The solution

The Hurra Coalition’s impact so far

Although Hurra is relatively young, coalition members have already helped shift how family law is discussed at international, regional, and national levels.

• Internationally, our research and advocacy have contributed to:
  • Bringing family law reform into UN discussions where it was previously sidelined as “too cultural” or “too religious”.
  • Supporting Special Rapporteurs and other UN experts to make clear statements that religion, culture, or tradition cannot be used to justify discrimination against women in family law.
  • Ensuring that family law is recognised within broader agendas on sustainable development, gender equality, and ending violence against women.
• At regional and national levels, Hurra members have:
  • Influenced draft reforms in countries such as Morocco and Palestine, where new proposals now include recognition of shared matrimonial assets and less discriminatory custody provisions.
  • Helped to “hold the line” in places where new religious family law bills threatened to undo decades of progress, as in Iraq.
  • Supported the development of bills on issues such as minimum age of marriage and inclusive language in personal status laws, including specific recognition of women with disabilities.

These examples are part of a broader, evolving story of change. The Impact page and issue‑specific pages on this website provide more detailed case studies of where and how Hurra and its members are making a difference.

Shaping global agendas

Before 2019, many international actors treated family law as a topic that fell outside the scope of mainstream human rights work. It was often framed as “too cultural” or “too religious”, and therefore something that could not be challenged without appearing to interfere in internal religious affairs.

Through sustained research, documentation, and advocacy, Equality Now and Hurra:

• Provided UN experts and human rights mechanisms with detailed evidence showing how discriminatory family laws violate the rights of women and girls.
• Engaged with Special Rapporteurs and treaty bodies to encourage clearer, stronger language on the obligation of states to reform family law in line with human rights standards.
• Helped secure public statements from UN actors that religion and culture cannot be used to justify discrimination against women in family relations.
• Contributed to ensuring that family law reform appears in key international frameworks, including in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals and Generation Equality processes.

This shift at the international level does not replace national struggles, but it gives advocates additional tools and reference points when they argue for change at home.

National and regional reform wins

Hurra’s members work in very different legal and political contexts, but they share a commitment to making discriminatory family laws visible and contestable. Some of the areas where coalition members have contributed to concrete developments include:

• Morocco
   In Morocco, feminist organisations have long campaigned for reforms to the family code. Hurra’s research and advocacy have fed into current reform efforts, supporting provisions that:
  • Allow mothers to retain custody of their children after remarriage, moving away from automatic loss of custody.
  • Recognise shared matrimonial assets, giving women a legal claim to property accumulated during the marriage.
     While implementation remains a challenge, securing these principles in draft legislation marks an important step.
• Palestine
   In Palestine, Hurra’s work on shared marital assets has informed draft family law provisions that, for the first time, explicitly address how matrimonial property should be divided. This is a significant development in a context where women’s economic rights on divorce have often been neglected.
• Iraq
   In Iraq, there have been repeated attempts to introduce religious family law frameworks that would allow child marriage and further entrench discrimination. Hurra partners have played a watchdog role, mobilising quickly to:
  • Raise alarm about proposed legal changes.
  • Provide legal and human rights analysis to show their incompatibility with international standards.
  • Support advocacy that has, in key moments, prevented these regressive reforms from being adopted.
• Lebanon
   Lebanon has multiple religious courts and personal status laws for different sects, which has made unified family law reform extremely complex. Hurra members have supported efforts to introduce a bill setting a minimum age of 15 across all 15 sects – an imperfect but important step away from the absence of any common standard.
• Egypt
   In Egypt, partners are working to influence draft personal status laws to:
  • Introduce inclusive language that recognises different family forms and protects women’s rights more clearly.
  • Explicitly mention women with disabilities, who are often invisible in legal texts.
  • Ensure that financial rights and protections are strengthened rather than weakened.

These examples illustrate different types of impact: advancing progressive provisions, preventing rollbacks, and ensuring that the most marginalised women – including those with disabilities – are not left out of reforms.

Knowledge that changes debates

One of Hurra’s most significant contributions has been to put neglected topics on the agenda and to provide the language, concepts, and evidence that others can use in their own advocacy. This is particularly true in relation to:

• Shared matrimonial assets
   For many years, very few human rights organisations in the region worked explicitly on how property should be divided at divorce. Hurra’s research has brought this issue into the open, showing that:
  • Failing to recognise women’s contributions to the family economy leaves them vulnerable to poverty.
  • There are existing legal and religious tools that can support more equitable distribution.
     As a result, provisions on shared assets are now appearing in draft reforms in countries such as Palestine and Morocco, and activists in other countries are beginning to use Hurra’s analysis in their own campaigns.
• Custody and guardianship
   Hurra has helped to reframe debates on custody and guardianship away from rigid, gendered stereotypes and towards a child‑centred approach grounded in both human rights and alternative Islamic scholarship. This has given advocates a stronger basis for arguing that mothers and fathers should be treated as equal parents, and that the best interests of the child must prevail.

In both areas, the impact extends beyond any single law reform. By shifting the terms of debate and equipping movements with new tools, Hurra has created ripple effects that will continue to influence advocacy for years to come.

Holding the line in times of backlash

The context in which Hurra operates is marked by armed conflict, authoritarianism, organised backlash against feminist movements, and attempts to roll back existing protections for women and girls. In such environments, defending hard‑won gains is as important as winning new reforms.

Hurra and its members work to:

• Monitor legal developments and proposed bills that could re‑religionise family law or introduce new discriminatory provisions.
• Share information rapidly across the coalition when threats emerge, so that partners can coordinate responses.
• Provide legal and human rights analysis that national coalitions can use in their advocacy with parliaments, ministries, and courts.
• Keep international and regional bodies informed about worrying trends, ensuring that there is external pressure and scrutiny.

By acting as an early warning and rapid response mechanism, the coalition helps to prevent reversals that would have profound consequences for women and girls.

The impact of discriminatory family law over a lifetime 

Where there are no laws protecting girls from being married as children, a girl is married to a much older man at the age of 11. She leaves school. Her future opportunities for economic independence diminish. 

At 13, she becomes a mother while still a child herself. She has little control over decisions that affect her life financially. Her time is spent taking care of the child and the household. Her husband is in control of the finances. 

At 22, following years of violence and abuse, she looks to escape the marriage. Though able to access support services for herself, leaving the home risks losing custody of her children. 

Despite years of labor within the marriage, taking care of the children, the household, and her husband, she has no recognised share of the family home. 

All of this is shaped by discriminatory family law. And it has an impact not only on women and girls, but on their families, and on wider society. 

Addressing discriminatory family laws has the potential to impact reducing poverty and ending gender-based violence as well as econonmic prosperity and sustainable development