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Subject:
From:
Tony Cisse <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
The Gambia and related-issues mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 29 Nov 1999 11:31:27 +0000
Content-Type:
text/plain
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Jaajef wa G-L

FYI


Yeenduleem ak jaama

Tony

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Iran's Defender of Women

An Ayatollah Says They Can Be President And
Even Say 'No' to Their Husbands


By Geneive Abdo International Herald Tribune
Paris, Friday, November 26, 1999

QOM, Iran - The ayatollah looks and behaves like
many others. His long beard
and clerical robes create a medieval persona. But
what comes out of Yusef
Sanaie's mouth is different.

He believes it is perfectly acceptable for a woman
to be president of the
Islamic republic or even the supreme spiritual
leader, a post generally
believed here to be ordained by God.

Also, women should divorce husbands who
contract venereal diseases or who
marry more than one wife without the first wife's
consent.

And women should feel free to say ''no'' to sex with
their husbands.

Ayatollah Sanaie is raising more than eyebrows
with a recently published
fatwa, or Islamic decree, granting women many
rights they now lack.

''Since I was young, I never liked the way women
were treated,'' he said,
seated cross-legged in the reception room of his
office in this holy Shiite
city. ''The bad treatment of women since the Islamic
Revolution contradicts
historical evidence in Islam.''

Religious and civil laws in Iran are not on the side
of women. The value of
a woman's life is half that of a man's in terms of
blood money. Her
testimony in court is worth half that of a man's. She
rarely is granted
custody of children after an early age. And if her
husband dies, his father
gains authority over the couple's assets.

It is no surprise, then, that when Iranian couples
marry, the woman's
attention is focused upon prenuptial contracts
about divorce.

''On the happiest day of our lives, women in Iran
think only about what will
happen if they get divorced,'' said Roya
Monaghem, a women's rights
advocate. ''We try to draft documents that will give
us more rights in case
we get divorced. It's a tragedy.''

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women have
made significant gains
compared with life under the shahs. More women
now attend universities. More
work outside the home and earn wages close to
those of men. Also, women have
entered the government.

One of Iran's vice presidents, Masoumeh Ebtekar,
a writer, is a woman, and
there are several women in Parliament. Many are
on city and local councils
throughout the country. Yet, on matters relating to
family law and personal
status, the most sensitive religious and cultural
issues, women are losers.

''Traditionalism did not require the status of women
to be changed, but
modernity does,'' Ayatollah Sanaie said. ''I am
interested in turning my
fatwa into law.''

Ayatollah Sanaie's followers can adopt his fatwa,
but without legislation
passed by Parliament, it cannot be enforced in
court, where the Sharia, or
Islamic code, is the law of the land. It is highly
unlikely such changes
will be considered by the current Parliament, in
which the majority of 270
seats are held by conservatives.

There is also little hope, according to many
women's activists, even if
reformist candidates win a majority in elections in
February.

''Even reformers have traditional views about
women's personal rights,''
said Mehranguiz Kar, a lawyer specializing in
divorce and custody cases.

''Only if we develop a pluralistic political system and
secularists gain
seats in Parliament, can we have any hope for
change.''

Conservative clerics have voiced outrage over
Ayatollah Sanaie's decree.
''What nonsense is this, that a woman can be the
supreme clerical leader?''
asked Hojatolislam Mohammed Eftekhari from the
city of Qazvin.

Even President Mohammed Khatami, who came to
power in a landslide victory in
1997 with the strong support of women, draws a
distinction between a woman's
personal and public status.

Mr. Khatami advocates political and intellectual
advancement for women but
remains silent on issues relating to divorce,
custody and marital rights.

Iranian women tell endless stories of losing their
children to their
husbands and of being deprived of a reasonable
divorce settlement.

According to law, the father can gain custody of a
son after he becomes 2
years old and a daughter after she becomes 7. A
woman can win custody only
if she can prove that her husband is insane, corrupt
or violent.

''These things are impossible to prove,'' Mrs. Kar
said. ''The amount of
documentation a woman must provide to prove that
her husband is an
unsuitable parent is unreasonable. A woman must
also have several witnesses
to such charges against her husband, and who
could possibly have
witnesses?''

The few women who manage to gain rights
generally granted to mothers in the
West do so only through extreme measures.

''My husband wouldn't divorce me and I didn't have
the proof required to
divorce him, so I blackmailed him,'' said Faribah,
who was married to a
physician. ''I knew he was involved in all sorts of
corruption at his
hospital, so I told him I was going to turn him in
unless he divorced me and
gave me the children.''


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