IUNW Launches “Women in Salafi Spaces” Report
On Wednesday, January 27, 2021, the organization International United Nations Watch launched the report Women in Salafi Spaces in cooperation with the University of Florence. The publication featured contributions from five women scholars in fields such as academia, journalism, and law. The 50-page report included topics such as women power within Salafism, the status of women in Saudi Arabian court rooms, women seeking empowerment in Salafi spaces in Sudan, as well as legal frameworks for religious rights, the intersectional struggle of Muslim women, and the debate of the veil.
Professor Giovanna Campani is an expert on female migration in Southern Europe and professor of Ethnology and Gender Anthropology. Sophia Akram is a journalist and researcher focused on identity, human rights, and displacement in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Bethany Alhaidari is the Executive Director of the Saudi American Justice Project and an advocate for Freedom Forward. She is a PhD candidate in International Human Rights Law. Dr. Amal Ali is Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Lincoln.
Her doctoral thesis considered the representation of women and their religious beliefs in the jurisprudence the European Court of Human Rights, and her research focuses on intersectionality of law, gender, and religion. Amani Mohammed El Obeid is a Doctoral Associate Researcher at the Centre for Social, Legal and Economic Studies and Documentation in Khartoum, Sudan. She specializes in Sufism and the Muslim Brotherhood Movement in Sudan.
“The various debates on Salafism have often left the women themselves voiceless,” Maya Garner, IUNW spokesperson, stated. “This publication is important for bringing together diverse intellectual backgrounds to speak on this issue, including such Muslim women themselves. The report hopes to pave the way from a “value”-based debate to a rights-focused one. It brings new nuances to an issue that has largely been regarded as homogenous, and considers the nature of ‘Salafi spaces’ in both the West, Middle East, and Africa.”
The International United Nations Watch (IUNW) is a monitoring NGO campaigning to ensure high standards of compliance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the founding Charter of the United Nations, focused specifically on the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainability Agenda. The report is part of a series of IUNW publications to realize this mission. Past reports include A Journey to the Unknown: Trafficking from the Fringes of Europe.
To reada full report, clock here.
