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VOL. V NO. 15, July 05-July 16, 2009

Saudi Women Still Have a Long Fight Ahead

Contrary to statements made by the Saudi Arabian government, Saudi women still must prove they have permission from their male guardians to receive basic health care and education services, as well as to leave the country, indicates a recent report by Human Rights Watch.

As recently as June 2009, at a hearing of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Saudi officials publicly denied the existence of the guardianship system, in which women over 45 must have either written or verbal permission from a male relative to perform a number of basic activities.

Yet, the report cites an article published in Saudi Al-Watan in which Saudi doctors said, “Health Ministry regulations still require a woman to obtain permission from her male guardian to undergo elective surgery.”

“The Saudi government is saying one thing to the Human Rights Council…but doing another thing inside the kingdom,” said Sarah Leah Witson, Human Rights Watch’s Middle East director. “It needs to stop requiring adult women to seek permission from men, not just pretend” that the guardianship system is obsolete.

Sebastian Usher of BBC News reiterates the Saudi government's party line that male guardianship is not considered a part of Islamic law, and that steps are being taken to abolish it.

Similarly, some Saudi women claim that they are comfortable with their status in society, and do not feel their rights are infringed upon by the degree of separation that exists between men and women, Usher notes.

Nevertheless, a large discrepancy remains between official government policy and the realities of life for many women in Saudi Arabia, such as Wajeha Al-Huwaider, a well-known women’s rights activist who was stopped at the Saudi Arabian border three times last month for trying to cross into nearby Bahrain without permission from her male guardian, reports CNN.

Al-Huwaider urges women in Saudi Arabia to defy the guardianship system by attempting to cross the border without express permission from their male family members.

“Either you treat us like mature citizens or you let us leave the country (permanently),” Al-Huwaider exclaims.

Al-Huwaider insists that equalizing the status of women with that of men is necessary in overturning the antiquated system of gender-based inequalities in a country that insists on denying women the right to vote or drive.

“It’s not about just sending messages and petitions anymore… We’re not going to send letters to anyone. Saudi women have to find someone who will take them to an airport or a border and say that they don’t approve of the system and that they want to leave.”

In related news, Dr. Nadia El-Awady, the former Managing Editor of IslamOnline’s Health and Science Section, recently became the first Muslim woman elected President of the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ), writes Mohammad Yahia for IslamOnline.

El-Awady, an Egyptian, was appointed to the position two weeks ago during the biannual World Conference of Science Journalists held in London.

According to Yahia’s article, the World Federation of Science Journalists “is a non-profit organization acting as an umbrella network of national, regional, and international associations of science journalists and…communicators.”

El-Awady says that she plans to focus on promoting science journalism in some of the countries in which the WFSJ has not been very active in recent years, such as in Russia.

El-Awady served as the WFSJ’s board treasurer since 2007, when she became the first Muslim board member. She previously worked as a staff writer and as deputy editor for IslamOnline.

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