R-46 Muslim Women demand a voice...and a choice

Muslim feminists battle against 'macho' views BARCELONA (AFP) - Muslim women from around the world took up the fight against a "macho" interpretation of Islam's Koran at the opening of an international conference on Islamic feminism

"It will come into full force when women are able to make choices in life with their own consent," Escurado said..... The three-day conference was called to "support women who are fighting for recognition of their rights in the Islamic world" and rising up "against the long-established supremacy of men", he said...... The Islamic feminist movement has slowly emerged in the Muslim world, which comprises some 29 countries with more than one billion people.

"Nothing can really begin until women start to talk to other women," said Pilar Vallugera, director of the department on women and rights at city hall in Barcelona...... "We live for the most part under rules which were handed down in Saudi Arabia centuries ago, and there are still too many unenlightened mullahs who direct our lives."..... Besides the disapproval of some men, the pioneers of Islamic feminism also face the rejection, incomprehension and anger of some of their Islamic sisters......