World Peace: Invitation to participate in Musawah knowledge building

FYI and please spread the word to those who may be interested!


INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN MUSAWAH KNOWLEDGE BUILDING
27 September 2011

Musawah's Ground-Breaking Research on Qiwamah and Wilayah
Picture courtesy: flickr

Read this email in Arabic.

Musawah is undertaking a long-term, multi-faceted knowledge building initiative on the Qur'anic concepts of qiwamah and wilayah, which are commonly understood as sanctioning men's authority over women.

As interpreted and constructed in Muslim legal traditions, and as applied in modern laws and practices, these concepts play a central role in institutionalising, justifying and sustaining a patriarchal model of families in Muslim contexts. In Muslim legal traditions, marriage automatically places a wife under her husband's qiwamah and presumes an exchange: the wife's obedience and submission (tamkin) in return for maintenance (nafaqah) from the husband.

This theoretical relationship, which still underlies many family law provisions in our contexts as Muslims today, results in inequality in matters such as financial security, right to divorce, custody and guardianship, choice and consent in marriage, sexual and reproductive health and rights, inheritance and nationality laws. This inequality is out of tune with contemporary notions of Islamic and human rights principles. It also clashes with the reality that men are often unable or unwilling to protect and provide for their families.

It's time to recognise that women often serve as the providers for and protectors of their families.

In order to campaign and advocate for laws and practices that promote equality and justice in the Muslim family, we need new knowledge and perspectives on qiwamah and wilayah. This project seeks to show how laws based on outdated interpretations of qiwamah and wilayah no longer reflect the justice of Islam, and that other interpretations are both possible and more in tune with human rights principles and contemporary lived realities.

Need more information? Read an overview of the initiative in English or in Arabic.

Join the research team - GET INVOLVED!

We are inviting all Musawah Advocates to join this initiative. At this stage, there are three ways to get involved:

Send in existing statistics and data from your country - Can you send in statistics or data from your context that can support Musawah's perspective that the realities and experiences of women and men today can no longer justify the rationale for qiwamah and wilayah in Muslim legal traditions?

We have commissioned a research paper to use such data as evidence of the need to rethink men's role as 'protectors and maintainers' of women. We need data on female-headed households, dual-income households, women's education levels, women's participation in agriculture, male and female labour-force participation rates and migration rates, prevalence of violence against women, divorce rates, and grounds commonly cited for divorce. Your data will help develop a worldwide analysis that you can then use to show the disconnect between law and reality and make a strong case for change in your local activism. All those who contribute data will be acknowledged as part of the research effort.

Document women's life stories in your context - Would you or your organisation like to document women's life stories to better understand how qiwamah and wilayah impact their lives? A major part of the knowledge building initiative will be participatory research by Musawah Advocates to shed light on the realities of family lives.

An Indonesian team has been undertaking a pilot documentation project since January 2011 to develop a methodology that can be shared with all Advocates. We'd like Advocates to commit to be part of this project NOW so we can get them involved and start building capacity for this important documentation process. By participating in this project, your organisation can learn more about the concepts of qiwamah and wilayah, build your research and analysis skills, collect life stories that can be used in your local or national advocacy work, and be a part of this exciting, ground-breaking knowledge-building initiative. A limited amount of small grant funds are available to contribute towards supporting local research.

Tell us about your work on qiwamah and wilayah - Have you or your organisation worked on issues relating to qiwamah and wilayah already?

If so, please share your experiences or research so we can try to incorporate these into the Musawah knowledge building initiative. We will acknowledge your contributions and may also invite you to join the conceptual meetings or online discussions when we discuss the issues in more depth.

If you would like to get involved in the Qiwamah and Wilayah Knowledge Building Initiative, please contact us at musawah@musawah.org. We look forward to working with you!

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