(Ruba and Rania- This is for you!)
Dear faithful readers of my blog,
The Arab News headline screamed: WOMEN BARRED FROM POLLS! That one line disappointed me so much. When will the women get a fair chance in this country?
What is the Kingdom so scared of? Are the men-folk so scared that the women will perhaps do a better job? (I can tell you from my experience at university that Saudi girls are much better students than the Saudi boys who were at my university to show off their assets and to enjoy the open-ness in society in Dubai!) Do the men fear losing their power and authority once women come into the workplace? (And by workplace, I don’t mean schools, hospitals and women-only boutiques!) I mean, for God’s sake, how can you women feel so comfortable going into make-up and lingerie shops and purchase items while being served by a man? Don’t you women feel least bit concerned that you are being served by a man when you ask him you’re looking for a particular sized bra? Don’t you find it a bit funny when a man demonstrates to you what particular shade of blusher would suit your skin?
I was more disappointed, because women being barred from the first ever elections in the Kingdom is a big blow to all the women out there, who are being marginalized. The interview of several men showed the mindset of the men here: “women’s place belongs at home,” “first women need to handle the home, only then can they work outside,” “the society is not ready to have women in the workplace,” and the most absurd “women will not be able to perform effectively.” If I were a Saudi woman, I would have been deeply insulted by these comments! Who are these men here to comment on what women can and cannot do? I think the women and the liberalized men are tired of repeating over and over again about how much freedom women enjoyed during the Prophet’s time; they talk about women running business, dealing with men, riding camels and so on. It’s about time they stop bringing up examples from the past and do something for the present! But the Kingdom of Saudi is not ready to have women out in the real world!
Why there is this much discrimination against women, I don’t understand. Sure, I can hear some of the women out there saying to me “look at the bright side Mansur. We women don’t have to drive in this crazy traffic, no parking hassles, men do all the paperwork for us, no single teens to bother us in all family areas” and the list goes on and on. If you are happy being relegated to an almost second class citizen—all I can say is enjoy!
I went out yesterday to get something from the supermarket. The temperature was a scorching 42 degrees centigrade. I was sweating profusely, even though I was in jeans and t-shirt. On my way to the supermarket from my car, I saw a woman sitting on the steps. She was an African, rather robust, sitting in such a position, I thought she was going to fall over and die. She was covered entirely from head to toe, save her eyes, which were peering out from the slits. My God, how can you sit like this in the heat in an all –encompassing ‘black’ abaya (covering). You are going to faint here. Don’t you know ‘black’ absorbs heat! Ironically, all the men have it easy, they wear ‘white’ thobes, and we all know white reflects off heat. Don’t you think that’s a tad bit weird? I think it’s very unfair.
Women represent more than 50% of the Saudi society. Women are given less than a ¼ area in the area surrounding the Kaaba in Mecca. Isn’t that weird? Islam talks about one of the signs of the End of Days will be when there will be 50 women for every one man. Don’t you think the authorities would have enough sense to provide more space to women in Mecca?
I must however say that there are women in Saudi who are brave enough to stand up and fight for their rights to equality. There are three women who stood up for elections, sadly to be barred now.
I had two Saudi female friends, Ruba and Rania, in my architecture class at university. Once they finished architecture, I had asked them what they will do and where they will work. Both of them said that they have to go back to Saudi Arabia and stay there. But you can’t work there, I asked. Yeah, we know we cannot work there. Our only option left is to get married. Friends, this is the year 2003, and Saudi females graduates like Ruba and Rania cannot even work. Ruba married after moving to Saudi within a few months of graduation, and is not using her architecture degree for which she worked extremely hard for five years. The last I heard of Rania was that she left the country to work somewhere else.
I do look forward to that day when the women here will be given a fair chance to work in Saudi.
Yours,
Mansur
2 comments:
Mansur :- you bring up some good points. It's so ironic how Islam is the one religion that has openly given women more rights than any other religion in the world and yet some of the so called islamic cultures bring in values that are so backward. In this day and age, women cannot vote in some muslim countries. Where is that right ? The right to thought. The right to freedom of speech. The right to expression of oneself. I wish some day the women of such nations will stand up for their very own rights. Those rights that were alway welcome to them and that god never denied them in the first place. Thanks for bringing up such an important issue to women folk !
The women do stand up for their rights, but it is the men-folk who go out of their way to supress the women, especially the religious minded men like the mutawas! Remember that incident in Mecca when there was a fire in the school, and the mutawas did not allow for the contact between the firemen and the school girls thus resulting in deaths of the young girls?! It is when we rid the nation of such kind of thinking that women will have the freedom that you mentioned!
Mansur
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