Human rights attorney and board member of Global Rights for Women (GRW) Imrana Jalal joined Cheryl Thomas, founder of GRW, for a panel to discuss how they fight for women’s rights in the developing world.

The panel was held Tuesday night in Hubbel Hall to a crowd of about 20 students. It was sponsored by the Culver Center and hosted by Seth Andersen, the Culver Center’s director and Maeve Callan the head of the Women and Gender Studies department.

Jalal has a record of working for women’s rights across the globe, working with both non-governmental organizations and local communities in developing nations.

Jalal is Muslim and explained how her faith connected with her work as a feminist.

“We have a sense of social obligation,” she said. “This whole sense permeates your whole upbringing.”

Jalal explained feminism could also be found in Hadith, sayings of the prophets considered equal to the Quran.

“One of the Hadiths is for every Muslim to educate his doctor,” she said. “We hear that Islam subverts the rights of women, but at the same time, you have these Hadiths that say to educate them.”

Thomas discussed institutional contradictions and the way they are used to subjugate women.

“[They] use these perversions to subjugate women and minorities,” she said. “It’s always an issue.”

Jalal and Thomas both emphasized the importance of working with local communities to further women’s rights.

“There are too many organizations barging into the developing world and not doing things in a culturally inclusive way,” Jalal said. 

Thomas added there was a need to work with community leaders to change local practices.

“We have to think about who’s culture we’re in,” Thomas said. “I’ve never been anywhere where there isn’t a feminist leader and many women who want to end violence against women.”

For both panelists, the need to mobilize on a global level was obvious.

“We do work as groups. We mobilize as NGOs, as groups of women supported by fantastic men,” she said. “We force governments to realize that women can mobilize across the world.”

Jalal still sees work to be done. Gender-based violence and the need for women to be economically independent are the two main issues she wants to target next.

Jalal now sits on the World Bank Inspection Panel, the independent oversight agency for the World Bank, where she encourages investment in women entrepreneurs.

“When you put money in the hands of women, it transforms their entire life,” she said.

She added that small loans needed to be transitioned to medium ones to allow women to rise through the social ranks.

After the event, first-year student Hannah Duncan said she found it enlightening.

“Growing up in small-town Iowa, I never learned about this stuff,” she said. “It’s been eye-opening.”

Wednesday night, Global Rights for Women hosted a fundraising event in Des Moines, where Jalal gave the keynote address.