Excerpt from an email to Cordoba Initiative/WISE
Being aware of cultural relativity; that different cultures/countries refer to different norms and that with women’s rights in Muslim countries, we have to ‘speak’ in their language and ‘work’ with their norms; their norms being Islamic Law and its variants. With FI, half of our membership comprise of non-Muslims who through their work learn about Gender in Islamic Law and gain a background understanding of Muslim contexts. They support the Muslim Women’s Movement better through this approach rather than more secular approaches. What FI encourages indirectly is participation of non-Muslims and Muslims in the same ‘dialogue’ – i.e. in the discussion of gender-neutral interpretations of Islamic Law.
