The Umma Trust and the Pacific Media Centre are jointly organising the meeting scheduled to be held on July 21 at Room WT, Level 10, AUT Tower (Corner of Rutland and Wakefield Streets) at 6 pm.

Kuala Lumpur based Sisters in Islam Acting Executive Director Ratna Osman will speak on ‘Muslim Women Rights is Human Rights’ at the meeting which will be chaired by AUT Lecturer and Auckland City Council Ethnic People’s Advisory Panel Member Dr Camille Nakhid. Interested participants must register by email (ummatrust@xtra.co.nz) or over phone (09) 8150153 on or before July 18, 2011. The Human Rights Commission is supporting the programme as a part of its comment to the New Zealand Diversity Action Programme. A graduate in Law and Sharia from the International Islamic University of Islamabad in Pakistan, Ms Osman is the Programme Manager for the Advocacy, Legal Services and Reform Unit of Sisters in Islam, a Non-Government Organisation dedicated to promoting better understanding of Islam.

She said Islam recognised the principles of justice, equality, freedom and dignity within a democratic nation state.

Ms Osman has been creating public awareness and advocating reforms in laws and policies and developing a framework of women’s rights in Islam.

She was recently in the news for speaking against the so-called, “Obedient Wives Club’ of Malaysia, which believes in “avoiding marital problems by fulfilling their husbands’ sexual desires like prostitutes.”

The Club’s President Rohaya Mohamed said domestic violence, infidelity and prostitution stemmed from a lack of belief in God and a failure of women to satisfy their husbands.

“A man married to a woman who is as good or better than a prostitute in bed has no reason to stray. Rather than allowing him to sin, a woman must do all she can to ensure his desires are met,” she told the New Straits Times.

Her statement found widespread criticism, with Malaysia’s Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Jalil being the first critic.

She said, “To hinge fidelity, domestic violence and the fulfillment of a husband’s responsibilities purely on a wife’s capacity to be obedient, stimulate sexual arousal is not only demeaning to wives, but to husbands as well.” “Abusive men often use women’s behaviour as a sick justification, but in the end, their actions are their responsibility,” Ms Osman said.