I can make my own decisions, protest the Saudi women.
Whats funny is that despite being into the 21st century for a decade now, some issues prevail which might confuse aliens from Mars to think residents of the Earth (aka us), still belong in the 15th Century or even earlier.
Take for instance, the state of women in Saudi Arabia. The country’s guardianship system is creating a block for women when it comes to making their own decisions. For doing humane things like studying, working or even opening their own bank account, women need to ask the permission of the closest male relative. Not only is this stamping over the essence of being human, but it is disrupting the very place of a women in the society. Society has forever held that men are at a higher position than women, but how does that give them the right to determine whats right and wrong for a women? Isn’t this world supposed to be all about equality, freedom, acceptance and understanding? Jeremy Rifkin, an author and a social thinker, claims that empathy is our greatest tool. Its our invisible hand, which moves this society along. If we don’t understand the plight of others, how are we going to understand and accept, help and support?
If Saudi Arabia claims to continue enforcing women-demeaning rules, there is some hope in the form of activist and feminist Wajeha al-Huwaider. Being a resident of the country herself, she compares the situation of the women in Saudi as that of caged birds. There have been talks about changing the face of women rights amongst the authorities but none that have actually been implemented. Wajeha al-Huwaider also insist that its easier to remain silent and take no action, as many of the women are afraid to voice their opinion. This would probably explain why a group of Saudi women launched a campaign that went against Al-Huwaider, claiming that they are perfectly fine with their male guardians making decisions for them and view this as an Islamic Law.
Whenever anyone voices an opinion, there are bound to be people who don’t necessarily agree. But what matters is that you know you’re doing what you believe in, and if you believe you’re going to change the face of the world, then maybe you are.
View CNN article here.
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One time I said: “Imagine that Jesus and Muhammad were women, how would their book be written.?” I might sound blasphemous but this is the truth: We are dominated by the masculine culture… the human history is jammed of male personages and a very few of female ones.
I just wonder how was the women social position before Islam. We were taught that Islam had liberated the women, but I see that nothing much had changed… the woman was free before Islam not only to have property, but to recruit met to work for her (didnt Khadija recruited Muhamad to trade for her, and with her wealth?) and this was before the Message was “delivered” to him…. but we tend to beautify our history vs the other “dark” histories of the other nations !!
Women abuse is everywhere… and it could be even more violent and inhuman in the “enlightened” countries like the mother of “human rights”, America where porn is an industry and the woman is free to sell her body for money, where the church is involved deeply in the underground world of woman abuse !!!
Over one million Russian girls were shipped to be abused in the “enlightened” West !!!
At our side, specially the Feudal arab regimes like Saudi, the picture is gloomy that we (or to say most of us) are still preoccupied by the conventional image of the woman; only good for bed and the kitchen !!! This is culture is not easy to get out of, it is an enslaving culture that eve some women and sunk deep in its realm !!!
One time, I told an Austrian girl (of the communist party) that that the European women are lucky to hav their full rights, but I was surprised to her answer: “It is a delusion, we are free only on paper, ie the law, but the society is still in the middle ages specially in the countryside”… not only I was astonished with her reply, but started to compare it to our Arab society where women are still enslaved even on the paper !!!
Once I read a masterpiece article by an Italian woman thinker, which I can summarize in: the core enslavement tools of the woman is functional, her ability to breed (give children) and housework !!! We, men, can do the housework perfectly, but would be able to give birth? only then the woman will be fully free to enslave us !!!
Away from the canned American “human rights”.. the basic simple human rights for Arab women must be achieved and institutionalized in our feudal Shaikh-lead Shaikhdoms !!!
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The legal status of women of all ages in Saudi Arabia is similar to the legal status of children in the rest of the world.
Education is the key for women gaining rights and power. A few years ago, I saw a study about the literacy of women in some African country and the amount of children they had. The more literate (and educated) a woman was, the less children she had. The two factors are just a correlation. As Sami said above, women are enslaved for their ability to bear children. If they have the education, they can make decisions for themselves and be the bread winners.
I think the best way for human rights organizations to promote women’s rights is to invest directly into their education. The legal and physical protections will follow.
The above comments are so true. A lot of studies have shown that the more educated the woman, the lesser children she has. And this is not a bad thing. Its just that she knows what her priorities are, shes a level headed woman, she listens to advise by others but makes her own decisions. And truthfully, this is the kind of women the world needs to put a stop to any kind of abuse, including emotional. Women need to stand up on their own feet and realize that the more they give in, the more its going to continue. And such knowledge will only come through education and right kind of exposure.