A Pivot Towards MPV

First off, Mahsa Amini’s death should not be in vain and the protests by Iranian women, men, and especially the school girls is nothing short of inspiring. Dictators should recognize, the use of religion with an outfit such as the moral police to oppress the population will eventually backfire.

For those of you who have been following MPV from our inception 15 years ago to today, we have reached a milestone. We are seeing more and more traditional religious leaders and institutions pivoting toward a more gender equal prism in how they are positioning themselves. For some of these leaders, especially those who are sitting in the U.N. circles, it is simply a politically strategic positioning, but for others, especially in our #ImamsForShe networks, and there are now 541 of them, their daily engagement and promotion of women and girls’ rights are genuine and sometimes risky “business”. 

To highlight the work of our #ImamsForShe, I am happy to share with you about our contribution to Islam in Practise, a project led by Al-Azhar University, Muhammadiyah (a large Indonesian organization) and Faith to Action Network to produce a new publication, a compilation of writings on Women’s Rights in Islam. The aim is to enable access to knowledge on how Muslim faith actors promote women’s rights in practice. Its purpose is to support faith actors to ensure consistency between Muslim theology and practice by facilitating dialogues and scripture clarification. I invite you to watch me present my paper, and that of three others here. 

This month of November is filled with international travels starting with the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD) annual conference in Bali, a multilateral umbrella organization we’ve been a member of for five years, the 9th Global Conference of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations in Fez, Morocco and the 2nd Women Ulama Conference in Indonesia. What I will say about attending these in-person conferences is that nothing can replace that face-to-face connection. 

Onward and upward…

Ani Zonneveld

Founder, President