By rebecca torr
Published: 15th May 2007
A BAHRAINI campaigner has joined forces with former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, among others, to launch a new body to promote the role and rights of Muslim women.
Women’s Petition Committee head Ghada Jamsheer is one of 10 activists who met in Norway to launch the new forum.
It aims to promote rights, equality, democracy and peace for women and to spread awareness about their role in development.
It also serves as an important platform that women can use to discuss changes to laws that prevent them from enjoying their full rights and how they can be active in the decision-making process of their country.
By rebecca torr
Published: 15th May 2007
A BAHRAINI campaigner has joined forces with former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, among others, to launch a new body to promote the role and rights of Muslim women.
Women’s Petition Committee head Ghada Jamsheer is one of 10 activists who met in Norway to launch the new forum.
It aims to promote rights, equality, democracy and peace for women and to spread awareness about their role in development.
It also serves as an important platform that women can use to discuss changes to laws that prevent them from enjoying their full rights and how they can be active in the decision-making process of their country.
The forum was established by Ms Jamsheer, Ms Bhutto, Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi and other female participants in a meeting at the Oslo Centre for Peace and Human Rights.
The 10 participants met to plan what they could do together to strengthen democracy in the Muslim world and the forum was seen as an important and necessary step.
Ms Bhutto was elected as president of the forum and participants signed a contract agreeing on its aims, objectives and future activities, Ms Jamsheer told the GDN.
“It (the forum) is to support women’s rights in Arab countries and for all Muslim women,” she said yesterday by telephone from Belgium, where she is meeting European Union representatives to discuss women’s rights.
“We are pushing to have laws that promote women’s rights.
“In Bahrain we don’t have many rights and I do feel this is the same for women in all Arabian Gulf countries.
“We must work for this, everything must be changed.
“We are suffering in courts, in jobs and in so many things.
“All Muslims must sit together, we must push for women’s rights and work on these rights.”
© Gulf Daily News
