Monday, June 9, 2008
Egyptian MPs pass ban on genital mutilation
Egypt's Parliament on Saturday outlawed female genital mutilation (FGM) except in cases of "medical necessity," a condition which could undermine the ban, parliamentary sources said. FGM, which dates back to pharaonic times in Egypt, will now be punishable by a jail term of between three months and two years or a fine of 1,000-5,000 Egyptian pounds ($190-$940), they said. The new legislation is part of a bill on children's rights which has been the subject of fierce debate for several weeks. Those who supported the practice argued it was appropriate when female genitals "protruded too much," adding that it was needed to preserve the woman's virtue. The Health Ministry tried in 1997 to ban the tradition, which affects both Muslim and Christian women in Egypt, and introduced curbs which allowed only doctors to carry out the operation and solely in "exceptional circumstances." The restrictions were further strengthened in June 2007 when Health Minister Hatem al-Gabali issued a decree - rather than law - banning all doctors and members of the medical profession from performing the procedure. The new law, which takes immediate effect, toughens penalties for anyone who is convicted of flouting the ban. Female circumcision can cause death through hemorrhaging and later complications during childbirth. It also carries risks of infection, urinary tract problems and mental trauma. (AFP)
Labels: Egypt, Womens Rights
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Al-Qaida's stance on women sparks extremist debate
Muslim extremist women are challenging al-Qaida's refusal to include - or at least acknowledge - women in its ranks, in an emotional debate that gives rare insight into the gender conflicts lurking beneath one of the strictest strains of Islam.
In response to a female questioner, al-Qaida No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahri said in April that the terrorist group does not have women. A woman's role, he said on the Internet audio recording, is limited to caring for the homes and children of al-Qaida fighters.
His remarks have since prompted an outcry from fundamentalist women, who are fighting or pleading for the right to be terrorists. The statements have also created some confusion, because in fact suicide bombings by women seem to be on the rise, at least within the Iraq branch of al-Qaida.
A'eeda Dahsheh is a Palestinian mother of four in Lebanon who said she supports al-Zawahri and has chosen to raise children at home as her form of jihad. However, she said, she also supports any woman who chooses instead to take part in terror attacks.
Another woman signed a more than 2,000-word essay of protest online as Rabeebat al-Silah, Arabic for "Companion of Weapons."
"How many times have I wished I were a man ... When Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahri said there are no women in al-Qaida, he saddened and hurt me," wrote "Companion of Weapons," who said she listened to the speech 10 times. "I felt that my heart was about to explode in my chest...I am powerless." (AP)
Labels: Al Qaeda, Womens Rights
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Couple forced to divorce by Saudi court appeal for help
A Saudi couple forced to divorce by an Islamic court have called for more international pressure to reunite them after Saudi authorities failed to fulfill a pledge to a U.N. body to do so.
Fatima Azzaz and Mansour al-Timani were forced to separate in 2006 after her brothers persuaded judges her husband's tribal stock was not prestigious enough.
It is one of a series of cases that have drawn international criticism of human rights in Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally and the world's top oil exporter.
Yakin Erturk, the U.N.'s expert on violence against women, said during a visit to Riyadh in February that authorities had promised to allow the couple to reunite.
"Our case has not been resolved yet ... I cannot get justice in my country, the United Nations could not get me justice, I turn to Allah and to the world to ask for this injustice to be brought to an end," Timani told Reuters late on Saturday. (Reuters)
Labels: Saudi Arabia, Womens Rights
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Jordan 'tough' on honour killer
A court in Jordan has sentenced a 23-year-old man to 10 years in jail for killing his sister.
The man was initially sentenced to death, but this was commuted to give him the chance to repent.
The court heard that he stabbed his sister 14 times and shot her repeatedly after her former husband accused her of having affairs.
Jordanians convicted of so called "honour killings" have previously been jailed for as little as six months.
Correspondents say the 10-year sentence underlines the authorities' determination to stamp out the crime.
Amnesty International says that last year 17 women were officially recorded as having been killed in "honour crimes" in Jordan. (BBC)
Labels: Jordan, Womens Rights
Monday, May 5, 2008
Iran women activist gets suspended jail sentence
TEHRAN (Reuters) - A prominent Iranian women's rights activist said on Monday she had received a two-year suspended jail sentence, the latest such punishment for a campaigner in favor of greater female rights in the Islamic Republic.
Parvin Ardalan, who said in March she was barred from leaving Tehran to accept a Swedish human rights award, said a branch of Iran's Revolutionary Court last week announced the sentence for her role in a gathering by activists last year.
She said this was her second sentence, following a partly suspended three-year jail term for involvement in another banned demonstration in 2006.
"Many women activists have this kind of (suspended) sentence. Some...don't do anything, some of them are very quiet, very careful about what they do," the 41-year-old journalist said. (Reuters)
Labels: Free Speech, Iran, Womens Rights
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Jordan jails man over daughter's 'honor killing'
A Jordanian man was sentenced to six months in prison on Wednesday for murdering his 16-year-old daughter by electrocution in an apparent "honor killing," a court source said. "In November 2006, the man lost consciousness after his daughter told him that she had slept with a young man. She also cursed him and said it was none of his business," the source told AFP. "When the enraged man woke up, he beat the girl on the head with a stick and electrocuted her by attaching bare electric wires to her body. She died immediately." The father committed the crime in the exclusive Abdoun area, west of Amman, and was charged with murder after he confessed to murdering his daughter "to cleanse the family's honor," the source said. Jordanian authorities recorded a total of 17 so-called traditional "honor killings" in 2007, a slight increase compared to previous years. The killers often receive light sentences if convicted, as Parliament has refused to reform the penal code to end the near impunity of the perpetrators. (AFP)
Labels: Jordan, Womens Rights
Blaming the victim: Abused Afghan women often end up in jail
Trafficked across the border from Pakistan with her 3-year-old son, Rukhma was handed to an Afghan who raped and abused her, then beat the toddler to death as she watched helplessly.
He was jailed for 20 years for murder, but Rukhma ended up in prison too.
Rukhma, who doesn't know her age but looks younger than 20, had put up with her mistreatment for three months last summer before seeking protection and justice from authorities. Instead she was given a four-year sentence on Dec. 5 for adultery and "escaping her house" in Pakistan, even though she says she was kidnapped and raped.
The fall of the Taliban six years ago heralded new rights for Afghan women: to go to school or get a job, and be protected under the law. Women's rights are now enshrined in the constitution.
Yet except for a small urban elite, a woman fleeing domestic violence or accusing a man of rape herself often ends up the guilty party in the eyes of judges and prosecutors. (AP)
Labels: Afghanistan, Womens Rights
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Female teachers dying on the roads in Saudi Arabia
Roads in Saudi Arabia are among the world's most dangerous but one type of victim stands out: female teachers who are dying at alarming rates because of long commutes through the desert to reach remote schools.
The Saudi government appoints teachers to work in villages where local staff cannot fill all vacancies. But unlike their male counterparts, female teachers in this conservative Muslim country have difficulty living alone in the villages, forcing them to commute each day.
Nof al-Oneizi was so worried she would die that she wrote to education officials urging them to find her a school nearer to her home in the northern town of Jouf, rather than the one she was assigned to 108 miles away - a three-hour drive because of the bad roads. Since women are forbidden to drive, she carpooled in a van with a driver along with several other female teachers.
Her fears came true before a solution to her problem could be found: The 28-year-old English language teacher died in a horrific crash last November. Five other female teachers, their driver and four people in the car they hit also were killed.
"We were devastated," said Suad Amri, al-Oneizi's aunt. "I still have her school papers, all splattered with blood. Her mom can't look at them. She can't absorb what has happened to her daughter." (AP)
Labels: Saudi Arabia, Womens Rights
More than 100,000 sign petition to save journalist held in Afghanistan
The Independent's petition to save the Afghan student Sayed Pervez Kambaksh from the gallows has collected a staggering 100,000 signatures as the 23-year-old languishes in a cell in Kabul awaiting appeal.
Mr Kambaksh was arrested for distributing a pamphlet about women's rights, and tried and convicted without a defence lawyer, in a closed court in Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. His case led to international protests, led by the UN human rights chief, Louise Arbour, and Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State.
Last night, Mr Kambaksh's brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, thanked The Independent's army of readers around the world. "If it wasn't for the petition we would be alone. There are a lot of pressures inside Afghanistan from the fundamentalists. They are trying to execute my brother," he said. "Fortunately, against them, there is pressure from the international community, and The Independent petition. I really believe it will help us." (Independent)
Labels: Afghanistan, Free Speech, Womens Rights
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Barbaric 'honour killings' become the weapon to subjugate women in Iraq
At first glance Shawbo Ali Rauf appears to be slumbering on the grass, her pale brown curls framing her face, her summer skirt spread about her. But the awkward position of her limbs and the splattered blood reveal the true horror of the scene.
The 19-year-old Iraqi was, according to her father, murdered by her own in-laws, who took her to a picnic area in Dokan and shot her seven times. Her crime was to have an unknown number on her mobile phone. Her "honour killing" is just one in a grotesque series emerging from Iraq, where activists speak of a "genocide" against women in the name of religion.
In the latest such case, it was reported yesterday that a 17-year-old girl, Rand Abdel-Qader, was stabbed to death last month by her father for becoming infatuated with a British soldier serving in southern Iraq.
In Basra alone, police acknowledge that 15 women a month are murdered for breaching Islamic dress codes. Campaigners insist it is a conservative figure.
Violence against women is rampant, rising every day with the power of the militias. Beheadings, rapes, beatings, suicides through self-immolation, genital mutilation, trafficking and child abuse masquerading as marriage of girls as young as nine are all on the increase. (Independent)
Labels: Iraq, Womens Rights
Girl, 17, killed in Iraq for loving a British soldier
A 17-year-old Iraqi girl was murdered by her father in an honour killing after falling in love with a British soldier she met while working on an aid programme in Basra, it has been claimed.
Rand Abdel-Qader was stamped upon, suffocated and stabbed by her father, then given an unceremonious burial to emphasise her disgrace. Police released her father without charge two hours after his arrest.
"Not much can be done when we have an honour killing case," said Sergeant Ali Jabbar of Basra police. "You are in a Muslim society and women should live under religious laws. The father has very good contacts inside the Basra government and it wasn't hard for him to be released and what he did to be forgotten."
A total of 47 young women died in honour killings in the city last year, Basra Security Committee told an investigation into Ms Abdel-Qader's case by The Observer. This is believed to be the only case of an honour killing involving a British soldier.
The MoD had no official advice for troops on how to behave with Iraqi women. The serviceman involved would not have been told that any relationship with her could put her life at risk, the paper said. (Independent)
Labels: Iraq, U.K., Womens Rights
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Iraqi Women Take On Roles Of Dead or Missing Husbands
Sabriyah Hilal Abadi began sleeping with a loaded AK-47 by her bed shortly after the war began.
It was a comforting possession for a woman who had lost her home, her husband and, last weekend, a room in a dilapidated building she shared with 27 squatter families, most headed by women.
The mother of four fought mightily to stay in the sparse, two-story building in the Zayouna neighborhood of Baghdad that once belonged to Hussein's Baath Party, but soldiers forced her out.
Iraq's government is intent on proving it can enforce the law. But in its determination to rid the party building of its squatters, the women say, the government has plunged them deeper into homelessness and may have pushed others toward violence.
Thousands of Iraqi women have in recent years embraced new roles as violence has claimed their men. For Abadi, 43, the turning point came when she accepted the powerful assault rifle from friends concerned about her welfare. (Washington Post)
Labels: Iraq, Womens Rights
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Iran women activists get suspended lashing sentences
Three Iranian women's rights campaigners have received suspended lashing and jail sentences for taking part in a rally, a fellow activist said on Tuesday.
It was the latest sign of the authorities clamping down on activists demanding greater women's rights in the conservative Islamic Republic, which rejects Western accusations it is discriminating against women.
"Women's rights activists particularly object to sentences that include lashing," said Sussan Tahmasebi, who herself is appealing a partly suspended two-year prison sentence for involvement in a banned demonstration in the capital in 2006.
"These sentences are intended to embarrass and humiliate human rights activists," she told Reuters.
She said Minou Mortazi, Nasrin Afzali and Nahid Jafari were sentenced to six months in jail and 10 lashes for attending a gathering outside a Tehran court in March last year where Tahmasebi and three other activists were standing trial.
The sentences were suspended so they will only be carried out if they are found guilty of another crime within two years. (Reuters)
Labels: Iran, Womens Rights
Monday, April 21, 2008
Saudi women appeal for legal freedoms
In Riyadh, the college day begins for female students behind a locked door that will remain that way until male guardians come to collect them. Later, in a female-run business, everyone must vacate the premises so a delivery man can drop off a package. In Jeddah, a 40-year-old divorced woman cannot board a plane without the written permission of her 23-year-old son. Elsewhere, a female doctor cannot leave the house at all as her male driver fails to turn up for work. These scenes make up the daily reality for half of the Saudi Kingdom, the only country where women legally belong to men.
After more than a decade of lobbying, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has finally been granted access to Saudi Arabia, where it has uncovered a disturbing picture of women forced to live as children, denied basic rights and confined to a suffocating dependency on men.
Wajeha al-Huwaider, a critic of Saudi's guardian laws that force women to seek male permission for almost all aspects of their lives, is one of a growing number demanding change. "Sometimes I feel like I can't do anything; I am utterly reliant on other people, completely dependent. If you are dependent on another person, you've got nothing. That is how the men like it. They don't want us to be equals."
The House of Saud, in alliance with an extremist religious establishment which enforces the most restrictive interpretation of sharia, Islamic law, has created a legal system that treats women as minors unable to exercise authority over even trivial daily matters. (Independent)
Labels: Human Rights, Saudi Arabia, Womens Rights
Saudi women 'kept in childhood'
Saudi women are being kept in perpetual childhood so male relatives can exercise "guardianship" over them, the Human Rights Watch group has said.
The New York-based group says Saudi women have to obtain permission from male relatives to work, travel, study, marry or even receive health care.
Their access to justice is also severely constrained, it says.
The group says the Saudi establishment sacrifices basic human rights to maintain male control over women.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.
Saudi clerics see the guardianship of women's honour as a key to the country's social and moral order. (BBC)
Labels: Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Saudi Arabia, Womens Rights
Friday, April 18, 2008
Islamic Republic releases women's rights activist
Iran has freed a women's rights activist in her 50s whose arrest prompted a public protest letter signed by hundreds of her fellow campaigners, the Kargozaran newspaper reported on Thursday. It said women's rights and environmental activist Khadijeh Moghaddam, 56, had been freed Wednesday following her arrest on suspicion of "acting against national security" on April 8.
Moghaddam's bail of 1 billion rials ($110,000) was paid by an unidentified individual.
She has been described as a pioneer in environmental protection in Iran, working for better waste management and protesting against deforestation.
She has also been involved with the "1 million signatures" campaign - an attempt to change Iranian laws that discriminate against women by collecting signatures online and in person.
Some 600 activists signed the letter demanding that "Khadijeh Moghaddam's illegal detention end as soon as possible," reformist media reports said earlier this week. (AFP)
Labels: Free Speech, Human Rights Watch, Iran, Womens Rights
Sunday, April 13, 2008
'Free Iranian women's rights activist' - petition
Hundreds of Iranian civil rights activists signed an open letter over the weekend calling for the release of a women's rights advocate arrested for "acting against national security," reports said on Saturday. Women's rights and environmental activist Khadijeh Moghaddam, 56, was arrested on April 8 and bail has been set at 1 billion rials ($108,000). Some 600 activists have signed the letter demanding that "Khadijeh Moghaddam's illegal detention end as soon as possible," the reformist Sarmayeh newspaper said. "Moghaddam is a pioneer in environmental protection in Iran," the letter said, noting her cooperation with city officials over waste management and protests against deforestation. "She has been active for years in creating jobs for women and forming women's cooperatives," it added.
"Who would believe Moghaddam has harmed national security or caused public offence?" Moghaddam has also been involved with the "1 million signature" campaign - an attempt to change Iranian laws that discriminate against women by collecting signatures online and in person. Several women have been jailed for their involvement in the campaign as Iran has stepped up arrests of human rights campaigners and trade unionists over the past year. The signature campaign was launched after a June 2006 demonstration for equal rights for women in inheritance, divorce and child custody, at which nearly 70 protesters were arrested amid allegations of police brutality. (AFP)
Labels: Free Speech, Iran, Womens Rights
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Iran pressed to free campaigner
Hundreds of civil society activists in Iran have signed an open letter calling for the release of women's rights defender Khadijeh Moghaddam.
Mrs Moghaddam, who is also a campaigner for the environment, was arrested on 8 April and accused of acting against national security.
She is very involved in the drive to gather one million signatures opposing laws that discriminate against women.
The open letter was sent to newspapers and websites across Iran.
Bail for Mrs Moghaddam, 56, was set at more than $100,000 (63,000 euros). (BBC)
Labels: Iran, Womens Rights
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
UAE gets first woman judge in bid to 'boost their role in society'
The oil-rich United Arab Emirates on Wednesday got its first woman judge, a job hitherto reserved for men in the conservative Gulf country. UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, acting in his capacity as ruler of Abu Dhabi, named Kholoud Ahmad Jouan al-Dhaheri as a judge in the emirate, the wealthiest and largest in the seven-member federation, the official WAM news agency reported. The move made the UAE the second Arab country in the Gulf after Bahrain to name a female judge.
The appointment reflects "the government's keenness to involve women in the development drive" and "boost their role in society," said Sultan Saaed al-Badi, a senior official of Abu Dhabi's judiciary.
"I will endeavor to perform my functions with utmost [competence] ... in order to provide a successful model of Emirati women," Dhaheri was quoted by WAM as saying.
The new judge graduated in law and sharia from UAE University and has been a practicing lawyer for eight years, the news agency said. (AFP)
Labels: U.A.E., Womens Rights
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Saudi Arabia opens its first women-only hotel (Independent)
For a country that goes to such great lengths to segregate unrelated men and women, it took Saudi Arabia a long time to hit on the idea of women-only hotels.
The kingdom's first hotel exclusively for females opened yesterday, offering plush lodgings with a full-range of health and beauty facilities for ladies to pamper themselves, away from the accusing eyes of a male-dominated society.
"Inside this physical structure, we are all women," said the Luthan Hotel's executive director Lorraine Coutinho. "We even have bell-women. We are women-owned, women-managed and women-run, from our IT engineer to our electrical engineer.
"This is meeting a very big demand. There are women's hotels all over the world, from Berlin to the United States." (Link)
Labels: Saudi Arabia, Womens Rights
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Iran frees adulteress facing stoning after years in prison (AFP)
Iran has freed a woman convicted of adultery who faced being stoned to death like her male partner whose execution last year caused international outrage, her lawyer said on Tuesday. Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, who had spent a total of 11 years behind bars, was released from a prison in the city of Qazvin Monday night on the orders of the Iranian judiciary's amnesty commission, lawyer Shadi Sadr told AFP.
She was freed along with the son she had conceived with her partner Jafar Kiani, whose stoning in July 2007 was carried out by local authorities in apparent defiance of the central judiciary.
Under Iran's Islamic law, adultery is still theoretically punishable by stoning, which involves the public hurling of stones at the convict buried up to his or her waist. (Link)
Labels: Iran, Womens Rights
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Afghans and Iraqis mark International Women's Day by demanding their rights (AFP)
Calls to end forced marriage, domestic abuse and job discrimination marked International Women's Day on Saturday as demonstrators took to the streets in US-occupied Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly 100 years old, the day marks the worldwide struggle for equal rights for half the globe's population.
Scores of women rallied outside a Baghdad hotel demanding an end to violence and equal social status with men.
"Stop neglecting women. Stop killing women. Stop creating widows," read a large banner that the women, from various ethnic and religious backgrounds, held at the Babylon Hotel in Baghdad's central Karrada neighborhood.
After the rally, the protesters joined a much larger group that included men and children at a hotel conference room to hear from various speakers. (Link)
Labels: Afghanistan, Iraq, Womens Rights
Saudi women make video protest (BBC)
Saudi women's rights activists have posted on the web a video of a woman at the wheel of her car, in protest at the ban on female drivers in the kingdom.
Wajeha Huwaider talks of the injustice of the ban and calls for its abolition as she drives calmly along a highway.
She says the film was posted to mark International Women's Day. Thousands have viewed it on the YouTube website.
The last such public show of dissent was in 1990 when dozens of women were arrested for circling Riyadh in cars.
Last year, Ms Huwaider and other activists circulated a petition which was sent to King Abdullah urging him to lift the ban.
In the three-minute clip, she at first drives around a residential compound where she notes that women are allowed to drive because it is not a public road. (Link)
Labels: Saudi Arabia, Womens Rights
Thursday, March 6, 2008
'National crisis' for Iraqi women (BBC)
The situation for women in Iraq has become a "national crisis" since the US-led invasion in 2003, a report by an international women's group has warned.
Women for Women International said they had had relative autonomy and security, but now faced violence, controversial leadership and poor infrastructure.
Almost two-thirds of the 1,500 women questioned for the national survey said violence against them had increased.
The report was issued ahead of International Women's Day on Saturday.
According to Women for Women's 2008 Iraq Report, shortly before the US-led invasion, "women's rights and gender equity were mentioned as symbolic issues for Iraq's new national agenda". (Link)
Labels: Iraq, Womens Rights
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Iran 'targeting' women activists (BBC)
Amnesty International has called on Iran to stop persecuting people who campaign for women's rights.
The human rights group says activists involved in a big campaign to improve women's rights have been targeted.
In a new report, Amnesty says women activists have suffered an "acute" backlash since the campaign was launched in August 2006.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has insisted women in his country are treated better than anywhere else.
The so-called Campaign for Equality aims to collect a million signatures for a petition to push for an end to discrimination against women.
Labels: Amnesty International, Iran, Womens Rights
Iran 'targeting' women activists (BBC)
Amnesty International has called on Iran to stop persecuting people who campaign for women's rights.
The human rights group says activists involved in a big campaign to improve women's rights have been targeted.
In a new report, Amnesty says women activists have suffered an "acute" backlash since the campaign was launched in August 2006.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has insisted women in his country are treated better than anywhere else.
The so-called Campaign for Equality aims to collect a million signatures for a petition to push for an end to discrimination against women.
Labels: Amnesty International, Iran, Womens Rights
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
U.N. campaign takes on violence against women (Reuters)
The United Nations launched on Monday a campaign to combat violence against women and girls, calling it a global scourge affecting a third of the world's female population.
"At least one out of every three women is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a meeting of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women.
"Through the practice of prenatal sex selection, countless others are denied the right even to exist," he said. (Link)
Labels: Womens Rights
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Women's lives worse than ever (Independent)
Grinding poverty and the escalating war is driving an increasing number of Afghan families to sell their daughters into forced marriages.
Girls as young as six are being married into a life of slavery and rape, often by multiple members of their new relatives. Banned from seeing their own parents or siblings, they are also prohibited from going to school. With little recognition of the illegality of the situation or any effective recourse, many of the victims are driven to self-immolation – burning themselves to death – or severe self-harm.
Six years after the US and Britain "freed" Afghan women from the oppressive Taliban regime, a new report proves that life is just as bad for most, and worse in some cases.
Projects started in the optimistic days of 2002 have begun to wane as the UK and its Nato allies fail to treat women's rights as a priority, workers in the country insist. (Link)
Labels: Afghanistan, Womens Rights
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Saudi scholars back women drivers (BBC)
Two Saudi scholars have said there is nothing in Islamic law to prevent women from driving.
The senior religious figures said the issue depended on the context.
They say women would need to be protected from harassment and that steps would have to be taken to ensure there was no mingling of the sexes.
An opinion poll published by a leading English-language Saudi newspaper suggests that this is a view supported by most Saudi men and women.
The two scholars are Abdel-Mohsin al-Obaikan - one of Saudi Arabia's senior religious figures - and another well-known cleric, Mohsin Awaji.
Both say that, in principle, Islamic law does not prevent women driving. (Link)
Labels: Saudi Arabia, Womens Rights
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Saudi religious police stand by arrest of businesswoman (AFP)
Saudi Arabia's religious police struck back on Tuesday at critics of their arrest of a businesswoman in a Starbucks cafe for mixing with a male colleague, threatening to sue a journalist. The powerful Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or religious police, charged the Saudi woman was making "suspicious gestures" while in the man's company and broke the law on several counts, in a statement published in the local press.
The commission "reserves the right of its members ... to claim their legal right from columnist Abdullah al-Alami who accused them of abduction," it said.
The religious police, commonly known as the Muttawa, said Alami, a columnist for the daily Al-Watan, had also accused them of strip-searching the woman, "which is no less reprehensible than ... the crime of kidnapping."
The businesswoman, a 40-year-old financial consultant, was quoted in the English-language daily Arab News on February 5 as saying she was detained and strip-searched by the Muttawa the previous day.
She had been sitting in a Starbucks coffee shop with an unrelated man, an activity which is taboo in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia. (Link)
Labels: Womens Rights
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