Bias documented

Flipping through a headline study published by the Arab League, Dina Ezzat finds that the lesser status of women in many Arab countries is written in law

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This week the Arab League issued a four-volume encyclopaedia on the status of women in national legislation. Covering constitutions, nationality and personal status laws, civil and penal codes and the regulations for social insurance and political participation, the four volumes offered the first comprehensive and well documented study of how Arab governments and societies look at -- actually in some cases look down upon -- women in the Arab world.

"The road ahead is still tough and long because despite the many achievements accomplished much more still needs to be done for women in the Arab world," commented Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa at the inauguration of the encyclopaedia at the Cairo headquarters of the Arab organisation on Sunday.

Moussa and many participants argued that the facts and figures included in the four volumes of the encyclopaedia shed some positive light on the given role and status of women in Arab society. "I believe there is a growing trend to give more attention to the rights of Arab citizens in general, including the around 140 million Arab women," Moussa argued. However, he added that what has been done is not enough -- not just for women but for entire Arab societies that cannot reach the heights of sustainable development if they keep their women at a generally low ebb of rights.

The encyclopaedia on the status of women in national legislation dissects many a criterion to assess levels of development in granting women due rights in 22 Arab states. It reviews national legislation with an eye to the international commitments signed on to by Arab countries, especially those made under the umbrella of the breakthrough World Conference on Women in Beijing 1995.

The concept of gender equity, the level of personal freedoms, the right to education, healthcare, social insurance and acquisition of personal property, guidelines on nationality, personal status laws and reproductive rights, are all issues carefully analysed as reflected in the national legislation of Arab states.

The first violation that is monitored by these volumes -- although it is not titled as such -- is the fact that several Arab states do not have written laws on matters related to women's rights; especially crucial issues of personal status. According to the encyclopaedia, only 15 Arab states have personal status laws as such, and only 13 make direct reference to the rights and status of women in their civil codes.

According to the encyclopaedia, the harshest forms of discrimination against women are contained in laws regulating marriage and divorce, since many Arab states require the agreement of a male relative for marriage and restrict the right of divorce to the husband. Other signs of legal discrimination are depicted in penal codes that include harsh punishments against women guilty of adultery while much milder punishments are stipulated for men convicted of the same offence. Men in the Arab world also have an easier time passing nationality on to children, even those born by foreign mothers, while the same does not apply to women.

Nonetheless, as it reviews the evolution of the text of laws across the Arab world, the encyclopaedia notes positive developments occurring in some cases where women have been granted greater rights, or where the discrimination has been reduced.

This encyclopaedia, said Hanaa Sorour, head of the Women's Division at the Arab League, is not meant to depress women in the Arab world. Rather the opposite. The objective, she explained, is to collect all relevant legislation and highlight areas that require attention and advocacy by national women's groups.