IN THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S CONGRESS
THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATION 28-29 JANUARY 2009/ CONRAD HOTEL-ISTANBUL
28 Jan. 2006
Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban:
Good evening. I would like first to pay my thanks to Turkey and to the Turkish authorities for convening this very important conference which is indeed a very important and timely idea.
I would like to start with my colleague in the last session Siham Antar finished when she was speaking about Muslim women after 9/11 in Europe and in the west and what kind of problems they have been facing since then. In fact I would like to argue that Muslim identity has become a problem after 9/11 and most Muslims, whether in the West or in the East, feel targeted in the most essential way; the identity, the culture, the country, all these are targeted. So we do have a very big problem after 9/11, and we do have a very big problem with the war on terror because what happened after 9/11 and after the beginning of the so-called the war on terror is that we have two worlds: the world of concept and the world of reality; the world of concept keeps moving further and further from the world of reality. So, this disadvantages Muslims who cannot reach out in the face of this huge media campaign of distorting the images of Muslim both in the West and in the East. Accompanied with that is a huge lack of acknowledgement to what is right and what is wrong; so people whose territories are occupied, and who are being killed, who are massacred, are accused of being terrorists, and those who are killing them and occupying their terrorists are supposed to be defending their security. And I think what happened a few days ago is a great example for all of us to think about. That while Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the Europeans and by the United States it won an absolute majority in
the Palestinian territories. I'm bringing this example to tell you that we feel that the best people in our societies are being targeted, and what Western forces are interested in is only agents to carry on with their plans and to exploit our resources.
Accompanied with that is the talking about Muslim women in terms of being beaten or whatever. In the previous session we heard beautiful things about Iran and the chairperson at the end of it gave a horrible example of a woman who is going to be stoned. I know that thousands of women in the West are being raped and killed and crimes committed against them. I'm rising this point to say that we all belong to one human community and we all have our problems. And the image is a lot more complicated than the way it is presented; why Muslims are being presented in black and white while for the entire world the picture has to be so varied, so difficult to portray? That's the thing we have to start to think about. And that is the thing we have to change, and I think this is the idea this alliance is going to serve.
If I want to speak about representation in Muslim countries I have to talk about two things; first, the status of women in Islam is very different in a country from it in any other Muslim country. The status of women in Muslim countries differ from one country to another according to the interpretation of the Islamic text. As a Muslim woman who went this year to Al-Hajj I felt extremely dignified, and extremely grateful for my religion. I'll give you one example; I always thought that going to Al-Hajj is something almost demeaning to women because women have to be accompanied by men when they go to Al-Hajj, but when I went there I found that everyone should have a companion because it's so difficult to be on your own, and I found the procedures treat women with the ultimate respect.
So what we have to do with this alliance is that we have to face the reality as it is without the feeling of superior and inferior because we all have a stake in changing the reality as it is. The discrimination against
the Muslims in the west is not only affecting Muslims, but is affecting the Western world with targeted acts, with legislations, with limitation of freedom, with racist attitudes. Unless we stop these things they are going to create a huge problem not only for the targeted community i.e. the Muslim community, but for the community that originated these legislations and drew them.
So, what I'd like to suggest here is that women and men should start to think of the world as a human community without superior and inferior. We should think of each other as equals in the human integrity. What you saw of pictures of Muslims being tortured only because they were suspected of being terrorists, by the way the way I write I might be suspected to be a terrorist because I say the truth and I say it bluntly that is exactly the definition of terrorism that we find in the Arab world. Anyone who says "No" to occupation, anyone who says "NO" to injustice, anyone who stands against the occupation of Iraq, anyone who stands against the occupation of Palestine is considered a terrorist.
How could Hamas be a terrorist group because it has a few light weapons while Israel who has nuclear weapons and occupied our territories is not a terrorist state? There is a terrible attitude there. So, we want to be constructive. We're describing what's wrong with the world in order to correct it not simply to say who's wrong and who's right.
There is a huge hypocrisy in the world, so the alliance has to be sincere and truthful. There is injustice in the world, so the alliance should serve justice. There is a big humiliation in the world, so the alliance should serve for dignity. There is a huge intolerance in the world to say the truth, so the alliance should be brave. There is a racism in the world, so the alliance should speak for the human equality. There is a huge campaign towards material values in the world, so the alliance should go back to ethical values, to spiritual values and to human values, by the way they are the same values for the three religions; we believe in the same God, there are no different religions, there is one God and several ways to reach the same God and that's all. (applause).
There is now a huge stress on military minds and money, so the alliance should go back to ordinary people, to morality. There is a huge stress now on few people designing the policy for the entire world and they're not experts or intelligent people so, we have to go to ordinary people and listen to them. Look at one example in the United States; what did Cindy Sheehan do when she went out against the war on Iraq!! She's an ordinary woman who turned out to be an extra-ordinary woman, and she is only one woman so think about our alliance which will have thousands of women, what could it do?? It could change the world to make it a better place for Jews, Christians and Muslims, for West and East, for south and north■
Thank you very much.