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| Mali | |
 Flag of Mali | |
| Population (in Mil.) | 13.8 |
 Sex Ratio (m/f)
| 0,98 |
 Life Expectancy Ratio (f/m)
| 1.03 |
 Fertility Rate
| 5.49 |
 Income Ratio (f/m)
| 0.44 |
 Literacy Ratio (f/m)
| 0,45 |
 Tertiary Enrolment Ratio (f/m)
| 0,46 |
 Women in Parliament (in %)
| 10,2 |
| SIGI Rank | 99 |
| More information on variables | |
| Did you know that Mali ranks number 99 of 102 countries on the OECD Social Institutions and Gender Index? To learn more, see the official country note "Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Mali" at genderindex.org: | |
Contents |
Social Institutions
Women’s rights are very limited in Mali, where tradition dominates daily life. Nearly all Malian women have been subjected to female genital mutilation, violence against women is universally accepted and many girls marry at a very young age.
Family Code
Malian women have a very low level of protection within the family. The legal minimum age for women to marry is 15 years, but they can be married at a younger age with a judge's permission. The law is often disregarded and the incidence of early marriage is extremely high. A 2004 United Nations report estimated that 50% of girls were married by the age of 15 and some were married at the very young ages of 9 or 10 years.
A legislative bill that proposed increasing the legal age for marriage to 18 years was rejected. Despite efforts to raise awareness that early marriage entails serious risks for women's health, there seems to be no impetus within public opinion, NGOs or the government to take serious action to combat the practice. The percentage of marriages before the age of 19 is decreasing very slowly in some areas, but customs persist in others, such as arranging a girl's marriage when she is born or giving a daughter in marriage to a witch doctor for religious reasons.
Polygamy is legal according to Mali’s Marriage Code and under the teachings of Islam, the religion practised by nearly all of the population. Just under half of Malian women live in polygamous households; the percentage is higher in rural areas than in urban society, and illiterate woman are twice as likely to be affected than women who have received secondary education.
In Mali, husbands are the heads of families and the Civil Code grants them sole family and parental authority. They decide where the family will live and their wives are obliged to obey. Legally, either spouse may petition for divorce, but in rural areas women rarely initiate proceedings because of strong social pressure.
Inheritance is governed primarily by Islamic Sharia law, which discriminates against women. Daughters, for example, are entitled to receive only half the share received by sons. A further discrimination is that women can inherit only poor quality land that is not very fertile. Certain ethnic groups view the wife as part of the inheritance, and oblige her to marry a brother of her deceased husband, who then receives all of the estate.
Physical Integrity
The physical integrity of Malian women is not respected. There is no specific law to address violence against women or, more specfifically, domestic violence. There is a high level of tolerance for violence against women in Malian society; public opinion generally accepts that men have “a right” to beat their wives.
Most women in Mali have been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). The practice persists in both rural and urban areas, but is less prevalent amongst two ethnic groups living in the regions of Timbuktu and Gao. There is a small difference related to education: illiterate women are somewhat more likely to have been subjected to FGM than those who have secondary education. To date, the government has not put forward any legislation to prohibit FGM. Its actions have been limited to information programmes, seminars and lectures that provide a forum for discussion of proposals to end the practice. Legislative action is envisaged for the future. To date, there has been no decline in the prevalence of FGM; nearly all women who have undergone the procedure indicate they intend to subject their daughters to the practice.
Girls do not appear to be discriminated against before or after birth and Mali does not appear to be a country of concern in relation to missing women.
Civil Liberties
Malian women are restricted in the exercise of their civil liberties. Their freedom of movement is limited as they are obliged to follow their husbands, meaning they are not free to move in order to work. The Malian Civil Code stipulates that women cannot embark on a commercial business without her husband's agreement. Freedom of dress exists to some degree, but there is an increasing obligation on women to wear the veil because of pressure from Muslim fundamentalists.
Ownership Rights
Malian women have legal rights to property ownership, but these rights are often restricted in practice. Legally, women and men have the same access to land and the government has launched several publicly funded agricultural development projects that, theoretically, allow women to access land on the same basis as men. In reality, many obstacles prevent women from exercising their rights. According to tradition, women are entitled only to the less fertile land and often obtain a life interest in its “use” (not its ownership).
Women have the right to access property other than land. However, their independent actions – purchasing a house, for example – can lead to family conflict if the husband has not agreed to the action.
Over the past 20 years, women’s access to bank loans has improved. Previous limitations associated with their very low incomes and inability to provide security have eased thanks to a micro-credit development programme. In 1994, the government set out a legal framework and passed a law to strengthen this programme; as a result, women now have better access to loans for agricultural equipment and trade. Malian women now have access to hundreds of associations that offer mutual credit, independently managed village savings schemes and short-term loans; women comprise nearly half of the beneficiaries of these credit instituions.
Sources
- AFROL, Gender profile - Mali, www.afrol.com.
- CEDAW (2004), Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under Article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women – Mali, combined second, third, fourth and fifth periodic reports of States Parties, CEDAW/C/MLI/2-5.
- Cellule de Planification et de Statistique du Ministère de la Santé (CPS/MS), Direction Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Informatique (DNSI) et ORC Macro. 2002. * Enquête Démographique et de Santé au Mali 2001.
- Calverton, Maryland, USA : CPS/MS, DNSI et ORC Macro
- IRIN (2007), Mali: child marriage a neglected problem, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
- WiLDAF/FeDDAF, West Africa, (2004), Situation des droits des femmes au Mali.
The Africa for Women's Rights Campaign
Key facts
- CEDAW: ratified in 1985
- CEDAW Protocol: ratified in 2000
- Maputo Protocol: ratified in 2005
The Campaign
On 8 March 2009 the "Africa for Women's Rights" Campaign was launched at the initiative of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in collaboration with fove non-governmental regional organisations: the African Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies(ACDHRS), Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS), Women’s Aid Collective (WACOL), Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) and Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA). These organisations make up the Steering Committee responsible for the coordination of the Campaign.
The Campaign aims to put an end to discrimination and violence against women in Africa, calling on states to ratify international and regional instruments protecting women's rights, to repeal all discriminatory laws, to adopt laws protecting the rights of women and to take all necessary measures to wensure their effective implementation.
Country Focus: Mali
Although Mali ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) without reservations in 1985, the government has never incorporated its provisions into domestic law. Mali has also ratified the Optional Protocol to CEDAW and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol), but the provisions of all these instruments continue to be widely violated.
The Coalition of the Campaign is particularly concerned by: the persistence of discriminatory laws; discrimination within the family; violence against women, including female genital mutilation (FGM); and limited access to education, employment, decision-making positions, property, health and justice.
Sources
- Focal Points: AMDH, WILDAF-Mali
- Inter-Parliamentary Union, www.ipu.org
- UNCIFEF, www.unicef.org
- The Africa for Women's Rights campaign
- WILDAF-Mali, the campaign focal point in Mali
The Women, Business and the Law
Where are laws equal for men and women? 
The Women, Business and the Law report presents indicators based on laws and regulations affecting women's prospects as entrepreneurs and employees. Several of these indicators draw on the Gender Law Library, a collection of over 2,000 legal provisions impacting women's economic status. This report does not seek to judge or rank countries, but to provide information to inform discussions about women’s economic rights. Covering 128 economies, Women, Business and the Law provides data covering 6 areas: accessing institutions,using property, getting a job, dealing with taxes, building credit, and going to court.Read more about the methodology.
For detailed information on Mali, please visit the Women, Business and
the Law Mali page.
