Confused!
October 24th, 2008Today is the day that I declare my confusion about what’s going on in Saudi Arabia. In the last few months, a number of prominent religious clerics made some very interesting yet disturbing statements (fatwas) that I will share with you as you read along, and on the other hand; there is a clear notion of reform, tolerance and supposedly progress. The government is spending billions on building modern economic cities within cities with a progressive outlook and infrastructure. It is also interesting to note that the planning of building such cities might have to do with social rigidity. It is so difficult to create change in our society; instead of bothering with untangling the intangible, they decided to build new cities that can be molded to the standards they feel suitable.
The government has increased its budget on education and have opened the doors for young girls and boys and sent them on scholarships in both Europe and the United States in different fields of specialty so as to come back highly qualified with fresh, enthusiastic attitudes and outlooks not forgetting of course that the majority of the Saudi population is below the age of twenty!
This all looks good, it seems like there is a light at the end of the tunnel right?!
I question sometimes if there will ever be a candle at the end of this Saudi tunnel!
While all this is in preparation phase, where the outcome, the collection of the fruit of such investments might take another five to ten years, we see the total extreme opposite!
Only recently one cleric stated that women ought to cover the whole body leaving only one eye unveiled! Yes, we super species called women are created by Allah (God) to be invisible. We don’t need two eyes like you men and yes we can see clearly using our one eye super optical vision! Not only that but our super powers can accommodate not breathing fresh air, yes we can breath perfectly through layers of cloth! Our respiratory tract is much too sophisticated and advanced! Our skin should never be exposed to the sun either, not forgetting that women have the power to bring pleasure to men and have the courage to reproduce over and over again. It seems that women love pain, all sorts of pain! Physical, mental and emotional. Yes they are such unique creatures!!
I’ll stop with the sarcasm, but I can’t help it! (I think this cleric and many like him who believe that they are treating women justly should try a taste of their own medicine. I’ll give them less than a week to live out how they think women ought to be. I assure you it will be a life changing experience!)
On a more serious note, let me just add that women in the middle east suffer more from vitamin D deficiency and osteoporosis and one of the main causes is the lack of exposing their bodies to the sun although we do have the hottest climate. I will not go through this issue but my only reply would be that perceiving women as sex objects and only that is the cause behind men wanting to hide women away whether by locking them up in their homes or behind such suffocating veils. This is a serious problem that must be addressed to change and reshape societies and their outlook towards both genders, we need to set new realistic expectations and standards for both genders.
I don’t know if you heard about the Mickey mouse must die fatwa by a well known cleric here in Saudi Arabia! It is soo funny that one can actually cry!
Here is the link (you can watch the video and read the translation)
Here is a summery “mice are Satan’s soldiers” I will not comment on this one. There is nothing I can say! NOTHING..
Another of these fatwas is what sheikh Alhedan, a very prominent Saudi judge who called for the murder of satellite channel owners last Ramadan for broadcasting immoral programmes! And guess who the owners of these satellite channels are? (Saudi princes and the elites of Saudi society!)
This is an article in the guardian about it.
King Abdullah didn’t seem too pleased by Alhedan’s statement; you can actually watch the video of Alhedan shaking hands with the king in Eid al Fotur (the celebration of the end of the fasting month of Ramadan) where the king who is usually very tactful pulled away while shaking hands. But I really expected an apology at least! That’s what I call power.
One calls for the one eyed veil to hide women from men’s uncontrollable animal like lust instead of controlling the lust itself, the other for the killing of mickey mouse (my son will be heart broken if he finds out) and the last for the killing of satellite t.v owners! and yet we talk about reform. I just don’t see it happening, it’s just like mixing water with oil, they can never mix.
I will leave you with that for now.
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I have to say I totally agree with you; unfortunately a lot of saudi males are horny and sex-obsessed, so they think they have to protect their female relatives from men like themselves. They end up bossing their sisters around etc.
Also,most clerics think that if a man is turned on or seduced by a woman,it’s the woman’s fault! Thus the many fatwas demanding women to cover more than what Allah commanded them to; just for the sake of “protecting men from sin”.. Im sorry to burst these clerics’ bubble but if a man can’t lower his gaze, it’s his problem.
ps- maybe they should make similar fatwas for men “to protect women from sin”. Guys shouldnt look too attractive when in public. They shouldnt wear cologne. etc. how would that work?
I am agreeing on everything too. I am half Saudi and half American. WHAT A MIX!!
Coming to Saudi Arabia for the first time now that i am 18 has been some experience..let me tell you!!!
I came with a rather open mind. You kno people would tell me ‘dont go, dont go’ but i didnt think there was anything wrong with going. (certainly there is not, i would encourage people to experience new things.) But somedays as I sit alone day after day, after day, after day, in my room, i think that my imagination of what Saudia was like may have been a better opinion to hold on to, rather than actually finding out.
Im not going to go on critisizing what goes on here but i am going to admit that i am miserable. In every sense of the word. And im not one to pity myself. I try to make the best out of every situation and i have. But i cant lie to myself anymore. I am deprived of life here. I feel more like a house pet than a human being. And i am sick of people (men) staring at me everwhere i go. I feel like bursting out and just saying “what are you looking at?!@#$%?” Knowing me i probly would but for the past 10 months I just havnt been myself.
I feel you Amal.. Trust me you get used to it with time.. The female saudi lifestyle is different. It might feel passive, but it’s very peaceful in a way. I’m saudi and I was raised abroad all my life, moving to saudi was a disaster to my sanity at first, but now,I have grown quite attached to it..If you find the right people to hang out with and the right career to preoccupy yourself with,you will not be miserable God willing.
I am not an expert on the matter, but it seems to me that there is a dichotomy of sorts in Saudi Arabia, and my guess is that the royal family is caught somewhere in the middle. On the one hand you have people of a progressive bent who see that sooner or later the country must come to terms with the modern world. And on the other hand, you have those, as represented by most of the clerics, who cling to tradition, even at the expense of modernity.
This is not to say that the Western way is necessarily the only way, or even the best way. But there is a point at which traditional norms of behavior no longer make sense, and must necessarily be subject to reform. Covering a woman up from head to toe, and interfering with her ability to breathe, and to see, just so that men won’t be tempted, doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, and doesn’t really accomplish its purported purpose. The more you try to stifle sex, the more it’s likely to lash out in ways that are least expected.
Ultimately, I would like to believe that the ruling family will move the country toward an accomodation with modernity. But it will not be an easy road to hoe. Certain arrangements have been put in place with the clergy, and it will be difficult, to say the least, to interfere with those arrangements. However, in the final analysis, a movement toward reform will be necessary in order for the leadership to consolidate its hold on power. Such a movement must be negotiated with utmost care, and with an eye toward empowering the masses without overturning the apple cart.