Third International Conference on Islamic Feminism

Waaaaaaaahhhhh .. I wanna go!

The Third International Congress on Islamic Feminism has been announced by Junta Islàmica Catalana (Catalonian Islamic Board) and will take place in Barcelona, 24th-27th October 2008.

The conference will be focused on the problems of Muslim women in the Global era. Many Muslim women today are facing a double oppression: economic (neo-liberalism) and political (religious fundamentalism). The Congress will consider the responses given by Islamic feminists to this situation, and their contribution towards the construction of a new civil society worldwide, based on a culture of human rights and Qur’anic values such as democracy, social justice, freedom of conscience and gender equality.

Distinguished Muslim personalities will be attending, such as Bouthaina Shaaban, Syria’s Minister for Refugees and candidate for Nobel Peace Prize; and Baroness Uddin, the first Muslim woman becoming member of the House of Lords in Britain.

Other Muslim intellectuals such as Amina Wadud, Penda Mbow, Fatou Sow or Norani Othman, are expected to be attending. Alike Siti Musdah Mulia, chairwoman of Muslimat Nahdlatul ulama, the largest Islamic social organization in Indonesia, with more than 40 million members; and Subhasini Ali, president of the female branch of the Communist Party of India, with more than 10 million women associated.

There will be presentations about the campaign against stoning in Iran, the struggle for women’s political participation in the Arabian Peninsula, and present strategies to improve women’s rights in Muslim countries as Morocco, Senegal, Pakistan, India and Malaysia.

The Congress will receive almost twenty speakers coming from Morocco, Syria, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, India, Senegal, Malaysia, Indonesia, USA and England.

The event will take place in is Hotel Alimara (www.alimarahotel.com). Is organised by the Catalonian Islamic Board (Junta Islàmica Catalana), with the Sponsoring of Catalonian Autonomous Government (Generalitat de Catalunya) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), as well as the collaboration of the British Council.

More info here.