Arab-Israeli conflict spills into women lawyers debate

The tensions of the Middle East conflict broke out at the world women lawyers conference during a discussion on women, Islam and the law.

Egyptian...The tensions of the Middle East conflict broke out at the world women lawyers conference during a discussion on women, Islam and the law.

Egyptian author Dr Ahdaf Soueif, who has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, presented a paper about the plight of women in Israels occupied territories.

Part of her speech argued that women are not part of the political system in the occupied territories, and there are no procedures for them to campaign or protest against the third-world conditions they live in.

This caused uproar among the Israeli delegates, many of whom began heckling Dr Soueif, claiming that her comments were inaccurate.

The debate was cut short and later, Rivka Meller-Olshizky, chairwoman of the Israeli committee for the rights of women lawyers, distributed a written statement to delegates asking the IBA to provide a right of reply.

The discussion, chaired by CNN foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour, focused on the misinterpretation of Islamic law, and how it is suggested that it is frequently used by politicians to serve their own political rather than religious ends.Victoria MacCallum