Figure 1.--. |
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There are also severe restrictions on women's rights based on the Koran. Decrimination against women is pronounced in the Kindom affecting many aspects of their daily lives. The decrimination affects education, employment, movemnt, legal rights, and the justice system. Women under Saudi law are regarded as inferior to men. The Saudis have made considerable progress in educating women. Saudi women unlike women in many Arab countries do not have a high rate of iliteracy. In fact, about 70 percent of university students are women. Women are not allowed, however, to turn their educational achievements into actual earnings and jobs. Women make up only 5 percent of the work force. This appears to be the lowest level of female workers in the world. The Kingdom has been considering reforms to create greater opportunities for women in the work place, but such reforms have been opposed by the Labor Ministry, from the religious police, and by many men. Conservative elements in the Kingdom believe that women belong at home caring for her husband and family. Women face pervasive desrimination under Saudi law based on Islamic concepts. The ability of men to testify in court is limited and even that is not seen as bearing the weight of fact. This leaves women vulnerable to assault and/or rape. Women also do not have equal inheritance rights. And they can be easily divorced which can lead to separation from their children. The movement of women is strictly limited. They are not allowed to drive or ride bicycles on public roads in large cities, although they commonly do so illegally in rural areas where there is less police supervision. The religious police enforce extreme modesty in dress. This begins in the early teens. Girls after their first menstrual cycle must wear the abaaya. This is a long black cloak covering their entire body. Violations can lead to extreme punishment, including caning, harassment, and/ or fines. Institutions including schools, government agencies, restaurants, and others always have sex-segregated facilities. Women need the permission and often the presence of a mle relative to be admitted to a hospital, examined by a doctor, travel abroad or even leave the house.
Women in many Muslim countries are second-class citizens. This results from both the Koran and other Islaamic teachings. The Koran has a great deal to say about the status of women in society and the treatment of women. Some if the most important deal with marriage and divorce, modesty, and inheritance. Some of the passages are quite explicit. Others are a little more difficult to understand. The Koranic passages are very important because so many Muslims believe that the Koran is the litteral word of God transcribed by his Prophet Mohammed. This means that many Muslims do not believe that these passages can be questioned and should be reflected in their country's legal code. Muslims can question the meaning of Koranic passages. And in the case of ambiguous passages this provides some room for moving away from the more extreme interpretation. Many of these passages, however, are very specific and clear and thus there is no way of questioning them.
Decrimination against women is pronounced in the Kindom affecting many aspects of their daily lives. The decrimination affects education, employment, movemnt, legal rights, and the justice system. Women under Saudi law are regarded as inferior to men.
The Saudis have made considerable progress in educating women. Saudi women unlike women in many Arab countries do not have a high rate of iliteracy. In fact, about 70 percent of university students are women. Women are not allowed, however, to turn their educational achievements into actual earnings and jobs.
Women make up only 5 percent of the work force. This appears to be the lowest level of female workers in the world.
The Kingdom has been considering reforms to create greater opportunities for women in the work place, but such reforms have been opposed by the Labor Ministry, from the religious police, and by many men.
Conservative elements in the Kingdom believe that women belong at home caring for her husband and family.
Women face pervasive desrimination under Saudi law based on Islamic concepts. The ability of men to testify in court is limited and even that is not seen as bearing the weight of fact. This leaves women vulnerable to assault and/or rape. Women also do not have equal inheritance rights. And they can be easily divorced which can lead to separation from their children.
The movement of women is strictly limited. They are not allowed to drive or ride bicycles on public roads in large cities, although they commonly do so illegally in rural areas where there is less police supervision. Institutions including schools, government agencies, restaurants, and others always have sex-segregated facilities. Women need the permission and often the presence of a mle relative to be admitted to a hospital, examined by a doctor, travel abroad or even leave the house.
The religious police enforce extreme modesty in dress. This begins in the early teens. Girls after their first menstrual cycle must wear the abaaya. This is a long black cloak covering their entire body. Violations can lead to extreme punishment, including caning, harassment, and/ or fines.
Viewers of the 2008 Olympic Games in Bejing may have noted that there were no women on the country's olympic team as they marched into the Birds' Nest stadium. This was not an anomaly. There has never been a woman on a Saudi Olympic team. This is because the Saudi Government prohibits girls and women from not only competing, but from playing sports. Islamic clerics in Saudi Arabia have ruled that womens' sports are sinful. A Saudic religious scholar writes, "This is exactly what the disbelivers in the West want. Their plan is to lure Muslim women out of their homes and subsequently out of their headscarf too." [al-Habdan] Al-Habdan goes on to say that sports atire will tempt Muslim women athletes into homosexual relations with each other. An Egyptian commentator in New York points out that women are allowed to compete and play sports in other Muslim countries, although there were no women on the 2008 Qatari team. [Eltahawy, p. A17.] She points out that there are brave young women in Saudi Arabia that are challenging the country's conservative clerics. Notable is the fact that Saudi men have a extremely poor record of achievement in sport. The Saudis have wone only one medal in their entire Olympic history. (A Saudi runner won a silver medal in 2000.) As is so often the case, the suppression of one group affects the country as a whole.
al Habdan, Muhammed. (2006).
Eltahawy, Mona. "Let the women play," TheWashington Post (August 14, 2008), p. A17.
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