International Female Conference in Kiev: Muslim Women Should Be Active Members of Society

On Saturday, March, 31st, 2012, in Kiev, in the conference hall of the business center "Inkom" took place the international conference "Crystal of female soul". In the conference participated not only representatives of different regions of Ukraine, but also the ambassador of Indonesia in Ukraine, Madam Nining Suningsih Rochadiat, representatives of Arabian Diasporas and visitors from Turkey and Moldova. The conference was organized by the AUASO "Alraid" and the all-Ukraine Female Organization "Маryam".

Having left small children on care of tutors in the mosque of the Islamic cultural center, the participants aspired to solve the vital issue in common: what is the role of a modern Muslim woman in the society?

In this respect there are extreme opinions: someone considers that home is a prison for a woman and she should plunge into career and public life entirely; someone, on the contrary, prefes roles of preserver of home hearth and in this connection refuses even from education.

But is it that very way which was specified by the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him? How to balance public and home life, as much as possible to observe interests of a woman and her family and to provide her not only with open space for realization of her ambitions, but also peace of mind and support? Answers to these questions can be found in the example of the last Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, and his associates, especially women.

During the action the reports shining prominent aspects of life of each woman were presented: spiritual and personal growth, peace of mind, physical health and hygiene, acquisition of knowledge and professional skills, psychological literacy and, certainly, maintenance of healthy atmosphere at home and education of children.

As the student of the NTUU "KPI", Ekaterina Sapryga, emphasized in her report that nowadays a lot is told about women's rights; however, it is quite often forgotten that God created a man and a woman deputies on the Earth and divided between them not only rights, but also duties and responsibilities. Men and women can reach harmonious and happy life only in cooperation with each other, complementing each other in various spheres of life.

The reasons of misunderstanding of the role of a woman between the Islamic world and the Western civilization were analyzed, too: after all for the Western researchers, studying "women's issue" in the Islamic world is frequently characteristic prejudiced approach which is based on the critical relation to Islam and cultural traditions of the people professing it.

Special interest was caused by Lydia Fryndak's report who spoke about the Muslim women who achieved world recognition in science, business, economy and administrative sphere — after all one may hear about it very rarely. For many it was a surprise to know about female Saudi officials, British Muslim female judges, a Muslim woman-Nobel prize winner. All of them live and work in the countries which traditionally are considered closed and leveling sociopolitical role of the woman. Many present were surprised to know that in the 7th century when in the majority of cultures the woman was actually deprived of civil rights, Caliph Umar ibn-al Khattab appointed a woman as trade manager, Ash-Shifa bint Abdullah Al-Adawiya, and she disposed of finance of the whole Caliphate.

The conference found a lively response in hearts of the participants. The guests from Moldova consider the invitation to this action very important for them. In Moldova, Islam received the status of officially recognized religion less than a year ago, and experience of participation in the conference of such level gives the chance to expand knowledge of Moldavian Muslim women and to show them example of adjustment of educational work among women in their homeland.

Tanzila Issa from Donetsk after the performance shared that she was very impressed by work of organizers and the atmosphere created by them which simultaneously adjusted on ease and work.

Unequivocal advantage is good interaction with the audience: even in reports on very familiar topics the lecturers, apparently, could find keys to hearts of the listeners and to represent the material in interesting and informative way. There was no place to boredom, yawns, phone conversations and impatient glancing on watches — the participants spent their time in interesting and useful way.

Staff reporter