Saudiwoman's Weblog

The world’s shortest conference on Islam ever: Listen to 60 speakers in 60 seconds each as they predict “The Future of Islam In the Age of New Media”. Amir Ahmed, a digital media and marketing consultant, is the man behind the project. Click on the logo below to listen to the program and receive an MP3 version via Email. My contribution is the second one, right after Reza Aslan.

Manal Al Sherif, according to first reports of her sentence, was supposed to be released today. The local media has taken an official stance on Manal’s case. While columnists in these very same schizophrenic newspapers have taken the opposite position by supporting Manal and advocating lifting the ban on women driving. In one estimate, there were over 60 columns supporting Manal on Tuesday and Wednesday. Meanwhile the official stance is that Manal has confessed and repented. The story goes that Manal has broken down sobbingly and said that she was mislead and misinformed by a group of Saudi women, some of whom are in the USA to go ahead with the campaign and driving video. It’s also claimed that she requested that they be brought in for questioning too. Her support campaign and personal friends have denied all this and insist that Manal remains strong. Manal’s lawyer has not denied or confirmed either reports but he did make the following statement:

My client reserves her right in not making any comment at the moment and will take legal steps against any information that goes against reporting ethics and professionalism. He added: What concerns me as a lawyer is to raise the humanitarian sense in dealing with the case until my client is able to return home. “

The latest news is that Sabq, a local news organization claims that it has insider information that Manal’s prison sentence has been extended ten day, starting from Thursday 26^th, May.

The ultra-conservatives have come out in full force against Manal. Sheikh Nasser Al Omer gave a sermon on the matter of women driving. At the beginning of the video he claims that he read in an American newspaper about an American expert who says that the USA is drawing up plans to occupy Saudi oil fields, and that the Iranian TV channels are also making threats. So that raising the issue of women driving is not about rights or whether or not it’s prohibited by Islam; it is a conspiracy against the country, started by Shia who are supported by liberals, secularists, Jews and the West. His argument is that the women driving issue always gets heated when the country is under threat, referring back to the 1990 women driving protest during the Gulf war and now.

Then you have Sheikh Monjed who is originally Syrian describe Manal as a sinful, conspiring and malicious hypocrite and those who support her as evil, infidels, and licentious, conspiring, immoral people who only follow their desires and whims. His words were so harsh and heavy on the accusations that there was a backlash and the next day he issued a statement where he does not apologize but at least shows some remorse. He insists that June 17th was not chosen randomly. That the campaign date is evidence of a Shia conspiracy because it falls on the Hijri date 15th of Rajab which he claims is a Shia holiday or has religious implications for Shia, very Dan Brown, Islamic version.

There are many more but the above had the biggest impact including another Shiekh, Dr. Ghazi Al Shamari, calling on the authorities to publicly lash Manal in a women-only mall. He also backtracked the next day by saying that since Manal has apologized we should show her mercy and forgive her.

On the other hand, you have sheikhs who have come out in support of Manal and lifting the driving ban. Shiekh Dr. Eissa Al Ghaith, a judge, posted an article on his Facebook page in support of women driving. Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Al Ahmari was very outspoken in his support for Manal and lifting the ban on driving. And in the recent past you had several sheikhs including the highly respected Albani who laughed at the suggestion that women driving should be prohibited in Islam. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Baz also supports women driving and says that his father’s original decree banning it is no longer relevant.

Many members of the Royal family also support lifting the ban. King Abdullah in a 2005 interview with Barbra Walters said that it was only a matter of time and that Saudi women have to be patient. His daughter Princess Adelah stated to the press that she hopes that the ban will be lifted. Princess Loloah, daughter of the great King Faisal told France 24 that she would like to see the ban lifted.

Despite all this support for lifting the ban, the Deputy Interior Minister Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz issued a statement this morning:

“Any claims may be received from any party, regardless of them being right or wrong .. but women driving cars in Saudi Arabia has already been decided on in 1411 to not allow women driving. This for us, the Ministry of the Interior, continues to stand.” He added: “Our mission is to implement the system, but whether this action is right or wrong is not for us to say.”

However award winning human rights lawyer Abdulrahmin Allahim see things differently. He wrote a very careful and studied analysis that shows that the 1411 Hijri (1990 Gregorian) law is cancelled because first of all, a year after the 1411 law the Kingdom issued the Principle Governmental System which abrogates all that came before it. Another point is that Saudi signed the international Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women  agreement, CEDAW,  in 2000. And since driving is not Islamically prohibited as an act for men nor for women, the ban goes against the agreement.

Human rights activist, Waleed Abu Alkhair has gathered over 1300 signatures from Saudi citizens, stating their full names and occupation, and the list is still growing. The plan is to deliver the petition to the Saudi Royal Court. Abualkhair, referring to the excuse that Saudi men are uncontrollable wolves tweeted:

And it has become clear that our society is not as bad as is portrayed to the outside world. A woman has driven and no one has harmed her except the politicians.

Writer, Khalaf Al Harbi, also took up this argument and tore it apart in a piece that was so good that Arab News translated it.

I want to end this post by noting who Manal is. Manal comes from the tribe that is known as the descendents of the Prophet (PBUH), so no one can say that she is an immigrant or an outsider trying to force her culture on us. Lineage aside, Manal is a woman that our country should be proud of. She is one of the first women in the world to be a Certified Ethical Hacker–EC-Council CISSP–(ISC)² Certified ISO 27001 Implementer and Lead Auditor -BSI & ISO. She is an IT security consultant at the biggest oil company in Saudi, ARAMCO. Here is a link to an interview she did in 2007 on MBC. This is an intelligent capable woman asking for something that should have been a given; driving her own car. Shame on her for speaking out for her right. Shame on her for not putting up with 38,000 SAR (10,000$) annual tax for being a woman in Saudi. Shame on her for standing up for women much less fortunate then her, when she easily could have been quiet in her high-paying job and comfortable compound. Shame on her for being a courageous patriotic woman.

According to Sabq, a local news organization, Manal Al Sherif has been sentenced to five days in prison. She has been charged with bypassing rules and regulations, driving a car within the city, enabling a journalist to interview her while driving  a car, deliberately disseminating the incident to the media,  incitement of Saudi women to drive cars, and turning public opinion against the regulations. As of writing this, this outcome has not been confirmed by her lawyer or her support campaign. Also Manal’s Twitter account was duplicated. (links to original and fake) Someone pretending to be her tweeted that she has repented once she realized that the call to lift the ban is an Iranian and atheist conspiracy that will lead society to moral decadence.

Update:

Human rights activist, Waleed Abu Alkhair, has prepared a letter and petitionto be sent to King Abdullah. Within hours of posting the letter, it has gotten over three hundred signatures from Saudi citizens and the list is still growing. This a translation of the letter originally translated by Rafah:

To the Custodian of the two holy mosques Peace be upon you We the children of this country have been very hurt by the news of the arrest of your citizen Manal Masoud Al Sharif on Saturday 22//5/2011 on the grounds of her driving her car in the streets of Khobar in the company of her brother. And while we were relieved at her release in the evening, we were shocked by her detention again at dawn in a very humiliating way for both our country and its people, since she was asked to sign a warrant and was instead tricked and arrested against her will, Manal is at Dammam’s Correctional to this very moment.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,

you have stated in 2007 to the Russian News Network that the issue of Women Driving is a social one and that the state was to facilitate the suitable environment for any decision that the society deems appropriate. The Minister of Interior have also stated that the issue is a social one and not religious, which theoretically means that if the society wants to lift the ban then there should be no obstacles. The same thing was repeated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs: that the decision for women to drive the car is up to her family. Abdullah Al Munee’a, a member of the Higher Council of Ulama, have said that there is no objection from the religious point of view for women to drive. In addition, article 38 of the Basic Law states: there should be no personal or criminal punishment that is not based on a religious or official decree; and since the issue of women’d driving is not a violation of any official law or any religious law, then women should not be arrested for driving their cars based on article 36 that prohibits the baseless restriction on actions and arrest.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,

we call on you to release your daughter and citizen Manal Al Sharif immediately and lift the injustice that have been placed on her, since she drove her car with her brother’s company and consent, and she has a recognized driving license in accordance with the Traffic law as outlined by article 2 section 34 of the law. We also believe that the time has come to resolve the issue of women’s driving for once and for all in a clear manner. To say that its a social issue and is not prohibited by religion, and then for women to get arrested is completely unjust and it leaves us trapped in a vicious circle. We are in desperate need for a clear law that either prohibits or allows women to drive.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,

you have said your famous saying that women are your wife, mother and daughter. Your daughter Manal Al Sharif is in jail for no crime that she committed. Will you remove this injustice? We all hope for the prompt freedom of Manal.

May God Bless You and Look after You..

[The signatories]

A couple of weeks back an event page was created on Facebook calling on women to drive their cars on June 17^th. The page was started by a group of individuals, one of whom was Manal Al Sharif. As news of the page got around, it caused a lot of controversy and more Facebook pages. The pages that were created are reflective of the different types of reaction such a call has caused in Saudis. One of the pages is a campaign for Saudi to whip women who drive on June 17^th and another is simply an anti women driving campaign page. The former has over 1900 supporters and the latter has 2800 supporters. On top of that we have a sheikh Dr. Al Habdan who has made it his personal mission to make sure no woman drives in Saudi. He has called on the PVPV to stop these “rebellious women”.  Many of those opposing women driving claim that it is a Zionist/Western/ Iranian/Shia conspiracy to disrupt Saudi society and corrupt the morals and honor of Saudi women. Also that any woman that speaks out for lifting the ban is not a pure Saudi but rather a woman who is nontribal or an immigrant. Because according to them no pure Saudi woman wants to drive.

So this is what Manal Al Sharif was up against and yet she courageously kept on going. Here is Manal on CNN.  She later posted a video with instruction on how to participate in the June 17^th movement :

1- There will be no gathering or demonstrations. Each woman that wants to participate should just get in her car and go about her daily business without the driver.

2- Only women who have valid driving licenses from other countries are to drive.

3- That there are volunteers who will teach other women to drive until the government sets up an official system for women to obtain local driving licenses

4- Everyone should drive with their safety belts on and drive carefully.

5- Women who drive are encouraged to videotape it and upload it to Youtube.

Then she addresses Saudi men. She thanks those that support the cause. For those Saudi men who oppose it, she calls on their famous Arab chivalry and graciousness to not stand in the way of women. She tells them that there is no threat in a woman driving. She asks them if they are happy about the current situation where women are forced to be at the mercy of unreliable drivers or stand on the pavement in the hot sun waiting for a taxi. Manal told them this is your opportunity to show the world how you are capable of respecting women and being civil.

Most importantly Manal points out that the traffic laws say nothing about the gender of the driver. And that King Abdullah, Prince Naif and Prince Sultan all have issued statement where they said that women driving is not a governmental issue but rather a cultural and societal one.

Brave Manal later wanted it to take it a step further and actually went out driving and posted the video on May 19^th. The video is of her driving a car in the Eastern Region with Wajeha Al Huwaider in the passenger seat. They spoke about how AlRiyadh newspaper had a piece that morning on how a woman saved her brother by driving his car when he had an epileptic fit in the driver’s seat.

Anyhow the next day when she drove a car again this is what happened according to an interview just published by Alhayat newspaper:

Mamal spoke to the newspaper via telephone from her place of detention:, she had been stopped from five in the afternoon until seven o’clock in the evening, and then contact with the newspaper was lost. She had reported that she was driving along with her brother and his wife and their children. They were stopped by traffic police who had seen that she was holding the steering wheel. She said: «He asked me if I was a foreigner, and when I replied no, he asked for the car registration. So I gave him my license and my brother’s license with the car registration. He asked: “Don’t you know the country’s system? I asked him if there is any reason to ban me as a woman from driving my  own car». She added: «I told him: There is no law that prevents women from driving a car».

She said: «The traffic police called the PVPV, who asked us to ride with them in their car, but I refused, because what I’ve done does not fall under their jurisdiction, and the fact that driving is not a moral crime within the authority of the Commission». She said: «After an hour the traffic police allowed my brother’s wife and children to leave». She noted that the two men from the PVPV demanded that she and her brother get in their car so that they can take then to the traffic police station.
Al Hayat Newspaper also reported that the spokesman for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,  Mohsen M. Al Qafari, stated that the issue will be resolved through other governmental entities and that their presence in these cases is only for support, but not essential».

Some of the interesting reactions on Twitter while and after Manal was detained:

Thamer Al Marzouki referring to when he went himself to support Manal as soon as news of her detention broke:

I was told at the crime investigation center that she had been transferred to traffic, and there I met Khuloud Al Fahad and Haifa Khaled who both refused to stay silent and said: No, Manal is our countrywoman and we will stand by her.

Kholoud Al Fahad tweeted:

Manal related how humiliatingly the PVPV treated her, and they were degrading to us too as we waited outside. They treated us as if we were an abomination of Satan.

Manal was later released that night.  However as I’m writing this at 2:15 am, her campaign’s Twitter account reports that she is being taken away by two women prison officer escorted by police.

During the time I was away, among other things, I took a little trip to Holland. While I was there I paid a visit to Anne Frank’s house. Anne was a German Jewish teenager at the time of the Holocaust. Her family left Germany and hid in the upper levels of a house in Amsterdam for two years. Her family was betrayed and she died at the age of fifteen in a concentration camp after witnessing her only sister die.

Anne wrote a diary during the time she was in hiding with her family in Amsterdam, originally for herself but later to document what it was like for a Jewish person during World War Two.  I have always felt for people who suffered in the Holocaust and it’s not difficult to understand the motivation behind the creation of the State of Israel, coming from such a terrible and tragic history. Anne Frank however humanized it even more for me.  But how I feel doesn’t really matter in this equation. What matters today is how the Holocaust is used to persecute Palestinians. No matter how terrible the Holocaust was, it remains a “was” while Palestinian suffering is an “is”. What Anne Frank did by wanting her diary published is give a face to history, if only there was a way to give a face to what’s going on right now.

Ground Zero is not where the World Trade Center stood in New York, the real Ground Zero, the place where West and East clash and the origin and motivation of all misunderstandings between us is the Palestinian/Israeli  conflict. This is why Arabs radicalize, it is why they hate not only Israelis but also Americans. One of the world’s strongest armies occupying an Arab country since 1948 and backed by the world’s strongest nation both financially and politically. Their only argument for their atrocities is that God promised us this land. What would you do if someone came and kicked you out of your home, off your land and even denied your very existence because “God told him to”? What Arab people have done is to radicalize in return. It is very likely that I could be sitting here today in a much more free and open Saudi Arabia, if the West had not dehumized Arabs and given away their lands as compensation to Holocaust survivors.  See, it’s difficult to convince a muttawa that the infidels don’t hate us and aren’t out to get us when they show you in return photos of Palestinian refugee camps, exterminated villages and towns, going from black and white photos up to the latest photos from Gaza.

I digress but it’s hard not to when you’re writing about something you feel so passionately about. Anne Frank touched me deeply and I wanted to get an Arabic translation of her diary so that I could share it with other Saudis. I was discouraged when I went into the museum and found that even Japanese was included as a translation option but not Arabic, a language spoken in over 26 countries. When I got to the gift shop, the only Arabic version of Anne’s diary had poor quality print and no photos. It’s important that we see where both of us are coming from so that we can move forward. Right now to young Arabs, Israelis are not descendents of Holocaust survivors but a genocidal, racist and occupying army. And I bet to young Israelis, Palestinians are not the natives of the lands they’ve taken but irrational fundamentalist terrorists. Khaled Mahameed, a Palestinian from Nazareth is trying to change that by educating Palestinians about the Holocaust and educating Israelis about Palestinian suffering. Here you can watch him at work.

Although the difficulties of being a Saudi woman seem like heaven compared to being a Jewish woman in Nazi Germany, I couldn’t help but understand a little bit about how it must have been like when I saw the star that they had to wear to mark them as Jews and this quote from Anne’s diary that was highlighted by the museum:

“Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees. Jews were required to wear a yellow star. Jews were required to turn in their bicycles. Jews were forbidden to use trams. Jews were forbidden to use swimming pools, tennis courts, hockey fields or any other athletic fields. Jews were forbidden to visit Christians in their homes. Jews were required to attend Jewish schools. You couldn’t do this and you couldn’t do that.”  June 20, 1942

Social media has been credited (and blamed) for many things. However the best thing that social media has done is enable us to realize our common humanity. Instead of being some silent burqa clad woman on your TV screen, I’m now talking to you directly.  And from the heart of the most conservative Islamic region in the world, I’m telling you that we can’t move forward towards global peace until the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is resolved.

Anne’s father and the only surviving member of her family:

“We cannot change what happened anymore. The only thing we can do is to learn from the past and to realize what discrimination and persecution of innocent people means. I believe that it’s everyone’s responsibility to fight prejudice.” Otto Frank, 1970

Recommended reading and viewing:

BBC Documentary:  Louis Theroux: The Ultra Zionists

NYT news report: Israel Clashes With Protesters on Four Borders By Ethan Bronner Published: May 15, 2011

and a reply to it: The New York Times‘s shameless Nakba distortion by Matthew Taylor on MAY 15, 2011

Opinion piece by Roger Cohen: The Post-Bin Laden World

I’m busy with some off-line stuff but will be back soon.

These past couple of weeks have convinced me that the government has made a huge scientific discovery, the time machine, and is now using it to pull the whole country back into the eighties. The King’s decrees, which included a generous package for the ultra-conservatives and gave absolute  impunity to the senior clerics council from media criticism, were just an indication of what was coming. Since then, it has been made official instead of being just a religious recommendation; women are banned by law from working as cashiers. This was due to a complaint and proposal by sheikh Yusuf Al Ahmed to the Interior Ministry.

A forum, “Women and Development”, on March 13th here in Riyadh called on the authorities to grant women incentives and stipends to encourage them to stay at home, and to push forward early retirement by reducing service to just 15 years. Also they suggested a special system of part time work just for women and to  limit their hospital work to women only wards and ER.

The only moderate muttawa in the PVPV, Dr. Ahmed Al Ghamdi, has been relieved of his post as head of the Makkah PVPV division. He was the only PVPV member who stated openly that women are allowed in Islam to not cover their faces and that there is no such thing as extreme gender segregation in Islam. The latter view is also shared and researched in depth by another high official in the ministry of Justice, Shiekh Eissa Al Ghaith.

Yesterday the interior ministry has announced (ambiguously) that over five thousand detainees were released in the past after they repented from terrorism and others are awaiting trial. Why was this statement made now though? Many of those in political prisons in Saudi were arrested because they belonged to the same ultra-conservative group in the eighties and nineties that produced people like Osama Bin Laden. The free ultra-conservatives are currently apolitical and have focused their energy on the safe and easy misogyny trend except when it comes to the matter of their imprisoned brothers. So this statement can be categorized as of more of the aforementioned appeasement of the ultra-conservatives. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s a huge leap forward and I completely support and celebrate their release. Imprisoning anyone without a clear case and fair trial only creates more terrorism. I just hope that the human rights activist  Mikhlif Al Shammary would also be released.

Another blast from the past is that women again will be banned from voting. The municipality elections were announced to start on April 23^rd and it was confirmed that women will be completely excluded from the process. For a country that states that it’s constitution is the Quran, excluding women does not fit in with the statement; the Prophet (PBUH) and later caliphs took pledges of leadership (very close to the concept of voting)  from both women and men. These are the second elections to take place in the kingdom, and the first excluded women too under the pretense that the logistics of including women and avoiding gender mingling would postpone the elections too long. This was six years ago, and all these years obviously have not been enough time to prepare for the impossible task of actually treating women as full citizens.

I  prefer to end on a happy note. The Saudi Women Revolution is now a healthy cooing toddler.  A group of women headed by one of Saudi’s biggest women rights activists Dr. Hatoon Al Fasi have decided to start their own municipalities parallel to the government’s.  If only we would start parallel cities where women can enjoy their full rights, I bet more and more Saudis will want to move there until the parallel becomes the majority and the current status becomes a margin.

Also this video is a actually a collaboration between a multi generational group of Saudi women who prefer to remain anonymous for now but are currently planning and working towards a bigger online presence.

I can’t wait until the women revolution here hits it’s teen growth spurt.

Finally, in case you missed it, the BBC had an excellent video documentary and radio show on Saudi women. I’m featured in both but more so on the radio show.

Last Friday, the King made a three minute pre-recorded speech thanking Saudis for their loyalty in an obvious reference to no one coming out to demonstrate on the Friday before. After the speech, two tv presenters took turns announcing a number of royal decrees. The night before the king’s speech and announcements were made, all newspaper editors were told not to use the term “royal generosity” or anything similar to refer to financial packages. These little things are evidence that up high they really are listening to what we down here are saying.

Last Friday’s royal decrees were surprising in their traditionalism while we were anticipating the opposite. Retrospectively though, anyone who would have stepped back and looked at the big picture would have been able to foresee these decrees.

Besides the fun and bribe-like two month salary that almost every Saudi employee and university student is getting, the rest of the decrees are pretty much same old same old. A commission to fight corruption being set up, more interior ministry officers and a lot of money promised to infrastructure; where have I heard that before? The commission that was set up a couple years ago to examine the corruption behind the loss of millions assigned to Jeddah’s municipality has yet to name a culprit. We’ve all read about the millions poured into projects that never see the light of day like this outline prepared by fellow blogger Trad Al Asmari in which three different construction companies take turns being paid to build a ministry for education at a  total cost of about 350 million US dollars.

The rest of the decrees are to benefit the ultra-conservatives of Saudi.  First in a move reminiscent of medieval times, the highest religious council has been royally decreed as untouchable, anyone criticizing the senior clerics will be punished. Then we have the religious establishment’s own personal financial package which includes 53 million dollars for the PVPV, 80 million for Islamic missionary centers, 130 million to fix up mosques and finally 53 million to support Quran memorization and teaching centers. It made me wonder what the PVPV will do with their 2010 600 strong  fleet of patrol jeeps?  Meanwhile anyone who has been in a Saudi police station, visited the prisons or at the very least checked out the orphanage in Makkah can tell you how just how far a fraction of all that money could go. But like I said before this is all explainable and foreseeable. If you were in control of Saudi, who would you care more about appeasing? The Islamists who have since the initiation of the country shown how quickly they can become radicalized and violent, or the moderates and liberal who are just as anxious about the Islamists as the state is?

I’m not worried though. Good things come to those who wait. What with 125,000 Saudi students abroad being exposed to a world beyond a Saudi life deeply entrenched in prideful denial, traditions and the opposite of critical thinking. And then about 40% of the population under 14 being raised in the new media age, change is just a matter of time.

On Twitter, a lot of the Saudi tweeps were critical about the announcements. My favorites include:

Mahmoud Sabbagh tweeted: the senior clerics  bill for the prohibition of demonstrations fatwa has turned out to be really high.

Mohammad Al-Qahtani  tweeted: All oppressive Arab regimes are trying to maintain the “status quo” by intimidation, bribery, employing armies of all kinds of mercenaries!

Abdullah bin Abid tweeted: What’s required is a constitution and a system that protects the rights of citizens and those in positions of responsibility, and assigns duties. We don’t need more security forces; security is in rights and political participation.

Abdulrahmin Allahim tweeted: A cleric is a citizen just as I’m a citizen. Why is he and his colleagues distinguished when it should be that the basic principles of citizenship ensure that he and I are equal  before the law? I have yet to find an answer since the decree was announced.

Friday was Saudi Arabia’s “day of rage”, planned for and anticipated for weeks. But, in the event, there wasn’t even a grumble – unless you count the ongoing protests in the eastern province which had been going on for a week.

The protests in the east, where the Saudi Shia minority is concentrated, were mostly to call for the release of political prisoners. However, across the country there was silence. Many were expecting it to be so, but some wonder why.
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