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Newsroom

We welcome inquiries from journalists and media producers.

Our Co-Directors and Secretariat are available to provide interviews on a variety of issues, including women’s rights in Muslim contexts, feminist and rights-based knowledge production on gender and Islam, and Muslim family law reforms. We also may connect you with Advocates in the Global South who are fighting on the ground to make positive changes for Muslim women in their countries.

For more information or to schedule an interview:
email [email protected], or Communications Officer: Fatima Qureshi, [email protected].

Latest Press Releases

Our Statement is also available in Arabic. We at Musawah, a global movement working for equality and justice in the Muslim family, stand in firm opposition to the recent proposed amendments to the Personal Status Law in Iraq. These proposed amendments seek to alter the 1959 Personal Status Law, a critical legal framework that has, for […]

We are appalled that 17 Muslim MPs in Sri Lanka opposed progressive reforms to the MMDA presented in the draft Bill put forward by the Ministry of Justice. Their regressive positions on MMDA reforms include rejecting equal divorce procedures, rejecting 18 to be the minimum age of marriage without exception, rejecting equal sharing of matrimonial property, maintaining discrimination between different sects/madhabs, not allowing validity of a bride’s signature in the absence of a male guardian, maintaining the Quazi system as it currently stands, and excluding Muslim women from holding public office under the MMDA.
The Musawah movement and SAHR jointly condemn in the strongest possible terms the Taliban’s decision to ban women and girls from studying at public and private universities in Afghanistan indefinitely, and the order to close schools for girls above the sixth grade. 
We at Musawah, a global movement working for equality and justice in the Muslim family,  are appalled by the use of Islam to justify the institutionalisation of violence and discrimination against women and the constant policing of their bodies. We find this in total contradiction to the spirit and letter of our faith. Mahsa’s death comes on the heels of intensified repressive state policies that have targeted women’s bodies with impunity.

    Our Statement of Solidarity is also available in Arabic: بيان مشترك للتضامن والدعوة للعمل ودعم السودانيين The Musawah movement, the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa and fellow human rights activists (NAGAAD Network – Somali and Somaliland and Islamic Relief Development Agency – South Sudan) are concerned about the escalating […]

We at the Musawah movement write in a rapidly changing context as the Taliban are on the cusp of seizing the city of Kabul. We stand in solidarity with our sisters, partners and advocates in Afghanistan. We are horrified at the injustices and harm already experienced by the Afghan people, and even more so in the last few weeks. As a Muslim feminist organisation and a leader in the movement for gender justice and equality in the global Muslim community, we know too well the structural and entrenched barriers Afghan women and girls face to live a life free from violence and harm.
On International Day of Families 2021, the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law calls on UN member States to work with Generation Equality Forum Action Coalitions and civil society to accelerate their efforts to repeal or reform discriminatory family laws as soon as possible, and by no later than 2030. Discriminatory family laws are at the heart of women’s unequal status within the family, and underpin their unequal treatment in society.
Musawah, the global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family, submitted a statement to the 2021 United Nations Economic and Social Council High-level Segment (HLS) on the necessity to reform discriminatory Muslim family laws.
(كوالا لامبور) 15 مايو 2020- تُطلق حركة مساواة اليوم، حملتها الالكترونية، تحت عنوان، “حملة العدالة في قوانين الأسرة المسلمة”، للتأكيد على ضرورة تعديل القوانين التمييزية. فلقد كشف وباء الكورونا الحالي عن عدة جوانب في قوانين الأسرة المسلمة، تشكل تهديدًا لحقوق النساء، وأمنهن، وظروفهن المعيشية؛ مؤكدًا أن المساواة داخل الأسرة، جزء لا يتجزأ من المساواة في المجتمع ككل.
Today Musawah launched online its flagship Campaign for Justice in Muslim Family Laws to build momentum and support for the urgent necessity to reform discriminatory Muslim family laws. The global coronavirus pandemic has exposed the ways that discriminatory Muslim family laws exacerbate threats to women’s rights, safety and living conditions, underscoring that equality in the family is inextricable from equality in society.
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of CEDAW, Musawah Executive Director Zainah Anwar shared the following statement.
Musawah’s Executive Director Zainah Anwar today received the United Nations Malaysia Award 2019 for her contributions to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms category.

Musawah and our Advocates in the News

 

الشروق: كورونا تنادى بالسهل الممتنع: إصلاح قوانين الأسرة فى العالم العربى

(May 2020, Egypt) MENA Regional Expert Dr. Marwa Sharafeldin explains how the COVID-19 crisis is exacerbating the negative impacts that women in the MENA region already face under discriminatory family laws.

Sister-hood: For Muslim women, equality means reforming family laws (May 2020, Global)
Executive Director Zainah Anwar writes an op-ed to launch the Campaign for Justice on International Day of Families.

ARTE: “L’islam au féminin” (March 2020, France)
Knowledge Building Coordinator Sarah Marsso was featured in a documentary produced on Islam and Muslim women, available in German and in French.

KiniTV: “Seeking equality for women in Islam” (February 2020, Malaysia)

ABC Radio National: “What it’s like to be in a polygamous marriage? Muslim Malaysians share their stories” (February 2020, Australia)

Daily Mirror: MMDA Repeal Empowering Muslim Women or Endangering them? (February 2020, Sri Lanka)
Featuring Hyshyama Hamin, campaign coordinator of Musawah and founder of MPLRAG.

Sister-hood: “We can be Muslim and feminist!” (January 2020, Global)
Profile on Zainah Anwar, executive director of Musawah and recipient of the United Nations Malaysia Award 2019.

De Groene Amsterdammer: “De laatste stuiptrekkingen van het patriarchaat”/”The last convulsions of patriarchy” (January 2020, Netherlands)
Article in Dutch with Hala al-Karib, regional director for SIHA Network and member of Musawah’s board of directors.

Agenda Magasin: Islamsk feminisme i praksis (December 2019, Netherlands)
Mentions for Musawah ED Zainah Anwar and resource person/scholar Dr. amina wadud, as well as Sisters in Islam in Malaysia.

The Star: Sharing the Nation column: Between dogma and reality (November 2019, Malaysia)
Zainah Anwar’s column.

Morocco World News: Female Genital Mutilation Hijacks Religion to Subjugate Girls (October 2019, Morocco)

Time: Roya Rahmani (November 2019, USA)
Roya Rahmani, Afghanistan’s first woman ambassador to the US and a Sisters in Islam course alum, is recognised on the #TIME100Next list.

The Daily Vox: Talking Islamic Social Justice With ‘Lady Imam’ Amina Wadud (September 2019, South Africa)
Musawah resource person Dr. amina wadud on on the historic khutbah she delivered 25 years ago before a mixed congregation in Cape Town.

The University of Cape Town News: “‘Lady Imam’ on 25 years of the Gender Jihad” (August 2019, South Africa)
Musawah resource person Dr. amina wadud on on the historic khutbah she delivered 25 years ago before a mixed congregation in Cape Town.