Ghada Jamsheer is on TIME!
14 May, 2006 
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Ghada Jamsheer: Activist
“We have to have equal rights for women in the Arab world”By SCOTT MACLEOD
Sunday, May. 14, 2006
Five years ago, Ghada Jamsheer was at the courts in Bahrain when she saw a woman sobbing and banging her head on the ground; applying Islamic law, a judge had just denied her custody of her children in a divorce case. Horrified, Jamsheer, herself a divorcée with custody of her daughter, launched a campaign for women’s rights in the gulf. She founded and leads the Women’s Petition Committee, a grassroots organization that is waging a bold campaign against Bahrain’s Shari’a court system. With no staff, financial support or training in law or religion but enough guts to make an Emir tremble, she has meticulously sought out hundreds of women denied justice and compiled their stories.To publicize their plight, she has arranged noisy protests, spoken out in Arab media, and complained to local and international leaders. Among the wrongs she seeks to fix: systematic bias against women in divorce cases, a husband’s right to custody of children from age 7, and customs allowing “temporary marriages” that amount to prostitution and abuse of young girls. Jamsheer wants to remove Shari’a judges who abuse their power to interpret the Koran as they wish, and eventually have civil courts replace the Shari’a system.
Her committee avoids opening a formal office, she says, so that Islamic fundamentalists “don’t burn it down.” “We have to have equal rights for women in the Arab world,” she told Time. “I know it is a dream, but we will have it someday.”
From the May. 22, 2006 issue of TIME Europe magazine
TIME
Well, I think she is the first Bahraini ever to make it to TIME Magazine, good on her! She’s got more spunk than the (majority) of Shari’a judges put together!
I dunno about that Mahmood, I’d have to do the scratch and sniff test on you – where do I go on this site to do that? Oh, but I forgot, I’m married so I’m not allowed. Never mind, better make my husband’s dinner in case he feels a teeny bit neglected and feels the need for another wife. I will read the above links though, thanks.
Mahmood, please stop using big words like prophylactics, I just asked my three boys “what …?”
Mmm. Red face. Mine.
That’s a lot of reading (oof!), I’m guessing that the word “mischief” comes from “Misyaf”.
i agree w/ two single adults entering into any type of marriage they like. if they want it just for sex, then more power to them. isn’t that for them to decide?! society makes it difficult in this part of the country to have casual relationships outside of marriage, so i get the point, and i agree w/ it. at first, i didn’t understand what was going on based on what Ms. Jamsheer said, but it’s obviously different than what she describes. i know or have heard that she had a tough time in court w/ her divorce, but it almost seems that her points or aggression goes beyond that and is of an even more personal nature.
even tho society frowns at couples being unmarried and running around, there are tons of ppl doing it but they hide it. i know older women (in their 50s and such) that are involved w/ different men, but they dont’ talk about it in social circles. other ppl talk about it, and that’s a shame. whose business is it really? but – i don’t think they’re doing the mut’a marriages and such!
just having a little fun… i think.
prostitution is different, yes, but…. if a girl is entering into one marriage contract after another just for money… isn’t it sorta the same in some regards? don’t you think it’s basically giving yourself away for sex? me, i was raised to believe that’s prostitution. now, if it’s only for sex w/ no money exchanged… then it’s not similar and if a wife goes into a marriage allowing her husband to have these, then that’s her business. but, i’m of the mindset that ‘what’s good for the goose is good for the gander’!
I’m not against polygamy, if a man wants to take four wives (in the proper sense) and treats them equally, all well and good. Four wives = Four Mother in Laws. There’s a sobering thought.
not me, i believe in monogamy. if you’re not happy, why not just leave the marriage. when i was teaching, i saw lots of families where there were multiple wives and, more often than not, the children in these families had issues. i think it’s disruptive to the whole family structure.
i have to say that i wonder if there aren’t a lot of men that do it, have multiple wives, for the sheer sake of being horny and wanting to have multiple sexual partners or because of boredom.
what if the woman gets bored… she’s not allowed to go out and marry several men (cuz goodness, she might get pregnant)… to me, it’s a load of crap and an excuse for men to do whatever they want….. many men can’t contain themselves and feel like they have to propagate the world!
so they do everything they can to make this happen. like there aren’t enough idiots on the streets already… these men should learn to keep it in their pants.
i think some men feel inferior so it’s their way of feeling more manly or masculine – the more women who want them, the better they are… but.. there are those women who are the same!
but sometimes i have silly thoughts!
the woman has no background and no training in the field shes persuing… all she has is her experience which is not good enough… she might have a point but wen u have a point to prove she has to at least study it first then make a valid point with facts… if u havent seen her interview on al arabiya i recomend u all watch it… she over generalizes, forces the world to accept her view and is a VERY rude and bad speaker! personaly i think she might have a reason for wat she does but until she cleans up her way of presenting and uses more diplomatic ways of speaking to the world, im not interested and so are many others…
I agree Hasan, that good presentation is more than half the battle.
She does sound rather abrasive; however, despite these factors, her case is strong because it is based on facts and logic and does not require a studious religious cleric to see, hear and feel the abuse that some women and their children receive.
A black eye is a black eye, a broken bone is a broken bone, regardless of your religious persuasion.
I am sure that you will agree with me as well regarding the fairness issue… so don’t discount the complete cause because its leader is abrasive and talks – not incorrectly – about ancient religious practices which have no place in this current world.
Even Islam believes in monogamy and advocates for it. It however allows polygamy to a limit. This is because, in a realistic point of view, men are the ones who tend to be unfaithful. It is better do it in the light, rather than doing it otherwise.
The issue is not only happening in the Islamic world. It is also happening in the west, and the rate of affairs is on the increase according to some statistics.
Having a legal bond “marriage” will not dismiss anyones rights.
Why not woman practice polygamy? I honestly wish that men don’t either. However, womans satisfaction involves a lot of facets, like motherhood etc.
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Loud, outspoken and emotional…Yes, she is all of the above. But she is the only woman fighting for women’s rights in Bahrain. I agree with Mahmood, I don’t think she is prejudiced against the Shia (she took 13 shia and 2 sunni women with her on her visit to the Houses of Parliament in the UK). She needs to become more eloquent, but she is demanding rights for the silent majority. Go Ghada, you are making a difference!