When women say, "justice first!"/Quand les femmes disent: <>.

When women say, justice first!, it is because they suffer several forms of violence, and it is so because they wish the States could focus ore on social conditions within which stems all these different forms of violence. We must not give in to the orthodox analysis which interprets the phenomena suffered by women in their daily Lives and their different activities as merely current disturbances. This is because violence is indeed oppression of a population denied its most basic rights at the economic, social and Legal Levels.

Violence can be understood as any unavoidable action that constitutes a violation of human rights in the broad sense of the term or which hinders the satisfaction of fundamental human needs. In that analysis, the positioning of the State has direct consequences on the status of women in particular. Since instead of advancing democratic governments of equal benefits and opportunities to people including women, it proceeds to discriminate between groups and mobilize people to get authority through a religious or ethnic identity appeal.

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Political and Religious Levels

Using religion on the political scene is also violence against women. Indeed, what makes religion, women and the enjoyment of their rights complicated is the use of religion on the political scene. Religion impedes the understanding of social inequalities and does not allow women to participate in whatever way to the aspirations of their empowerment. When for instance we talk of Islamic religion, which is ordered by religious scriptures, instead of talking of a Muslim, that is the person who adheres to Islam, this may often Lead to violent dynamics and consequences on women as it was the case in Algeria in the nineties when women and children had to suffer physical and moral violence.

In Egypt, in July 2007, the highest religious authority, Sheikh Ali Gomaa declared that circumcision is totally forbidden by Islam given its physical and psychological effects. Thus, the Egyptian health minister decided to definitely ban circumcision in Egypt, not withstanding that the practice actually dates back to the time of Pharaohs. According to a study conducted in 2000, circumcision could have affected 97% of Egyptian women, both Christians and Muslims. It took centuries of physical tortures that have often claimed the Lives of small girls to eventually put an end to that practice in that country. Infact the trigger was the death of a 12 year adolescent girl who died recently during a circumcision operation at Minya in Upper Egypt.

At the social and legal levels