ety’s cultural references, accuse women from the
women’s rights movement of being in the pay of the
West. They try to cast doubt on the women’s reli-
gious beliefs and morals by arguing that they mis-
appropriate funds from donors for personal gain or
that they promote homosexuality and want to ruin
family values. They claim that international human
rights instruments are the tools of a vast Western
conspiracy against Islam and the Arab countries.
In addition, women’s rights organizations face
internal challenges regarding organizational struc-
turing, leadership, transparency, funding, and reach-
ing out to a wider constituency. These challenges to
the women’s rights movement, both external and
internal, have translated into different strategies
among women’s rights activists regarding the promo-
tion of women’s rights in the region. One strategy
focuses on disseminating knowledge of interna-
tional women’s rights instruments and lobbying for
states to lift their reservations to CEDAW and
adopt the Beijing Platform for Action. They also
call on states to raise public awareness of discrimi-
nation and violence against women, tackle the
social bias against women, and provide protection
for women from discrimination and violence. The
other strategy is to encourage a more progressive
interpretation and historical reading of the reli-
gious texts in regard to women’s rights and law
reform.
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nized with regard to work, education, health, and
so forth). Against this general background, the way
in which women contributed to the discourse and
to the development of a focus on women’s rights
varied from country to country. The steps to pro-
mote women’s rights that were taken during the
first decades after independence were the pro-
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women’s organizations; later, a second generation
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l’Association marocaine des droits des femmes, la
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(Morocco), the Collectif 95 Maghreb Égalité,
l’Association pour l’égalité devant la loi entre les