WOMEN ARE OPPRESSED IN SAUDI ARABIA
Saudi judge says OK to slap wife
(AFP) – May 10, 2009
RIYADH (AFP) — A Saudi judge has told a seminar on domestic violence that it is okay for a man to slap his wife for lavish spending, a local newspaper reported on Sunday.
Jeddah judge Hamad al-Razine gave the example of overspending to buy a high-end abaya, the head-to toe black shroud Saudi women have to wear in public, as justifying a smack for one's wife, Arab News said.
"If a person gives 1,200 riyals (320 dollars) to his wife and she spends 900 riyals (240 dollars) to purchase an abaya from a brand shop, and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment," he said.
The judge's remarks sparked an outcry at the seminar on the role of judicial and security officials in preventing domestic violence, the paper reported.
The seminar was attended by officials as well as activists on domestic violence, including representatives of the National Family Safety Programme.
Razine acknowledged the depth of the problem of domestic violence, until recently not acknowledged as a serious issue in the ultra-conservative Muslim country, where family problems traditionally remained behind closed doors.
Saudi women have in the past few years become more vocal about the problem of husbands beating wives and fathers mistreating children.
But Razine said some of the blame must be shouldered by wives for their behaviour. "Nobody puts even a fraction of the blame on them," he said, according to the report.
Saudis Earn Low Rank in Women's Rights
May 21, 2005
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Saudi Arabia ranked last in a study of women's rights in Middle Eastern and North African countries and was the only one of 16 nations surveyed that had no constitutional guarantees of equal protection for females, according to a report released Saturday.
Despite gains in educational and employment opportunities and the recent decision by Kuwait's parliament to grant women the right to vote, there was a lack of legal protections for women in all 16 nations and one territory studied, said Freedom House, the nonpartisan, Washington-based organization that released the report at the World Economic Forum.
The countries studied were evaluated on five categories: nondiscrimination and equal access to justice; autonomy, security and freedom of the individual; economic rights and equal opportunity; political rights and civic voice; and social and cultural rights.
Countries were then ranked between 1 and 5 in each category, with Saudi Arabia having the lowest average of 1.26. The average for Tunisia was highest, at 3.24. No country received a ranking higher than 3.6 in any category.
The report was presented at the World Economic Forum in Jordan, where Queen Rania and other women's rights activists called for reform through changes in the Arab media's portrayal of women.
Saudi court sentences rape victim to 90 lashes
DPA, THE JERUSALEM POST
Nov. 2, 2006
A Saudi court has sentenced a gang rape victim to 90 lashes of the whip because she was alone in a car with a man to whom she was not married.
The sentence was passed at the end of a trial in which the al- Qateef high criminal court convicted four Saudis convicted of the rape, sentencing them to prison terms and a total of 2,230 lashes.
The four, all married, were sentenced respectively to five years and 1,000 lashes, four years and 800 lashes, four years and 350 lashes, and one year and 80 lashes.
A fifth, married, man who was stated to have filmed the rape on his mobile phone still faces investigation. Two others alleged to have taken part in the rape evaded capture.
Saudi courts take marital status into account in sexual crimes. A male friend of the rape victim was also sentenced to 90 lashes for being alone with her in the car.
The court heard that the victim and her friend were followed by the assailants to their car, kidnapped and taken to a remote farm, where the raping occurred.
The victim was quoted by Okaz newspaper as saying she had expected harsher penalties for the assailants, especially as they had pleaded not guilty.
Her husband and family said that they would appeal to the court Saturday for harsher penalties for a crime which has shocked public opinion in Saudi Arabia and been the subject of months of debate.
Women doctor shares journey into heart of Islam
August 17, 2008
The Canadian Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dr. Qanta Ahmed's journey into the heart of Islam began as a spur-of-the-moment decision to practise medicine in Saudi Arabia.
Despite misgivings about women - even doctors - being treated as invisible in the country, the 40-year-old assistant professor at the Medical University of South Carolina says she took a chance and stayed there for two years.
Reflecting on her experiences almost decade later, she sees her memoir, "In the Land of Invisible Women," as part of a needed "jihad of the pen" by articulate, moderate Muslims. Her hope is that a book written by a Muslim who grew up in the West can, in some small way, bridge the divide of understanding between the Middle East and Western culture.
"One of the central errors westerners are constantly assaulted with is the use of this term jihad," she says in an interview at her condominium overlooking Charleston's peaceful Ashley River. "The central jihad for all of us is to constantly improve and be the best we can be and try to adhere to some very pure ideals."
She also hopes it might help dispel what she says is a misconception that Islam advocates violence. (Confused Muslim author protects Islam)
"This is absolutely heinous and false," she says. "Islam values life above anything. We are taught in the Quran that man's right to life exceeds even God's rights on man."
Ahmed's "In the Land of Invisible Women," will be published next month by Sourcebooks Landmark.
"The book is important because in this country, in the sound-bite generation, stereotypes pretty much prevail," said Sourcebooks Inc.'s Tony Viardo. "When Americans in general think of Muslims, really the radical Islam aspect of it comes to mind. Where we think this book is really important is that is humanizes Muslims and builds bridges between the two cultures." (Confused Muslim author protects Islam)
Ahmed, who is of Pakistani descent, was born in Britain and had advanced medical training in the United States.
In Saudi Arabia, she found a land with tremendous wealth, but one where women remain largely invisible, even highly trained female doctors working side-by-side with male colleagues. It is a land where women must, in public, be shrouded in an abbayah, a flowing robe; where women can't drive and must have a male relative or guardian's permission to travel. (Confused Muslim author condemns Islam)
She stayed in Saudi Arabia from 1999 through 2001, leaving in the months after the 2001 terror attacks. She writes of her anger in seeing highly trained physicians laughing and others buying cakes and celebrating the news of 9-11. (Confused Muslim author condemns Islam)
But she also found a connection she had never known to a religion she had practised her entire life after going on the Hajj to the holiest sites of Islam.
There is much confusion about that religion, she says. (Confused Muslim author protects Islam)
In modern Islam, she says, "you see so very few articulate moderate voices coming out. Where are the movies? Where is the music? Where is the poetry? Where are the books to counteract some of this (violent) ideology?"
A decade ago, Ahmed, a pulmonologist and sleep specialist, had to decide about her future when her visa to practice medicine in the United States expired. She wanted to practice in the Middle East because its medicine was more American than in her native Britain. She told a recruiter she would go anywhere but Saudi Arabia. (Yes, the heart of Islam is a terrorist country)
But then came an offer to practise medicine in a modern hospital drawing patients from all of Saudi Arabia. She took it, despite initial misgivings about living in a land of strict religious rules where the death penalty is administered by decapitation.
"'What's a year?"' I remembered thinking to myself, as I had signed the contract recklessly, flicking through pages ignoring bold capitals announcing the death penalty," she writes. "In a thoughtless flourish I found myself now subject to the laws of Saudi Arabia, decapitation included."
Ahmed says it was a paradox to live in a land with such rigid laws but one that was enthralling and spiritual. (Confused Muslim author does not understand that Islam condones violence)
She made the Hajj to Mecca, the journey every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it is obligated to make at least once.
Many make preparations months and even years in advance. Ahmed went almost by chance, deciding only a week before when a colleague convinced her that she might never get another chance.
Approaching the Ka'ba, she felt small among the tens of thousands of pilgrims.
"The next thing you notice is the diversity of race and physical features and age and nationalities and languages, and that's when I immediately felt at home," she says. "If you don't quite fit in with the culture or you don't fit in quite with the family where you come from, you have a place you fit in spiritually."