A Word From Our Founder
Dear LLSP alumnae,
It was nearly twenty-five years ago, in September of 1995, that the 4th UN conference on Women was held in Beijing, while its parallel NGO Forum was convened in Huairou, China.
KARAMAH attended the NGO Forum and presented a workshop there with the Muslim Women’s League (of California). The workshop was entitled “Challenges and Opportunities Facing American Muslim Women.” I also wrote for distribution at the conference a paper entitled “An Introduction to Muslim Women’s Rights.”
KARAMAH held a meeting with the other Muslim women at Huairou. It became clear that we all suffered from similar problems and had similar issues. The women loved our gender-equitable ideas and took many copies of our article.
KARAMAH also issued a press release that raised concerns about the Western women’s movement stereotyping Muslim women as passive and oppressed. We rejected this stereotype and spoke in a clear voice about what is important to Muslim women.
Since the days of the Beijing Conference, Muslim women have made impressive accomplishments. We at KARAMAH would like to believe that our annual LLSP and our national and international activities have made a difference.
Wassalam,
Dr. Azizah al-Hibri, PhD, JD
