 The trial began on Saturday of a Bahraini women's rights activist accused of defaming Sharia (Islamic) law and insulting an Islamic judge. Ghada Jamshir heads a women's committee lobbying for a personal status law that would shift jurisdiction over family and women's affairs to civil courts. She appeared in court flanked by a dozen women activists. Judge Abdulrahman al-Sayyed read out three charges, including public defaming of the Islamic judiciary through distributed pamphlets, insulting a judge during a telephone conversation and defaming him. Jamshir pleaded not guilty. "The charge of insulting a Sharia judge during a phone call is fabricated," she said.
| "You can't charge me for calling him a pinhead! He IS a pinhead!" |
"All these charges against me have been compiled since 2001 because of a vigil we (committee) organised two months ago, in which we demanded the resignation of the general prosecutor," she said, instigating a round of applause from the female audience in the courtroom. The Women's Petition Committee, headed by Jamshir, had collected 1,700 signatures in April 2003 on a petition demanding legislative and judicial reforms to family courts. "I do not care if I go to prison, because we already live in a big prison ... I will never stop, nor go silent nor give up my position," she told AFP.
| Public show of support from Amnesty International and the National Organization for Women in 5 ... 5 ... 5 ... |
Lawyer Abdullah Hashem said the defence team challenged the charges against Jamshir, which are "minor offences" that should be dealt with in a lower court. The trial was ajourned until July 2. A statement issued by the Women's Petition Committee said that taking Jamshir to court empitomises "an official policy to silence people ... and a pressure to stop (Jamshir's) courageous work in the field of (human) rights." The committee also reiterated its demand to "ban Sharia (Islamic) judges from dealing with marriage contracts." There are no written personal status laws in the two separate family courts, which are based on Sharia (Islamic law) available for both Sunni and Shia Muslims in Bahrain, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday, as it called on the government to drop charges immediately.
"The uncodified nature of these laws gives judges the authority to render judgments according to their own reading of Islamic jurisprudence," it said.
| Which is the whole point. |
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