Tanzania LAWA Fellow 1994-1995 L.L.B. Hons., University of Dar es Salaam L.L.M., Georgetown University Law Center Diploma in Community Based Development, Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University - 2002 Executive Director  Sahiba: Sisters Foundation P.O. Box 13827  Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania Work Phone: 255-022-264 7086, 0784 647 086  Email: smlidi@yahoo.com

Affiliations: Tanzania Women’s Networking Program (TWNP) Tanzania Women’s Media Association

Profile:

Graduate of Law from Georgetown University and University of Dar es Salaam majoring in Women’s Law and Human Rights, Salma has over 15 years experience in women’s movement building. In 1997 she founded Sahiba Sisters Foundation, a women’s development network with members in 13 regions in Tanzania . Sahiba’s mission is building women’s leadership and organizational capacities as a way to facilitate engaged citizenship. Salma also has extensive consultancy experience in the East Africa region working on issues of organizational development, leadership development, and Reproductive health and Rights/HIV/AIDS and Gender based Violence.

She uses her activist engagements to research and write about women’s contemporary realities mostly looking at issues of women's leadership in the community, in religious life and in institutions. Her particular research focus is Zanzibar and the influence of culture- be it legal or religious on women.

Salma has authored a number of articles in journals on religion, gender and law. Also she is a regular contributor to public intellectual forums like Pambazuka and a columnist for The African and more recently Daily News on legal and policy issues. Salma belongs to a number of feminist and women’s networks including Femnet, WLUML, AWID and the gender and Education Office (GEO) a subsidiary of the International Council for Adult Education where she respresented African Civil Societies at the Regional Preparatory Meeting on CONFINTEA VI as well as at CONFINTEA VI.

LAWA Experience:

During her fellowship, Ms. Maoulidi completed her graduate thesis entitled, Rethinking Property: Women and Matrimonial Property Rights in Tanzania,” a paper analyzing marital property and examining the separate treatment of widows versus divorcees, and the status of widows under statutory law, Islamic law, and customary law. She concluded that judges could play an activist role in establishing parity for women when dealing with issues of marital property either at divorce or time of death

Ms. Maoulidi also presented her paper “Women and the Political Process in Tanzania” at the “Africa 2000” conference in New York. She explained women's representation in Tanzania's political arena, including in the emerging parties in the newly multi-party state, concluding that women should make every use of their expanding opportunities in this time of change.

She additionally researched and completed a paper entitled, “The Legal Status of Women in Tanzania: An Overview.” During her fellowship, Ms. Maolidi participated in the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.

Ms. Maoulidi’s fellowship internship was with the National Organization of Women Legal Defense Fund, where Ms. Maoulidi did research on law and development and single-sex education. She was responsible for research and preparing advocacy briefs for members of Congress and Senators on policy issues affecting women. Some areas of her research included welfare reform, equal opportunity to education (Title IX) and the ratification of CEDAW.

Additional Experience:

Prior to LAWA, Ms. Maoulidi volunteered with the Tanzania Media Women’s Association from 1990-1994. During this time, she was also a state attorney trainee with the Attorney General’s chambers, a legal counselor for the Committee against Sexual Harassment and Violence against Women and Children crisis center, and the interim Vice-President of the United Nations of Youth, heading the education department.

From 1995-1996, Ms. Maoulidi attended the second Annual Gender Studies Conference in Tanzania as the Chief Rappoteur.

She was a member of the Media Watch Committee, and facilitated a national gender workshop in 1997 and also participation in the Muslim Woman’s Caucus.

In 1997, Ms. Maoulidi began work with PLAN International, a child-centered development organization, as Country and Regional Gender Representative and Program Support Manager.

In 1999, she joined the Kilombero District Development Programme as District Development Advisor reporting to Programme Officer of Irish Aid. There, she advised the District Council in management and implementation of the District Development Programme.

Ms. Maoulidi created the Sahiba Sisters Foundation in 2000, and in 2003 wrote a pamphlet on the organization’s goals, published in the Society for International Development’s journal.

Since 2003, Ms. Maoulidi has been pursuing additional education and training, as well as traveling internationally to educate others on women’s rights. She has been a facilitator to a host of conferences including the June 2004 Rights at Home Project in Lebanon, the 2005 Feminist Dialogues session prior to the World Social Forum in Brazil, and the 2005 AWID forum on “How does Change Happen?” in Bangkok.

Publications:

2003-2005.  Weekly Column, The African.

2004, “Adult Education and Democracy,” Haki Elimu Working Paper Series 2004 No. 5.

2003, “Sahiba Sisters Foundation in Tanzania: Meeting organizational and community needs,” in Development, Volume 46, No. 4 December 2003 pp. 85-92.

2003, “Judicial activism and women rights in Tanzania,” An Anthology of Social and Gender Justice- African Feminists search the experiences of African women for humanist alternative paradigms of human well being and social development, DAWN Anglophone Africa 233-262.

2003, “Battling for Spaces in Traditional Structures- the case of Muslim women in Tanzania,” An Anthology of Social and Gender Justice- African Feminists search the experiences of African women for humanist alternative paradigms of human well being and social development, DAWN Anglophone Africa 263- 345.

2003, “Muslim Women Responding to HIV/AIDS in Tanzania,” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs.

2003, “HIV in Tanzania: Why are girls still being buried alive in Muslim Communities?” Women in Action, No. 1, January 2003 pp. 25-28

2002, “Revisiting an Organizational Strategy; Mobilizing and Mapping Organizational and Community Assets Towards Greater Organizational and Institutional Impact”, Coady International Institute.

2002, “The predicament of Muslim women in Tanzania,” in ISIM Newsletter issue No. 10, July 2002 (available at www.isim.nl).

1999, “Mwongozo kwa ajili ya wawezeshaji wa Baraza la Watoto (a guide for facilitators of Children’s Baraza)”, PLAN International Tanzania.

1999, (ed.) “Involving Children in Strategic Planning”, PLAN International Tanzania.

1997, “Violence Against Women: a collection of newspaper clippings accompanied by a legal and strategy guide,” TAMWA.