Later on we evolved as a formal organization in 1986 and registered as an NGO in 1990. In 1978, in the Muslim Women's Organisations there was significant absence of professionals and the idea arose that the women professionals should be invited to be involved with the organisation. In 1978, 9 women got together and formed an informal group calling themselves the Muslim Women's Research Group. The
story of Muslim Women’s Research And Action Forum begins with the need to instill new thinking in the minds of women and men in the Muslim community. The organization was constituted as a formal body in 1986. The reasons behind its formation were the challenging socio-political and cultural context, which denied women in Muslim communities full participation in the development process and the need to move out of the ‘exclusive Muslim identity’ that was being promoted by extremist elements within the community. These twin purposes underpinned our work in the initial years which focused mainly on –
• Muslim personal law reforms – [looking at the law and practice] striving to bring about justice and equity in the implementation process.
• Research and documentation – dissemination of information critical to expanding the knowledge base of the Muslim community [men and women], highlighting the diverse, multi layered and multi faceted nature of work undertaken by muslim women across the country. Overtime there emerged the need to further expand the mwraf constituency through legal literacy training, building a pool of barefoot counselors in selected areas [outside Colombo] setting up the Legal clinic to take up cases of affected women in the appeal courts. Parallel to this, the training and research work extended to displaced communities and war affected regions in the East. The biggest challenge to our work comes in the wake of the escalation of war and violence, polarization and sectarianism. Peacebuilding, reconciliation and co-existence amongst the ethnic communities has become intrinsic to mwraf work. With the onset of the tsunami that swept across the eastern region and ravaged the lives and livelihoods of coastal communities, we had to reckon with the reality of building women’s livelihoods with the hope of building peace from below. The handloom weavers of Maruthamunai, Kalmunai, Pandirrupu, had to virtually pick up the pieces of their traditional weaving occupation. The revival and recovery process was supported by mwraf through the various donors. Today the women weavers are able to support their families and dependents through the weaving industry which is slowly returning to near normalcy. Mwraf is facilitating their recovery, giving them the necessary skills to enhance their potential in design and quality while also motivating them to form into their own women’s cooperative, assert their rights to bargain and further develop their socio-economic status while also emphasising the importance of ethnic co-existence, mutual sharing and understanding.
