For Muslim women’s rights

When the young Lebanese Azizah al-Hibri told her folks and their friends that she wanted to take up law, they laughed. The accepted course for women in Lebanon at the time was medicine. She went to the American University of Beirut for a bachelor of arts degree, then to the University of Pennsylvania for a doctorate in philosophy – where she later pursued her dream of becoming a lawyer. A good lawyer she turned out.

She became the first Muslim woman law professor in the United States, written extensively on women’s issues, democracy, and human rights from an Islamic perspective. She received the Virginia First Freedom Award from the Council for America’s First Freedom, and the Dr. Betty Shabazz Recognition Award from Women in Islam, and the Distinguished Educator Award from the University of Richmond.

On invitation from the United States embassy in Manila, former Sen. Ed Angara, Carol Araullo of Business World, a Malaya writer and this columnist felt Dr. Azizah al-Hibri’s commitment to make Muslim women aware of their rights. In 1993, she founded Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, whose goal is to advance Muslim women’s knowledge of their rights and to empower them toward greater participation in their civil societies and the global community.

Karamah means “dignity” in Arabic. As literature about it says, the name is taken from the Qur’anic verse 17:70 which gives “dignity to the Children of Adam.” The verse “does not differentiate between male and female, and establishes the fact that human dignity is bestowed upon all human beings by God, regardless of gender.”

Dr. al-Hibri, a personable, smartly dressed woman, told me Karamah has helped in enlightening Muslim women in the US and other countries on their rights.

Putting her hands together, she said imams (Muslim religious leaders) “listen” to her, they’re respectful of me.’’

On relations between Muslims and Christians, she said, “In the US, we’re not just talking of cooperation, we work together, Christians support our building of mosques, and Muslims rebuilt synagogues.”

She mentioned gains in women’s rights, such as the Morocco law protecting the right of women to own properties, and Egypt’s liberalized position on divorce.

While it is true Muslim men can have four wives, the “more pious people marry only one wife.”

On US President Trump’s banning of immigrants to the US, this affects women and children “who run away from places of violence.”

She said things can be improved in Marawi which she found, during an earlier first visit, to be underdeveloped, lacking in hospitals and schools.

As to the ISIS, she said, “They are not doing what Islam is teaching. They should not be killing life, they should save life, they should save humanity.”

“The real problem is that people don’t really understand Islamic law. In the Philippines, many people do not read the Koran, they do not understand the translations.”

Dr. al-Hibri said some headway is being felt in understanding Muslim women’s rights. Karamah’s alumnae who become educators and advocates will “collectively build a global community rooted in respect.”

Karamah’s law and leadership summer programs (LLSP) bring together a select groups of Muslim women from around the world to study and to learn from each other. What brought Dr. al-Hibri to Manila was a recent institute on Law, Leadership, and Conflict Resolution in the Philippines which was held at the Miriam College in Quezon City in partnership with the US Department of State and Miriam College’s Women and Gender Institute. Participants came from different Asian countries, and speakers were scholars from different areas, from the foundations of Islam, to Islam and democracy/constitutional law (conducted by Dr. al-Hibri) to conflict resolution.

Too bad we were not invited to attend the sessions which would have given us journalists what we should know about Islam.

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To celebrate women’s month, women’s rights advocate Ruby Palma conceptualized and organized a poetry event in honor of women artists. Soroptimists of Quezon City, QC Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte and some councilors sponsored the poets’ and readers’ dinner plates at the Fayrouz restaurant on 45 Maginhawa street, Quezon City.

Most of the readers read Ruby’s original poems from her collection “Quintessence of Dust,” Vol. 1. Poets who read their original poems were Inday Ofreneo, Dr. Guy Claudio, Amor Manlangit, Fely de la Cruz , Cnawe Miclat who read poems of her sister Maningning Miclat and rendered a song version of them.

Other readers were Gen. Yoly Tanigue, Dr. Amar Torres, Tess Parian, Emily Duterte, Dr. Estrella Merce, Emerald “Peewee” Palma Ohara, a movie and stage actress, and Phoebe Almazan, president of Art Van,  read her original poem. Bezalie Uy-Kung of New Day Publishers read her original poem. I read a poem I wrote when I was seven years old, and Myrna Pena Reyes Sweet’s “Ruth Was Not Penelope,” a poem lifted from her third collection of poetry titled “The River Shining Stone.” Her two other collections are “Almost Home” and “Memory’s Mercy.”

The Soroptimists who hosted the readers’ and poets’ dinner plates were Dr. Carmen Benito-Soengco, director,  Soroptimist Int’l of the Philippines, Region Metro Manila, Northwest District; president Donna Jialo, Soroptimist Intl of QC,  Soc Yap, Emily Duterte, Cathy Villacastin, Valerie Millan, Julie Datomanong-Santos, Chit de la Cruz, Thelma Ortiz, and Chit Tapales.

The event, called “A different kind of flavor – an evening of poetry and Lebanese cuisine,” served like a debut for Fayrouz House of Kebab, a small restaurant on 45 Maginhawa, UP Village, QC.

Lebanese chef Moe Shehadi and his wife Moniqe O’Hara own and run the place. The cuisine is authentic Lebanese. I love the hummus, shish taok, chicken and beef shawarma, and the Tower of Babel (Fayrouz’s specialty), charcoal-grilled minced beef with onions, saffron and turmeric.

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