Saudi Arabian Women’s Rights
After watching for so many years, I have more than enough reasons to be more than slightly suspicious of anything that appears in the Arab News.
And with that disclaimer, I present the latest evidence of social change in Saudi Arabia, as an Arab News writer reveals that women are human beings! Just like him, almost: Closing the Doors on Saudi Women.
Just a few hours after two Saudi women employees left a restaurant in the Eastern Province city of Sehat through the rear door, police and municipal officials came and locked the restaurant for three days and expelled the women on the ground that they violated the regulations.
The official reason given by the authorities was that the two women employees did not possess a health certificate as the law stipulates. But the real reason, which everyone knows, is that women are not allowed to work in a commercial establishment like this restaurant.
Fifty years ago, a black woman in the state of Alabama boarded a bus. She sat in the first seat that was available, which was in the front of the bus. The driver asked her to sit in the back, which was reserved for black people because the front seats were for only white people according to the state law. She refused to give up her seat and to get off the bus. A dispute erupted over the issue and it ended with the judge issuing a rule to ban racial discrimination.
Here, we see two women trying to work in a public place according to the law and away from mixing up with men. Despite that, they were thrown out under a frivolous reason, which everyone knows is just an excuse to restrict women. This is a clear discrimination and is against the Islamic principle, which says everything is permissible unless there is a clear statement in the Qur’an or Sunnah banning it. It is also against one thousand years of Saudi women’s tradition of working in public market.
The extremism we witness around us now is what we have been accustomed to for the past several years, especially in social matters. This extremism is quite in keeping with intellectual terrorism, which leads to political and security terrorism as we see now.
keep in mind that Arab News is one of Saudi Arabia’s main conduits to the English-speaking world, and it’s undoubtedly tightly controlled by the Saudi Authority.
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6 Comments on “Saudi Arabian Women’s Rights”
woman,s saudi will continues her position thus,when we girl,s saudi stay without talking.
Anything in the Saudi press today must be taken with a grain of salt. It would seem that more often than not these Saudi papers look like they are coming out of the US State Department. The only questionable material is completely left out of the English language version. A quick look at the new English language version of Asharq al Awsat on-line is a good example.
Saudi press would rather have women reading Sayyidity all day and ignoring real issues.
abusinan.blogspot.com
I think a free press is commendable and cannot be ignored. The people have to be heard and this sort of discrimination has no place in our day and time regardless of what issue it links, be it religion politics etc. To hell with it all, human rights have to be respected by all governmentswith no attrition to the populace if they stand up to such backward practices.
A response to Gladwyn,
I could not have said it better myself. No matter what happens such as this event, the locals, even the moderates, shake their heads and say, “It was just stupid people, we don’t accept this sort of thing here”. Bulls–t, you are accepting it by ignoring it and making excuses. As I see it, the entire nation is lacking in their own self-esteem if they cannot face the facts and stand up to them. You should not behave as children in a country run by the mutawa and sulk. You are adults and act as such. I just cannot believe that this country has not matured in the 25 years since I was there. Wouldn’t ya just think they could have progressed just a little bit beyond their gleaming shopping malls? Where are all you educated people? This is just utterly embarassing for you. I realize it is an old post, but I don’t really care. I’m PISSED and just wanted to say so. Thank you.
I think the situation is worse in Saudi and it’s giving Islam a very bad picture..some people conspire to think that anything Saudi does..is Islam..which is wrong..