By
Hafsa Obeng, GNA
Accra, Jan 27, GNA –
The Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Ghana (FOMWAG)has sensitised
Imams from the Greater Accra Region on human rights and empowered them to come
out with Quranic references and Sunnah about rights of women.
The workshop, which
was also to equip the Imams on how the rights could be enhanced to promote
development and wellbeing of women and the girl child, was on the theme:
“linking principles of human rights with the Quran and Sunnah to promote
wellbeing of women and girls”.
Hajia Aisha
Abdul-Kadir, National Secretary, FOMWAG said the workshop was necessitated
after outcomes from a religious leaders’ training organised in Senegal in
December last year.
She said it revealed
that women especially Muslim women were lagging behind as far as human rights
issues were concerned.
She said they
realised that the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet had many references to
talk about rights of women, but they were not discussed for women to realise
their rights within which to operate.
She said they felt
the need to mobilise and engage the Imams who were the authentic channels of
communication for the Muslim community and the workshop would offer women the
technical knowledge to realise their rights on issues relating to leadership,
education, marriage, divorce, inheritance and other socio-economic
developmental issues.
Hajia Abdul-Kadir
said; “Women have so many rights in Islam and some men are taking advantage of
the fact that women are naive about the rights and they end up violating the
rights of such women in their marital homes”.
She said it was
about time for the Imams to rise to use their platforms especially the Friday
sermons to preach about some of the rights that the Quran talked about in
favour of women and girls so that the congregation would hear and work on it.
“If women are also
educated about certain rights they have as far as the Quran and Sunnah are
concerned they would also come out wholeheartedly to work within the confines
of the Quran for their own development and the society,” she said.
She urged the
participating Imams to take advantage of the opportunity to help change the
narrative in most Muslim communities.
GNA