should be at the forefront of the feminist movement
today!”
2. Trained as an attorney in
Dr. Shirin Ebadi set up a private practice
in 1992 handling contentious cases. She was the defense lawyer for many
controversial political and human rights cases in
including Parvaneh and Dariush Foroohar (well-known political activists killed
by security forces) and Zahra Bani Yaghoob (a young doctor killed in
detention). These activities led to her incarceration on charges of spreading
and publishing lies against the Islamic Republic. She spent 25 days in solitary
confinement. But the international community recognized her work and awarded
Dr. Ebadi the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. Dr. Ebadi used some of the prize money
to set up an office for the Center for Defenders of Human Rights and support
the families of political prisoners. Although a role model to many, Dr Ebadi says she is “opposed to following a
role model. I often tell my daughters not to follow me as a role model. I have
not followed any role models. I tell young women, in particular, that you need
to be yourself and follow your own dreams. I tell them to make efforts to reach
their goals and not fear the possibility of failure.”
3. Maria Bashir is the first female
Prosecutor General in
In her groundbreaking role, she has taken on the mission of educating and
empowering the women in her community of
of their Islamic and civic rights. The knowledge Bashir is imparting is
empowering women to file police reports and claim their rights to safety and
equal treatment. The sad irony is that while Bashir protects women and
children, her own life is under threat from both the local government and the
Taliban. Bashir has sent her children out of the country to keep them safe
while she herself moves from safe house to safe house. For her brave work, the
United States Department of State presented her The International Women of
Courage Award, which is awarded annually to women around the world who have
shown leadership, courage, resourcefulness and willingness to sacrifice for
others, especially for better promotion of women’s rights. She says, “The message that I give to
young girls is that there is no career that they cannot do as long as they are
equipped with the knowledge. I also make them aware of their rights, and I tell
them that if they work in the government of
they can have a significant role in rule of law, and specifically justice for women.
I believe it so important to lead society toward justice!”
4. Fahima Hashim is the director of Salamah
Women’s Resource Center in Sudan, whose most successful campaign has been to
reform laws on rape that, in their current form, prevent the survivors of
sexual violence from accessing justice. Sudanese laws currently grant
conditional immunity to officials, especially police and security forces, many
of whom have been accused of rape. The initiative would also end the use of
rape as a weapon of war in
initiative, rape cases and child sexual abuses are now covered in the daily
newspapers and the government is allying with civil society to reform rape law,
thereby protecting women and children. She says her “country is experiencing an
identity crisis, especially after the separation of
Some are trying to understand, and some will migrate. Salamah works with a big
number of university gradates and university students, and they give me hope
that change will come and new men are walking together with women,
equally.”
5. Laila Shawa was born in 1940 to one of
old landowning families. She took up residence in
in 1987 and soon after started her socio-political critique Women And The Veil,
resulting in acclaimed paintings like The Impossible Dream. Shawa’s pioneering
work during the 1980s of utilizing photography as integral to art production
has left a lasting mark on contemporary Palestinian art. For the artist, it
signified a departure from the traditional paint medium and instigated such
works as the controversial installation Crucifixion 2000: In the Name of God at
the
response to the invasion of
and the high death toll among children, she created a Gaza III series. Another
powerful series titled Cast Lead references the high number of children killed
in the airstrike operation by the Israeli air force, also called Cast Lead. In
Shawa’s powerful work, the political is often the personal. When asked about
her courage, she says, “I
come from a long line of strong women. My grandmothers were very powerful; my
mother was a follower of Simon De Beauvoir. I grew up as an equal, and always
believed in the power (and to some extent the supremacy) of women. Watching
women subdued — but above all, seeing women accept it — is something I could
not accept.”
6. Born in
Dr. Sakena Yacoobi grew up seeing widows
forced to beg for money or work for just a little food. She saw women and
children who could not read and the impact poverty was having on her country:
there were no clinics, no schools, no way for people to learn skills that would
better their lives. To change that, Dr. Yacoobi founded Afghan Learning
Institute (AIL) to bring education and work training to women and girls. In
1995, the organization began by helping in refugee camps then soon supported
secret homeschools inside
After the fall of the Taliban, AIL established learning centers where people
can come to get an education and the skills they need to have a better life.
For her incredible devotion to promoting education and heath services, Dr. Yacoobi
was awarded the 2013 Opus Prize, which comes with a $1 million award. Dr.
Yacoobi says she feels
optimistic about the future: “I see a future in
where women and men work together as equals, where no one’s human rights are
abused, where there is harmony and justice for all. Already there are
communities of men and women where this is happening. I pray, in the future,
those will be the only communities in
7. Human Rights lawyer Zarizana Aziz
is the Board Chair of Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), an international
solidarity network that provides information, support and collective space for
women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or governed by laws and customs said
to derive from Islam. For more than two decades WLUML has linked individual
women and organizations. She was President of the Women’s Crisis Centre (now
Women’s Centre for Change) in
where she provided legal and emotional support to victims of violence against
women. Most recently, she was shortlisted for the UN Working Group on
Discrimination against Women in Law and Practice. She says, “Do
not accept that women are born to suffer discrimination, inequality and
violence. The more you learn the better you will understand how culture and
religion have been politicized to justify discrimination and silence women’s
voices. Culture is dynamic and is influenced by contemporary societal needs and
must reflect our understanding of justice and equality.”
8. Tamsila Tauqir is the founder of the Safra
Project, a group that works to empower Muslim lesbian, bisexual and trans.
Located in the UK, Safra Project has three key aims: to empower Muslim lesbian,
bisexual and trans (Muslim LBT) women to deal with the issues they face
resulting from their sexual orientation and/or gender identity within the
context of their ethnic, cultural and religious background; to raise awareness
on the needs of and issues relating to Muslim LBT women in order to make
service provision accessible and appropriate; and to eliminate prejudice and
discrimination experienced by Muslim LBT women and to promote diversity. Safra
comes from the Arabic word Safr, meaning to journey or travel. The organization
chose this name because their mission is to support women on their journey.
Asked about a recent success story, Tauqir told me about a British woman who
wanted to bring her partner over from
on a fiancé visa. She says, “It took just under a year of
evidence gathering, writing letters to the Home Office and UK Border Agency,
involving the local Member of Parliament, seeking appropriate legal advice but
it happened. Just a few months ago the partner came over to the
and recently the two women had a small civil partnership ceremony to legalize
their commitment… Now plans are being made for the shaadi (wedding), with all
the glitz and glamour you can imagine of a Bollywood movie… And Safra Project
will be there to share their joyous day, inshallah.”
9. Dr. Sima Samar is the Chairperson for the
Afghan Human Rights Commission. In this position, she oversees the conduct of
human rights education programs across
the implementation of a nationwide women’s rights education program, and
monitoring and investigation of human rights abuses across the country. Dr.
Samar convened the Commission, which is the first Human Rights Commission in
history. Trained as a doctor,
educating Afghan women and girls. She founded The Shuhada Organization, which
now operates 55 schools for girls and boys in
and 3 schools for Afghan refugees in
She also served as the Minister of Women’s Affairs in
in 2002, before being forced to resign due to death threats for questioning
conservative Islamic laws. Dr. Samar has spent her life working for improved
education, health, and equality for women and girls in
and
When speaking of her achievements, Dr. Samar says, “When I look back I feel really
happy because it took a long time to get to this position. But one thing that
you can be sure of is if you have commitment and dedication you will reach your
objective. My objective was not always to be in a position of power, but in a
position where men could admit that women are also able to work as human
beings.”
10. Boushra Almutawakel has worked as a
photographer for the United Nations, CARE International, the Royal Netherlands
Embassy, the Social Organization for Family Development, the National Institute
for Health Education, The British Council, The French Embassy, among other
others, while pursuing her own personal photographic projects. In 1999, she was
honored as the first Yemeni Woman Photographer by the Empirical Research and
Women’s Studies Centre at Sana’a University. She is a founding member of
Al-Halaqa in Sana’a, an artists’ group that created a space for discourse and
exhibitions and forged links with international artists. Among other places,
her work has been acquired by the
of Boston and the Barjeel Foundation. Her “Hijab Series” was inspired
after 9/11 when women wearing the veil were commonly portrayed in the media as
weak, oppressed, and backwards. Almutawakel says she wanted to portray the hijab
“as a form of self-expression… I want to explore the many faces and
facets of the veil based on my own personal experiences and observations: the
convenience, freedom, strength, power, liberation, limitations, danger, humor,
irony, variety, cultural, social, and religious aspects, as well as the beauty,
mystery, and protection.”
Categories: Releases
