ADVANCING GENDER EQUALITY IN MUSLIM MINDANAO: TRAINING AND PROMOTING GENDER- SENSITIVE RELIGIOUS LEADERS TO EFFECT CHANGE Atty. Laisa Masuhud Alamia Program.

ADVANCING GENDER EQUALITY IN MUSLIM MINDANAO: TRAINING AND PROMOTING GENDER-SENSITIVE RELIGIOUS LEADERS TO EFFECT CHANGE

Atty. Laisa Masuhud Alamia Program Manager, Nisa Ul Haqq Fi Bangsamoro, Inc.

Philippines

Outline of presentation

ContextBackground and Objectives of Project

Strategies for Change

Challenges and Successes

Context

The Moro situation: 10% of Philippine population; 13

Islamized indigenous peoples; concentrated mostly in 5 provinces and 1 city of ARMM

Struggle for right to self-determination

Minoritized by law and policy of resettlement from the Spanish, Japanese, and American colonization to current government

Displaced from ancestral domains, discriminated against, suffering from effects of long-standing conflict

Moro women against backdrop of poverty, war, and displacement: Other forms of oppression and

discrimination under formal laws such as the Code of Muslim Personal Law and traditional and cultural practices

Gender Issues: Early, arranged and/or forced

marriage Polygyny Gender-based violence Inequitable rights and

responsibilities between husband and wife

Loss of inheritance rights

Context

Background & Objectives

Recommendation: return to basic teachings of Qur’an to clarify roles of women and men

Through efforts of Muslim women advocates, discussions on gender issues in the context of Islam: Marriage and family Economic rights Participation in politics and

decision-making Gender issues arise from

different interpretations of Qur’an by MRLs

Background & Objectives

Gender issues intended to be addressed by project: Early, arranged, and/or forced marriage Violence Against Women (VAW)

NISA research shows early marriage is prevalent in ARMM among girls as young as 13 with harmful & wide-ranging consequences

VAW such as rape, prostitution, trafficking of women, wife battery, taking of mahr, child abuse and VAW in situations of armed conflict and displacement are present

Strategies for Change

Khutba on gender and reproductive health rights of women

Consultations and workshops by MRLs and other experts to guarantee authenticity and faithfulness to basic teachings of the Qur’an and Hadith and human rights principles

Strategies for Change Pre-tested, used in

trainings Compiled in handbook in

English, later translated to 5 widely spoken dialects in the ARMM

Handbook to be used by Imams during Friday sermons, marriage counselling, nasihat, and in other appropriate occasions as reference for gender equality in Islamic context

Strategies for Change 15 Khutbas:

1. Realization of Allah-Man Relationship as the First Duty of a Muslim

2. Man and Woman as Partners

3. Education in Islam

4. Building a Righteous Family

5. Mahr in the Teachings of Islam

6. Marriage Counselling (to be used as Khutba Nikah)

7. Early and Arranged Marriage in the Light of Islam

8. Family Planning in Islam

9. Maternal and New Born Health Care

10. The Hikma of Hijab

11. Women’s Economic Rights

12. Violence Against Women

13. The Meaning of Polygamy

14. Divorce in the Perspective of Islam

15. Islamic Inheritance

Strategies for Change

Capability-building of MRLs using 4-pronged approach:

1) Gender justice in the context of Islam using the Qur’an, ahadith and fiqh, particularly on the issues of early and arranged marriage, polygyny, and violence against women, with

techniques on how to deliver the compiled khutbas;

Strategies for Change

2) National laws and instruments on women’s rights, such as the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act (RA 9262);

3) International human rights instruments on gender, particularly the provisions of the CEDAW and its Committee’s

Concluding Comments to the last Philippine report; and

Strategies for Change

4) the lived realities of Moro and other Muslim women in predominantly Muslim countries through the social sciences and research projects on the impact of such practices.

Challenges and Successes

Four-pronged approach proven effective since the drafters of the 15 khutba came up with more progressive interpretations of the Qur’an and Ahadith.

Confronted with the lived realities of Muslim women vis-à-vis international and national human rights instruments, the MRLs applied Qur’anic principles of justice and equality to the khutba that they drafted.

Challenges and Successes

Khutba on early marriage Provides that “Islam clarifies

important requirements before marriage can take place, which include the age of maturity or capacity to distinguish right from wrong, mental capability, emotional preparation, and physical grounding...financial capability and finally, the consent of the concerned parties.”

Although no specific age for marriage has been recommended in the khutbas, nevertheless, it has not taken the general stand that puberty is equal to marriage-age.

Challenges and Successes

Khutba on violence against women Recognizes the existence of many forms of

violence against women in the Moro communities.

MRLs declare that women are equal partners of men and that Islam’s mandate is equality between men and women.

This necessitates that all forms of violence against women must be eradicated, “for so long as women suffer abuses, women cannot achieve their full potential as free and equal members of society,” citing relevant Qur’anic text and ahadith.

Challenges and Successes

Partnership with MRLs immersed in gender advocacy proved to be productive

Inclusion of the Aleemats and giving them initial training on delivery of Nasihat based on the core messages of the 15 Khutba on Gender and RH gave added value to the project

Need to involve and train more Aleemats in advocating gender and RH in Muslim communities

Engaging with the Darul Ifta crucial in getting support of the MRLs in the ARMM

Challenges and Successes

Many MRLs at the grassroots level still retain the same traditional, discriminatory and repressive beliefs on women; challenge is to continue to advocate at the grassroots level, train more gender- sensitive MRLs and promoting their work

Shukran kathir!Thank you very

much!