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IBN
RUSHD
Fund
for Freedom of Thought
Woman's
Emancipation in the Arabic World - Wishful
Thinking or a Realistic Perspective? This
Year's Ibn-Rushd-Prize for Freedom of Thought is Presented to Palestinian
Women's Rights Activist
The
Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought will be presented for the second
time on December 9, 2000. In the spirit of its namegiver, the philosopher
and scientist Ibn Rushd (1126 - 1198, also known as Averroes), the non-governmental
organization Ibn Rushd Fund for Freedom of Thought dedicates itself to
supporting the right to free speech and democracy in the Arab World. This
Year, the prize is awarded to a person who has rendered outstanding services
to women's rights in the Arab World. An independent jury, consisting of
five prominent Arab intellectuals, chose the Palestinian women's rights
activist Issam Abdulhadi to receive this year's award.
What
with all the pictures in the press and on TV showing only more or less
deeply veiled women portraying the oppression of women for Western eyes,
the struggle of those women for sovereignty is all too often ignored. A
special case is represented by the Palestinian women, who do not only fight
for sovereignty over their own life but also for sovereignty of their people.
For them, both the women's question and the national question are tied
together so closely that these two cannot be regarded separately. How much
so is shown by the seemingly hopeless situation between Palestine and Israel.
This situation influences, like so often, especially the lives of women,
whose way into a self-determined life is, if not barred by traditional
doctrines, finally barred by the politically caused limitation of freedom
of movement.
An
emancipation modelled on the Western example, as the women of the upper
classes in the Arab World from Iraq to Morocco lived it, seems incompatible
with one's own conservatively interpreted religious tradition, and customs
and demands made by society.
Consequently,
there is a great number of women's groups that try to win influence over
life in society today and in the future.
As
opposed to Western feminism, the struggle for the individual striving for
self-realization does not come first on the list of demands made by Palestinian
women's rights activists. The life of the woman in her family and their
well-being is always also very important. This mirrors the life of the
Palestinian woman as it is, and as it must be improved here and now: a
feminism of small steps that does not give priority to maximum demands.
One
of those "realistic feminists" is Issam
Abdulhadi, born in Nablus in 1928. She first took care of local social
problems, and wanted to change the current living conditions of Palestinian
women. As for all Palestinian women, the demand for national independence
always comes first in her struggle for equal rights. And so there they
appear, the maximum demands, since what is more obvious than demanding
the establishment of equal rights for women in the constitution of the
future Palestinian state? Abdulhadi presented these demands in 1988 as
president of the General Union of Palestinian Women.
Abdulhadi
always fought for changes to take place here and now - she organized countless
demonstrations and sit-ins, wrote letters of protest and made speeches.
All of these actions protested against the situation of Palestinian women
under Israeli occupation. Such consistency was bound to have serious consequences:
After being imprisoned for several months, she was expelled by Israel in
1969. Since then, she has been living in Jordan.
An
independent jury, consisting of five renowned Arab intellectuals (Hisham
Sharabi, University Georgetown, Washington; Farida an-Naqqash, journalist
and literary critic, Cairo; Ali Ahmed Attiga, secretary general of the
Arab Thought Forum, Amman; Sahar Khalifa, author, Amman; Nabeeha Loutfy,
director and film critic, Cairo) chose Issam Abdulhadi to receive this
year's Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought. Abdulhadi has known for
decades how to move on the minefield of demands of society and religious
rules and how to unite the various fractions of Palestinian women's rights
groups, and to always achieve the most possible for women. She will accept
the award personally on December 9, 2000 at 11:00 a.m. in the Literaturhaus
Fasanenstrasse in Berlin.
Further
information on the prize winner or jury
will be sent to you on request. Short
CVs of the individual members of the jury, as well as further information
on the Ibn Rushd Fund can also be obtained (see photo
of the prize winner). (Phone
#: +49 - 2962 - 5162, Mobile phone #: +49 - 160 30 61616 Fax #: +49 - 2962
- 802424, info@ibn-rushd.org)
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