Last week representatives of a coalition of women’s rights organizations met in Istanbul to discuss sexual and bodily rights. Their core belief is that all individuals should be able to choose how to live their sexuality.What makes this meeting particularly interesting is that the gathering was organized by a Turkish association, Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR) -- New Ways, and it assembled researchers and nongovernmental organizations representatives from various Muslim countries.
Sexuality and bodily issues are still taboo in many societies. In Western countries, as soon as a conservative government comes to power, funding for research into these issues is usually the first item slashed from the budget. In Muslim states, the taboos are often used to legitimize honor killings, forced marriages or violence against homosexuals.
The Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies started taking shape in 2001. The first meeting was attended mainly by NGO representatives from the Middle East and North Africa. Since then the coalition has grown to include academics, researchers and groups from as far afield as the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan. This broad alliance is fighting a global “epidemic of conservatism” that is spreading rapidly.
The network allows activists to join forces to defend personal rights and challenge patriarchal traditions both within their own societies and at the international level through advocacy and lobbying at the UN. In Turkey, WWHR -- New Ways was one of the leading groups in the women’s platform that successfully fought to improve the new Turkish Penal Code (TCK) introduced in 2005.
This coalition is also important to increase the global visibility of women’s rights activists in Muslim societies. Since Sept. 11, the need to demonstrate the diversity of Muslim societies has become more obvious. Such a network helps challenge Western views of Islam, increasingly shaped by a notion of a “clash of civilizations.” In particular it challenges widespread perceptions of Muslim women as passive creatures waiting to be abused. These notions have an impact not just on women in the Muslim world but also on Muslim women in Western countries.
A recent series of court cases in Germany illustrates this point. When a 26-year-old Moroccan immigrant, mother of two, filed a request for a fast-track divorce because her estranged husband, who had repeatedly abused her during their marriage, was issuing threats and harassing her, the female German judge used the Koran to reject the request. Because Sura 4, Verse 34 of the Koran allows men to discipline their wife, the judge argued, the beatings did not meet the German legal definition of hardship: In short, the young woman should have known what to expect when she married.
Other legal decisions based on cultural relativism have allowed male migrants to get away lightly with murder or extreme violence against female relatives. But whose traditions and whose Islam were the judges defending?
This is why the work of groups like the Coalition on Sexuality and Bodily Rights in Muslim societies is so important. By demonstrating that narrow-minded patriarchal views are being challenged from within, they also show the great diversity of views and lifestyles that exists today in Muslim societies across the globe.
