Beijing Betrayed. Chapter on West Asia

7/23/2019 Beijing Betrayed. Chapter on West Asia

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HUMAN RIGHTS

Until recently, only a few of civil societygroups in West Asia identified their work aswomens human rights, and those that didcould not work openly. e concept of co-ordination and networking for human rights

work at the regional level was politically andlogistically problematic. Arab governmentswere hostile to the idea of human rights ad-vocacy in their countries and did not encour-age or facilitate NGO movements.

In 1982, the organizers of the first Arabcivil society conference on human rights,

could not get permission to hold it in anyArab City from any Arab government in thregion and subsequently had to hold theimeeting in Cyprus. But governments havslowly come to accept the work of humanrights groups at local and regional levels. AHuman Rights Charter was just adopted by

WEST ASIAPost-Beijing, More Open Debate on Womens Human Rights

During the last decade, womens rights in the West Asiaregion have been greatly affected by global geo-politics.e results of political, economic and religious pow-er struggles have been felt by the millions of womenthroughout the region. While governments negotiated

womens issues in domestic and international arenas, womens rightsgroups in West Asia stepped up their efforts to hold governments ac-countable for commitments made in national legislation and interna-tional instruments, such as the Beijing Platform for Action.

By the end of the decade, one major positive development emergedthroughout the region in the form of increased dialogue between thestate and civil society. An unprecedented increase in education forwomen and new avenues of information through internet technologyhave been some of the most positive influences on advancing wom-ens rights in the region. Womens groups in West Asia have success-fully added gender equality as a permanent agenda item in nationalpolicy debates, even though the level of actual progress varies fromcountry to country.

At the same time, the continuation and expansion of military oc-cupation in the region, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict andU.S. invasion of Iraq, has made womens human rights discourse moredifficult for local groups. Today, one of the challenges facing womensrights groups in West Asia is to work harder to ensure that their con-tinued advocacy for gender equality in Arab countries does not equatewith supporting Western military agendas. Womens rights advocatesassert that their demands stem from the reality of their day-to-daylives, regardless of its correspondence to the new global agendas andpolitical reform initiatives.

In this context, womens rights groups find themselves working atthree levels simultaneously: to educate women in their country about

access to, and denial of, basic human rights by their governments.;to lobby national governments to implement international standardsof womens human rights protections in all fields of life for women;and to highlight to the international community that women in WestAsia should not be seen as victims waiting for the West to rescuethem, but instead as women who are fighting for their rights as equalcitizens and working against patriarchal and historical injustices.

Overview of the Region

e countries reviewed in this section make up the Gulf Arabian Pen-insula and Levant regions, namely Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Ku-wait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestinian Territories (West Bank and Gaza),Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen.

For the purposes of this report, these countries are also referred to asthe Arab region.1

e overall population of the 13 countries reviewed in this reportis estimated at over 190 million. e region has a centuries-old tribal,cultural and religious common heritage that ties its people together.

In addition to what they have in common, each of these countriesalso has unique cultural identities, institutions, dialects, music andtraditions. is region is the birthplace of the three monotheisticmajor religions and has been a center point of the worlds majorarmed conflicts in ancient and modern history. e Arab-Israel

dispute is one of the worlds longest-running armed conflicts andit generates great outcry and emotions throughout the region. emodern worlds most dangerous war is also being fought in this region in Iraq. Some of the worlds largest oil reserves are also locatedin this region, and have been a source of blessing and burdens for itspeople for decades.

Extremist politics in the name of religion are gaining strength inthe region. Seven of the 13 countries under review are monarchiesas well as some of the richest economies in the world. e politicalsystems in 10 of the 13 countries are highly repressive, excludinglarge sections of society from participating in the limited politicalactivities that do take place. Political parties are not allowed by theregimes in most countries, which operate under one party system

backed by the military.Freedom of association and freedom of expression are also severely

restricted in most countries. Civil society and NGOs often operatein hostile environments created by oppressive laws, funding restric-tions and interference by the state. National TV and radio stationsare owned, controlled and politicized by the governments. In recentyears, however, public access to information has increased tremen-dously with easy access to the Internet and satellite TV and regionalnews networks.

e judiciary is not independent, modern or free of corruption inmany countries. Legal systems are based on a complex mix of religious, post-colonial, customary or secular laws. Parallel legal systems

also operate throughout the region, undermining the rule of lawPublic life and educational systems are gender segregated.Over 60 percent of the population in the six Gulf States consists

of immigrant workers, including a large number of female domesticworkers. ese migrant workers are excluded from most civil, politi-cal, economic and social rights protections that the local populationmay have.

Womens political participation and representation has only slightlyimproved. Although women make up 50 percent of the populationthey are still underrepresented in decision-making, moneymakingand political leadership. Despite highly impressive gains in access toeducation during the last 20 years, the region still ranks lowest in theworld for womens access to equal employment and political partici

pation. Millions of women in West Asia have to fight legal battles toexercise their right to equal citizenship rights. e only two countriesin the world today where special laws have been enacted to make itillegal for women to run for office and vote due to their gender areKuwait and Saudi Arabia.


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Israels civil societyincluding womens

grassroots organizations womens organiza-

tions for peace, and human rights organiza-

tions that work for the protection of human

rights of Israelis as well of Palestinians in

the Palestinian Occupied Territoriesknowsthat there is much active opposition to the

occupation and the continuance of the cur-

rent situation, whereby the human rights of

both Palestinians and Israelis are violated,

on a daily basis, in the Israeli-Palestinian

armed conflict.

The Project for the Implementation in

Israel of Security Council Resolution 1325,

initiated by the grassroots organization

Isha LIsha-Haifa Feminist Center, works to

include women from different backgrounds

and sectors of society, and to encourage

them to take part in formal and informal

negotiations and discussions on the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict.

By using the concepts and framework

that were introduced in Resolution 1325,

the project aims to raise public awareness

of the gender perspective regarding the

Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact

on women in the region by focusing on

several strategies: distributing the transla-

tion of Resolution 1325 to national, regional

and local NGOs involved in decision-mak-

ing processes; campaigning to raise public

awareness through public relations work,

networking and coalition work, advertise-

ments and media coverage; monitoring and

documenting the way the conflict affects

the lives of women and girls; legal activism

to promote the participation of women and

bring a gender perspective to both formal

and informal peace processes; and advo-

cating for and defending womens rights

as human rights for Israeli and Palestinianwomen, from violations caused by the

conflict and the occupation, in Israel and in

the occupied territories.

Women are almost completely absent

from the official negotiations that Israel

has held with the Palestinians, such as the

Oslo Accords between 1991-2000, as well as

recent negotiations, including the Road-

Map and the Geneva Accords. This situation

derives from the minimal representation

of women in general at decision-making

levels in Israeli politics. The reason for this is

based on several factors. Firstly, the central

perception of a constant security threat,

in which military and security needs stand

foremost in national priorities. Secondly, the

army and the security services, specificallythe Ministries of Defense, the Foreign Minis-

try and the Government, promote only men

to the highest level positions. Thirdly, there

is a strong focus on the traditional gender

approach towards women, especially moth-

ers, in Israeli society and a cultural division

between the private (the home) sphere

and the public sphere; the private sphere

is regarded as the female one, while the

public sphere is reserved for and controlled

by males.

A current initiative drafted by all cur-

rent Israeli women Members of Parliament

proposes that every Israeli commission or

team involved in conflict resolution and/or

resolving a national crisis, would under law,

be required to have a quota of at least 25

percent women. However, the proposed law

was drafted without a gender perspective

as it does not discuss or stress the impor-

tance of representing the specific needs

and interests of women and girls through

the process of conflict resolution. Rather,

it presents itself as resolving the issue of

womens equal representation. This law

has few chances of passing the three-fold

preliminary voting stages in Parliament, to

become a binding law.

In the Israeli Parliament today, the num-

ber of elected women stands at 15 percent.

There is no legislation to ensure a higher

representation or quota of women. There

are no structures in place to ensure the

participation and inclusion of many differ-

ent voices of women in politics, includingPalestinian women who are Israeli citizens.

Women do not take part in many central

and powerful official bodies and institutions

that deal strictly with issues of security and

foreign affairs.

The judiciary and its related bodies

investigators, prosecutors and judges

in both civil and military courts, when deal-

ing with cases in the Palestinian Occupied

Territories, are not trained to address gender

violence and womens issues. This includes

their handling of cases of indecent assault,

sexual harassment and all other forms of

violence against women derived from the

situation of conflict. This also includes

cases of violations committed by Israeli

soldiers against Palestinian women in theoccupied territories.

Issues and decisions related to security

and armaments are surrounded with great

secrecy in governmental and military fo-

rums where very few women, if any, have an

active decision-making role. (cont. on p. 218)

One of the most secret and non-regulated

issues is whether or not there are nuclear

weapons in Israel. There is no legislation,

or official records open to the public, with

regard to this question. If there are nuclear

weapons, it is not clear who makes criticaldecisions on this matter.

Since October 2000, the Israeli army has

made several incursions into Palestinian ter-

ritories, and is considered by some as having

used extensive and extreme force. Another

by-product since the outburst of the Second

Palestinian Intifada in 2000 is its effect on

everyday situationsas in the bombing of

coffee shops or buses. The governments,

and later the business sectors response was

to position armed guards at the entrance of

every building, public institution, transport

station and caf. This situation, in which so

many civilians now serve as armed guards,

has created new phenomena. Suddenly

there are arms readily available and in the

hands of so many citizens (almost all of

them males). Many of them are from the

most disadvantaged, poorest populations in

the Israeli society; we have recently seen an

alarming increase in the number of murder

of women by men in Israel.

A barrier to promoting non-violentforms of conflict resolution is the feeling

that there is a constant threat to national

and personal security. This, in turn, is

a result of the daily fear of Palestinian

terror attacks. Israeli military responses

and retributions in the Occupied Palestin-

ian Territories together have caused the

deaths of hundreds of Israeli civilians and

thousands of Palestinian civilians. The con-

stant feelings of insecurity have also been

Box 35. Women Working for the Protection of Human Rights in Israel.

WOMENS ENVIRONMENT & DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION 191

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supported and nurtured by official Israeli

positions during the past four years of the

armed conflict.

Since 2000, Israel has refused to negoti-

ate with the Palestinians. Israel chooses to

take unilateral steps rather than engage in

dialogue. Some examples are: closing off

Israeli borders to the passage of Palestin-

ian workers into Israel; building a massive

and costly Defense Barrier (separation wall)

between Israeli and Palestinian territory;

specifically violating the human rights of

those who live along the route of the barrier

including denying them access to their land

and water; as well as other steps, such as

the numerous Israeli guarded checkpointsbetween Palestinian land and Israel, which

make it difficult to move and to exercise

other basic human rights, such as education,

and health.

We also note that Palestinian women

and girls are the most vulnerable in society

and suffer most from the occupation. They

cannot exercise their human right to medi-

cal treatment, including pregnancy care

and treatment, safe births and freedom

from sexual harassment that has been

reported to occur to them at checkpoints by

Israeli soldiers and police. They also cannot

exercise their right to marry Palestinian

men who are citizens of Israel and move toIsrael due to regulations of the Ministry of

Internal Affairs, which refuses to recognize

unification of families and the acceptance

of Palestinian civilians from the Occupied

Territories. Palestinian women political

prisoners suffer from many violations of

their civil and political rights while in prison,

including the right to visitation by their

families and children.

Many feminist and womens grassroots

NGOs, womens peace organizations and

the Womens Coalition for a Just Peace(comprised of a number of groups) are vocal

and active in Israel. Many of them are work-

ing to maintain a dialogue with Palestinian

women, seeking solutions and formulas

that might lead to a just peace agreement,

advocating for ending the Israeli occupation

over the Palestinian territory and demilita-

rizing Israeli society, and doing work to raise

public awareness to the suf-

fering of Palestinian civilians

and to defend their human

rights.

None of the organizations,

nor any of their activities, are

either funded or supported by

the government.

In the past four years of the

Intifada, it has become dif-

ficult to move between Israel

and the Occupied Territories,

as one must pass through Is-

raeli checkpoints. The authori-

ties are not supportive of any

initiatives that involve women

from both sides meeting for

dialogue or for reasons other

than direct humanitarian aid.

At the same time, womens

organizations campaigning

for peace report hostilities

from the Israeli authorities

against them during peace

demonstrations, including

repeated and unrestrained

police violence that caused physical injury

to women activists.

The women and girls in the refugee

camps in the Palestinian Occupied Ter-

ritories do not receive any special protec-

tion, assistance or training from Israel,but receive assistance from international

and UN bodies such as the International

Red Cross and the UN Relief and Works

Agency (UNRWA).

Israel provides protection to people,

among them Israeli women citizens,

living in the settlements in the Palestin-

ian Occupied Territories in the West Bank

and the Gaza strip. As Israeli citizens, they

receive the protection of the Israeli law and

Israeli authorities; specifically, they receive

security protection for their daily lives.The Israeli Army is guarding settlements

on a day-to-day basis, and settlers are also

guarding themselves by carrying weapons.

Moreover, Israel has provided the settle-

ments with other infrastructures to ease

their lives, and to further separate them

from the Palestinian population in the Oc-

cupied Territories. One example is an entire

system of highways and roads that only

settlers and other Israelis use on a daily

basis. The roads bypass Palestinian villages

and are regarded as safer.

In 2004, the Israeli government made a

decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip,

and to remove all Israeli citizens, settlers

and their families who now live there. The

unilateral withdrawal from Gaza is sup-

posed to begin in the summer of 2005.

The program is being disputed by some

of the settlers, who do not want to leave

their homes on ideological grounds, but

also because of lack of adequate financial

government compensation. The plan, how-

ever, does not contain any provisions that

discuss or emphasize the specific needs

of women and girls during the expected

evacuation and their needs during their

relocation inside Israel.

Adapted from a speech by Dana Myrtenbaum, LegalAdvisor, Isha LIsha (Woman to Woman)- Haifa FeministCenter; submitted to the UN Commission on the Statusof Women for Beijing + 10.

Human Rights in Israel.

Women in Black vigils started in Israel, 1988

and have spread to other regions.

Continued from page 191

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the Arab League in 2004.In the Arab region, the governments asso-

ciate the concept of human rights with therights of ethnic minorities and women andthese are viewed as threatening the statescontrol over its population. erefore, stron-ger and discriminatory legal and social re-strictions are perpetuated against these twosocial groups. e patriarchal culture is also

hostile to womens human rights, and genderequality is viewed as a serious threat to exist-ing social structures and the status quo.

Arab governments have strongly opposedthe UN Declaration on the Protection ofHuman Rights Defenders. Increases in hu-man rights activities by local or regionalgroups is seen as a security threat to authori-tarian regimes. A great amount of financialand human resources are spent annually bythe governments to monitor and disrupt thework of independent human rights groups inmost countries in the region.

Despite all these obstacles, a number ofhuman rights organizations have been es-tablished in the Arab region in the last twodecades and are working for the promotionand protection of human rights, calling ontheir governments to ratify and implementinternational human rights conventions andstandards locally. Yemen has had the largestincrease in established human rights organi-zationsfrom two in 1992 to 70 in 2005.In Bahrain the number of human rights or-ganizations has only increased from two in

1995 to five in 2005. e number of humanrights NGOs in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanonis increasing, but they face continued surveil-lance by the state security agencies. In othercountries in the region, independent humanrights groups are not allowed to functionlegally and freely, and any attempts to holdpublic meetings on human rights usuallyresult in imprisonment of civil society orga-nizers. One such incident occurred in 2004,when the Government of Bahrain closeddown the Bahrain Human Rights Center andsentenced its director to one year in prison.

While the governments in several coun-triesincluding Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait,Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Yemenhave estab-lished official Human Rights Commissions,these are not independent and do not fulfillthe requirements of the Paris Principles thatcall for the establishment of independent hu-man rights commissions in every country.

Since the Fourth World Conference onWomen in Beijing, the gaps between hu-man rights organizations and womens rightsNGOs have decreased in small but significantways. Although the public face of almost all

human rights organizations in West Asia isstill primarily masculine, womens rightsactivists have been increasingly recognized.ere are strong coalitions of human rightsand womens rights NGOs now working inArab countries such as Bahrain, Egypt, Jor-dan, and Yemen.

Historically the mainstream, male domi-nated human rights NGOs in West Asia

have focused primarily on civil and politicalrights, particularly the rights of political pris-oners. is focus has often cast them moreas political movements. Womens humanrights groups on the other hand have focusedon both womens civil and political rightsand their economic, social and cultural rightswhile also supporting the work of main-stream human rights organizations. It is onlyin the last five years that human rights groupshave begun to incorporate gender issues intheir civil and political rights advocacy andto view economic, social and cultural rights

as human rights.After 1995, the Arab region witnessed a

proliferation of womens groups in responseto government commitments to the BeijingPlatform for Action. Womens rights groupshave also been organizing on regional andsubregional levels to follow up on the recom-mendations of the Platform.

e initial agenda of womens groupswas to review the laws and policies that dis-criminate against women and to call for re-visions that would ensure rights protections

for women. ey also demanded genuinepolitical participation and socio-economicempowerment. Today there are hundreds ofwomens rights NGOs working with diverseagendas. e challenges they face include in-stitutional capacity building, their exclusivedependence on foreign funding, lack of sup-port from society and their own governmentand the rise of religious fundamentalism.

National groups have also successfully cre-ated regional networks that focus on womenshuman rights issues and support advocacyefforts at the regional levels. ese networks

provide support to local groups and call at-tention to regional issues such as humanrights violations against Palestinian womenand the war in Iraq.

CEDAW Compliance

e Arab regions acceptance of interna-tional standards on womens rights has im-proved tremendously since the Beijing con-ference. In a remarkable achievement, sevenmore countries in the region have ratifiedCEDAW, albeit with reservations. e factthat a key standard of public commitment

on womens rights has been accepted at thehighest political level in so many countriesis a very positive step. A great deal of creditgoes to the relentless work of Arab womensrights groups who have campaigned tirelesslyfor CEDAW ratification.

Actual compliance with CEDAW remainsa work in progress, however. While somecountries have made impressive develop-ment, including Egypt, Jordan, LebanonYemen and the Gulf States, much work stilneeds to be done to realize CEDAW and en-

sure womens rights locally.

National Law

e Constitutions of Bahrain, Egypt, IraqJordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Syria andYemen stipulate equal rights and dutiesformale and female citizens. e third draftConstitution of the Palestinian Authorityensures gender equality and categoricallystates that no one shall be discriminated onthe basis of sex or race. e constitutionsof Kuwait and United Arab Emirates andthe Basic Law of Saudi Arabia do not spec-

Box 36. CEDAWRatification Status

Before 4th World Conferenceon Women, 1995:

Egypt 1981

Yemen 1984

Iraq 1986

Jordan 1992

Ratification additions between1995 and 2005:

Kuwait 1996

Lebanon 1997

Saudi Arabia 2000

Bahrain 2002

Syria 2003

UAE 2004

The two exceptions in the region are:

a) Palestinian Territories (West Bank and

Gaza) cannot ratify unless there is astate. Although the Palestinian Author-

ity has not ratified CEDAW, the nationa

machinery on women incorporates

CEDAW into its work, public education

and policy implementation.

b) Oman and Qatar have not yet ratified

CEDAW.

Source: Arab Countries Parties to CEDAW (as of July2004), Center for Women of the United Nations Eco-nomic Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCAW),Lebanon.

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ify equal constitutional rights for men andwomen as citizens.

However, in all of the 13 Arab countries,women continue to face sex discrimination,particularly with respect to family laws andpersonal status codes. e laws of these coun-tries contradict their own constitutions whenit comes to equal treatment of all citizensin the penal, criminal, citizenship/national-

ity and electoral laws. Arab women are alsodenied the right to file legal complaints tochallenge gender-based discrimination in lawand government policies.

Discriminatory nationality laws cause greathardships for millions of women in the region.In the Gulf countries for example (Bahrain,Kuwait, Oman Qatar, UAE), a native citizenwoman has to give up her own nationality ifshe marries a man who is not from the Gulfstates. Male citizens in the Gulf countries donot face this gender-based discrimination.In the non-Gulf states, a woman does not

have to give up her own nationality, but ifshe marries a non-citizen, she cannot transferher nationality to her foreign husband or thechildren from that marriage. Men in all Arabcountries are allowed to transfer their nation-ality rights to their spouse and children.

One of most debatable issues in the per-sonal status laws in the Arab region is theunilateral right of a husband to divorce his

wife. Women cannot get a divorce withoutpetitioning the court and providing specificreasons. It is extremely difficult for womento get divorced since most courts accept onlya few issues as valid, such as abandonment,mental illness, sexual impotence and hatred.Men are not required to give any reasons.Women often do not seek divorce due to theyears of litigation and fear of losing custodyof children and alimony. Even in the relative-ly progressive divorce laws of Egypt, womenhave to forgo all rights to alimony and familyassets from the marriage. In Bahrain, women

are still fighting to get a personal status law.Although serious and systematic legal dis-

crimination against women still existsinlaws, court systems, government policies andpractices of state agenciessome positivesteps have been taken to advance womens le-gal rights during the last 10 years. First, withthe ratification of CEDAW and continuedadvocacy by Arab women demanding legalreforms, laws related to women have becomesubject to more public scrutiny in manycountries. Womens rights groups and gov-

ernments have also organized several nationaland regional workshops to discuss legal dis-crimination against women.

During the last 10 years, women won theright to vote in Bahrain, Oman and Qatar.Parliamentary debates have also taken placeon womens legal rights in many countries.In Kuwait, legislators have debated womensright to vote for years, and although womenstill do not have the right, the debate has in-tensified recently. Women are not allowed tovote in Saudi Arabia.

After more than a decade of advocacy

and legal battles, womens right to divorcehas been granted in Egypt and Jordan, andwomens nationality rights have been ex-panded in Bahrain, Egypt and Lebanon.Womens rights groups have increased theirdemands for revisions in the family law andpersonal status codes that deny women equalrights in marriage, divorce, inheritance andcustody of children. Also, in recent years, dis-cussions about the problems and discrimina-tory nature of family laws have become morewidespread in the Arab media. In addition,a number of governments have started to re-

view and revise these discriminatory laws.In 2003, womens rights groups in Mo

rocco won a long legal battle when a progressive family law was adopted that ensurewomens equal status in the family. idevelopment has encouraged womens advocacy throughout the Arab region. For example, womens rights advocates in Bahrainhave increased their demands for a family

code. Bahraini women are working in collaboration with Moroccan women to benefifrom their experience. Currently, there arinitiatives to draft a model personal statulaw that could be used in all Arab countrieto enhance legal protections and best practices for protecting womens rights. SeveraNGOs are working on this model law witha view to present a draft to the 22 membeStates of the Arab League.

Some of the most controversial issues thacontinue to reinforce womens inferior legastatus in Arab countries include husbands

right to demand obedience from their wiveand the practice of polygamy. Laws that allow fathers to legally marry off their daughters as early as 12 or 13 years of age and thelegal requirements for adult Muslim womento have a male guardian to validate her marriage also continue to perpetuate discriminatory treatment of women.

e lack of equal treatment under the lawfor Arab women affects all aspects of theilives, and the fact that there are still numerous laws that do not consider women equa

citizen guarantees inferior social statusWomen in many countries continue to havelegal and procedural restrictions on theiright to work and travel. In Saudi Arabiawomen cannot obtain national identity cardin their own name and male family membercan also stop women from applying for suchdocumentation. Married women cannot apply for travel documents without their husbands permission.

Patriarchal social attitudes and abuse arereinforced by this atmosphere of legal inequality, which gives rise to social norms and

cultural practices that discriminate againswomen. For example, even though therare no written laws that require immigration authorities to stop women from traveling abroad without their husbands or malguardians permission, airport police in somecountries routinely allow husbands to stoptheir wives from leaving. Similarly, there arno written laws to stop women from leavingprison after finishing their sentence, but inpractice prison officials in some Arab countries do not allow women prisoners to leaveunless a male family member comes to ge

Box 37. Male PrisonersCan Vote in Saudi Arabia,but not Women Citizens

The Saudis start today, Tuesday,

registration on the election lists in prepara-

tion for municipal voting due in 2005 in the

first elections in the history of the kingdom,

in which women are not permitted totake part.

The elections will start from the 10th

of February and will be held on three stages,

the last of which will be on April 21. Half

the members of the 178 municipal council

will be elected in 13 areas in the Kingdom,

while the Saudi Government will appoint

the other members. The Director of Prisons

in Riyadh area, Lt. Gen. Ali al-Qahtani, said in

statements that the prisoners will be able

to cast their votes.

For his part, Prince Abdul Aziz BinMuhammad al-Muqarran, the Secretary of

Riyadh city, said that women do not have

the right to vote or nominate themselves

for the elections but their participation

in the next elections in four years will be

discussed. He ruled out the existence of

foreign observers in these elections. Riyadh

municipality announced it has allocated

140 offices in schools, sport clubs and

universities to register the voters in an

operation that is expected to last until

December 22nd.

Source: arabicnews.comNovember 23, 2004.


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them. Many Arab women continue to stay inprison years after finishing their sentence.

Public Awareness

e Beijing Conference galvanized thewomens movement in the Arab region as inother parts of the world. A large number ofwomens groups that participated in the con-ference came back energized to work on the

12 Critical Areas of Concern at the local lev-el. e networks and linkages they made atBeijing also helped to connect women withother groups across the region and interna-tionally, which enabled local womens groupsto provide more information to women.

Pubic awareness about womens humanrights has increased during the last 10 years,due both to the increased advocacy by wom-ens rights groups and more media interest inwomens issues. In addition, as Arab govern-ments have ratified CEDAW, they have al-lowed more public debates about womens

status. A number of countries have also heldboth regional and national level meetingsabout the need to improve womens status.

In several Arab countries, support forwomens rights has also increased at the high-est political levels with the appointments offirst ladies to top-level offices dealing withwomens issues in the country. In Jordan,Queen Rania Al-Abdulla has led nationalcampaigns to stop violence against women.In Egypt, Susan Mubarak, the wife of Presi-dent Mubarak, heads the National Council

on Women and has also led several advocacyinitiatives for the rights of women and chil-drenat the national level to reform familylaws and to ban female genital mutilation,and at the regional level to support the rightsof Palestinian women. Sheikha Fatima BintMubarak of UAE has led initiatives to in-crease womens access to higher educationand economic empowerment.

Although these state-sponsored high levelinitiatives by first ladies do not challengelegal inequalities and discriminatory lawsagainst women (except in the case of Egypt),

they have nevertheless helped to highlightthe problems women face in their countriesand to increase the education and healthbudget allocations.

During the last decade, public awarenessabout womens rights has also increased withthe expansion of freedom of information,especially through increased public access tonew sources of information through its Inter-net and satellite TV and regional news net-works. A number of websites have emergedthat provide rights-based information onwomen and fill a critical gap in womens

rights information. For example, a popularwebsite in Jordan called amanjordan.org re-ceived over 14 million hits in its first year.

Arab Women Connect, a regional networkfor public awareness about womens rightswas launched in 2000 by womens organiza-tions in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, PalestineQatar, UAE and Yemen. It is the first region-wide network to present statistics, analyti

cal reports, news and features highlightingcontroversial issues about womens rightsand gender-based discrimination. It has alsolaunched a website, arabwomenconnectorg,that facilitates rights-based informationabout womens issues.

e number of publications about wom-ens rights has increased since 1995. A largenumber of new studies, articles, research pa-pers and magazines have been published inlocal languages in all Arab countries. In addi-tion, regional and international institutionsthat have highlighted the issue of womens

rights have also published landmark publica-tions. e 2002 Arab Human DevelopmentReport by the United Nations, which waswritten and prepared by Arab intellectualspresents a highly valuable critique of wom-ens situation and identifies the lack of genderequality as one of the three main deficits inthe regions development. Although the Arabgovernments were not very pleased with thisreport, civil society, writers, the media, intel-lectuals and academics welcomed it as a use-ful analysis. However, they did express con

cern about the shortcomings of the reportnamely the absence of reference to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Public discussions in newspapers abouwomens rights have also increased duringthe last 10 years despite constraints on jour-nalists. With the establishment of 24-hourArabic news channels that can be viewed alover the region, the door for highlighting thetreatment of women has also opened. eAjazeeraand Arab News TV channels regularly broadcast bold programs about womensrights issues, including call-in shows. is is

an unprecedented development in terms ofthe advancement of public awareness in theArab region.

e capacity of womens groups to cre-ate awareness about controversial issues hasexpanded as more and more groups are ableto highlight the earlier tabooed issues suchas marital violence or discrimination againstwomen in the name of religion. Althoughwomens groups still cannot hold nationalevel public meetings to critique genderbased discrimination in countries like Ku-wait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Syria, the

Box 38. Women in YemenStop Discriminatory Law

A major success story comes from Yemen,

where womens rights groups successfully

blocked a new law from taking effect that

would have added to womens inferior legal

status. In 2000, a male parliamentarian pro-

posed an article in the Law of Prosecutionand Procedures in the Yemeni Parliament

that would have allowed husbands to con-

fine their wives to a House of Obedience

if the women left their marital homes. This

law, which still exists in some Arab coun-

tries, allows a husband to petition the court

that his wife has shown disobedience by

leaving their married home without the

husbands permission and that the court

should help him bring her back so that he

can confine her to the House of Obedi-

ence. The husband is required to rent aseparate home to keep his wife in until she

becomes obedient. The court then sends

the police to bring the wife to that house.

After this new article was proposed and

debated in the Yemeni Parliament, another

male parliamentarian from the Islamic Islah

party informed womens rights groups and

encouraged them to mobilize opposition

against it before it became law in 30 days.

Womens rights groups immediately

mobilized a nationwide campaign in the

media, calling on the people of Yemen tostop this denigrating law. Human rights

NGOs, writers, journalists, intellectuals, par-

liamentarians and lawyers supported this

call and signed petitions and letters asking

the President to veto the law. Womens

rights groups reached out to all sectors of

Yemeni society and traveled throughout

the country to bring the issue to public at-

tention through seminars, public meetings,

letters to editors and meetings with com-

munity leaders.

As a result of the timely and effective

advocacy of Yemeni womens groups, the

article was finally removed from the pro-

posed law and all efforts to put it back were

discouraged by other parliamentarians and

government officials.

Source: Ashaqaeq - Sisters Arab Forum for HumanRights, Sanaa, Yemen.



WEST ASIA

situation has improved in the other Arabcountries and women have been able to holdlandmark gatherings.

In Egypt, womens rights groups, as wellas human rights and civil society organiza-tions, have successfully taken action on therepressive laws on NGOs by challenging gov-ernments ban on the womens rights NGO,New Women Research Center. e closureof the NGOs office was protested by civilsociety groups through out the country, and

after over three years of legal battle the NGOwas allowed by a court to function and theGovernment was ordered to register it.

In 2003, a regional consultative body ofNGOs was established at the UN Economicand Social Commission for West Asia thatwould allow Arab NGOs to have consulta-tive status for regional level meetings of theUN. However, at this time only governmentshave the authority to nominate nationalNGOs for consultative status and the num-ber of womens rights NGOs is lower than

charitable and social work groups. e firstsession of the consultative body was held inBeirut in March 2003 and 92 participantsrepresented Arab and regional NGOs. isforum has also been very useful to enable alarge number of Arab womens groups to par-ticipate in the regional preparatory meetingfor the Arab region that was held in Beirut inJuly 2004 to review the Arab regions perfor-mance in implementing the Beijing Platformfor Action in preparation for Beijing +10.e meeting was attended by hundreds ofArab women NGO participants.

Violence Against Women

Until the 1990s, violence against womenwas an unspoken problem in West Asia,a taboo subject that was not discussed inpublic, media or civil society gatherings asopenly as it is today. Public information wasnot easily available and womens groups didnot have access to mechanisms that wouldallow substantial interaction with their gov-ernments and call attention to this issue in ameaningful way.

However, with the adoption of the UN

Declaration on Elimination of ViolenceAgainst Women (1994) and with the link-ages developed among womens groups atthe Beijing conference, this problem gainedinternational attention that also helpedwomens rights advocates in West Asia tostrengthen their advocacy efforts. With theappointment of a UN Special Rapporteur onViolence Against Women by the UN Com-mission on Human Rights in 1994, annualreports were issued that helped the world

community have a better understanding ofthe causes and consequences of this problem.e Special Rapporteur encouraged womensrights advocates in all parts of the world tosend information about the various forms ofviolence that women face in the home, thefamily, the community and at the hands ofboth state and non-state actors.

Womens rights groups in Jordan workedfor over 10 years to highlight the problem ofviolence against women in the name of cul-ture and religion, and explained the phenom-

enon of honor killings in which women arekilled by male family members if they are sus-pected of immoral behavior. Women lawyersand women journalists in Jordan highlightedthe lack of state protection for women vic-tims of family violence, and Jordanian groupslike Mizan Law Group for Human Rights,among others, demanded that laws shouldbe enacted to protect women from such vio-lence. Due to their continued advocacy, thisissue was supported at the highest politicallevel in Jordan and the Government drafteda bill recommending strict penalties for men

who commit such crimes. However, this billwas rejected in the Jordanian Parliamenttwice despite government efforts. Althoughthe bill did not pass, a number of positivesteps have been taken, including establish-ment of a shelter and supporting services forwomen victims of violence.

In Egypt, womens rights groups led by theNational Council for Population took actionagainst the practice of female genital mutila-tion (FGM), culminating in a law banningthe practice in 2004. e campaigns alsoprompted the Government of Egypt to start

public education campaigns on national TVand radio to increase awareness about thedanger of FGM to womens physical andmental health. Egyptian groups continue toadvocate for a law against domestic violenceand have established shelters and hotlines.

During the last 10 years, awarenesabout the subject of violence against womenhas gradually increased. Womens group

throughout the region have organized hundreds of workshops, awareness campaignsrallies and educational seminars to discusthe problem of violence against women intheir communities and to hold governmentaccountable for failing to protect womenfrom violence both in and outside the homeese efforts have helped people to recognizthe issue as a problem and have increased thpossibility of solutions.

e Gulf countries of Bahrain, KuwaitOman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United ArabEmirates and have remained closed to the is

sue of violence against women, particularlydomestic violence, which remains a taboosubject both socially and legally. While themedia elsewhere in the region has increasedcoverage of the negative impact of violenceagainst women, the media in Gulf countriestill censors the issue. ere are no independent womens human rights groups in thGulf countries that are working to combat violence against women. During 2002womens groups in Bahrain were denied permission by the local Government to organiz

a national conference on domestic violence.ere are no clear laws in any West Asiancountry that protect women from violenceinside their homes. e problem is furthecompounded by the presence of genderbiased laws that not only discriminate againswomen, but also support reducing penaltiefor their male abusers. In almost all WesAsian countries, males accused of violencagainst women receive lesser punishments ithe male takes a plea of hurting the womanto save the family honor. In Egypt, JordanLebanon and Syria, if a man who rapes a

woman agrees to marry his victim, the courtwill either reduce his sentence or free him altogether. e female victim in most cases hano choice but to say yes to marriage with herapist due to the shame and stigma attachedto rape in society.

Womens rights groups have started towork together to combat violence. e establishment of a shelter for women victimof violence in Egypt encouraged women inYemen to also start one. A regional resourccenter on combating violence against womenis now open in Jordan. Regional conference

The linkages developed among womens groups

at the Beijing conference garnered international

attention that helped women in West Asia

strengthen their advocacy efforts.



WEST ASIA

have been organized by groups such as Alli-ance for Arab Women in Egypt and SistersArab Forum for Human Rights in Yemen onviolence against women in prison. In 1997,womens groups in Lebanon organized publichearings, providing an opportunity to survi-vors of violence to testify about the viola-tions committed against them. Mock courthearings were held to provide a platform for

discussion about the prevalence of violenceagainst women and strategies to overcome it.

Despite modest improvements, seriouschallenges remain. First, womens groupsdo not have the full capacity, legal author-ity and resources to work on the issue ofviolence effectively. ey lack capacity dueto the fact that the number of womens or-ganizations working on this issue remainsvery low in each country and the few existinggroups cannot handle the enormous num-ber of cases. ere is an urgent need to helpestablish more groups to work on this issue.

Womens groups are also not allowed to workfreely and independently on this issue, facingproblems in registering and receiving grantsto work locally. Additionally, NGOs cannotwork effectively because laws do not recog-nize domestic violence as a crime. Womendo not have access to justice and face tre-mendous obstacles reporting crimes againstthem without jeopardizing their social status.Police are not trained to support women incases of violence and the court systems arenot free from bias against women victims.

PEACE AND SECURITY

e Arab region has struggled for peace formany decades. e region has some of thelongest land disputes and security conflictsin the world, which have devastated the livesof millions of civilians including women. Alarge number of refugees and displaced per-sons live in this region, and Arab womencontinue to face the brunt of the hardshipscaused by the death of family members, or as

refugees and displaced persons.e Israeli occupation of Palestinian ter-

ritories continues to be a major peace andsecurity issue in the region, with severe im-pacts on the political, economic and sociallives of people in all the countries involved inthis historic conflict. e on-going securitytensions at the Israeli-Palestinian, Jordanian,Lebanese and Syrian borders continue to im-pact the lives of millions of Palestinian refu-gees and displaced persons.

e region has also gone through someother major wars in recent decades. e Iran

and Iraq war in the 1980s, the Iraq invasionof Kuwait in 1990s and the U.S. invasion ofIraq in 2003 have killed and displaced civil-ians, with women and children being mostaffected. Yemen also has had a long internalcivil war that froze all social developmentprocesses in the country before the countrysunification in 1990. Lebanon experienced 17years of a brutal civil war that destroyed its

economy and resulted in massive migrationand poverty for its people before ending in1994.

Today there are anestimated 5 millionPalestinians, 6 millionIraqis and 15 millionLebanese living as refu-gees in various parts ofthe world. ey had toflee their homelands ei-ther due to foreign mil-itary occupation (Pales-

tine), war and internalcivil war (Lebanon) orto save their lives fromwar and political op-pression (Iraq).

ese armed conflictshave involved a mas-sive militarization in the region and exten-sive military spending. Military governmentsinfluence political, security and peace issuesin Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and amongothers. In the case of monarchies such as in

Jordan and Saudi Arabia, the armed conflictshave further consolidated the hold of royalfamilies on the countrys natural resources,foreign aid, security and intelligence agen-cies. e large number of Western and U.S.military bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar andSaudi Arabia have also had an impact on thepolitical, social and economic developmentsin these countries, creating religiously moti-vated political opposition to foreign troopsand new social classes that have widened thegaps between the haves and the have nots.

Although substantial improvements have

been made in the five Gulf states, govern-ments in the Arab region in general have beenslow in responding to the actual social de-velopment needs of their populations. Mostdo not invest sufficiently in the social sector,and development budgets are slashed in favorof heavy spending on military, security anddefense needs. Even the secular governmentsof Iraq and Syria that instituted exemplaryhealth and education services to popularizetheir socialist governments in the 1960s didnot keep up these two sectors as they chose toadvance military agendas in the region.

In addition to military control of develop-ment budgets, the region also suffers frompoliticization of development priorities. In-ternal military and political alliances oftendetermine which part of the country will getwhat amount of development funding. Political opponents of strong military governmentsare often denied access to social and infra-structure development processes by the ruling

authorities. Millions of religious and ethnicminorities suffered from extreme poverty inIraq due to their political opposition to Sad-

dam Hussein. However, the Tikrit region ofthe country, native home of Saddam Husseinwas one of the richest and most developedparts of Iraq before it was heavily bombedand destroyed by the U.S. military in 2003.

e impact of war and lack of peace is feltmost strongly by women, the first to face theconsequences of war in the home. Maintaining the family kitchen, trauma care for chil-dren and ensuring safety all fall on womenwhen the male members of the family areengaged in fighting, or imprisoned or killedWomen must suddenly assume the role of thehead of the family in a society where publiclife is completely male dominated.

ese problems are further exacerbated inunstable economies such as Egypt, Iraq, Leba-non, Syria and Yemen, where armed conflict

add the problems of having children witnessthe cycle of violence, mental trauma, disruption of education, shortage of food and fuellack of medicines and medical treatment andgeneral insecurity to the already extensive lisof obstacles that women face.

Inheritance and property rights problemsfor women are magnified during an armedconflict. Widows often have to face longlegal battles before getting ownership of theirfamily assets. During the Iran-Iraq war, women were faced with social pressure to producemore children as more and more men were

Palestinian

women

participate in

an income

generation

program.



WEST ASIA

killed. Palestinian women also have one of thehighest fertility rates in the region. Womengender-specific agendas are sometimes sacrificed for the cause of the communitys overall welfare, and violations of womens rightwithin the community often do not get highlighted due to fear of damaging the nationastruggle. Although women face hardshipdue to war in any part of the world, the spe-

cific conditions of Arab women make theisituations particularly difficult.

Women face gender-specific problems andsocial pressures as prisoners. Currently thereare 98 Palestinian women in Israeli prisonsImprisonment of male family members alsomakes women vulnerable to political harassment and pressures. e Israeli Army has atradition of destroying the homes and agriculture land of the Palestinians that theyarrest from the Palestinian territories. icauses extra burdens on the Palestinian women, who have to build not only the emotiona

life of their family but also the physical structure of their homes and agricultural land.

Although Arab women pay a higher sociaand emotional price for war, their voices arenot included in the processes that may helpto end the cycle of war in the region. emilitary profession in West Asia is exclusivelymale, and women are excluded from joiningExcept for Hanan Ashrawi from Palestinea member of the Legislative Council, Arabwomen have not been visible in the Arabpolitical power structures and peace proces

negotiations, or in military establishmentthat decide war and peace agendas, militarybudgets and expansions.

Security Council Resolution 1325

Gender issues are not integrated in the military and defense policies of the nationagovernments, and womens gender-specifineeds during war and armed conflicts areneglected during the negotiations of peaceprocesses. Governments in West Asia do noapply UN Security Council Resolution 1325rationally. At the regional level, Arab govern

ments strongly endorse 1325 for the rights oPalestinian women. Mrs. Susanne Mubarakwife of the Egyptian president, leads a regional initiative to promote the UN Resolution 1325 as an essential element of peaceprocesses in the region. During 2003-2004the member governments of the Arab Leaguhave also highlighted Resolution 1325 andthe role of women during the peace procesand established a body called the Organization of Arab Women within the Arab Leagueto work on womens empowerment, peacand security issues.

As youre reading this statement, Iraqi civil-

ians are being killed in a racist, colonialist

war led by the U.S. empire. U.S.-led sanctions

have devastated and impoverished Iraqi

land and people for over a decad,e and now

the U.S.-led war kills Iraqi people, devastatesIraqi land and destroys the infrastructure

of Iraq. All of this is rationalized through a

propaganda machine that claims to liberate

Iraqi people. Since when did liberation mean

bombing, killing and starving a people?

As we denounced Saddams regime, we

also denounce this war and all other forms

of colonialist militarism in the region.

Democracy cannot be brought by force

especially though foreign intervention.

The Bush administration, by backing a

right-wing government in Israel and otherauthoritarian regimes in the region, has lost

its credibility in the Arab streets.

So far several hundred Iraqi civilians have

been killed, and Saddams popularity is on

the rise. The corporate U.S. media has been

complicit in this war by hiding the reality of

this genocide. This is an urgent call for the

Bush administration to withdraw its troops

from Iraq and to end this genocide now!

Whereas we see the U.S. war on Iraq in

the larger context of its role in West Asia,

Whereas the U.S.-led war on Iraq is a key

part of the Bush administrations plan to

re-colonize the entire Middle-East region,

Whereas UN (U.S. enforced) sanctions

have devastated the Iraqi people for many

years, and the U.S. war on Iraq will further

devastate Iraqi resources, killing hundreds of

thousands of civilians,

Whereas the U.S. arrogance in the UN

Security Council has demonstrated the

farcical nature of democracy and account-

ability within the UN,

Whereas the U.S.-supported war on Pales-

tine continues, and the UN has failed again

to enforce its own resolutions regarding the

ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinians

from their homeland,

Whereas we recognize the U.S. war on

Palestine as a continuation of U.S.-led geno-

cide in Guatemala, Philippines, East Timor,

El Salvador, Colombia, Western Sahara,

Panama, etc. (to name a few),

Whereas Israel benefits from the war on

Iraq; as the world turns its attention to Iraq,

Israel is intensifying its ethnic cleansing of

the Palestinian people,

Whereas the U.S. Government continuesto prop up ruthless despots across the Arab

states of West Asia and North Africa in order

to secure its economic, political and military

interests,

Whereas the U.S.-led war abroad means

increased violence, hate crimes and racism

against Arabs and Muslims in the U.S.,

Whereas the U.S. War on Terrorism is a

white supremacist crusade against Arabs,

Muslims and other people of color all over

the world,

Whereas the Bush administrationpromotes racist propaganda about Arab

womens oppression and uses racist images

of Arab and Muslim women to justify its

imperialist foreign policies,

Whereas we reject the false claim that

the U.S.-led war on Iraq will liberate the

Iraqi people,

Whereas Saddams oppressive regime,

previously funded and supported by the

U.S., must be dismantled by the people of

Iraq, not outside imperialist forces,

Whereas women and children are dis-

proportionately impacted by war; women

often lose their men to war and are faced

with raising families on their own without

enough food, medicine and water,

Whereas war promotes patriarchy, sexual

assault and increased domestic violence,

We, the women of the Arab Women

Solidarity Association of North America,

condemn the U.S.-led war on Iraq and the

Iraqi people and its continued war on the

Arab peoples at home and in the diaspora.

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!

U.S. OUT OF WEST ASIA!

April 10, 2003

Contact:

Arab Womens Solidarity Association,

North America Chapter

Email: [email protected]

(http://www.awsa.net/iraq_war.htm)

Box 39. Arab Womens Solidarity Association Says Noto the Racist, Colonialist War on Iraq



WEST ASIA

Womens groups in West Asia have beenactively working on the issue of peace andsecurity for the last three decades. In mostcountries, womens groups were the first tohighlight the negative consequences of warand conflict and also the first to start support-ive services for victims of war, refuge, and dis-placed persons. In 1982, Egyptian feministNawal Sadawi established the Arab Womens

Solidarity Association (AWSA), which worksto highlight that the struggle for the libera-tion of Arab people from economic, culturaland media domination cannot be separatedfrom the liberation of Arab women. ASWAhas issued statements for the rights of Pales-tinian women and children and against theU.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Arab womens NGOs have raised theirvoices for the rights of Arab women in allparts of the region and the cause of freedomfor Palestinian women is their cherished goal.is is one issue that unites all civil society

in the Arab region from Jordan to Oman.In addition, millions of women living inEgypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria are eitherthemselves Palestinian refugees or have fam-ily origins in Palestine. eir own personalstruggles have kept them motivated to keephighlighting the gender-specific problemsof Palestinian women and to call for an endto the occupation. e civil war in Lebanonhas also motivated Lebanese womens groupsto take an active part in educational activi-ties that promote peace. ere are numer-

ous womens groups in Egypt, Jordan andLebanon that work exclusively on promotingpeace in the region.

In addition, there are joint Israeli andPalestinian womens groups that work onpeace issues and promote peace through theirwork together on the gender-specific needsof women. e Jerusalem Center for Womenprovides legal aid to Palestinian and Arabwomen. International Womens Peace Service(IWPS) Palestine, based in the West Bankhas been working since 2002 for the rights ofPalestinian women and also supporting Pal-

estinian and Israeli anti-occupation groups intheir grassroots resistance to end the Israelioccupation of Palestinian territories. In 1994,Palestinian and Israeli women established theJerusalem Link comprising two womens or-ganizations, Bat Shalom on the Israeli sideand the Jerusalem Center for Women on thePalestinian side. e two organizations sharea set of political principles, which serve as thefoundation for a cooperative model of co-exis-tence between Palestinian and Israeli women.Palestinian womens groups are also mobiliz-ing civil society throughout the world against

the construction of theseparation wall that isbeing built between theIsraeli and Palestinianareas. ey are callingfor immediate cessationof the building of thewall, which has alreadycaused great hardships

to Palestinian womensaccess to education,health services, agricul-ture and family life.

The International

Criminal Court

Out of the 97 countries that have ratified theRome Statue as of September 2004, Jordanis the only country in the Arab region thathas done so.

Womens groups have been calling on theirgovernments to ratify the Rome Statue so

that citizens can be protected against warcrimes, crimes against humanity and geno-cide. More than 100 NGOs in the region arepart of the international NGO Coalition forthe ICC. Currently there are two NGO co-alitions established in the region (Jordan andYemen). Womens groups started both thesecoalitions. In Jordan, Mizan Law Group forHuman Rights, which has been working onwomens human rights for decades, coordi-nates this work. In Yemen, the womens hu-man rights group e Sisters Arab Forum

for Human Rights (SAF) hosts the nationalICC NGO coalition. SAF is also the regionalheadquarters for ICC advocacy for West Asia.Preparation for an NGO Coalition for theICC is also under way in Bahrain. ese co-alitions educate the public in their countriesabout the ICC and about the importance ofthe Rome Statue. ey lobby their govern-ments to ratify the ICC and also engage inthe global campaign of ratification and inmonitoring the work of the ICC to ensure itsindependence, neutrality and impartiality.

POWER AND DECISION-MAKING

Arab womens representation in high-leveldecision-making posts has increased in theregion. During the last ten years, the regionhas witnessed women appointed as ministersand in the judiciary, and elected as membersof parliament and in local councils. Govern-ments have also appointed more women inthe diplomatic corps to represent their coun-tries abroad and to head international orga-nizations. In 1995, only two Arab countries

had women ministers. Today the numberof Arab countries with women in high-lev-el posts such as ministers is nine, with theappointment of women ministers in Bah-rain, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Syr-ia, UAE and in Yemen. In addition, Yemenhas a fixed quota in national parliaments to

ensure womens representation in the politi-cal process, a step that has been welcomed bylocal NGOs.

Women have been increasingly taking parin national political processes in the regione number of women in parliaments hasincreased. However, two countries in the re-gion still do not allow women to take partin the national level political structureKuwait and Saudi Arabia. Both countriesdeny women the right to vote and to be elect-ed in national decision-making bodies. In a

landmark development, the first ever womanjudge was appointed to the ConstitutionaSupreme Court of Egypt. Women have alsobeen appointed in senior management postsin Oman and UAE.

Since the Beijing Conference, a numberof countries have also established NationaCommissions on Women that are headed bywomen, such as Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan andYemen. ese commissions are working onfollow-up to the Beijing conference and alsoto integrate womens rights in national lawsand government policies. e support for

these high-level posts has come mostly fromthe highest office of the country, such as thepresident. Although the first ladies are doingvery impressive work for the empowerment owomen in some countries, in order for theseinstitutions to be sustainable, these posts andoffices need to be institutionalized.

However, womens representation is stillacking and womens participation in the po-litical process is considered the lowest in theworld. Except for a few countries, womensrepresentation is mostly symbolic. Even to-day, women cannot work as judges in most

Egyptian Girls at play.


12/12200

WEST ASIA

countries in the region and their political

participation meets with strong resistancefrom the society. Women are also excludedfrom the most powerful institutions in theircountriesthe military and defense minis-tries. In a large number of countries, the realpolitical power lies with the military estab-lishment and women are not visible in anyhigh-level military offices or defense posts inthe region.

At the same time, the impact of womensincreasing entry into power structures andhigh-level decision-making posts is extremely

good news for Arab women. ese womenhave helped to create role models for the fu-ture to help more women obtain these posts.Long-shut doors have been opened andwomens access to such work has increasedtremendously. Women ministers appointedin all the countries are highly qualified andhave extensive experience and expertise inthe area of their work. eir merit and pro-fessional work is also setting high standardsamong their colleagues and is proving help-ful for bringing more women to work insimilar posts.

Womens NGOs have been very active inpromoting womens appointment to highlevel decision-making posts in their coun-tries. Womens rights groups have adopteddifferent strategies in different countries de-pending on the local power structures. InJordan, womens rights activists have focusedtheir advocacy efforts with the JordanianKing in order to give high visibility to wom-ens political issues. Some womens rightsactivists in Iraq decided to work with theU.S. coalition authority even though theyhad reservations about it; as they assessed

the prioritization of including a womensrights agenda in the newly forming politi-cal structures in the country, a number ofwomen joined the interim Iraqi governmentstructure despite great risks to their personalsecurity. Women in Syria work both insideand outside the government structures todemand greater political rights for women.Womens groups in Bahrain, Kuwait and Ye-

men in particular have broken new groundin national activism for increasing womensaccess to power structures.

Womens rights activists in Bahrain wereinstrumental in ensuring womens seats inpolitical parties in the first ever elections intheir country in 2002. Womens rights activ-ists in Kuwait have been fighting for womenspolitical rights for over a decade and despitetheir failure to get these rights, their consis-tent advocacy and legal challenges have keptthe issue of womens political rights at theforefront of debate in the countrys Parlia-

ment. Women in Yemen have expanded theparticipation of women in the countrys na-tional government and have also empoweredmore women with knowledge about theirpolitical rights. e one woman in Yemensnational Parliament is elected, not appoint-ed; the first-ever woman Minister for Hu-man Rights was appointed in 2000. Similarefforts have been taking place throughoutthe region and womens rights groups havebeen successful in expanding the space onthe issue of womens greater participation in

power structures.

EDUCATION

Womens access to education has improvedremarkably during the last 10 years. Accord-ing to the UN Educational, Scientific andCultural Organization (UNESCO), Egypt,Oman and Syria will have achieved genderparity in primary and secondary educationby 2005. Governments, particularly in theGulf States namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE, have made

huge investments in the education of womenand girls, and improved both the access andquality of education. Womens access to ed-ucation has also improved in the non-Gulfcountries as almost all the countries haveprioritized womens education as a key goalsince the Beijing conference.

However, due to the historic neglect ofwomens education in the region, huge gapsstill remain. e number of women who can-not read or write is still very high, especiallyamong adult and rural women. According toUNESCO, 62 percent of adult illiterates are

women. Women also face gender-specific social and cultural obstacles in their access toeducation. A womans access to educationin rural areas is still determined by her family members and not by herself, and womenstill do not have the same opportunities amen for access to technical and skill trainingeducation after high school as the number otraining centers for women is still relatively

lower. Education budgets in many countriein the region are still very low and need to beimproved to ensure education for all womenand girls.

HEALTH

Although womens access to health has improved in recent years, they still face manyproblems in their right to health, especiallyreproductive health. Except for the GulStates, governments are not making sufficient investments in womens health, and

women in most non-Gulf countries do nohave safe and adequate access to health services. In addition, due to a lack of propeservices and qualified doctors, women alsohave to face logistical and cultural obstacledue to their gender. A lack of transportationservices in most rural areas means that women often cannot get to health centers. In thearea of reproductive health, in the majorityof countries in the Arab region, women donot always have the right to make independent decisions about the number and spac

ing of their children. e health problemfor women are compounded due to the othesocial problems that women face such as illiteracy, poverty and an inferior legal statuthat requires women to obtain permissionfrom their husbands if they need to accesmany services.

Authors

Amal Basha, Sisters Arab Forum for HumanRights, Yemen.

Contributors

Center for Egyptian Womens Legal Assistanc(CEWLA).

Notes1. For the purposes of this report, Algeria, Comoros, Djbuti,

Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Sudan have been included in the

Africa region.

Umm Haithem, a mother of five, told Arab

News: I suffer from several health prob-

lems and need constant medical treatment

and so does one of my daughters. But to

get the treatment, especially at govern-

ment hospitals, I need the original familycard. Now whether I get or dont get the

card depends on my husbands whims and

moods. If hes in a bad mood or weve had

some disagreement hell keep the card

from me for months regardless of how

much I need the treatment. And we cant

go to a private hospital because he holds

back even money along with the card!

Source: Arabnews.com, Jeddah, October 29, 2004.

Box 40. Womens HealthDepends on Husbands

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