Public Hearings 1995 and 1998

Prior to the establishment of the Court, and upon the initiative of the El-Taller organization, a group of Arab NGOs referred to as the Arab Women Court held a public hearing on June 29th and 30th 1995. At this hearing, 33 live testimonies of women coming from 14 different Arab countries were heard. The testimonies reported great pain and suffering and focused on the various types of social and legal crimes as well as the erroneously so-called "honor crimes".
During its first year of existence and building on the field experience of its members, the Women's Court: The Permanent Arab Court To Resist Violence Against Women realized the necessity of raising awareness on the personal status codes existing in the Arab counties in order to reveal to the public the injustice that these codes are inflicting on women. In fact, the personal status observed at both the legislative and applied levels in most Arab countries is one of the most important mechanisms for subjugating and oppressing women within the framework of gender social relations within the family. The Court decided to dedicate its second public hearing (held in Beirut, Lebanon on March 15th to 17th 1998) on these laws and to focus on four major issues: Marriage, Divorce, Custody and Alimony, and Inheritance.

Testimonies 1995

"…I do not recall the day of my excision, said  Fatima from Mauritania, but what has remained engraved in my memory is the agony and affliction I began to feel when I grew up and became aware of the horror inflected on my body . At the age of ten, I was taken to where a group of us, 8 to 10 years old, were awakened everyday at 5 a.m. and placed before jugs containing one liter of milk each. The exercise was to have each one of us drink, under tight control, between 30 and 40 liters of milk daily. If anyone of us threw up…she would be forced to drink the amount she had vomited. I shall never forget the case of a friend of mine who drank herself to death. Frightened by her death, I became more obedient and soon, grew into one of the fattest girls of the group.
By the following winter the second phase of the fattening process began…In our society, fat means beautiful and the purpose is to turn the young girl into a docile creature ready for the marriage imposed upon her.
The third and more damaging kind of violence was forced marriage; I was given to marriage to a man much older than me, a marriage which led to divorce leaving me with children that
I love ."


"My name is Souad, a survivor of Sabra and Shatila massacre in Palestinian camps, in 1982, when Israel invaded Beirut.
On Thursday, 17 September 1982 at 5 a.m., 13 soldiers backed by Israel, broke into our home. I was then sixteen. My youngest sister (hardly a year and a half old) was the first to die from a shot in her head, crying "mamma"…I was raped by three of them, one after the other…
They returned again the day after and sneered at me. As they heard words of depreciation I could not withhold, they shot me, point black, in the breast and head.
I did not die but fell unconscious and lost the ability to move until the third day, when I was shaken into consciousness by a voice from outside…My condition has not changed since the massacre. I became a cripple condemned to a wheelchair. I fear nothing and desire nothing than ultimate victory and the end of this painful drama."

Statement of Justice 1995

After listening to the live testimonies and careful review and deliberation, the panel of judges at the public hearing issued the following verdict:
The Tribunal condemns the cultural concepts, values and regimes which deny the humanity and rights of women.
The Tribunal believes that the unconditional joining by the Arab states to the international treaty to eliminate all kinds of discrimination against women, will strengthen the standing of the Arab women, preserve their rights, ensure equality, and help to eliminate the phenomena of violence.
The Tribunal notices that the majority of laws implemented in the Arab states fall short in achieving equality and justice for women and fail to conform with the principles of a democratic society.
The Tribunal believes that achieving justice requires wide range legal and procedural reforms including among others the personal status code, the laws organizing employment, citizenship, criminal law and social security.
The Tribunal considers killing and harming individuals under the pretext of defending honor a crime punishable by law and no special clause should be included to ease the punishment.
The Tribunal condemns all forms of traditional practices containing discrimination or violence against women, especially excision, and considers these practices a crime.
The Tribunal believes that Israeli occupation of the Arab land is a continuous violation of international law, human rights, and UN Security Council resolutions. The Israeli occupation is a major cause for the continuation of political violence against the peoples of the region, in particular women. Furthermore and in accordance with the Geneva accords, the Tribunal calls on releasing the illegally held prisoners in Israeli jails.
The Tribunal calls for joint efforts to be undertaken by all those who believe in human rights in order to stop violence against women.

Statement of Rights 1995

We, the women participating in the Arab Woman Court, held in Beirut, between June 28th and 30th 1995, as testifiers and audience to these live testimonies commit ourselves and raise our voices pledging the rejection of all forms of violence practiced against women.
We reject violence because it is an abuse of women's rights, because it violates women's human dignity and because it is the worst of all forms of discrimination against them;
We pledge to cut the strings of silence which covers such violence and to put a hand of solidarity into the hands of all those who help us in our fight throughout the world, especially in the third world.
We reject all forms of violence and will fight them at the local and international levels, no matter how well it may be disguised and how justified others might claim.
We reject violence regardless of how it is categorized - political, economical ,or social.
We reject violence whomever the entity carrying it out against us may be - father, brother, husband,son, governor, foreign elements, or any entity of the new world order; whether it is signed by states, religious institutions, local, regional or international bodies.
We reject all forms of violence in circumstances of war or peace.
We reject all forms of violence no matter what it is called or how it is justified.
We reject all forms of violence whether it is directed at individuals women or organized groups, whether the act itself be legal or illegal, individual or affecting groups.

Testimonies 1998

Rania, a 23 old Jordanian women university graduate, was forced by her parents to marry her cousin. She had no option but to flee from her parental home two weeks before the wedding day. She did so only after all methods used to express her rejection - persuasion and even resorting to suicide - failed to bear fruit.
The result was the murder of Rania in a primitive, brutal manner just because she sought her right to free choice as guaranteed by all religious laws.
The lovely brunette was an educated young women who spoke in a convincing manner. When she contacted the people in charge in the "People's Talk" program on Jordan's television, they gave her the pseudonym of Haneen to help her broadcast her messages to her parents. In those letters, Rania/Haneen expressed her deep love for her parents. Her maternal aunt - who appeared later to have planned to get rid of her niece - started to send messages to the T.V program, claiming that Rania had been forgiven and begging her on air to come back home. In one of these messages, the father talked beseechingly to his own daughter; "come back, come back, my dear daughter."
Two weeks later, Rania was shot dead murdered because she decided to escape, and refused to marry her cousin. The executioner of the crime - planned by the father and his kinsmen - was Rania's younger brother who is no older than fifteen years (being a minor protects him from severe sentencing.)
Yet another victim of outdated tribal customs!


"I got married at the age of eighteen, said  Z.B from Syria. My husband deprived me of the opportunity to continue my university studies, and forced me to serve his mother… He started to beat me to severe bleeding… He then drove me out of my house with no clothes and no money… My husband started to drink heavily and womanizing to the extent that he started to get some women into our own apartment.
He kept insisting on the need to give birth to a son. As soon as I had given birth to our son, his attitude worsened. He prohibited me from going out of the house…Beating and abuse were no longer confined to our home. He began to torture me while starving my kids and myself. He began to threaten me of throwing me out of the house. One night, he severely beat me, I tried to commit suicide but was saved by my parents.
The Court did not rule that I get an alimony, because my husband claimed to be poor…When my eldest daughter reached the end of her nurture age, my husband took her and started setting her against me. She now considers me repulsive and refuses to see me. Lately my husband took my other children. but two days later, he sent our young son home and said: "I will take him back when he grows up."
He denies me any chance to see my daughters. I'm raising my son without any alimony and without being divorced, while expecting his father to take him away from me".

If you would like to share your experience, e-mail us at : testify@arabwomencourt.org

Statement of Justice 1998

After listening to numerous live testimonies, the judges at the public hearing recommended the following:
Drafting a uniform domestic civil law dealing with the personal status codes that is based on the respect of the human rights whereby all citizens would be treated in a non-discriminatory manner.
Prompting each Arab country to join and abide by the international human rights conventions including the international convention for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (especially article 16 bearing on prejudices within families).
Working for the amendment of the codes enforced in the respective Arab countries to suit the provisions of the international conventions already agreed on and signed by the respective Arab nations.
Setting up institutions specialized with the purpose of looking after the victims of domestic violence, counseling, guidance and essential services tending for legal and judicial help.
Reforming judicial procedures related to domestic issues such as shortening the interval of the trials and speeding up the implementation of the judicial verdicts; reducing the court expenses, and calling on social experts aid.
Establishing a governmental fund that would disburse the divorce allowance to separated and divorced women.
Emphasizing the necessity of the independence and immunity of the jurisdiction, eliminating the exclusive and private courts. Courts must be equipped with capable personnel and staffed with women lawyers and judges. Besides, a special department for appeal must be established in quest for an amicable settlement .
Educating the public over basic human rights and relevant legal knowledge only to be included in the school civic education curriculum.


The Court also perceives that the elimination of violence and discrimination in all its forms requires the unity of the efforts of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with the various sections and forces concerned with the progression of society. This could take place in the frame of a broad and efficient Arab movement to exercise pressure in different directions to effect the indispensable change towards reinforcing the rights of the Arab citizen, whether man or woman, and enabling him to be his own decision maker to achieve his objectives.

Statement of Rights 1998

We, the Arab women participating in the Arab Women's Court held in Beirut from the 15th to the 17th of March 1998, have taken upon ourselves since 1995 to struggle for complete equity before the law. Our struggle is part and parcel of the international conventions, especially the international declaration of human rights and the convention of eliminating all forms of violence against women. We end our 2nd Arab public hearing with the following Statement of Rights:
We request that Arab governments fully abide by the Convention of Eliminating all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
We call for an equitable civil status law that would guarantee the freedom of getting married and the right to end the marriage.
Wdemand the prohibition of polygamy as it it is a form of violence against women.
We demand that physical, psychological, and sexual violence, undeclared divorce (separation), and arbitrary divorce be categorized as crimes punishable by law.
In case of divorce, we call for an equal distribution of wealth and property and for sharing the cost of child support (when women is employed), otherwise the father ought to bear the total cost.
We demand equal access to the children, allowing the child to choose his or her guardian.
Despite their major role in the economy, women are not equally treated when it comes to inheritance and still impeded by the prevailing norms and mentality. Therefore, we request that all obstacles, be it legal or traditional, be removed immediately.