Improved Situation for Saudi Women?

Director’s Comment: UN Human Right’s Rapporteur, Dr. Yakin Erturk, was recently invited by the Saudi government to witness the “progress” made by Saudi women in recent years. Like all visitors invited by the Saudi government, Dr. Erturk met with many government officials, who are either afraid to speak out or have financial and other interests in maintaining the statuesque as is. Like other government invitees, she was treated royally, praised for her efforts, and told that the problems women and other Saudi citizens face have nothing to do with religion or tradition. Due to their ignorance of Saudi society and the tyrannical political system that rules it, many people in the West, regardless of their nationality, take the word of these Saudi officials for face value.

Like many before her, Dr. Erturk has no clue as to the dreadful political, religious, gender, economic, social, regional and ethnic indoctrinations the subdued Saudi people go through from birth to death. She does not know that Saudi men and women are among the most self-regulated and censored people in the world. Those who stray from this deadly self-regulation end up in prison or face physical interrogation, and are subject to life long stigma. In addition, many face the loss of their jobs, prohibition from traveling, speaking to media or get involved in any activity, big or small. One recent example is the incarceration of Mr. Fouad Al-Farhan, a Saudi blogger who writes about human rights violations, as well as the severe gender segregation, inequality, and violation of the most basic human rights in Saudi Arabia.

While some reforms have been introduced to Saudi society under King Abdullah’s reign, the source of the Saudi people’s oppression remains intact. The ruling family and its source of legitimacy and protection, the religious extremists, control every aspect of the Saudi people’s lives. Institutionalized gender segregation, control of educational institutions and court systems, as well as the patrolling of streets are relentlessly enforced by the secret and ferocious religious police.

We agree with Dr. Erturk, that religion and tradition both play a role in the Saudi people’s lives, and that there are women who are opposed to driving or removing their “ghost like” garments. We also agree that there are women who would rather not mingle with men, who do not desire to work, and who have been brainwashed into believing that men are superior to them. These women are present in almost every society.

The question is, what about the rights of women who want and need to drive, work, mingle with men, dance, wear revealing clothing, date before they are forced into arranged marriage, or simply jog on the beach with their hair blowing in the wind? Like most invitees to Saudi Arabia, Dr. Erturk was impressed by the well groomed Saudi hosts who treated her royally and showered her with praise. Read More

The Fortress of Extremism

Director’s Comment: Imam Mohammed Ibn Saud University in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, is an extremist institution that rejects modernity and equality for women, frowns on other brands and sects of Islam (other than the austere Hambaly-Wahhabi brand) and promotes hatred and violence. Most, if not all, of Saudi suicide bombers, including the ones that inflict death and destruction in and outside of Saudi Arabia, graduate from this revered university. The professors of this dangerous institution are religious extremists who are also in charge of the interpretation and implementation of many Islamic policies. Women are prevented from entering this Saudi government-managed and funded school, and non-Muslims dare not come close to its perimeter without heavy protection.

One may wonder why the government of Saudi Arabia does not close this institution or completely transform it, given its extremist teachings. The government has the ability to do so, but has chosen not to. The Saudi ruling family’s legitimacy and continuity depend on religious extremism. Thus, closing this university would deny the government its power base. For instance, the religious police in Saudi Arabia are the most ferocious of the government’s tools for terrorizing its citizens. This agency is considered, by Saudis and others who have been victimized by it, to be a state-sponsored terrorist organization that hunts down, humiliates, incarcerates, and even gets away with killing innocent citizens. The government, for the first time, admits that this university is a hornet’s nest. Why not close or transform this dangerous school, if defeating extremism is actually the government’s goal? Read More, Arabic

Benefit Saudi Women?

Director’s Comment: Like Harvard and Georgetown universities, UC Berkeley is compromising its democratic and academic principles for Saudi money. UC and its Near Eastern Department have done nothing to promote academic freedom in Saudi Arabia, nor have they done anything to promote freedom of expression, civil society, women’s and minority rights, or religious freedom. On the other hand, this influential institution is willing to take Saudi money, which in effect validates the Saudi government’s policies and its austere interpretation of the Quran and Shari’a law. CDHR supports academic cooperation and the exchange of philosophies, ideas, and shared values, but the process must be an equal or “two-way tunnel” if you will. Why don’t these institutions have study departments in Saudi universities to teach Saudi students about different religions, human rights, rights for women and minorities, non-sectarian constitutions, and religious freedom?

In reality, prestigious universities like Harvard and Georgetown have become propagandists for the Saudi extremist brand of Islam, Wahhabism, and for the Saudi absolute monarchy’s policies. I find it odd to hear the head of the UC mechanical engineering department, Dr. Pisano, and Chancellor Robert Birgeneau saying that their school’s affiliation with the yet to be opened King Abdullah university will benefit Saudi women and will not discriminate against Jews and other non-Muslim nationals. Why have these influential institutions of higher learning not organized seminars and invited human rights and democracy advocates to speak about the Saudi-Wahhabi oppressive, undemocratic and discriminatory system? King Abdullah University may benefit a few Saudi aristocrats and some foreign students and professors, but not the majority of the disenfranchised and subdued Saudi people. In fact, most Saudis will never see the school because it is built fifty miles away from any metropolitan center and away from main roads. Berkeley is in it for the money, consequently validating one of the most undemocratic, discriminatory, and oppressive systems in the world. Read More

They Are Allowed to Hurt, but not to Improve their Health

Director’s Comment: If ironies did not exist prior to the founding of the Saudi-Wahhabi State in 1932, they would have been invented at that time. Case in point is the status of Saudi women. For example, women can be doctors, nurses and professors to save men’s lives and educate them, yet they cannot go to medical or other schools without a man’s permission, as they are not trusted to make rational decisions and look after their own affairs. Here is the mother of all ironies: How can men reconcile themselves to have their lives saved by women, if they do not trust them or allow them to study medicine without the presence or written permission of a male relative? Women can’t even receive medication without men’s verbal or written approval. Women work and earn their money, yet they can’t spend it to buy property without men’s permission. They give birth to children, yet they are not allowed to drive them to the emergency room, even if it would save their lives.

These destructive ironies are attributed to the Quran, Shari’a and Hadith, which the Saudi authorities use to justify their policies at home and abroad. Prominent religious scholars, including some Saudis, argue that God, religion and nomadic traditions have nothing to do with the exclusion and marginalization of the overwhelming majority of Saudi women. The ascendance to power of political and religious Saudi-Wahhabi absolute men plays a role in gender segregation in Saudi Arabia. It is very hard to imagine that such places still exist in an era of information and economic interdependence, the internet, the globalization of ideas, and especially when women, for decades, have been designing, building and commandeering space crafts, as well as playing sports, joining the army, and running for president. Sadly and tragically, this is still the reality of most Saudi women even if they are doctors, nurses and professors. Read More

A Courageous Saudi Blogger languishes in Saudi Prison

Director’s Comment: When the courageous and well known Saudi blogger, Fouad Al Farhan, was arrested on December 11th, 2007, by Prince Naif’s Ministry of Interior, many Saudis knew it was because he had posted blogs demanding reforms in Saudi Arabia. Another belief is that his arrest was the immediate result of his refusal to retract some of his blogposts criticizing Saudi officials. Although the government denied these allegations, it has become clear that Fouad’s criticism and demands were what led to his unjustified and arbitrary arrest, because no other charges have been brought against him.

The Al Farhan case is similar to those of other courageous Saudi citizens, who called on and petitioned their government for democratic reforms and political inclusion. Prominent among Saudi reformers who faced the same fate as Al Farhan are poet and author Al-Doumaini, and doctors Al-Faleh and Al-Hamid. They, too, were rounded and thrown in Saudi penitentiary cells for over a year, and when pardoned by King Abdullah after he inherited the throne in August of 2005, they were forbidden to travel, talk to the media, or find jobs.

Fouad Al Farhan is considered to be the godfather of Saudi blogging. He is widely respected for sharing his views and ideas about certain values that he believes the citizens of Saudi Arabia should be entitled to, like the rest of the world. However, since his arrest, Al Farhan has been subjected to treacherous conditions. Aside from one exception on February 12th, Al Farhan’s family has been denied visitations and phone calls for the past three months. This is indicative that Al Farhan is enduring tortuous interrogation, with the hope that he might confess to false allegations that the government has placed against him, such as spying for the CIA and complying with Zionists agencies and terrorist organizations.

This is the method used by Saudi authorities to silence any critique against them and to terrorize anyone who might be aspiring to make the same demands as Al Farhan, notably to ask for accountability, transparency, rule of law, an independent judicial system, women’s rights, minority rights, privileges for expatriates, and respect for other people’s beliefs. The international community, especially the United States, has moral and practical obligations to demand that Al Farhan be released, or at least that an open trial be held in a court of non-religious law, with the presence of a defense attorney. The Saudi-Wahhabi ruling elites should not be allowed to transgress international declarations on human rights, especially when they have signed them. Read More

International Women's Day

By Ali Alyami

“Women's empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society, including participation in the decision-making process and access to power, are fundamental for the achievement of equality, development and peace”
Beijing Conference on Women, September 1995

The Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (CDHR) applauds, honors and supports International Women’s Day. The theme this year is “investing in women and girls,” and focuses on women at the national level. International Women’s Day “serves to highlight the fact that securing peace and social progress and the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms require the active participation, equality and development of women.”

We at CDHR focus on the promotion of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. These rights are not only morally imperative, but the only hope for Saudi Arabia to rid itself of the yoke of religious and political totalitarianism, as well as the cultural, economic, technological, social, religious and educational pariah status among nations.

Only with full inclusion and participation of all Saudi women will Saudi Arabia become a complete, fully productive, forward looking and respected member of the international community in this age of increasing inter-connectedness and globalization. CDHR reiterates its call on all citizens of Saudi Arabia to realize the harm they are inflicting on themselves and their country by marginalizing half of their population because of their gender. At the peak of irony is the fact that women give birth to men, feed them, raise them, and in return these men turn against their mothers, sisters and wives.

For too long, women have remained segregated, hidden under garments, forbidden to partake in various activities, and under-represented in all aspects of Saudi society. The promotion of rights for women in Saudi Arabia will have many positive outcomes. It will not only benefit Saudi women, but also Arab and Muslim women globally. It will also lead to social progress and peace in the region.

It is incumbent on the international community to hold the Saudi ruling men accountable to implement international declarations that ensure the full rights of women to full participation in decision making, productivity and leadership. Saudi Arabia is a signatory to many renowned international documents that guarantee women’s rights. CDHR is fully committed to the goals of International Women’s Day, and will continue to work toward greater rights and freedoms for women as a major part of our center’s mission. Read More

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