Reminder: Women are not allowed to VOTE in Saudi Elections

 

So why aren’t all the feminists here shouting from the roof tops? Where are Germaine Greer, Eva Cox, Anne Summers and the Minister for the Status of Women Kate Ellis? Why don’t they condemn such inequality?

How come the progressive left media in this country doesn’t report on the inequality against Muslim women?

Pathetic.

Activists among Saudi Arabia's women, who can't drive or vote and need male approval to work and travel, are turning to the type of online organizing that helped topple Egypt's Hosni Mubarak to force change in a system that they say treats them like children.

The 'Baladi' or 'My Country' campaign is focused on this year's municipal elections, only the second nationwide ballot that the absolute monarchy has allowed. The election board said Monday that women would be excluded from the September 22 vote.

Another group, the Saudi Women's Revolution, citing inspiration from the Arab activism that grew into revolts against Mubarak and Tunisia's Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, is pressing for equal treatment and urging international support.

The wave of anti-regime protests hasn't translated into mass demonstrations in the kingdom that holds the world's biggest oil reserves. Saudi rulers have taken steps to ensure it won't, pledging almost $100bn spending on homes, jobs and benefits. They deployed thousands of police in Riyadh on March 11, when a protest was planned by Internet organizers - a group that increasingly includes Saudi women.

"Women are raised to fear men and to fear speaking out," Mona al-Ahmed, 25, said from Jeddah. She said she joined Women's Revolution after her brother refused to let her take her dream job, as a biochemist, because it would involve working in a mixed-gender environment.

"I opened my eyes one day and said, 'This is not the life I want,' " al-Ahmed said.

Like other Saudi opposition and protest groups, the women's movement faces a tough task. The kingdom ranked as the least democratic state in the Middle East, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2010 Democracy Index.

On its Facebook page, Baladi said that Saudi women "are like other women in the world who have hopes and ambitions" and must be allowed to vote.

While Saudi Arabia placed in the top one-third of nations in the UN 2010 Human Development Report, its score for gender equality - which includes assessments of reproductive health and participation in politics and the labor market - put it 128th out of 138 nations, below Iran and Pakistan.

Saudi Arabia enforces the Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam, and its clerics say that requires strict segregation of the sexes, including in workplaces and public spaces.

Other areas of discontent include family law. A Saudi man can end his marriage by telling his wife, "You are divorced," while women must go to a court or an authorized cleric to get a dissolution. Custody of children above a certain age is usually granted to the father.

Saudi Arabia is also one of the few countries with a high rate of executions for women, Amnesty International said in a 2008 report. Adultery is among the capital offenses.

"Authorities continue to systematically suppress or fail to protect the rights of nine million Saudi women and girls," Human Rights Watch said in a January report.

In an open letter earlier to Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, it urged his government to meet pledges it had made to end "male guardianship over women, to give full legal identity to Saudi women, and to prohibit gender discrimination."

Those are among the goals of the Women's Revolution group, which began as an exchange of Twitter messages among like-minded women and now has more than 2,000 Facebook supporters.

"Women are treated like minors, except if they commit a crime," it said on Facebook. "Then they are equal."

Saudi King Abdullah, 86, has pledged to improve women's status. He opened the kingdom's first coed university in 2009, appointed its first female deputy minister, and has promised steps to improve access to jobs for women, who make up about 15 percent of the workforce.

A change of policy in 2008 let women stay in hotels without male guardians, and an amendment to the Labor Law allowed women to work in all fields "suitable to their nature." Women can now study law at university, without being allowed to practice as lawyers in courts.

Gaining the vote would help change the world's perception of Saudi women, as well as improve their lives, the Baladi campaigners say.

"The stereotype of women in Saudi Arabia is that they are unaccounted for, incapable of reacting to their surroundings and vulnerable to cruelty," the group said. "It is vital to contribute to change such perceptions."

Via Arabian Business

Andy Semple

Speak without fear and question with boldness.

Comments

[Andy Semple]

1.

This is a serious post and yet you trivialise the treatment and inequality of women is Saudi Arabia.
Whoever you are you’re one sick puppy.

[Account Deleted]

2.

Kust a troll andy and a professional spammer.

[Account Deleted]

3.

Please delete this guy as a sicko Andy. He has been told that Socialists aren't welcome under the posting policy under about but persists in trolling

[Richo]

4.

Perhaps those loonies on the Marrickville council could pursure a boycott on Saudi Arabia instead. Of course they would probably have to have their council meetings outside sitting on grass.

[Janet H. Thompson]

5.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is saying the same thing, Andy. Where ARE the feminists? She's begging women of the Western World to care. http://europenews.dk/en/node/29832 This woman is amazing.

I find "You cannot be serious" (YCBS)'s question interesting. "In Saudi Arabia who is enforcing these restrictions?" It is an important one for each individual who cares to think for himself. The answer doesn't really matter, because the continuum is not what we've been taught ("liberals" versus "conservatives"; "left" versus "right") but actually centralised control versus individual freedom and responsibility.

It is up to each one of us to promote liberty in whatever way we can. Oh, and YCBS, since when did the feminists mentioned ever back away from a stand because of how some in society responded to them? Andy's question is apropo. If they truly care about women's rights, they should be taking on this issue. What do they care about?

Cheers,
Janet

[Account Deleted]

6.

I saw a German woman on Fox today...The Muslim fundamentalists where up ranting their hatred of women and Jews.

This woman was wanting to know where are the people speaking up against a muslim fundamentalist talking like Hitler ?

Where indeed out our countrymen talking up for womens rights in the Mid East and for Israel.....Not to be heard on the left...just look at the lefty loon posting here.

Anything to twist and turn and avoid the issues.

When you are in bed with Islamic Fundamentalists as these people are its hard to maintain that you care about womens rights.

[Account Deleted]

7.

The issue about who is enforcing these provisions does not play out as left and right conservative or progressive. Women had many more rights in Egypt that are now being taken away by the so called progressives who deposed Mubarak.

Saudi Arabia is a wahabist country where extreme sharia dominates. Womens rights remain a moot point no matter which political system might be in charge due to the underlying wahabism

[Account Deleted]

8.

Good Idea Richo.

The loons at the heart of the greens and their anti semitic agenda is obvious...especially when you see their apologists come in here uninvited to try to hijack threats and ridicule you if you opose Sharia..

It seems obvious that the left has no interest in Middle Eastern womens rights as it conflicts with their hatred of the only democracy in the area.

[Account Deleted]

9.

No lets get O Bama to set up a no fly zone and invade from the air..bomb a few people...you know that sort of thing...meddle militarily just like in Libya....clown

get the red nose on again You are obviously a loon who hates women.

Anti Israeli too I bet.

[Account Deleted]

10.

It is safe to assume that thejoke above does not support freedom for women in the middle east.

As he fluffs about creating diversions his support for this sort of nonsense hangs out for all to see

[Account Deleted]

11.

You cannot be serious alias Chris Johnson...you already have a spot on the spammers wall...sign in please spammer

[Account Deleted]

12.

You are legendary for your left wing viscious attacks on Andy Semple. I just wish you had the guts to come out in the open and say who and what you are.

A person who wont even sign in is a person of no moral or intellectual worth long before any discussion begins.

Setting up fictitious identities to spam with has been the least of your strategies. Your attempts to spam this site into a no gone zone for the right of centre people who own it is getting a bit sickening.

You know that you dont belong and aren't welcome.

Take of little birdie off to your fellow robin red breasts.

Not being a professional spammer like you I have things to do but rest assured Lyn will now know who you are as will Anton and Elizabeth and Lillith....goodbye Looser

[Ben]

13.

“You cannot be serious said”: No you cannot be serious.

Andy and many other bloggers wouldn’t have to raise this issue if the Left denied or hid the mistreatment of women. One can never talk enough about the evils of racism and sexism.

To Andy: I say keep on drawing attention to barbarians and their victims.

Oh and by the way, Iraqi voters loved Bush as the elections over there demonstrated. They don’t miss Saddam’s rape rooms either.

Kurds (the most persecuted minority) wanted him to invade, although to be fair, 80% of seasonal café latte-sipping pacifists in Canberra and Islamist dictators were for appeasing the rape room dictator.

[Account Deleted]

14.

On ya Ben

These loons are here in waves today...Mind you the multiple identity bit is happening as some have been listed as spammers.

My thoughts are just point out the unsigned in as the spammers that they are.

That horrid Tee Bag was in here on ANZAC day slagging of VietNam Vets......it was just so sickening

[Ben]

15.

You cannot be serious asked: “In Saudi Arabia who is enforcing these restrictions? The conservatives or the progressives?”

Well, a false question deserves a true statement.

The traditionalist Islamists with their radical agendas are supporting tyranny with the help of Western “progressives.”

Conservative Christians and others have opposed this tyranny for decades, but have been attacked by Western multicultural progressives.

I hope you can stick that in your pipe. It’s Neville Chamberlain syndrome, the sequel.

[Cath]

16.

Janet, it is indeed about freedom and equality, surely desirable social aims that deserve to be pursued in every country, and even moreso in countries where they are so evidently not present. It would be good to hear some public outrage expressed by a few more high profile feminist icons. It isn't the burqa, it is the oppression and injustice it symbolises that needs to be exposed and counteracted, rather than be allowed to take root in any way in our own country, or in any other free country. Sophistry like that expressed by YCBS is pretty sad in its obvious avoidance of this real issue because of political bigotry. As you say, this issue transcends politics.

[Janet H. Thompson]

17.

YCBS, you make good points worth discussing.

I won't assume what Kate Ellis's opinion is. The point is that, in her position as Minister for Status of Women, I should not have to assume. Ms. Ellis could make a huge difference in the lives of women in the world by taking a stand on this issue.

Her website asks people what their prioritites are.

1. Action on climate change
2. Waterproofing Adelaide
3. Fairness in the work place
4. Cost of living pressures
5. Access to employment
6. Affordable housing
7. Infrastructure in the North
8. Fixing our skills crisis
9. An education revolution
10. Carbon proofing your home

Funny that 1 and 10 are the same, and all of the "answers" are leading. I don't wish to digress into a Kate Ellis discussion, but put this up only to highlight that as a leading feminist activist, I cannot see where she is taking a stand on rights for women in places like Saudi Arabia.

[Janet H. Thompson]

18.

Cath, thanks for that. I agree. And it would also be nice to hear some "moderate" Muslims vehemently and publicly condemn terrorist acts and acts of oppression (like mandatory burqa donning) such as those imposed by regimes like the Taliban...and yes, the House of Saudi.

[Andy's RANT!]

19.

"You Cannot Be Serious" is using the same IP address as "Chris Johnson" and as such all posts shall be removed.

Andy Semple
Co Editor

[bluebell]

20.

Thanks Andy for bringing this medieval Islamist Kingdom to attention.

Not only do women not have the vote they also face the following:

1. Not allowed to drive
2. Cannot travel unless they are accompanied by a husband or a male relative.
3. Will face harsh penalites if caught talking to any male who is not a ralative.
4 If raped, will be charged with adultry, and face been lashed and spend many years in jail, or even worse.
5. If caught not wearing offical religious dress, ditto
6. Of course who can forget the 15 Saudi schoolgirls who were forced back into their dormatory to burn alive because they were in their nighties and not wearing the full kit and kaboddle.

and the left....

complete SILENCE!

Those women you have listed in your article are lower than scum in my view. My absolute ire is especially reserved for that superior grub Germaine Greer - serial expert on everything, not.

[You cannot be serious]

21.

-> Comment removed due to violation of comments policy <-
You have the same IP address 124.191.11.61 as “Chris Johnson” and as such your comments shall be removed.

[bluebell]

22.

If you share the same IP address as 'Chris Johnson' that is enough to arouse suspicion of trolling...
Get with the program and stop being a complete child.

[Oneozvoice]

23.

I look forward to seeing the speeches of Howard and Abbott, and Bishop and Bishop condemning the Saudi government and society.

[Janet H. Thompson]

24.

Mark Steyn says in his excellent book "America Alone," something to the effect, "Hey, I'm the white conservative male, I'm not the natural one to speak out against this mistreatment of women! I'm painted as the one who would appreciate all women being put in their place!"

Every true leader will speak out against mal-treatment of people, no matter who they are -- Christian, Muslim, male, female, young, old, white, black.

Andy's pointing out the western women named is apropo. It's especially biting when people paint themselves to be crusaders for human rights, but then are deafeningly silent on the most important issues.

[bluebell]

25.

By defending the culture of fundlementalism displayed in Saudi Arabia and increasingly here in the West, left wingers are undermining women and their basic human rights, inside and outside the Muslim Umma - read this chimps and stop defending gross fanatics who plan to instill their ideology all over this planet:

By Mona Eltahawy

NEW YORK — I am a Muslim, I am a feminist and I detest the full-body veil, known as a niqab or burqa. It erases women from society and has nothing to do with Islam but everything to do with the hatred for women at the heart of the extremist ideology that preaches it.

We must not sacrifice women at the altar of political correctness or in the name of fighting a growingly powerful right wing that Muslims face in countries where they live as a minority.

As disagreeable as I often find French President Nicolas Sarkozy, he was right when he said recently, “The burqa is not a religious sign, it is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission of women. I want to say solemnly that it will not be welcome on our territory.” It should not be welcome anywhere, I would add.

Yet his words have inspired attempts to defend the indefensible — the erasure of women.

Some have argued that Sarkozy’s right-leaning, anti-Muslim bias was behind his opposition to the burqa. But I would remind them of comments in 2006 by the then-British House of Commons leader Jack Straw, who said the burqa prevents communication. He was right, and he was hardly a right-winger — and yet he too was attacked for daring to speak out against the burqa.

The racism and discrimination that Muslim minorities face in many countries — such as France, which has the largest Muslim community in Europe, and Britain, where two members of the xenophobic British National Party were shamefully elected to the European Parliament — are very real.

But the best way to support Muslim women would be to say we oppose both racist Islamophobes and the burqa. We’ve been silent on too many things out of fear we’ll arm the right wing.

The best way to debunk the burqa as an expression of Muslim faith is to listen to Muslims who oppose it. At the time of Mr. Straw’s comments, a controversy erupted when a university dean in Egypt warned students they would not be able to stay at college dorms unless they removed their burqa. The dean cited security grounds, saying that men disguised as women in burqa could slip into the female dorms.

Soad Saleh, a professor of Islamic law and former dean of the women’s faculty of Islamic studies at Al-Azhar University — hardly a liberal, said the burqa had nothing to do with Islam. It was but an old Bedouin tradition.

It is sad to see a strange ambivalence toward the burqa from many of my fellow Muslims and others who claim to support us. They will take on everything — the right wing, Islamophobia, Mr. Straw, Mr. Sarkozy — rather than come out and plainly state that the burqa is an affront to Muslim women.

I blame such reluctance on the success of the ultra-conservative Salafi ideology — practiced most famously in Saudi Arabia — in leaving its imprimatur on Islam globally by persuading too many Muslims that it is the purest and highest form of our faith.

It’s one thing to argue about the burqa in a country like Saudi Arabia — where I lived for six years and where women are treated like children — but it is utterly dispiriting to have those same arguments in a country where women’s rights have long been enshrined. When I first saw a woman in a burqa in Copenhagen I was horrified.

I wore a headscarf for nine years. An argument I had on the Cairo subway with a woman who wore a burqa helped seal for good my refusal to defend it. Dressed in black from head to toe, the woman asked me why I did not wear the burqa. I pointed to my headscarf and asked her “Is this not enough?”

“If you wanted a piece of candy, would you choose an unwrapped piece or one that came in a wrapper?” she asked.

“I am not candy,” I answered. “Women are not candy.”

I have since heard arguments made for the burqa in which the woman is portrayed as a diamond ring or a precious stone that needs to be hidden to prove her “worth.” Unless we challenge it, the burqa — and by extension the erasure of women — becomes the pinnacle of piety.

It is not about comparing burqas to bikinis, as some claim. I used to compare my headscarf to a miniskirt, the two being essentially two sides to the same coin of a woman’s body. The burqa is something else altogether: A woman who wears it is erased.

A bizarre political correctness has tied the tongues of those who would normally rally to women’s rights. One blogger, a woman, lamented that “Sarkozy’s anti-burqa stance deprives women of identity.” It’s precisely the opposite: It’s the burqa that deprives a woman of identity.

Why do women in Muslim-minority communities wear the burqa? Sarkozy touched on one reason when he admitted his country’s integration model wasn’t working any more because it doesn’t give immigrants and their French-born children a fair chance.

But the Muslim community must ask itself the same question: Why the silence as some of our women fade into black either as a form of identity politics, a protest against the state or out of acquiescence to Salafism?

As a Muslim woman and a feminist I would ban the burqa.

Mona Eltahawy is an Egyptian-born commentator on Arab and Muslim issues.

[Andy's RANT!]

26.

And so they should (except Howard as he's no longer a politician).
Why is Senator Bernardi the only politician to voice an opinion?

Why is Senator Bob Brown so silent? Why is Pm Julia Gillard also silent?

[Oldman]

27.

Did you do any research on the realpolitik Saudi Arabia before publishing? Without it you risk exposing yourself to ridicule embarrassment.

Saudi Arabia is only one of many Middle East US Client States governed by Absolute Monarchy Dictatorships and protected by US Client State Status. In other words, the Monarchy of the ME all rule their fiefdoms as they like, knowing that they are protected by the most powerful countries in the world. Get rid of the despots and women's rights will follow.

Cheers,
OM

[Ben]

28.

Janet: America Alone by Mark Steyn? You have good taste. Great read.

[bluebell]

29.

Iran is not a Western 'client' state - yet the same oppression is rampant in the kingdom of the poison dawrf and his crazy Mullah's. The problem is fundlementalist Islam, and that my friend is right across the Muslim Umma. It's a fact that women in Islam do NOT enjoy the same freedoms of their men. Until that day arrives I will fight the 'religion of peace' to the bitter end. If it's good enough for our lefty friends to challenge Christianity for any of it's failings, I have the right to do the same with Islam. The plight of women in Pakistan and Afghanistan is appalling. You wouldn't treat an animal like some of these have been treated....and their authorities turn a blind eye to the endless suffering. A plague on their houses comes to mind with the men in these societies.

[Oneozvoice]

30.

I'll stand against all religion equally - if any of them try to impose themselves upon our secular society.

[Oldman]

31.

Get up to speed, your red herrings act only as a diversion from the original topic, seems to be a common tactic on this forum.

The article above points to a lack of women's suffrage in Saudi Arabia specifically and the call is for women's rights activists to condemn "such inequalities". My argument is get rid of despot rulers of all persuasions and women's rights will follow.

Ask the contributing editors to post an article on the subject of women's rights in Islamic States where you and others flog your dead horse.

[bluebell]

32.

I answered your points in #27 where you stated that:

Saudi Arabia is only one of many Middle East US Client States governed by Absolute Monarchy Dictatorships and protected by US Client State Status. In other words, the Monarchy of the ME all rule their fiefdoms as they like, knowing that they are protected by the most powerful countries in the world. Get rid of the despots and women's rights will follow.

Oppression of women is NOT the preserve of the 'client' states you mention....moreover it is a serious problem right across the Islamic world. Get your glasses on Old Man..
Women's Activists groups inside many Islamic countries are targeted by authorities. Their struggle will long, bitter and violent as the men in those countries fight retain control over their lives.

Read post #25 also

I probably know more about the subject than you do.

[My argument is get rid of despot rulers of all persuasions and women's rights will follow.]

The problem lies with the Imams and Clerics who in turn highly influence the leaders of these countries. Besides many muslim governments will NOT challenge their religious hierachies or the Sharia Law that underpins the Muslim faith.

[Oldman]

33.

Oppression of women is not the preserve of US "Client" states BUT women's suffrage is. Only in Saudi Arabia are are half the population prevented from voting because they are women. Geddit?

[bluebell]

34.

Here Old Man, read this:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/susilo-bambang-yudhoyono-says-indonesia-serious-about-anti-terror-campaigns-but-careful-of-muslim-majority/story-e6frg6so-1226045337193

A classic example why governments with a Muslim majority tread lighty. However, if he continues to ignore the cancer within it will eventually become a serious threat.

[bluebell]

35.

Ok - that is because you are dealing with Wahabbist ideology. There are many sects within Islam, but this one is problematic. In regards to the 'client' states you raise:

The entire region only attracts interest because of the oil reserves. It's not only the West that interfers. Russia is highly invovled as well. It will be interesting to watch the Chinese as they re-arm their military wings. Oil has been a curse to the Arabs, that's a fact.

[Oldman]

36.

Bluebell nothing is as it seems. The world stage is so complicated and multifaceted that the corruption of values we hold dear are often a result of some higher agenda. Often ideologies, race and religion are used as wedges in the promotion of conflicts in the delivery of power and riches. So it is with the ME and Africa.

The realpolitik of these areas and recently, especially Libya is to dumb-down and force feed us information as facts in byte-sized bits to condition our thinking. Resources dictate who our friends are. When it is profitable to support dictators, dictatorships are supported and protected, and kept in power,(Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, etc.), but, when it is more profitable to support democracy, (Libya, Tunisia, etc.) democracy is supported. In the mean time, values we hold dear and important become less of a priority (e.g. women's suffrage and women's rights).

[The Philosopher]

37.

Oldman is a spammer who wont sign in as he is a leftist troll and anti democrat trying to shut down free speach

[The Philosopher]

38.

Atheist ?...want to impose that on us all Charlie Marx