Jordan Times
Thursday, February 19, 2004

Arab women fight uphill struggle to impose themselves in legal profession

During a three-day workshop here this week, sponsored by the Jordanian and US governments, Arab female judges, lawyers and Western experts thrashed out ways of bridging these inequalities.

Saudi female lawyers took part for the first time in the forum, which concluded Wednesday, during which many women interviewed by AFP spoke of their frustrations, their hopes and the obstacles they face.

Mayssa Abu Dalbuh works as a “legal consultant” in a law office in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah, where she deals exclusively with female clients.

“I listen to their problems (and) draft their cases, but I cannot go to court to represent them and therefore I must hand the cases over to a male colleague who will follow them up,” Abu Dalbuh said.

A law regulating the legal profession in Saudi Arabia that was issued two years ago did not make any gender difference “but tradition is what prevents us from following court proceedings,” she said.

Nevertheless, according Leila Al Doghaither, who works in a legal office in Riyadh, “Saudi women can represent themselves in court but not accompanied by a female lawyer.”

Doghaither also complained that although there is a need for female lawyers in Saudi Arabia, only a few have studied civil law compared to “thousands who have studied Islamic law.”

Nidal Nasser Jreiwo, who hails from Iraq's holy Muslim Shiite city of Najaf, was appointed judge by the US-led civilian administration after the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.

“A few female and male lawyers opposed my appointment arguing that it was `haram' (illicit under Islam) for a woman to be a judge, prompting me to appeal to Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani,” Iraq's top Shiite cleric, she said.

Sistani's reply did not contain a clear-cut ban on women being judges, but influential members of the Najaf community nevertheless interpreted it as rejecting her appeal, she said.

“There is a backward religious stream trying to influence people in order to prevent women from reaching top positions, although Islam allows women to enter the job market,” Jreiwo told AFP.

According to Jreiwo, there are only seven female judges in Iraq since the 1980s.

The Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories fare better and have eight female judges, according to one of them, Eman Nassereddin.

“Our situation is much better than in other Arab societies because the exceptional living conditions we have in the Palestinian territories have forced women to be bolder,” Nassereddin said.

But the rosiest picture of them all is undoubtedly in Morocco, which has 518 practising judges who sit in various courts across the country, said Judge Saadia Belmir.

“We represent nearly 17 per cent of all judges in Morocco,” she said.

“We were accepted by the society gradually,” she added.

The forum, Women and the Law, heard key speakers such as Cherie Blair, the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, expound on the need to bridge the inequality gap between men and women as part of regional reforms.

It concluded with a statement calling for the creation of a network to help women share information and learn more about their legal rights.

Back to February 19, 2004