The role of Muslim woman in public life of Ukraine: results of the international seminar in Kuwait

The training seminar “The role of woman in public and charitable activities” was held in Kuwait from 16 till 18 September 2012.  Apart from representatives of Arab countries, activists and researchers from Europe, Africa, South East Asia and the U.S. came to discuss vital issues and problems in the field. Ukraine was represented by Mrs. Olga Fryndak, head of the public relations department at the AAPO “Alraid”, and Mrs. Susanna Islamova, chairman of the Public Organization “Mariyam”.

The event organizer was the International Islamic Charitable Organization which central office is located in Kuwait. All the participants were given certificates before closing of the official program.

Mrs. Olga Fryndak, head of the “Alraid’ public relations department, made the report about experiences of women activists from “Alraid”. While active standing of a woman is welcome in the Ukrainian society, Muslim women nevertheless face problems common for this region. For example, average rate of earnings in Ukraine cannot allow each man to take on the family support; also, many women adopt Islam irrespective of getting married, and they have to support themselves, not to mention material help for parents or other relatives, which they often have to provide.

Women engage in Islamic call and volunteer projects in out-of-business time (the time not devoted to paid work). Also, because children from Muslim families go to conventional kindergartens and afterwards to conventional schools, their parents have to provide for their Islamic education on their own, which requires spending twice as much time for children than what is usually needed in Muslims families.  

It often occurs that mosques or Islamic centers have neither a playground nor a possibility to leave children cared until mother engages in a public project. So, children are watched either by mother herself or by “mutual help” principle.

There’s another problem: the legal rules do not contain clear permission to make photo for documents in a head cover that does not cover face oval and features, for women whose religious feelings do not allow them to appear before strange people (in public) with uncovered head. Therefore, women who had to glue the photo without head cover into the passport, avoid activities where this identification document has to be shown to strange people quite often, which erects an artificial barrier for Muslim women’s activity in the Ukrainian society.

The issue of woman’s role in public and charitable activities was articulated at a seminar held by the Organization in spring 2012. It was decided to pick together representatives of Muslim public organizations, female researchers and female staff of Muslim charitable foundations, to discuss the issue from concrete and systemic perspective. The training seminar on September 2012 was organized in this way, allowing for discussing an elaborating various aspects of women’s participation in public and charitable work.

Related issues raising concern from Muslim public were articulated, and their discussion and solution mechanism was elaborated in course of the seminar preparation.

At the end of the seminar, the organizers cared to collect all the problems and issues outlined in it, and asked the participants to write down their ideas and wishes. They will be sorted by category, for further detailed consideration. Inquiries will be sent to scholars for explication of various provisions of Shariah, dealing with public work of women; appeals to organizations and official offices in various countries will be prepared; country (region) -specific recommendations for participants from various countries will be made.

Discussion of results of the organizing committee’s action on the September training seminar is expected at the next analogous event.

reporter.