WFWP-NL(Utrecht) members visit De Bilt CDA women's group on International Women’s Day, March 8.

On March 8, International Women’s day, our WFWP-Utrecht board members Nobuko Bruins, Evelien Verbiest and Sunnie van der Stok, attended a meeting of the women’s group of the De Bilt CDA party, in the town "Buurt Huis". About 100 women, most of them Muslim or Christian, gathered to hear a talk on "Development of Moslem Women in the Moslem religion and in Dutch society in this time", given by the chairlady of the Dutch Muslims women’s organization "AL NISA".

We were told that 1400 years ago, in Saudi Arabia, before the advent of the Prophet, women had almost no position. After Mohammed, a women was considered as equal to man. In the Koran, it is written that a woman has the right to choose the clothes she likes to wear and to decide herself about her partner. That time was better than now.

 400 years later something went wrong.. During the last 1000 years , the position of women has diminished. Even in the Netherlands, the Moslem women’s position is very low.

Many Moslem women cannot read and write because they did not receive  education. They don’t have a job and are economically dependent on their husbands. The speaker has been working for three years on a project to stop violence against women in the family..

After the talk, there was much discussion, particularly about Hiyoshi Ari, who is a politician and made the film "Submission" which is highly critical of Islam. She aims to show how, in the Moslem religion, women are treated as if they have less value than men. But so far, her ambition to empower Moslem women actually brought more damage than benefit for Moslem believers. This is more a cultural, not a religious problem.

Every Moslem nation has different background and different culture problems, which have nothing to do with the Moslem religion. She explained that in the Koran, there are only five points of instruction about Moslem woman’s clothing but more than 30 for Moslem men.

Through the many experiences of Moslem women, they should have more courage to speak out and expose their problems to others. They have to try to solve their own problem by themselves, but hey are not used to do in this: most of them have to stay at home and are not allowed to go out alone.

One Christian lady said, "We have to consider how to practice religious teachings in this time, we live different lifestyle than the time the religious book was written. The way people wear clothes now is different to the past. In the Middle Ages, Christian women had to wear clothing similar to Moslem woman but now it is very different. You look like a Catholic nun."

The atmosphere was very nice, everybody open to everyone else and able to talk freely. We gave them WFWP pamphlets and invited them for the Seminar on 19 March in Utrecht. Some of them promised to come.

Reported by Nobuko Bruins

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