Saudiwoman's Weblog

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — In the years just before the 9/11 attacks, I spent two semesters at a public school in Riyadh for my training as a teacher. I was stationed each day at the campus gates, instructed to inspect the girls’ abayas as they left school. For each student older than 12, I checked: Was she wearing the tent-style cloak over her head and down to her ankles? Was her face fully covered, no slits for her eyes? I felt like a hypocrite, penalizing girls for violating a custom I don’t support — and one that the majority of Islamic scholars say is not a religious obligation. To READ ON click here.

Last Friday Sheikh Al Fowzan, ironically a member of the Saudi human rights commission, stated that the thought that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) might be implemented in Saudi Arabia makes him shiver in fear and worry. This was during the last day of a three-day conference that took place in Qaseem, a region north of Riyadh. The conference was entitled, ‘Women in the Prophet’s tradition and the modern woman: Saudi Arabia a model’, and had fifteen countries participating. The assembled company came to the conclusion that Saudi Arabia should withdraw from the CEDAW agreement that it signed in 2000 – a development probably due to the religious establishment’s feeling that the government might cave in to increasing international pressure to allow Saudi women to participate in the upcoming London 2012 Olympics. TO READ ON click here

The first school I went to in Riyadh was, of course, an all-girls school. I was very happy to see it had a swimming pool. It was drained and fenced up and, because it was autumn, I thought nothing more of it. But as the weather got warmer, it became obvious that the pool would not be used that year….to read on CLICK HERE.

Ahmed, center, mourns his father Abdulaziz Abu Ahmed Khrer, who was killed by a Syrian Army sniper, during his funeral in Idlib, north Syria, Thursday, March 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

I normally write about Saudi but the situation is getting dire in an area that’s increasingly becoming a blind spot for the rest of the world. In Syria the death toll is 8,000 and growing and the refugee count has reached 34000. Yet instead of at least covering what’s going on, there’s been a trend to sensationalize the Asaads and even question the opposition’s integrity. Yes maybe out of desperation some Syrians have acted or scripted their videos but that does not change the fact that they are desperate and fighting for their lives against a ruthless regime. Long before the Arab Spring, it was common knowledge, even a fact of life, that Syria has a cruel oppressive government. The worst that Saddam’s Iraq did, was inspired by what Asaad’s Syria did years before.

The thing is, this is not only a humanitarian crisis, it’s a world peace cause. There’s a rhetoric within the Middle East that harks back to the same kind of demagoguery that created AlQaeda. There are religious leaders all over the Middle East preaching about how something has to be done for Syria. Sheikh AlBraik here actually cries as he says that “there is a fateful Godly reason why victory has been delayed in Syria; so that our hearts may lose hope in the UN and the Security Council and we turn to God”. Another video by a highly popular Kuwaiti sheikh, Nabeel Al Oudhi, refers to the Prophet’s hadith that at the end of the world it is best to be a soldier in Syria. And here another extremely popular sheikh, Alarefe, recites a poem in support of the Syrian opposition and likens Asaad to the Quranic (and biblical) account of the pharaoh.

If the international community does not act soon, this stalemate will lead to a return to the Bush-era polarization of West vs. East. I know that the polarization has not completely gone away but what happened in Egypt and Libya and the rise of social media had things looking up. More and more young people had started to believe in a humane supportive one world regardless of ethnicity and religion. The world needs to stick to the same action plan of quick thinking, creativity and international cooperation that got us through Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

A whole year has passed of children being tortured and journalists targeted and killed. Cartoonists and poets have been disfigured and murdered. And nothing is done except talk.

Aida, 32, recovers from severe injuries after the Syrian Army shelled her house in Idlib north Syria, where her husband and two children were killed after their home was shelled. Source: AP

Eleven women give their thoughts on achievements where they live in an interactive map. Click on Saudi Arabia to read what I wrote on the occasion. CLICK HERE

If you have a spare 15 minutes, you can listen to my chat with Waleed Aly and  Anthony Bubalo about life in Saudi Arabia for women on the Australian radio channel RN.

Listen HERE

Prison, lashings and Interior Ministry phone threats, fines and pledges drove the women driving movement underground again.  This time around though, unlike in 1990, it was only for a few months before Saudi rights activists geared up again to call for this basic right of no gender discriminations in who gets to drive their cars.

A couple of days back, there were unconfirmed reports that the king has issued a decision to not prosecute women who drive in the general courts. Yesterday morning the news was confirmed by the press. A committee of experts (no word on experts in what exactly) will look into issues related to social conventions and that do to not go against Shariah law.  This of course will probably not sit well with the ultra conservatives since they have been drilling into Saudi people from the first grade that religion has something to say about every single little humdrum detail of our daily lives. However from the wording of the report it is clear that this committee is most likely set up to solely deal with the women driving ban issue. In the report, Mr. Katib Al Shamri, a lawyer, states:

“The most important benefit of this decision is to ease the burden on the judges in issues unrelated to the Sharia and that might cause embarrassment to the judiciary and judges of the Kingdom abroad.”

As the judiciary system in Saudi is mostly run by patriarchal ultra conservatives, anyone else is going to be more sympathetic when it comes to ruling in a woman driving case. And the reference to “embarrassment…abroad” just shows that international news reports and foreign commentary has influence on the support for lifting the ban. This small opening has a part in encouraging the driving movement to rise up again, even though it was already planning to do so in the next few weeks either way.

On Feb 4^th Samar Badawy, with the support of her activist/husband Waleed Abualkhair, filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Interior’s Traffic department for illegally preventing her from applying for a driver’s license since there is no gender requirement in the written laws of the traffic system. The fearless couple have a history of human rights activism including a seven month imprisonment of Samar for refusing the abusive guardianship of her father.

Last June, Manal Al Sharif with the legal counsel of Abdurahman Allahim applied for a driver’s license. As was to be expected, she was ignored. So the next step that they took was to file a lawsuit at the Court Administration (Grievances Board) in the Eastern Province on 15 November 2011. The lawsuit is to object to the negative decision issued by the General Directorate of Traffic in refusing to grant her a driver’s license. The lawsuit also includes an action of objection to the General Directorate of Traffic’s persistence in ignoring all other requests for driver’s licenses made by other Saudi women.

With the ever increasing support of lawyers, officials, royal family members, and religious scholars, the women driving movement is getting louder and more sophisticated. These lawsuits cannot be dismissed in the same way that the women who went out in the streets and actually drove were. The ball is in the government’s court now. It’s unlikely and unwise that they’ll punish women for filing lawsuits.

If you are a Saudi woman reading this, I urge you to join the Right to Dignity initiative by sending a telegram or a registered letter to the General Administration of Traffic. For more information on the how to please read this.

However if this sounds too intimidating you can still have your voice heard by simply making a call to the traffic department requesting that women be allowed to apply for driving licenses. You can find the numbers here.

On a lighter note, MIA released a music video yesterday in support of “badass” Saudi women. Since our own countrymen call us Iranian/American agents, evil, infidels, licentious, conspiring, and immoral, MIA actually comes out as mild in comparison.

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz addressed the 150 members of the all-appointed advisory council (Shura) in September to announce that he rejects the marginalization of Saudi women. He said that after seeking advice from religious scholars within the country’s highest Islamic council and others outside of it, he had come to the decision to include women in the Shura and allow them full participation in future municipal elections.

This announcement came as a complete surprise to most Saudis. When word got out that the King was to address the Shura, most thought it was to speak about the housing crisis, a major concern and a point of grievance for many. And although there is a women’s suffrage campaign headed by Dr. Hatoon Al Fassi and Fawziah Al Hani, it was recently overshadowed by the campaign against the ban on women driving. So women’s suffrage and their appointment to the Shura was the last thing anyone was thinking about then. READ MORE

The ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia is a topic that has become tedious due to the uncountable times it has been written about since the 1980s.

Saudi Arabia is infamous for its gender discrimination when it comes to who gets to sit in the driver’s seat. The only thing that rivals it in what the country is known for globally is our never-ending supply of oil. What is ironic is that on both sides, Saudis who oppose and those who are calling for lifting the ban, is that they are in agreement that the whole issue is petty. READ MORE