Feb 27th, 2009
Posted by Rachel Myers, ACLU at 2:41pm	Women's Rights

EVENT: How Terrorism Impacts Women

ACLU President Susan Herman will give the keynote address at a symposium on the impact of terrorism on the lives of women on March 6 at the Rutgers Center for Law and Criminal Justice.

One such issue Herman will address is the backlash against Muslim women in the wake of 9/11. As ACLU Women's Rights Project staff attorney Ariela Migdal recently wrote:

While Muslim men have been vilified and targeted as terrorists in the current national security frenzy, Muslim women who wear religious headcoverings face unique exposure to prejudice because of their visibility. Their outward self-identification makes them vulnerable to both anti-Muslim bias and gender-based discrimination.

The ACLU confronted this problem in Medina v. San Bernadino County, a case involving a woman who was forced to remove her hijab while detained in a county jail for a day. We also joined an amicus brief on behalf of Muslim women police officers who were forced to remove their hijab on the job. And the ACLU of Georgia has expressed concern over an incident involving Lisa Valentine, a Muslim woman who was jailed for contempt of court after she refused to remove her hijab upon entering a courthouse in Douglasville, Ga.

The March 6 symposium will feature speakers from Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Yale and Seton Hall Universities. More event details, including the full schedule, are here.

Permalink |	Women's Rights

1. Paen Says:
   Feb 28th, 2009 at 1:44pm

   Some people need to be reminded that freedom of religion is not reserved to Christians.

2. Kyle Says:
   Mar 2nd, 2009 at 8:56am

   What are the ACLU's thoughts on how Muslim women are treated. They can be douced in acid, stoned or killed anytime their husband or other men want to do it in most muslim countires. I think that is wrong.

3. Paen Says:
   Mar 2nd, 2009 at 3:02pm

   Kyle why don't you ask a rape victim or an anorexic about how much better women are treated in the west?

4. Rachel Myers, ACLU Says:
   Mar 3rd, 2009 at 12:52pm

   The ACLU opposes gender-based violence as discriminatory and a violation of women's civil and human rights. The focus of our work is on the treatment of women in the U.S. We seek to hold the U.S. government accountable under the Constitution and international law and treaties, including the promotion and protection of women's human rights.

   The ACLU also upholds the rights of women (and men, Muslim and non-Muslim) to choose to wear or not wear headcoverings in accordance with their religious belief.

   For more information on other groups working to protect the human rights of women around the globe, go to the Web sites of Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/en/category/topic/women%E2%80%99s-rights or Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/en/campaigns/stop-violence-against-women