Violence Against Women in Muslim Families: an Agenda for Muslim Women’s Empowerment by Nasim Basiri
Violence Against Women in Muslim Families: an Agenda for Muslim Women’s Empowerment
Nasim Basiri
Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, declared in a 2006 report posted on the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) website that:
Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime with the abuser usually someone known to her, (Kofi Annan 2006)
One of the key issues addressed at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing was the elimination of violence against women. ' Violence affects the lives of millions of women worldwide, irrespective of their socio-economic status. It cuts across ethnic, cultural and religious barriers, impeding the rights of women to participate fully in the society. The urgency of addressing this global problem is tragically illustrated by the treatment of women in conflict or crisis situations, where various forms of harassment, intimidation, rape and forced pregnancies are being used as instruments of war, especially by the opposing forces or the supposed peacekeepers. The recent incident in the Darfur region of Sudan, where women were violently abused both physically and sexually and some killed, is typical. However, it is not only in times of war that women are vulnerable to abuse. Throughout the world, women suffer untold violence in the family, at work and in the wider community, while the perpetrators include individuals and the state apparatus. Women worldwide remain vulnerable to life-threatening conditions and abuse of physical and psychological integrity. Although violence against women is highly under-reported, its prevalence is high in many cultural settings both in the developed and developing countries. For instance, studies indicate that
Nasim Basiri
Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, declared in a 2006 report posted on the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) website that:
Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime with the abuser usually someone known to her, (Kofi Annan 2006)
One of the key issues addressed at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing was the elimination of violence against women. ' Violence affects the lives of millions of women worldwide, irrespective of their socio-economic status. It cuts across ethnic, cultural and religious barriers, impeding the rights of women to participate fully in the society. The urgency of addressing this global problem is tragically illustrated by the treatment of women in conflict or crisis situations, where various forms of harassment, intimidation, rape and forced pregnancies are being used as instruments of war, especially by the opposing forces or the supposed peacekeepers. The recent incident in the Darfur region of Sudan, where women were violently abused both physically and sexually and some killed, is typical. However, it is not only in times of war that women are vulnerable to abuse. Throughout the world, women suffer untold violence in the family, at work and in the wider community, while the perpetrators include individuals and the state apparatus. Women worldwide remain vulnerable to life-threatening conditions and abuse of physical and psychological integrity. Although violence against women is highly under-reported, its prevalence is high in many cultural settings both in the developed and developing countries. For instance, studies indicate that
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