Women Living under Muslim Laws

A sociologist and activist, Farida Shaheed, who lives in Lahore of Pakistan, works with Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), an international solidarity network that attempts to provide legal help to muslim women who get caught in the midst of the relentlessly patriarchal Islamic and Quranic codes. Quoting Deniz Kandiyoti, she says “most Muslim states have failed to generate ideologies capable of coping realistically with social changes.” This has resulted in Muslim countries adherence to Islam not just as a “coherent ideology” but also as “a symbol of their cultural identity.” Shaheed believes that the patriarchal structure of Muslim societies is not much different from that of any other society and “like elsewhere, women’s subordination occurs at multiple levels (kinship structures, state-building projects, etc.). She also correctly maintains, “The idea of one homogeneous Muslim world is an illusion.” She argues that simply because a country is made up of a Muslim population does not necessarily make it an Islamic country. Absence of homogeneousness, lack of laws to properly cope with modernization, the urge for identity, and diversity of political structures demand a legal network that can provide support to suffering women throughout the Muslim world.

Women living in Islamic countries – regardless of whether their political systems allege secularity, as in Turkey, or whether their government is inspired by Quranic laws, as in Saudi Arabia – are helplessly fettered by reactionary customs and traditions that adversely affect their lives every day. The existence of a solidarity network that can provide them with support is an imperative.