Women's Rights

I’ve been spending my week so far interning at the Association de Femmes Juristes – an organization that offers free legal advice to anyone (but mostly women) who is unable to afford it. One of the organization’s main objectives is to educate women, particularly in rural areas, about what their rights are and how to access those rights.

Islam plays a huge role in what is socially acceptable in this country. Since it is permissible for an Islamic man to take up to 4 wives, we have spent quite a bit of time discussing the marriage contract here. Traditionally, once a woman is married, she moves in with her husband and in-laws, where she generally becomes responsible for the cooking and housework. He will eventually be pressured to take on co-wives, who tend to hate each other because they are competing for the attention of the same man. It can be a very oppressive situation for women.

A generally new belief in human history is the idea that one has a right to be happy. The “pursuit of happiness” is, after all, perhaps the only line from our constitution the American public knows. The belief that women have a right to happiness is an even newer concept. But as it takes hold in a society, something changes. Women demand their rights, marry for love, plan their families, and can stand on their own. Above all else, women start expecting to be happy.

The modern Senegalese woman wants a monogamous relationship with a husband she loves in an apartment of their own. She wants to choose her life. Divorce is still looked down upon in the Islamic community, but the younger generation of women is starting to become free to end a negative relationship. I don’t mean to commend divorce, and I think as women we tend to depend far too much on our partners to bring us ultimate happiness and fulfillment (thus setting high expectations that can never be reached), but I do not believe a woman should be trapped in a marriage where she is being abused or her husband is going to take another wife against her wishes or she just feels utterly miserable and abandoned. When a man and woman sign a marriage certificate in Senegal, the man must state whether he will be monogamous, engage in limited polygamy (2 or 3 wives), or polygamy (4 wives). In this way, the woman now has an official document to prove her husband promised to be monogamous (and grounds for divorce) if he later tries to take another wife.

The problem is that many couples never get this marriage certificate. They have a religious marriage ceremony, but never complete the paperwork that causes it to be official in the eyes of the state. If the marriage later turns ugly, the woman can leave her husband, but since they are not officially married, she is not entitled to anything. One thing I have noticed in my time at this organization is that women in Senegal do have rights, but since pre-marital sex is not recognized in such an Islamic nation, she must be married to exert those rights. The main consequence of this is that only a married woman can file a paternity suit for child support. If a man gets you pregnant and you aren’t married to him – oh well! He doesn’t owe you anything.

This little diagram is to help you understand the following paragraphs, which are admittedly fairly confusing.

We witnessed a very interesting (and bizarre) case consultation where an Islamic father and daughter came into the office. The daughter had been married 4 months ago, but in a strange turn of events, the husband moved in with her family. Eventually, the father told him he would need to start renting a room of his own for the 2 of them. At this point, the husband said he no longer wanted to be married and disappeared. The problem is that the daughter is already pregnant. The husband is claiming the child isn’t his, so to force him to recognize the child, the daughter needs to file a paternity suit. They are in the process of filling out the paperwork to obtain a marriage certificate since they never originally did this (as long as you have 2 witnesses who will testify that the couple was indeed married, you can get the marriage certification at any time). Once they can prove the marriage, the divorce and paternity suit can proceed.

The problem is that to complete the paperwork, they need to know the parental information of the husband, which they don’t. This is where it gets weird. How do you marry your daughter off to someone whose parents you don’t know the names of? I personally felt that the woman was mentally handicapped to some extent. Her father did all of the talking, even when she was directly spoken to. She was 28, which is rather old to not be married here. Why else would you be so desperate to marry off your daughter that you give her to someone who can’t support her, who has to move in with you, and who you clearly know nothing about? And to top it off, the husband apparently already had a wife that the family didn’t know about. It was a very confusing situation, but it does illustrate my point of women needing to be married to be recognized by the Islamic community and access their rights.

Side note:  This entire post was influenced by my reading of the book “Committed” by Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love). Highly recommended!

We have one more day planned there tomorrow...hopefully we'll find out the conclusion of the above drama.