Symposium on Gender-Relevant Legislative Change in Muslim and Non-Muslim Countries
March 30-31, 2007
Lexington, Va
Co-sponsored by Washington & Lee University Frances Lewis Law Center and The Islamic Legal Studies Program of the Harvard Law School
GJC Counsel Olivia Kraus and Middle East Consultant Malaak Abdeljaber attended this symposium. While the organizers held the symposium out to be about women, legislation and Islam, the reality was far different. Almost none for the speakers spoke directly about legislative change, and when they did it was retrospective and not with an eye towards future change. None of the speakers mentioned international law or Tribunal, CEDAW was mentioned only once in passing and in general the larger perspective of human rights was ignored.
This symposium highlighted why the work GJC is doing is novel and unique. It made clear that leading voices of the Academic world are focused more on carving out their own narrow niche of expertise, and not in effecting change for the subjects they write about.
While there was great deal of discussion about the failure of legislative reform to effect actual change in women's lives, there was little to no mention of future strategies for effecting real change for women. This is where GJC comes in and can make a rea contribution to the model of improving women's lives and rights in Muslin countries where we work, like Iraq, Sudan and Central Asia.