Legal Rights of Middle Eastern Women

The beloved Egyptian feminist leader, Huda Sha´rawi, spoke to a convention of Arab women in 1944, saying, "The Arab woman who is equal to the man in duties and obligations will not accept in the twentieth century distinctions between the sexes that advanced countries have discarded.... In her loudest voice, the woman demands to regain her political rights, which have been granted by the Shari´ah " (Badran, 240).

It was around this time (1930´s and 1940´s), when many Arab countries were regaining their own independence from foreign occupancies, that women moved for a change in their political and legal status. Women began to demand reform of the laws affecting them, especially the "personal status laws", and voiced their wish that their governments move on to a more "enlightened" interpretation of the Shari´ah. At the time, this meant an enforced minimum marriage age, custody of their children at least until they reached adolescence, reduction in the practice of polygamy and "greater security as wives and mothers" (Badran, 242). In some cases, their voices were heard, although it often took a frustratingly long time for changes to take effect. In Turkey and Tunisia, for example, the personal status laws were rejected in favor of a "Civil Law Code". In theory, this code regulated personal and familial relations by "equalizing the duties and responsibilities of the sexes" in addition to abolishing the practices of polygamy and unilateral male divorce (Moghadam, 54).In practice, however, social attitudes were not as quick to change as the states´ official policies. Arab women did gain much from official change in state legislation, however. In Iran, for example, women won the right to vote in 1962, only after many women participated in movements demanding this right. Iran also passed the "Family Protection Act" in 1967, which achieved much of what Huda Sha´rawi and her contemporaries had fought for. The Family Protection Act included legislation on limiting polygamy, granting women the right to initiate divorce, and easing custody battles of divorced and widowed women (Moghadam, 71). Most of the dramatic gains made by women in the areas of legal, political and social rights have been achieved only after revolts and revolutions (Moghadam 2).

From the Western prospective, Arab women suffer a severe lack of rights today due to the history of Islamic influence in the area, and, indeed, Islam has been a major voice in the treatment of women over the centuries. Islam, in itself, is not a blatantly sexist or repressive religion. Most of the converts to Islam in recent years, for example, are women converting from Christianity, and Muslim women are often quick to dispell the many myths which often surround their religion.CLICK HERE to go to a webpage used by many Muslim women as a forum about this topic. Islam is an intrical part of Arab society, however, and as of now, Turkey is the only Middle Eastern state which has a legislative separation of church and state. In all other Arab states, the Shari´ah is taken into consideration when crafting legislation and, in many cases, the Shari´ah is official policy. Just as in the United States, Middle Eastern policy makers often change their political views to fit the concerns of the voters. Due to this phenomenon, women often find their rights playing the role of the sacrificial lamb in the political arena. To satisfy fundamentalist Muslims, many policy changes which would have made a great step toward gender equality were never considered and even sacrificed in favor of more rigid, religious views and policies concerning womenÕs behavior. One vivid example of the impact which Islam has over the rights of its women followers is shown in the reaction to The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Of the forty-nine countries who have yet to sign their agreement to the platform of the convention, half of those are states with a Muslim majority population.

In general, Arab women have made great strides in gaining what are considered by most people worldwide to be the essential rights of humans. In 1948, the United Nations´ "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" stressed that provisions for equality between men and women were basic human rights. In the decades following, many other conferences and conventions have showed that this is a common belief throughout the world. The United Nations has held four World Conferences on the Rights of Women--the last being the much-publicized conference in Beijing, China--as well as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Arab women have the support of men and women from all over the world in their commitment to their basic human rights. The beginning spark, however, must come from within their own ranks.

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