I”ve been meaning to write about this wonderful network - the Women”s Learning Partnership (WLP) - before but have been procrastinating.
No time like the present:
In a nutshell, they”re about female empowerment as part of human equality, and positive thinking : they”re a network of networks - they work with 18 autonomous and independent partner organizations in the Global South, particularly in Muslim-majority societies, to “empower women to transform their families, communities, and societies.”
One of their particular campaigns that I wanted to highlight is “Claiming Equal Citizenship“: the Campaign for Arab Women”s Right to Nationality.
Women’s right to equal citizenship is guaranteed by the majority of Arab constitutions, as well as by international law. Yet across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the Gulf, women are denied their right to nationality – a crucial component of citizenship.
In almost every country in the MENA and Gulf regions, women who marry men of other nationalities cannot confer their original nationality to their husbands or children. Only fathers, not mothers, can confer their nationality to their children.
Discriminatory laws denying women equal nationality rights undermine women’s status as equal citizens in their home countries. Such laws send the message that women do not enjoy a direct relationship with the state, but must access their citizenship rights through mediation of a male family member, such as a father or a husband. Until women in the MENA and Gulf regions are recognized as full nationals and citizens, they cannot participate fully in public life, nor claim the other rights to which they are entitled as equal members of their societies.
The denial of women’s nationality rights also created real suffering for dual nationality families living in the woman’s home country. Children and spouses are treated as foreigners and must obtain costly residence permits. Children are often excluded from social services such as social security, healthcare and subsidized or free access to education. In many countries, spouses and children have limited employment opportunities and are unable to own property. In terms of psychological impact, many women feel isolated and guilty because they feel responsible for the difficulties faced by their families, while children suffer from low self-esteem because of their second-class status.
I have written about this problem as affecting Bangladeshi women in the past - not being able to confer nationality upon their children - as it is passed through the father. Essentially this is how I found out about this campaign, one of the WLP activists commented upon my post and pointed me to their work.
The goals of the campaign are to call for
- Legal reform enabling women to confer their nationality to their husbands and children without condition
- Full implementation of reformed nationality laws and equal access to these laws for all women
- Recognition of women as equal citizens in all areas of life
Please sign the petitions to support equal rights to citizenship for men and women.
Your signature sends a message of support to partners, who can use the international visibility to strengthen their advocacy efforts for amending nationality laws.
I’ll visit it just now. Thanks!
Thanks Suroor - it would be great as well if you could spread the word round a bit
psst…
The ultimate aim is that men change their hegemonic and patriarchic ways. Oppression of women is often the last bit of control that goes in surely enough disempowred men. We need not only women networks. Women have been, as victims, quick to create self help. We men need to listen to that. Bure beyond that, men need men groups that have challange and reinvention of their roles, power and abilities and disabilities (such as anger, destructiveness - often self destructiveness) at heart. It is hard to think amidst discrimination and pain men inflict, to see men too as victim of their own being, their social presures, their upbrings, and expectations put against them. If we do not address men by thsemselves, we only achieve half of the aim. Given that the feminist sledgehammer of the 1970s denied men masculinity completely, it is about reinvention and positive affirmation of forms of masculinity that is constructive to all, eg. men as dads, men as community assitants, men as self policing entity -re-education violent men from within. This my current stance. But when I see how macho many men societies still I am both puzzled how our sexual debates can bypass whole social and geographical areas.
Very interesting post. I’ll pass it on to my friends. It does make me realise just how much still needs to be done about women’s rights.
thanks leighton and good points Daniel. I personally think in terms of individual rights and equality - because often the whole feminism thing tends to try and sort out one set of problems - but sometimes reinforces ‘groupthink’. and the idea - as far as i can see - is to get away precisely from this ‘groupthink’ which is what led to the idea that one group is one way ( therefore does one thing and has one set of rights) and the other group is another way and does another thing and so has another set of rights. And gender stereotypes and all that crap.
The thing about the nationality laws in Bangladesh - for example - is annoying is that Bangladesh as a nation has signed up to the UN Conventions that are about reflecting equality of individuals - so technically they have agreed to the right of women to equal citizenship. But we are stuck with some old laws which have wording which needs to be changed to align with the wider principles we are signed up to. But of course to get that wording changed in a place like Bangladesh - is difficult. This is what the effort is about. this affects me directly as any kids I may have won’t be a Bangladeshi national and would have to apply for visas to visit Bangladesh! cRAZY. so much for the ‘motherland’ idea!
What I always find strange about countries like Bangladesh is that while for the most part women are marginalized, there will be a few that rise to the top (like the heads of the BNP and Awani League) and men will happily follow them. Is it because the family name is the most important thing, rather than the person who has it?
yep Rumbold, very good point. Yes essentially its’ a dynastic thing. Generally how you are perceived depends on who your family is. Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujib who played the key role in the formation of Bangladesh, and Khaleda Zia is the widow of Ziaur Rahman who used gained power through a military coup in 1977.
The dynastic relevance is very significant in this particular dynamic, people generally tend to support one or the other party based on historic events.
I’m so sick of patriarchy! Blah!
Just publicised this on my blog.
Nepotism still rules the roost in some parts of the world.
Men will vote for women, but they will not allow women to vote for men.
It will be interesting to see if the army takeover destroys the power of the two begums, and if so, whether any more women emerge in their places.
good one Rumbold - the key point is that somewhere along the line, some men decided it was alright to vote for these two particular women. till women actually can do what they want, without necessarily having that patronage..
also its not just a gender thing. if you’re a poor man, forget it. so it’s a pretty complex situation…all depends on a nexus of factors that determine your ‘power’ and the ‘place’ you have in society. Personally i’m an individualist, i think that any individual, regardless of background etc. should be able to do all sorts of things. and in different situations, different people are favoured.
there’s plenty of discrimination against men - say in the UK. i think in places like Bangladesh, because there is such a large gender gap, it is something to highlight.
In Jordan, there is a grass roots campaign (and by “grass roots” I mean from one woman’s ear to another) to make sure that we are all registering to vote and planning to vote, because of the growing momentum to change the citizenship laws so that we are truly equal.
Right now, there are many children, men, and women living in a sort of legal limbo because of this. I spent two and a half months — and a lot of money — this spring jumping through the hoops of residency b/c I do not have the right to bestow nationality on one of the kids. I am told I must petition the King. Yet his own wife goes on Oprah or to Vanity Fair and talks about how she wants this to be made equal. Well, that was 3 yrs ago. Now, the women of Jordan are working to try and change it themselves.
Hi Umm Zaid thanks for your comment and it’s good to hear about this whispering campaign! And generally an insight into the situation in Jordan. Yes change definitely needs to happen, i suppose Queen Rania hasn’t the authority in the end to make these kind of changes happen, but interestingly as you point out, she has a lot of attention and media watching her, and one would hope she would push for something like this as much as possible. Of course it always also turns out that figureheads have to ask some bureaucrat to get things done. But still. I wonder if you’d seen the survey page on the Citizenship Campaign site - they are trying to gather as much info as poss on how it is in diffrent countries, it might be an idea to fill that survey in - the more people are putting information about their experiences across - the better.
Excellent points Sonia; poverty and lack of connections in certain countries effectively disenfranchise large numbers of men- nobody listens to them and they cannot get justice if they are wronged.