Jane Gabriel

Legal reform in Egypt establishing Family Courts with mandatory mediation ( see Mulki Al-Sharmani: Egypt's family courts: route to empowerment? )   and the introduction of no fault divorce proceedings known as ‘khola'  is prompting discussion about relations between men and women in marriage, including women's sexual rights. As the government and women's rights organisations talk about further legal reforms, the assumptions of the law makers are increasingly being called into question.

Mulki al Sharmani and Sawsan Sherif  are based at the Social Research Centre of the American University in Cairo and have been monitoring the work of two family courts, looking at how the reforms are working for women on the ground. They spoke to Jane Gabriel in Cairo about some surprising findings of their research.

Listen now.

Helen Coskeran

This September marks the fourth anniversary of the establishment of the Control Arms Foundation of India (CAFI). But they'll not be celebrating that this Saturday. Along with other organisations concerned with arms (including the UK's Campaign Against the Arms Trade), they will be marking the Global Day of Action for Arms Trade Treaty in New Delhi. This is to demonstrate their belief that international law and UN legislation is not enough to control global arms trade. In 1995, a group of Nobel Peace Laureates developed a model Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in order to regulate and standardise this trade. This Saturday, these organisations will push for this model to be adopted and for the recommendations in it (including a requirement for states to consider human rights and humanitarian concerns when transferring arms) to be put into practice.

CAFI believes that women have largely been left out of the international arms debates until now and should now take the lead in discussions. For this reason, women from all walks of life, among them survivors of incidents involving guns and other arms, will speak alongside men this Saturday. Members of CAFI will speak on the progress of their work to date and members of parliament, academics and journalists will give speeches and lead interactive debate and discussion with students, faith leaders, policy-makers and members of civil society.

It is fantastic to see members of a civil society organisation working together on this issue. And it is no wonder, for twelve people die through guns violence on a daily basis. India has also been shocked by a recent spate of school shootings - a horror previously associated with Western countries. One example of the action taken against arms violence was a ‘Day of Activism against Increasing Armed Gun Violence on Women in India' showing the gendered dimension of this violence; the highest number of war-time gun casualties are among women and children, and the North East India conflicts have also seen women as the most seriously affected victims - not only because some have been shot dead, but also the economic and social effects on women when their husbands, sons or brothers are shot. But it is tragic that this has become such a problem in the largest democracy in the world which, since 2007, is the globe's second most heavily armed country. Earlier this year, the founder of CAFI, Binalakshami Nepram spoke at a session on ‘The Impact of Guns on Women's Lives' and told of CAFI's demands that women in an Indian household must first consent to the purchase of a gun by their husbands, fathers or any other man. The idea is that, by giving women a say in the guns held under their own roofs (and assuming that their consent will not always be forthcoming), the flow of firearms into private hands will be reduced.

This work is positive. But that it is necessary almost defies belief. How can it be that the UN's first attempt at controlling arms trade ever, did not take place until 2001? How can it be that Binalakshami had to dedicate her speech to as many as 5000 female victims of gun violence in Manipur, where the annual death toll has now reached 300? There is a long way to go. And events like this Saturday's show the excellent work being done in increasing awareness and taking each small step towards an Arms Trade Treaty.

Helen Coskeran

It sometimes seems that human violence knows no bounds. Recent reports of the brutal honour killings of five Pakistani women have shocked the world. And the reactions from the Pakistani parliament do not do much to ease that shock. When a terrible event occurs, the world looks for explanations in order to begin to deal with it. And even then the shock, horror and disgust will remain, for this is a crime we will never be able to understand.

Honour killings have been a concern to human rights groups for several years. All these deaths are disturbing but these had a particularly cruel twist, with the woman being buried alive. Such inhumanity and disregard for human life suggests that the perpetrators felt these women did something terrible to deserve this punishment.

Their crime? Doing what women all over the world do every day; choosing their own husband to marry through a civil court, away from the traditions of their tribe. The tribal elders then ordered the abduction and shooting of these three teenagers and their two female relatives, who were then sent alive to their graves. And while a female politician attempted to bring the case to the government's attention, another spoke up in defence of the tribal chiefs who ordered it.

The mind boggles and the heart sinks. How could this be defended? And who would expect that the words to justify and explain this would come from a member of parliament? Pakistani teenage girls have long known that choosing independence could cost them their lives. And now they face the knowledge that their killers may be spoken up for at the highest level. Their families will be rendered helpless.

But we must not lose heart. If politicians in Pakistan and other countries where honour killings are practiced, are forced by their own electorate and the west to stop explaining these away simply as ‘tradition', then these women can be given hope, and these shockingly brutal deaths will not have been in vain.

Helen Coskeran

Today’s globally aware digital generation is used to constant requests to sign online petitions on various issues of international concern. Sceptics aren’t sure how much good those few mouse clicks do – do those signing even know exactly what they’re signing for? Would other types of action, like demonstrations, be more effective in raising awareness for a particular cause? We’re all guilty of skipping the small print and preferring the comfort of our own laptops now and again.

Also in openDemocracy on the One Million Signatures campaign:

Roja Bandari, NWI Blog (May-June 2007)

Elahe Amani, “A rare victory for women’s rights in Iran” (28 March 2008)

But the One Million Signature Campaign is a far cry from these online drives for mouse clicks. It does not have the usual time limit, but the signatures it seeks are very specific: Iran’s women and men. This petition is not for Westerners but for those directly affected by the discriminatory family laws it works to change. And there is no running total on the website of the amount of signatures collected. Given the difficulty in collecting some written petitions, the organisers felt it would be unrepresentative to reveal the running total after one year.

And as the campaign approaches its second birthday on 27 August, the total is still unknown, but their work goes on. There is plenty of it. Whether a woman signs the petition or not, she is given information about the implications of Iranian family law on her individual situation. To date, over 1000 campaigners have been trained in educating others and collecting their signatures. And all this is not without risk. Activist after campaigner has been arrested or imprisoned for his or her part in the fight against laws which reduce women’s rights to divorce, limit freedom of expression, reduce restrictions on polygamy and divorce for men, give automatic custody to a father after divorce and even demand taxes on dowries, the one safety net for women considering divorce. And yes, you read that correctly – his or her part. Men who sympathise with and work for this cause are also being imprisoned; no one is safe.

But the campaigners are not giving up. Their website is blocked by authorities; they start another. Peaceful protests are broken up using violence and arrests; they organise another two years later. These women and men are truly an inspiration. They continue to work in the face of adversity, overcoming threats and challenges and persisting in their original aim to reach a million signatures and adding new aims along the way. And we in the West cannot email our MP, we cannot sort this one out with a few mouse clicks. We can only watch in awe and voice our solidarity with these brave people who will not let legislation violate their human rights. Happy birthday, One Million, and here’s to plenty more years of courage, education and progress.

One man's experience of the UK asylum system, as told to openDemocracy at Sheffield's City of Sanctuary, as part of Refugee Week 2008.

When I came out of Afghanistan it was during the Taliban, and I think all people know about this difficult time for our country.

We people over there in Asia, especially in countries like Afghanistan, we are talking about Europe - not only UK but Europe - as democratic countries, as countries where you receive fair treatment. And so when I came here I was expecting that "they will listen to my story, and they know about our problems - especially the problems of Afghanistan - and I will be definitely granted indefinite leave to remain and I can stay there and improve my life".

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Robert Spooner

Asylum Seeker Support Initiative - Short-Term (Assist) is a Sheffield-based charity dedicated to helping destitute asylum seekers in the area. Coordinator Robert Spooner explains why the group was formed, and details some of their current work.

I work for Assist, Asylum Seeker Support Initiative - Short-Term, because we didn't think it was going to be long-term, but it obviously is now. Its been 5 years since the initial meeting which grew out of a conversation club, and the discovery of injustices happening to people being refused by the Home Office when they had very good reason for not going back home. This small group met, and within about 3 months we had got enough money to start helping those who are entirely destitute without money or anywhere to live and with reduced access to health services. So since that time we've been telling people - I myself am a local preacher in the Methodist church - as part of my preaching telling people what was really happening and people responded by giving us money.

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Racha Mourtada

A few weeks ago, my online chat with a friend in Beirut was cut short when he disappeared without warning for the better part of half an hour. He explained nonchalantly when he signed in again that he had been distracted by the sound of gunfire outside. Apparently, a prominent political party leader had been holding a press conference, and as sometimes happens in Lebanon, overzealous supporters would take to the streets and fire celebratory gunshots after the fact. My friend then signed off, saying that since the shots seemed to have died down, he was joining some of his friends downtown for a bite to eat. People who don't live in Lebanon might find such a flippant comment strange, but I wasn't surprised. Just before I moved to London a couple of months ago, my friends and I would even time our outings around these press conferences, making sure to get home before any potential clashes could break out between opposing political parties.

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Patricia Daniel

In her second report from Women's Worlds 2008, Patricia Daniel explores women and the global economy: New Zealander Marilyn Waring argues feminists must develop a new economic paradigm, and Sonía Parella Rubio examines a global care crisis.

Another wonderful speaker, New Zealander Marilyn Waring renowned academic, formerly the youngest member of the NZ parliament, anti-nuclear campaigner and currently gender advisor to the Solomon Islands, updated for us her seminal work from 1988: Counting for nothing - what men value and what women are worth.

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Patricia Daniel

In the first of two reports from Women's Worlds 2008, held in Madrid 3^rd-9^th July, Patricia Daniel is taken from Cambodia to Egypt, through moving presentations from Somaly Mam and Nawal el-Saadawi.

Held every three years since 1981, the international interdisciplinary forum Women's Worlds continues to flourish: located each time in a different capital, it has travelled across the five continents and more than 40,000 people from over one hundred countries have taken part. It provides the opportunity to explore all areas of academic study - and of life itself - from a feminist perspective. In Madrid there were discussions on fourteen different themes, with 130 invited speakers and hundreds of other contributions in exchange workshops every afternoon. This tenth event took as its overall theme "New frontiers: changes and challenges" and its slogan, open to a number of interpretations: "Equality is no utopia."

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Zainab Magdy

Being a young woman in a patriarchal society and having what our society calls feminist tendencies is not easy. I study English literature in Cairo University and 95% of my professors are women. When you are a 17 year old who is still trying to find herself and is surrounded by women who are strong, talented and independent, you start wondering why the society around you gives more importance to males and treats you as the inferior sex. Unlike many young women my age it was easy for me to understand and embrace feminism and gender equality because of the women I am surrounded, with beginning with my grandmother and mother, to my professors and friends. Knowing these women has definitely changed my perspective. I came to be more tolerant. I came to realize that our society does not just rate women as inferiors, but there are stereotypical images of men that all boys are expected to grow up and fit into. Those images do not just erase the male's identity but they enhance the ideas of male superiority and at times chauvinism. Being aware of that changed my anger into positive anger and that was when I started writing.

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Rosemary Bechler

Thank you - all the MigrantVoice authors and bloggers for writing at short notice with passion and point. In a week we have moved beyond the shy introductions stage to 'pleased to meet you' and opened up a conversation on some of the big issues which has provided much food for thought. This excellent introduction will remain open not only for newcomers to browse, but for comment and addition.

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Marie Lyse Numuhoza

I came to the UK seven years ago as a young refugee from Rwanda. Eager to integrate, I joined a local refugee community. I coordinated activities that brought together young refugees. They enabled them to meet and share ideas, learn from one another as they settled into the society. On the other hand though, the media at the time was not portraying a positive image of refugees and asylum seekers. So much was said about them being bogus, that they were here to take over all jobs and take benefits that the British people had worked for for so many years.

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Rosemary Bechler

Sonja Linden started out writing 'verbatim plays' and I like many others can testify to the 'palpable effect' these first hand accounts of detention and forced removal have had on her audiences. The Darfuris or Rwandans whose words and experiences she drew on thank her, however, in particular, for making their characters feisty and rounded - not just victims, however innocent. It's a moving account.

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My name is Nora Hussein I would like to provide a slightly different account on the topics of refuge, belonging and integration, as I believe the issues are very closely linked.

I am a second generation British Somali female, currently living in London. My father first came to the UK in the early sixties as a migrant worker and was later joined by my mother in the early seventies. I consider myself to be British born and bred, and yet I have a strong affinity and link to my ‘home' country Somalia: a country that I have only visited for barely two weeks in my entire thirty years - a country, which ever since I have been old enough to comprehend, has been embroiled in turmoil and civil war. And yet when I was there in 1999, although amenities were very basic, and life in general on a completely different par to what I was accustomed to, I encountered a strange sense of belonging.

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Craig Barnett

I just heard from a good friend of mine that his wife and daughter have been refused permission to return to their home in Britain. My friend, who writes a blog under the pen-name ‘Jeremiah', is married to an African woman who was refused asylum in the UK. They have a two year-old daughter together, but the UK government wouldn't allow Jeremiah's wife to stay unless she went back to her own country to apply for a visa. Under the threat of arrest and deportation she finally agreed, after arranging a safe house where she and her daughter can stay in relative anonymity, as it is still unsafe for her to be recognized there. Mother and daughter have spent the last four months in hiding, waiting to get the necessary documents and then an appointment with the British embassy. And then they refused her.

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Zrinka Bralo

"The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that aren't so" said Mark Twain and it rings very true to me when I think about the migration debate all around the world. Last week I read a very bizarre story in the Sun about 12 people who lived in the attic of an empty house in the Midlands, and how  Read the rest of this post...

Jenny Allsopp

"Ok, now give me youthful enthusiasm!"

We all beam up at the camera as the local journalist takes photos of us preparing banners for Refugee Week; balloons, laughter and colourful paint. ‘Maybe we could paint ‘Refugee Week' on one of your faces?' The irony kills me; reluctant for a foreign face to appear in relation with this issue unless they are a criminal or footballer, a pretty white face is a lovely stage. For one day only it will be me, the lucky one to be branded with the colourful stamp of ‘refugee' while I hold a balloon next to me to represent a whole sub-population of faceless individuals. And why is this the case? Firstly, for many misguided people my face seems to fit the image of community in a way that of a foreigner does not. Furthermore, refugees themselves are often reluctant to come forward in the public eye and challenge this, and who can blame them given the public backlash these issues often face: it is a vicious circle...

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Grace Davies

On Tuesday this week, London's Trafalgar square was transformed into a temporary "refugee camp" by the UNHCR in an awareness raising initiative to highlight the ongoing situation in Darfur, which saw similar scenes in 20 countries across the world. Zrinka blogged earlier this week about her own unexpected reaction to the exhibition. The hope is that the day-long camp had an impact on those who know nothing about Darfur, the UNHCR or refugees in general, the "absent majority" as Jenny put it in an earlier post.

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Jenny Allsopp

Rosemary and Zrinka have raised some extremely important questions - not only ‘who cares for who', but what makes us care, and how we choose to express it. I would like to try and shed some light on the second two questions in light of my experience campaigning on asylum issues.

It seems to be a question of proximity, both in terms of coming into contact with the issues and our ability to act. People are more willing to deal with refugee and asylum issues when it is a question of isolated acts of human kindness; we find it easier to perceive an asylum seeker as a charity case than a dignified human being with ‘political baggage'. The same difficulty is encountered with many other social issues, especially homelessness: however complicated the problem is, a small donation is a concrete step towards a simple (and deserving) end, whilst interacting with the system is an up-hill struggle which rarely boasts such direct rewards.

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MigrantVoice roundtable

In 2002, the government made it illegal for people claiming asylum to work. In April 2008, the Refugee Council and TUC launched a joint campaign, Let Them Work campaigning for the right to work for asylum seekers, as a fundamental human right. On our own discussions and interviews with refugees and asylum seekers, together with campaigners and activists, work was often identified as the most important policy change that would improve the lives of asylum seekers in the UK.

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