Chained Women

From the Jewish Daily Forward:

Purim is a holiday that is about women’s power, in its different forms. Thinking about the roles of Queen Vashti and her successor Queen Esther in the Purim story highlights some of the dilemmas that women have faced throughout history. I therefore think it’s particularly apt that Ta’anit Esther is International Agunah Day, the day the marks the harrowing struggle of “chained women,” or women denied divorce.

Vashti and Esther were both married to a man, the same man, for whom women were objects to be adorned and used. This was arguably the prevailing culture at the time, but there are also gradations in the exploitation of women.

Women face the insider/outsider dilemma all the time. Should we work hard and sacrifice our integrity (and money) to meet social expectations of female beauty in order to reap the significant social rewards of beauty and sexuality, or should we challenge the system, refuse to turn ourselves into seductresses, and force the world to deal with “real women,” as we are?

In Judaism the insider/outsider dilemma is faced in the most harrowing way by agunot, women who cannot get a Jewish divorce because the system relies on male volition. To stay in the Jewish legal system, agunot give up right to live independently, or to give birth to a Jew, or to be free. They can be free at any moment, but that would entail giving up their status within the Jewish legal system.

The Family, Koseki, and the Individual

From the Asia-Pacific Journal - Japan Focus:

On 14 February, Kayama Emi and Watanabe Tsuguo filed an administrative appeal to have the rejection of their marriage application by Arakawa Ward, Tokyo rescinded.1 Ms. Kayama wanted to keep her surname after marriage, as did Mr. Watanabe. The court rejected the appeal after only ten days without hearing arguments. “I’ve never had a gate closed in my face so quickly,” said Ms. Kayama.

They are now demanding damages on the basis of sexual discrimination, a case that is expected to take two years in the Tokyo High Court. Their appeal is based on Article 24 of the Constitution, which guarantees gender equality and respect of individual rights in marriage, and Article 13, which guarantees the right to pursue personal happiness. In contrast, current law requiring married couples to have a single surname, either the husband or wife’s, is based solely on an “agreement” (goi) between the parties involved.

It is not only women in the workplace who are inconvenienced by misunderstandings around names. Men wanting to adopt their wife’s name also run into barriers, whether due to confusion involving names at the workplace, to opposition from the husband’s family if he is the oldest son inheriting property and tasked with carrying on the family name, or to social prejudice and jabs about being “adopted” by the wife’s family.

China: New Laws For Aggrieved Wives

From Today Online:

Sallying forth into the ancient battleground of extramarital affairs, China's top court appears poised to side with wronged wives against philandering husbands and greedy mistresses.

Under a draft interpretation of China's marriage law, expected to be issued in coming weeks, mistresses would not be allowed to sue their married lovers for reneging on promises of money, property or goods, said legal experts.

Nor would wayward husbands be allowed to seek the courts' help in retrieving money or goods that they bestowed upon mistresses. But wives could sue to recover money or property that ended up in the hands of a mistress.

The Supreme People's Court decided to clarify the marriage law after a spate of lawsuits over the exchange of goods, money or property during extramarital affairs, Mr Yang Xiaoxin, a marriage law specialist in Beijing, said.

Treason Against the Queen

From the Perogatives of a Queen Consort of England:

Of Its Being Treason To Plot Against Her - Compassing or imaging the Death of our Lady Queen, violating the King's Companion, is Treason.

The following article pertains to the curious case of Anne Boleyn:

Divorced Muslim Women on the March

From the Times of India:

The Muslim women are beginning to demur with patriarchal notions of bias and control. At least this much was evident when 100-odd angry women marched down the congested alleys of old city here, waving placards and shouting slogans. It was a sight none must have ever seen before.

The 1.5-km walk in this uber conservative neighbourhood ended at the residence of Abdees' and marital home of Hina and Arshi, the two among three women who had roughed up some maulvis of the Shariat court in June for issuing ex-parte talaqnama. Amid tight security and after much drama, the two muscled their way in, leaving their morose looking in-laws with no option but to watch them in silence. The fierce army of chaperones then left, promising to keep in touch.

"The incident proves that Muslim women have had enough of mullah interference,"declared state convener of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan Naaz Raza, who led the march. This could just be the beginning, warned her colleague Naish Hasan. The feisty lady spells big trouble for the maulvis with her outspokenness. This year has seen at least a dozen anti-women fatwas from Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband. Women are forbidden to ride bicycles, join public office without hijab, talk loudly, join judiciary or even talk to their fiance before marriage. And now they have one question, said Naish, "Just why not?''

"When a woman puts a 'daliya' (wicker basket) on her head and carries bricks, no mullah advises her not to work beside men. But the moment she dons a stethoscope or a black coat, there are restrictions galore,"complained Shahnaz Begum.

The semi-literate chikan worker from Bansmandi says, "Maulvis are scared they may lose their importance once women begin to exercise their brains. And each issue, from condoning triple talaq to pronouncing anti-woman fatwa, only shows their insecurity."

Women Attack Maulvis For Issuing Talaqnama

From the Times of India:

For a woman who had taken law into her hands an hour ago, Nishat Fatima looked unrepentant and happy. Nishat along with two other women had barged into Sultanul Madaris, a Shariat court in old Lucknow, on Tuesday to ‘teach wayward maulanas a lesson of their lives’. Their grouse, the maulvis — Maulana Moosa Rizvi, Maulana Asghar and Maulana Sadiq — were bribed by their husbands for issuing a one-sided divorce decree. "Beating up these guys was such a relief I just can’t tell (...dil ko kitna sukoon mila hai in logon ko peet kar... bataa nahin sakti hoon)," Nishat told TOI.

Egypt: Divorce Radio

From the Christian Science Monitor:

Mahasen Saber spent more than three years in the Egyptian court system trying to divorce her husband. In the lonely and often confusing process, she met many women in similar circumstances who relied on each other for moral support. But their battles didn’t end in court – what followed were stares and whispers.

Four months ago, Ms. Saber started “Divorce Radio,” an Internet-based station that seeks to reverse popular conceptions of divorced women and create a supportive community. Her initiative is part of a broader push in Egypt’s conservative Muslim society to challenge social stigma attached to divorced women.

“Here in Egyptian society, the woman is looked upon at as if she is the one who made a big mistake getting a divorce from her husband. She’s always at fault,” says Saber, whose station is an extension of her popular blog, which has made her something of an icon in Egyptian media. “I want Arab society to respect women who are divorced.”

Bahrain: Women & Divorce

From Gulf Daily News:

A CAMPAIGN is being stepped up to ensure that women in Bahrain emerge from divorce with alimony, rightful custody of their children and a roof over their heads.

A Bahrain society is calling for law reforms and practical strategies to ensure divorced women their rights, without agonising court battles.

Bahrain Women's Association for Human Development wants legislation and society to reflect the Quranic concept of divorce, which states a wife either be returned to her husband or "released (divorced) in kindness".

It says that far from being "released in kindness", many women suffer long court battles trying to secure custody, alimony and a place to live.

"Cases of divorce are increasing in courts and women suffer because they have to go to the court and it takes a long time to be resolved and they might not have money or a home," association board member Ebtisam Zaid told the GDN.

"They are not doing what the Quran says. It says let her return to her husband or be released in kindness, but a lot of women suffer.

No, Sex & No Soap Operas Equals Divorce

From the Siasat Daily:

An Indian woman has successfully divorced her husband after he declined to have sex, spat on her and refused her permission to watch television soap operas.

A court in the southern city of Pune heard that the situation led to daily arguments and that the woman felt she had no other option but to file for divorce. Judge MG Kulkarni ruled that the husband's behaviour amounted to cruelty.

"From February 2005, the husband started picking up quarrels with the wife almost every day on the ground that she was seeing Hindi serials on TV channels," he said. "The husband was not allowing the wife to see programmes on TV as per her choice." As in many other parts of the world, soap operas have a huge following in India, especially among women and domestic servants. The court heard that the couple, who had been married for eight years and had a daughter, began fighting in 2005 as a result of their differences.

The divorce was granted in August but details only emerged this week when the husband appealed in the Bombay High Court against the judgment, which had also granted custody of their daughter to the wife. Lawyers for the husband, a software engineer, argued that the woman's claims of cruelty were false and that his treatment amounted to no more than the normal "wear and tear" of married life. The judges, due back in court next week, urged the couple to seek conciliation.

Oman: Fund For Divorced Women

From the Khaleej Times:

A national seminar, in which Oman’s key policymakers actively participated, has called for setting up a fund to pay alimony to women divorced by their husbands.

The ‘Symposium on Women’, which ended on Monday in Sohar, also made a plea to set up marriage guidance centres for women and pave the way for women to become judges.

The conference, the first of its kind in the country and organised on orders from His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, underlined the need to clarify laws governing women and the family to avoid misinterpretation.

The delegates decided to mark October 17, the day on which the three-day symposium opened, as ‘Omani Women’s Day’ every year.

A communiqué issued after the three-day event urged the authorities to promulgate a law setting up a ‘Livelihood Fund’ for women that must also clearly state their rights and that of their children in the event of a divorce.

“The divorce should not negatively impact their living conditions and health and the education of their children. This will avoid the full burden of the divorce falling on the mother alone,” it pointed out.

Causa Anglica

From Richard Owen @ Times Online:

A facsimile of an historic document from the Vatican Secret Archives in which English peers appeal to Pope Clement VII to annul Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon is to be given to the Queen tomorrow.

The 95 x 46cm (37 x 18in) parchment, which dates from 1530 and bears 81 red wax seals, is a key document of events leading to the schism between Rome and the Church in England.

Vatican historians say that whatever the later causes of the schism, the “most immediate and determining cause” was Henry VIII’s “wish to get rid of his legitimate wife, Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, in order to marry Anne Boleyn.”

But Marco Maiorino, a Vatican historian of papal diplomacy, said the King’s other motive was to ensure succession, since Catherine, of whose six children only Mary Tudor survived, had failed to provide a male heir.

Caroline Norton

(1808-1877)
Reformer for Married Women in Britain

Caroline married George Norton (1827), a parasite who depended on her income and political connections for his own advancement. George sued the British Prime Minister Lord Melbourne (1836) for seducing her after Caroline had sought Melbourne's aid in having George made a judge. The action went against George Norton, who then did all in his power to see that the existing marriage laws in Britain were fully implemented to Caroline's disadvantage.

Caroline discovered that any money or property she possessed or acquired before or during her marriage, was her husbands. And that after the break-up of the marriage, every penny that she earned to keep herself could, by law, be taken from her by her husband. Also, by law, she could never enter into contracts in her own right nor sue anyone. And finally, by law, her husband could take her children and never allow her access to them. That spurred her into action.

Caroline met and collaborated with Mr Telfourd, MP (1837), who had already decided to introduce the Infant's Custody Bill. Together they decided to pursue the Bill further. The Bill reached the House of Lords (highest level of the British parliament) - and there it stayed (1838). Caroline wrote a pamphlet "A plain letter to the Lord Chancellor" under the name "Pierce Stevenson", hoping that under a male persona the letter would carry more weight. The pamphlet was delivered to every MP and Peer (from the House of Lords) and actually received favourable reaction. The Bill was passed (1839). It laid down that a judge might make an order allowing a mother, against whom adultery was not proven, to have custody of her children under the age of 7yo and for access to older children - the Act was amended (1925) to give full equal guardianship.

Then husband George stopped Caroline's allowance (1855). Caroline took up the fight for the Marriage and Divorce Act - it was passed (1857), despite strong opposition from Mr Gladstone. Caroline's pamphlets and work behind the scenes in support of the amendments were of fundamental importance. The amendments included:- the protection of the deserted wife from her husband's claims upon her earnings, the payment of a maintenance allowance, permitting the divorced or seperated wife to inherit or bequeath property acquired after seperation (but not during marriage), and the ability of the woman to enter into contracts in her own right and to give her the power to sue, or be sued. Divorcees could now legally remarry, and the wife might now be entitled to custody of the children and a maintenance allowance. But despite all this, only men could sue for divorce on the grounds of adultery.

Throughout her life, Caroline wrote books, articles, pamphlets, poetry and songs, and four novels. In the final two years of her life, Caroline did enter into a happy marriage.

Iran: Women and Divorce

From Tehran Times:

A new research conducted by Shahid Beheshti University showed that 80% of petitions for divorce were filed by women in the first five years of marriage.

Head of the research group, Majid Abhari blamed women’s power of attorney in divorce as the main reason behind such a great rate of petitions filed by women.

According to the research, unemployment, poverty, addiction, and consequently lack of mutual understanding are the biggest cause of discords in marriage.

There was a rise of 11% in the country’s divorce rate, compared with the last year.

Bride Attains Divorce

Not an unusual occurrence I hear you say. Possibly not, but when the groom is a 50yo man and the bride and 8yo girl, then this is a noteworthy event.

From the Weekend Australian:

An eight-year-old girl in Saudi Arabia has won a divorce from her 50-year-old husband at the third attempt.

The girl, who has not been named and who has been living with her mother in the city of Onaiza, was given to the older man in marriage by her father to pay off a debt. Neither the wife or the child was told the marriage had taken place.

A previous judge, Sheik Habib al-Habib, refused twice to annul the marriage but said he would look again at the case when the child reached puberty. He also imposed a condition that the marriage should not be consummated until the girl reached puberty.

The case has reopened the debate in Saudi Arabia on whether a minimum age for marriage should be introduced.

Human rights groups in Saudi Arabia and abroad have condemned the practice of child marriages. The divorce rate in Saudi Arabia has risen from 25 percent to 60 percent in the past two decades.

Divorce: New Study

From the Times of India:
"It seems the popular belief that men get fleeced by their divorces while women get richer is a myth, for a new study has revealed that male incomes rise by a third after a marital split their while females face financial hardships. Researchers in Britain have found that divorce makes men significantly richer because their available incomes rise by around one third, while the average woman’s income falls by more than a fifth and can remain low for many years.

When a man leaves a childless marriage, his income immediately rises by 25%, while women suffer a sharp fall in income — in fact, separated women have a poverty rate of 27%."

Child Marriages - Part II

Further to another post - Child Marriages -

From The Australian:
"A SAUDI court will next month hear a plea for divorce from an eight-year-old girl married off by her father to a man in his fifties, the Arabic-language daily Al-Watan reported today.

It said the girl's mother had filed the divorce case with the court at Unayzah 220km north of Riyadh, and cited lawyer Abdullah Jtili as saying the father had arranged the marriage without telling the girl.

But the daily also reported that the husband had refused to renounce the marriage, saying that he had not done anything illegal.

Arranged marriages involving pre-adolescents are occasionally reported in the Arabian Peninsula, including in the ultra-conservative Saudi kingdom where the strict conservative Wahabi version of Sunni Islam holds sway and polygamy is common.

In Yemen in April, another girl aged eight was granted a divorce after her unemployed father forced her to marry a man of 28."

From Sun Star:
"They have been widely denounced by activists, clerics and others who say such unions are harmful to the children and trivialize the institution of marriage.

Saudi Arabia is already rocked by a high divorce rate that has jumped from 25 percent to 60 percent over the past 20 years, according to Noura al-Shamlan, head of the research department at the Center of University Studies for Girls."

From Arab News:
"THE grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, in recent press statements, has rightly warned parents against marrying their young daughters to men who are older than them by 50 and 60 years or more. He described such practices as an indication of lack of conscience on the part of the parents. He also said such marriages will not protect the chastity of the girls and may drive them toward sinful acts. The mufti stressed that the young girl will be living in agony while her parents enjoy the comforts her dowry can buy them.

WE have heard about a father who married his 10-year-old girl to a man in his 70s for a dowry of SR150,000. The Human Rights Commission (HRC) intervened and delayed the marriage for five years. Just imagine the situation of a desperate child considered to be a married woman and the old man demanding his conjugal rights. This will definitely rob the girl of her innocence. When the consummation of marriage takes place five years later, she will be just 15 while her husband will be in his 80s! Fathers like these consider their daughters to be slaves selling them to the highest bidder. Or they compel them to marry their relatives or men from their tribe.

The grand mufti has clearly stated his position on these types of marriages. What remains now is the cooperation of all concerned agencies to put a halt to such abuses. As most of the cases take place in remote villages where there is poverty and illiteracy, we need to launch a campaign to make people aware of the social and moral implications of such marriages. The mother should not hesitate to inform the police if the father insists on marrying his child to an old man. The officials who write the marriage contracts should alert the HRC to such practices so that they step in to stop it in time. It will be good if we decide a certain age for marriage."

And again, from Arab News:
"The Saudi Human Rights Commission (HRC) has called on government agencies to take necessary steps to end the practice of child marriages by adopting a clear and unambiguous position on such weddings.

The condemnation comes in the wake of several cases across the Kingdom in which young girls have been married to elderly men, mainly for monetary reasons such as the settlement of debts or to receive generous dowries.

“Such marriages violate human rights by depriving a girl of her childhood,” said Turki Al-Sudairy, president of the Human Rights Commission. He added that such weddings are prohibited by a number of international conventions and by reputed global organizations concerned with children’s rights.

Dr. Ayman Abu Laban, UNICEF representative in the Gulf, said his organization strongly discourages child marriages, which inflict serious psychological and physical risks on young girls."

Arab News Editorial - Girls as Commodities