Conference, Symposium, and Panel Reports

Legal and Practical Aspects of
Participation by Women in Arab Societies

Many Arab and Muslim countries have a long history of women’s activism.
Depending on location and historical moment, women activists have drawn
inspiration from a wide array of sources, including both religious and sec-
ular discourses. In all cases, however, one main issue is how legal systems
and processes of legal reform on the one hand, and social relations and
everyday life on the other hand, relate to each other. 

At this conference,  held in The Hague, The Netherlands, on March 4-
5, 2004, the tensions between legal systems and social life were discussed.
The conference was organized by the Arabic Dutch Women Circle (ANVK)
in cooperation with the municipality of The Hague and the International
Dialogues Foundation (IDF). The ANVK is a Dutch non-profit organiza-
tion dedicated to promoting cultural exchange between Dutch and Arab
societies, and, in particular, between Dutch and Arab women. The ANVK
organizes conferences, meetings, debates, and exhibitions to stimulate dia-
logue and exchange.

Among other things, the conference sought to clarify that class, ethnic-
ity, political system, history, and cultural factors are of wider influence than
just law or religious factors themselves. The constitutions of almost all
Arab and Muslim countries proclaim equal rights for all, regardless of race,
sex, language, and religion. However, the implementation of these rights is
often a problem. By inviting a group of women activists and academics
from the Middle East, as well as representatives of various sectors of Dutch
society and of the Arab and Muslim communities in The Netherlands, the
conference also aimed at stimulating discussion about Arab women’s rights
and practices. 

The conference was chaired by Professor Annelies Moors, chair of the
International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM)
at the University of Amsterdam. The first day was open to the general pub-
lic and consisted of a plenary session in which four papers were presented,



while the second day was meant as a workshop and open for a selected
group of people. Around 190 people attended the first day, and about 40
people attended the second day.

Dr. Tomador Meihuizen-Hassoun, president of the ANVK; Dr. Dick de
Zeeuw, chairman of the IDF; and Professor Annelies Moors, who explained
the conference’s aim and program, opened the conference. Then the film
“Women and Democracy in Yemen,” made by Khadija al-Salami, film
director and cultural attaché at the Yemeni Embassy in Paris, was shown.
In this film, three female candidates in Yemen’s parliamentary election of
April 2003 were followed, and the difficulties encountered by women seek-
ing to be elected were portrayed. Even though women in Yemen have the
right to stand as candidates, very few of them are eventually elected. The
film led to a lively discussion. 

The first speaker was Shirin Ershadi, of Iranian background and assis-
tant professor at the Center for the Study of Women of UCLA. She argued
that honor killings should be viewed as crimes against humanity and that,
therefore, states that legalize such killings in their constitutions (e.g.,
Jordan and Iran) should be brought to trial before the International Criminal
Court. The second speaker was Maha Najjar, a lawyer of Palestinian back-
ground and researcher about the relations between the European Union and
the Middle East. She focused on the three different legal systems present in
the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem, as well as Palestinian women’s strug-
gle for a progressive family law. 

The third presenter was Leila Jordens-Cotran, a legal expert specializ-
ing in Moroccan family law and its relationship with Dutch law. She dis-
cussed the recent reforms in Moroccan family law (the Mudawanna) and
the possible consequences for Moroccan women living in The Netherlands.
The last speaker was Mona Fadl, former businesswoman and president of
the Bahrain Young Ladies Association, the first women’s organization in
the Gulf. Fadl spoke about women’s status and labor laws in Bahrain.
While the constitution stipulates equality between men and women and the
labor law grants women many rights, women often earn less than men for
the same type of work, are often forced to resume work before their official
maternity leave has ended, and face a lack of nurseries at work sites. 

On the second day, cases from different countries were presented. The
first speaker was Bedour Zaki, a lawyer and president of the Iraqi Women’s
Rights Organization in London. Zaki discussed the Iraq’s 1959 family law,
one of the most progressive in the Middle East, and the possible legal
changes that may occur in post-war Iraq. The second speaker was Nahda

184 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 21:3



Younis, a Palestinian researcher at the Institute of Social Studies in The
Hague who has done extensive fieldwork in Gaza City’s Shari`ah courts.
Her main argument was that judges [qudah] are more than implementers of
Shari`ah law: They play an important  role in protecting female litigants by
making flexible use of the different sources available to them, such as the
family law and customary law. 

The third speaker was Dr. Asya al-Lamki, assistant dean of Research and
Post-graduate Studies at the College of Commerce and Economics, Sultan
Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman. She presented the outcomes of her
research on Omani women working as professionals and their perceptions
about their position at work. While the Arab Human Development Report
states that many Arab women suffer from discrimination at work, al-Lamki’s
research was less conclusive. The fourth speaker was Amina al-Rasheed, a
Sudanese political scientist, women’s activist, and currently a researcher at
the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. She gave a brief overview of the
position of women in Sudan and focused on how the Islamist government in
power since 1989 has affected them. Laws restricting their movement and
mandating compulsory veiling, as well as establishing a police force primar-
ily targeting women’s conduct, are examples. The last speaker was Wadad
Chakhtoura, president of the Rassemblement Démocratique des Femmes
Libanaises (RDLF) in Beirut. She explained Lebanon’s complicated legal
system, in which each of the nineteen religious groups has its own personal
status law, and the problems that derive from this. One of her organization’s
main aims is to devise a unified civil law. 

After these presentations, a lively discussion took place between the
speakers and the audience about the different issues that had come to the
fore during the two days. The conference was very successful in bringing
together people of different countries and backgrounds, and was evaluated
very positively by the participants. 

Marina de Regt
University of Amsterdam

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Conference, Symposium, and Panel Reports 185