Saudi Arabia's womens rights

Saudi Arabia: The birth place of Islam, home to a quarter of the world's oil reserves, one of the largest aid donors in the world; there are many things Saudi Arabia is known for. Unfortunately, one of the not so nice things they are known for is their track record of womens' rights violations.

The western world and the media have a field day portraying Arab countries as oppressive towards women and they love to blame it on Islam. However, how ironic is it that America who is the world's watch dog and the first country to criticize other countries for their "backwards" ways has yet to elect a female president. How ironic is it that the religion that is portrayed as oppressive towards women already had female leaders in four out of the five most populous Muslim nations. That is right: Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Turkey have all elected female leaders. So America, maybe it is time to look at your own policies towards women. America is not even signed onto the CEDAW, a convention established to protect women yet Saudi Arabia is signed onto that convention. Islam is more often than not the blame for the violations against women. However, it is much more than just religion that is behind the Arab world’s slow progress in advancing a woman’s role in society. If you look at non-Arab Islamic countries like Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh, women have advanced at much quicker rate than in the Arab world.

In Saudi Arabia it is more of a cultural religious thing for them. The Wahhabi sect of Islam is very strong in certain regions of Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, while there is no official law prohibiting women to drive, women are still unable to drive in the country. When a 15 year old female saved her family by driving a car to rescue them when they were caught in the flash floods of 2009 that hit Jeddah, she was called a hero. However, this did not convince the government to overturn the ban on females driving. Wajeha al–Hawaidar is just one of the many young Saudi female activists who is unable to write or appear on TV due to her support of women’s rights. Al-Hawaidar said "when you put much pressure on a society, people will still go on with their life; We are not rocks. We are human beings" in reference to the underground life that exists among the Saudi youth. Women are unable to socialize publicly with men that are not related to them. Although thanks to Saudi King Abdullah’s reform program over the last five years that rigid segregation in public is loosening. Another violation of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia is the fact that there is no minimum age requirement for females to get married . Girls that are married that young face abuse both sexually and physically. They are deprived of education and their childhood. Another women’s rights issue plaguing Saudi women is the policy of guardianship. A woman must ask the permission of a male relative every time she wants to go on a trip abroad. In 2009, the government pledged to abolish the guardianship system, but has taken no legislative steps to overturn the system.

While alot of these things sound completely backwards and crazy to people in America, in Saudi Arabia many of the women see it is as a way of life. It all depends on how you choose to live. In Saudi Arabia, the male is the breadwinner. He goes out to work in the hot Saudi sun with temperatures near 120 degrees in the summer while a woman stays home in air conditioned luxury surrounded by maids who wait on her hand and foot. They have social gatherings at their homes with other women and converse about family, politics, the weather, money and many other things that women in America talk about.

While of course Saudi women want to be able to have more rights over their own lives in terms of marriage, divorce and travel, Saudi women also have a nice luxury. They are driven EVERYWHERE. They are not the ones worrying about where to park the car when the mall is extremely crowded. Just think how nice that is to be able to run into Saks while your driver worries about the parking. OK OK OK. I know there is more to life than just shopping. That is why I am so happy to hear that one year ago Saudi Arabia's first co-ed university opened up. King Abdullah is doing so much to try and advance women's rights in the Kingdom. I feel like soon women will be able to attend co-ed universities and drive if King Abdullah keeps his progressive reforms on track.