women's networks

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Networks:

Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML)

Purpose:

Women Living Under Muslim Laws is an international solidarity network that provides information, support and a collective space for women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or governed by laws and customs said to derive from Islam.

For more than two decades WLUML has linked individual women and organisations. It now extends to more than 70 countries ranging from South Africa to Uzbekistan, Senegal to Indonesia and Brazil to France. It links:

• women living in countries or states where Islam is the state religion, secular states with Muslim majorities as well as those from Muslim communities governed by minority religious laws;
• women in secular states where political groups are demanding religious laws;
• women in migrant Muslim communities in Europe, the Americas, and around the world;
• non-Muslim women who may have Muslim laws applied to them directly or through their children;
• women born into Muslim communities/families who are automatically categorized as Muslim but may not define themselves as such, either because they are not believers or because they choose not to identify themselves in religious terms, preferring to prioritise other aspects of their identity such as political ideology, profession, sexual orientation or others.

Activities:

Solidarity & Alerts

• WLUML responds to, circulates and initiates international alerts for action and campaigns as requested by networking groups and allies. WLUML also provides concrete support for individual women in the form of information on their legal rights, assistance with asylum applications, and links with relevant support institutions, psychological support, etc.

Networking & Information Services

• WLUML puts women in direct contact with each other to facilitate a non-hierarchical exchange of information, expertise, strategies and experience. Networking also involves documenting trends, proactively circulating information among networkers and allies, generating new analysis, and supporting networkers' participation in exchanges and international events. While WLUML prioritises the needs of networkers, it also selectively responds to requests for information from, for example, academics, activists, the media, international agencies and government institutions.

Capacity Building

• WLUML consciously builds the capacity of networking groups through internships at the coordination offices, and exchanges, trainings and workshops.

Publications and Media

• WLUML collects, analyses and circulates information regarding women's diverse experiences and strategies in Muslim contexts using a variety of media. It translates information into and from French, Arabic and English wherever possible. Networking groups also translate information into numerous other languages.
• An active publications programme produces:
  * A theme based Dossier, an occasional journal which provides information about the lives, struggles and strategies of women in various Muslim communities and countries;
  * A quarterly Newsheet on women, laws and society by Shirkat Gah, WLUML Asia Regional Coordination Office;
  * Occasional Papers - specific studies and materials which, for reasons of length or style, cannot be included in the Dossier series and;Other publications on specific issues of concern such as family laws, women's movements, initiatives and strategies, etc.
• For more information and to download WLUML publications, please visit http://www.wluml.org/english/publications.shtml The WLUML website is in English, French and Arabic and updated regularly with news and views, calls for action and publications.

Collective Projects

• Collective projects have included topic-specific initiatives that arise out of the shared needs, interests and analysis of networkers. Networking groups and individuals are free to participate, or not, according to their needs and capacity, and collective projects have involved from three to over twenty networking groups and lasted from a few months to ten years. Projects are principally coordinated and implemented by networking groups or individual networkers in their respective countries or communities; the coordination offices provide facilitation when necessary.
• Collective projects have included training sessions, workshops, research for advocacy, meetings and exchanges around specialised topics.
• Previous projects include:
  * Exchange programme (1988)
  * Qur'anic interpretations meetings (1990) and for West African networkers (2002) and Francophone West Africa (2004)
  * Women and Law in the Muslim world programme (1991-2001)
  * Feminism in the Muslim World Leadership Institutes (1998 and 1999)
  * Gender and displacement in Muslim contexts (1999-2002)
  * Initiative for Strengthening Afghan Family Laws - INSAF (2002 - present)

Region or specific community:

International

Membership Criteria if any:

WLUML's open structure has been designed to maximize participation of diverse and autonomous groups and individuals as well as collective decision-making. (See also other info below)

Membership Fee if any:

We very often get requests from individuals and organizations wishing to 'join' WLUML and we wish to make clear that anyone who agrees with our core prinicples and puts them into action in their own context is 'of WLUML'...therefore anybody, male, female, etc., could be a WLUML networker.

Contact Name:

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Contact Address:

WLUML - International Coordination Office, PO Box 28445, London
N19 5NZ

Contact Phone:

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Contact Mobile:

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Contact Email:

wluml@wluml.org

Contact Web:

http://www.wluml.org

Funders if any:

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Other Information:

WLUML does not have formal membership and networkers are a fluid group of individuals and organisations who maintain regular two-way contact with the network