She has alluring eyes, but the rest of her is forbidden to be seen. She is neither allowed to drive a car nor have any contact with men outside her family. She cannot apply for most jobs. If she obtains employment, she will be expected to quit in five to ten years. Make-up is not an option. And if she laughs a little too loud, she can be punished. Welcome to Saudi Arabia: one of the most misogynistic nations on earth..
The religious police, the Mutaween, are everywhere in a state built on the suppression of women. Islamic extremists still continue to drive much of society despite the piecemeal reform efforts of King Abdullah.
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Perhaps the defining moment of Saudi Arabia's state-sponsored tyranny against women occurred in the early part of this decade. When a fire broke out at a girls school in Mecca on 11 March 2002, its female students were forced by the Mutaween to remain inside the burning building due to not having abayas (long black gowns) to cover themselves on the street. As a result, fifteen young girls perished needlessly in the blaze and another fifty suffered injury.
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Since that horrific episode, women continue to be denied their basic human rights. Moreover, they are subject to severe reprisals for the slightest infraction of Islamic law in many parts of the country. Only a few months ago, in March, a father murdered his daughter upon discovering her communicating with a young man on the popular website Facebook. While that story was reported in the press, how many similar stories concerning the abuse of women go unreported in Saudi Arabia?
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President Obama traveled to the Arabian Peninsula a few months ago as part of his campaign to rollback the militarist posture of his predecessor and set a new tone in international relations based on diplomacy. Although commendable, neither the US nor the world can afford to remain silent any longer on the state of women in Saudi Arabia.
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The progress of women in the Middle East, however, will ultimately depend on the women themselves.
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From Tehran to Riyadh, Middle Eastern women must bravely stand up for their rights at any cost. Another generation of gender-based servility is unacceptable. As an all-loving, compassionate God certainly would not condone the subjection of women, no legitimate government and no decent man can sit idly by while witnessing the oppression of their mothers, wives, sisters and daughters.
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(Photo: A clad woman in Saudi Arabia)
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J Roquen