Saudi Arabia: Saudi applauds women appointments to council

Saudi leaders have commended the appointment of six women to the Shura Council, which oversees the implementation of Islamic laws and values, and are calling for women to be allowed to drive in the conservative Muslim country.

Women are needed to decide various issues, especially concerning families, said Sheikh Azeb bin Saeed Aal Mesbil, head of the Islamic affairs and judiciary committee at the Shura Council, daily Saudi Gazette reported on Thursday.

"It should be borne in mind that the life of our society has changed and so we at the council need to seek the opinions of experts, be they men or women. We need to listen to women on social and family issues," Aal Mesbil said.

Saudi Arabia regularly comes under fire globally for its strict values based on an austere form of Sunni Islam, which does not allow unmarried men and women to mix

Some senior clerics have recently called for women to be banned from the media and other forms of art. There is also a ban on women drivers.

But a leading Islamic thinker and former government minister has said women drivers are a necessity.

"What is best?" Mohammed Abdo Yamani questioned in a recent interview. "That we let women drive cars in safety or that we sit them next to male foreign drivers who might harm them?"

Another leader told a Saudi newspaper: "Driving has become a necessity for Saudi women. It is their right to drive - at least in cities and safe areas."

Maktoob Business

Mauritania: Religious Leaders call for Ending Corporal Punishment in Mauritania

UNICEF
By Christian Skoog and Brahim Ould Isselmou

ATAR, Mauritania, 6 May 2009 – In the first hour after his arrival at a mahadra (Koranic school) in Atar, Ahmed was beaten several times. Over the next four months, he suffered daily.

His ‘Cheikh’, or teacher, used many different tools to punish Ahmed and his friends. Some of the boys who are considered troublemakers were tied up to the trunks of trees and left outside for hours, suffering from the heat and hunger.

“I pray to Allah that I no longer have to wear my torn shirt to cover the scars on my back,” said Ahmed.

Turning to the Imams’ Network

In this country, as in many others, corporal punishment is widespread in mahadras and secular primary schools, and within families. It is considered a suitable and effective educational method.

UNICEF Mauritania analyzed this widespread phenomenon in order to find the best way to address it. Given the pre-eminent position of religious leaders in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, a partnership with the Imams’ and Religious Leaders’ Network for Child Rights was deemed an appropriate entry point.

This approach is also in line with the recommendations of the UN Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children, which urges close collaboration with community and religious leaders.

No basis in the Koran

For its part, the Imams’ Network carried out a study to assess whether corporal punishment is allowed in Islam. The evidence was overwhelming: The study found that violence has no place in the Koran.

UNICEF Representative in Mauritania Christian Skoog, local authorities and the President of the Imams’ and Religious Leaders’ Network for Child Rights, Hademine Ould Saleck, attend a workshop on ending corporal punishment.
The results of the study will now form the basis of a fatwa (religious edict) barring physical and verbal violence against children in the educational system, including in the home.

“The evidence that corporal punishment is forbidden by Islam is clear and abiding for all of us,” declared Imams’ Network President Hademine Ould Saleck. “Let us stop arguing. We don’t have a choice, and we must apply Sharia [Islamic law], which fully protects children”.

‘A powerful tool’

A regional workshop to validate the study was held 20-21 April in Atar. Among the participants were 30 Imams from the Adrar and Inchiri regions, as well as UNICEF Representative in Mauritania Christian Skoog.

“We have to use this fatwa prohibiting corporal punishment as a powerful tool to disseminate and put an end to violence in mahadras, schools and religious events,” said Mr. Skoog.

This child-rights initiative coincides with the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the scaling up of the country programme in Mauritania. In fact, the regional workshop kicked off a series of commemorative events.

Kuwait: Barrak blasts govt, stimulus

Kuwait Times
Published Date: May 06, 2009
By B Izzak, Staff Writer



KUWIAT: Former opposition lawmaker Musallam Al-Barrak launched a scathing attack on the government and its supporters and strongly criticized the economic stimulus decree, which he said was issued to aid highly influential rich people. Barrak claimed that the bill will provide hundreds of millions of dinars in public funds to private companies, adding that the bill was tailored to serve the interests of a number of companies battered by the global financial crisis.

Meanwhile, leading female candidate Aseel Al-Awadhi yesterday filed a lawsuit with the public prosecutor over a YouTube video showing her telling her university students that Islam does not require women to wear the hijab. The lawsuit named no one but described the clip as an attempt to distort her ideas. Awadhi had earlier explained in a statement that the Youtube clip was illegally filmed while she was giving university students a class and was actively involved in a debate with them over certain issues.


She said the film was completely taken out of context and showed as if she had said that hijab was not required for Muslim women, "which is completely untrue as I was only initiating a debate among the students and not expressing my personal views". Awadhi, holder of a doctorate degree in political philosophy from Texas University in Austin, said that she was only raising controversial questions to her students in a bid to urge them to debate a particular issue.

The posting of the film on YouTube appears to be intended to harm Awadhi's chances of winning the first seat for Kuwaiti women in the Assembly. In her first bid last year, Awadhi came in 11th position, just behind the first 10 winners in the third electoral district.

In another development, Kuwait University administration yesterday scrapped its decision to ban political symposia at the university campus. The decision came after a meeting with the Kuwait Students Union and following strong criticism by political groups and candidates. Meanwhile, the number of candidates still in the fray for the May 16 general elections dropped to 248 including 19 women after a total of 40 candidates have so far pulled out. Withdrawals remain open until Friday and more candidates are e
xpected to drop out.

Barrak, spokesman of the Popular Action Bloc, blamed the government of obstructing development in the country along with a number of former MPs who have been beating the drums for the government. He revealed that he has a "black file" that he will reveal to the Kuwaiti people, regardless of the consequences.

Barrak defended himself against accusations that he always shouts in the Assembly. "I shout because of the pain and if they call me the shouting member, they are the rubber-stamp MPs," he said. He accused the government of lying to the people and forging facts while using "corrupt media and drum-beating MPs to cover up for the whales who have exploited the property of the Kuwaiti people".

Barrak alleged that some influential people have managed to "convince some members of the ruling family that the constitution is a stumbling block before their ambitions." "These influential people are assuring members of the ruling family that they are capable of confronting the people through a security clampdown if the National Assembly is suspended," he said.

He revealed that the Green Island, which is worth KD 2 billion, was about to be given to two investors for an annual rent of just KD 300,000. The Popular Bloc foiled the project, he said. Barrak also criticized the Central Bank for its role on the economic stimulus package and refusal to write off people debts. He ridiculed those who claim that the Kuwaiti economy would collapse if the stimulus law was rejected by the new Assembly, saying that the debt of only seven companies is KD 3.2 billion.

Speaking at the rally, former MP Marzouk Al-Hubaini warned against wide-ranging vote-buying practices which he described as the most serious threat in the elections. Hubaini said that the assault on him and other opposition MPs by calling them "members who instigate crises" is because "we have stopped three main suspicious projects saving more than $25 billion of public funds." He was referring to the K-Dow joint venture, the fourth refinery and electricity contracts.

Algeria: Women of the Streets, on the Bench of Algerian Society

Le Monde, 04.21.09
Many women, often victims of forced marriages, incest, divorces, pregnancy or a relationship outside of marriage, take to the streets. They often have children, and are excluded from society after having been disowned by their family. This has enormous repercussions on the status of Algerian society and the Algerian family: “a society in crisis is born of a family in crisis.”

Egypt: Egypt launches campaign against the niqab

By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
Published: April 16, 2009, 19:23

Cairo: In a bid to curb the surge in donning the niqab (a full-face veil), among its female employees, the Ministry of Waqfs (Religious Endowments), has embarked on a controversial campaign to discourage wearing this garb.

"We are not asking the niqab wearers to take it off. The aim of our campaign, based on awareness-raising seminars, is to prove to them that the niqab was originally an Arabian costume in pre-Islamic times," said Selim Abdel Gelil, an aide to the Minister of Waqfs and the one responsible for the campaign.

The campaign got off the ground this week at the premises of the ministry in Cairo and is planned to cover other cities and provinces of this predominantly Muslim country, according to the same official.

"Islam requires women to be decently dressed without obliging them to cover their faces and hands," Abdel Gelil told Gulf News.

"A telling proof is that during the haj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia), women are not asked to put on the niqab."

Over recent years, the niqab, which covers the woman from head to toe, has become popular in Egypt. Shops, apparently cashing in on the revival of Islamism, have sprung up in working-class and fashionable areas to sell items for Muslim women.

"I don't see any good reason for this questionable attack against Muslim outfits, including the niqab," said a fully veiled woman employee at the Ministry of Waqfs, who gave her name only as Soad.

"This campaign is a waste of public money. What harm is there for wearing the niqab?" she added.

Soad, who said she has been wearing the niqab since getting married five years ago, urges the authorities to shift focus to scantily clad girls. "These girls deserve more attention than the niqab wearers because after all they are the ones who arouse men's desires."

As part of the campaign, the ministry will publish a book titled "Niqab a Habit, not a Worship" to be distributed for free to female attendees of the seminars.

"There will also be question-and-answer sessions in order to help correct misconceptions about the niqab," said Abdel Gelil.

"Wearing the niqab is not an obligatory duty based on Islamic Sharia (Law). I think Muslims make a big mistake by concentrating on appearances and superficial things, thereby giving a bad idea about Islam," Minister of Waqfs Hamdi Zaqzouq was recently quoted as saying in the local press.

He added that niqab-wearers at his ministry would not be assigned preaching missions.

Meanwhile, Minister of Health Dr Hatem Al Gabali has recently warned that female nurses wearing the niqab would be re-posted from hospitals to administrative jobs, saying the costume hampers them from efficiently serving patients.

Middle East: Muslim countries want own rights commision

CAIRO (AlArabiya.net)

A bloc of Islamic states accused of undermining human rights standards set by the United Nations have taken matters into their own hands and set out to establish their own independent human rights commission Sunday.

The Organization of Islamic Conference, a 57-nation bloc of Muslim nations and the largest organization after the U.N., met yesterday at its headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to establish an independent OIC human rights commission.

Eklemeddin İhsanoğlu, the OIC Secretary-General, stressed in a statement Monday that "human rights and man’s dignity are an integral part of Islam and core components of Islamic culture and heritage.”

Refining Cairo hr declaration

Member states also discussed "refining" the OIC’s 1990 Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI), which gave an overview of the Islamic perspective on human rights and stated that all human rights are subject to sharia, or Islamic law.

The OIC has over the past decades sponsored the "defamation of religion" resolution at the U.N. General Assembly, the latest of which was a resolution condemning the Danish cartoons of the Prophet.

It will seek assistance from other international bodies such as the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and the Geneva Institute for Human Rights in setting up the new commission. İhsanoğlu said in his speech that such a commission would drive OIC member states to reform intellectually and politically.

"An OIC human rights commission would promote tolerance, and fundamental freedoms, good governance, the rule of law, accountability, openness, dialogue with other religions and civilizations, the rejection of extremism and fanaticism, and the strengthening of the sense of pride in the Islamic identity," he said.

Sharia vs. human rights

Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Muslim countries including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt and Tunisia among many others of human rights violations against women and religious minorities despite many states being signatories to international human rights conventions.

Western human rights groups argue that some of the ways Islamic law is applied can lead to discrimination against women, religious minorities and converts to other faiths.

However, Islamic scholars and leaders have continued to refute western claims that sharia is incompatible with international norms of human rights and freedoms, arguing instead that the interpretation and application of Islamic law is what can lead to negative human rights outcomes.

Just as U.S. courts ruled that detainees in the “war on terror” could be held indefinitely without trial or permitted torture in contravention of internationa human rights norms, some sharia-based courts twist Islamic law to sanction cruel punishments.

Compatible with the west

In their defense of Islamic law experts refer to its protection of women’s property rights and the rights of the socially marginalized like orphans or the elderly. Steven A. Cook, an expert on Islamic law and the west, said that interpretations of what Islamic law means are so variable that in some western societies it can be incorporated into non-Islamic political systems easily.

Ihsanoglu in his speech also suggested the compatibility of the Islamic notion of human rights and international norms, saying that refurbishing the Cairo human rights declaration will be "in keeping with the current global human rights discourse," though he did not specify how this would be done.

Several OIC member states follow sharia law, which has been compared to the Western tradition of common law, for personal status and criminal issues. None of the 14 OIC states that are considered "electoral democracies" are Arab.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi judge refuses to annul 8-year-old's marriage

By Mohammed Jamjoom

(CNN) -- A Saudi judge has refused for a second time to annul a marriage between an 8-year-old girl and a 47-year-old man, a relative of the girl told CNN.

The most recent ruling, in which the judge upheld his original verdict, was handed down Saturday in the Saudi city of Onaiza, where late last year the same judge rejected a petition from the girl's mother, who was seeking a divorce for her daughter.

The relative said the judge, Sheikh Habib Al-Habib, "stuck by his earlier verdict and insisted that the girl could petition the court for a divorce once she reached puberty." The family member, who requested anonymity, added that the mother will continue to pursue a divorce for her daughter.

The case, which has drawn criticism from local and international rights groups, came to light in December when al-Habib declined to annul the marriage on a legal technicality. The judge ruled the girl's mother -- who is separated from the girl's father -- was not the girl's legal guardian and therefore could not represent her in court, according to Abdullah al-Jutaili, the mother's lawyer.

The girl's father, according to the attorney, arranged the marriage in order to settle his debts with the man, who is "a close friend" of his. At the time of the initial verdict, the judge required the girl's husband to sign a pledge that he would not have sex with her until she reaches puberty, al-Jutaili told CNN. The judge ruled that when the girl reaches puberty, she will have the right to request a divorce by filing a petition with the court, the lawyer said.

Last month, an appeals court in the Saudi capital of Riyadh declined to certify the original ruling, in essence rejecting al-Habib's verdict, and sent the case back to al-Habib for reconsideration.

Under the complicated Saudi legal process, the appeals court ruling meant that the marriage was still in effect, but that a challenge to the marriage was still ongoing. The appeals court in Riyadh will now take up the case again and a hearing is scheduled for next month, according to the relative.

The issue of child marriage has been a hot-button topic in the deeply conservative kingdom recently. While rights groups have been petitioning the government to enact laws that would protect children from this type of marriage, the kingdom's top cleric has said that it's OK for girls as young as 10 to wed.

"It is incorrect to say that it's not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger," Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom's grand mufti, said in remarks last January quoted in the regional Al-Hayat newspaper. "A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she's too young are wrong and they are being unfair to her."

Al-Sheikh reportedly made the remarks when he was asked during a lecture about parents forcing their underage daughters to marry.

"We hear a lot in the media about the marriage of underage girls," he said, according to the newspaper. "We should know that Sharia law has not brought injustice to women."

Sharia law is Islamic law. Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism.

CNN was unable to reach government officials for comment.

Christoph Wilcke, a Saudi Arabia researcher for Human Rights Watch, told CNN in December that his organization has heard of many other cases of child marriages.

"We've been hearing about these types of cases once every four or five months because the Saudi public is now able to express this kind of anger -- especially so when girls are traded off to older men," Wilcke said.

Wilcke explained that while Saudi ministries may make decisions designed to protect children, "It is still the religious establishment that holds sway in the courts, and in many realms beyond the court."

Last December, Zuhair al-Harithi, a spokesman for the Saudi government-run Human Rights Commission, said his organization is fighting against child marriages.

"The Human Rights Commission opposes child marriages in Saudi Arabia," al-Harithi said. "Child marriages violate international agreements that have been signed by Saudi Arabia and should not be allowed." He added that his organization has been able to intervene and stop at least one child marriage from taking place.

Wajeha al-Huwaider, co-founder of the Society of Defending Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia, told CNN that achieving human rights in the kingdom means standing against those who want to "keep us backward and in the dark ages."

She said the marriages cause girls to "lose their sense of security and safety. Also, it destroys their feeling of being loved and nurtured. It causes them a lifetime of psychological problems and severe depression."

Egypt: Egypt Wrestles With 'Female Genital Mutilation'

[Cairo, Egypt] In June 2007, 12-year-old Badour Shakour died as a result of a circumcision operation. The death sparked a battle within the country over the use of the controversial medical procedure.

Women’s and children’s rights groups were galvanized into action, pushing for more stringent penalties against those who carry out what is increasingly becoming known as female genital mutilation (FGM).

Shakour’s cause of death was an overdose of anesthetic, but her memory was the cause of an awakening that reached to the upper echelons of government.

In summer 2008, Egypt’s parliament passed a law that ostensibly bans the controversial procedure, not that it should have needed to legislate against FGM – it was already officially banned in the country during the mid-Nineties. But with doctors continuing to perform the procedure on girls as young as five, parliament felt it was necessary to intercede.
The new law stipulates a fine of 1,000–5,000 Egyptian pounds ($185–$900) and a prison term of anywhere between three months and two years if caught performing FGM.

A doctor could also lose his medical license. In the case of Shakour, the doctor who performed the procedure remains in prison after being convicted of manslaughter.

But despite the rising number of deaths and injuries that have resulted from FGM, including a young girl who was left struggling for her life in November after the procedure, many Egyptians are fighting against the ban.

A 2005 report by UNICEF contended that 97 percent of single Egyptian women between 15 and 49 have undergone some form of FGM, although other estimates put the number at 70 percent.

Member of Parliament Mohamed Al Omda, from a small opposition party, brought his three daughters to the floor of the People’s Assembly to protest the ban last year. One of his daughters carried a sign that read: “No to any attempt to forbid what is divinely allowed. No to any attempt to allow what is divinely forbidden.” Two of his three daughters are circumcised.

Many conservative Muslims in the country maintain that the practice is condoned in Islam. The country’s Muslim Brotherhood has come under fire over many of their members’ denunciations of the parliamentary bill. The powerful Islamic group and many Islamic scholars argue that the ban is akin to “imposing Western ideals” on Egyptian society, which they maintain is based in Shari’a (Islamic law).

"Religion does not prohibit or criminalize female circumcision," prominent Islamic scholar Mustafa Al Shaka said to the local press shortly after the bill was passed.

The Brotherhood told The Media Line that they were currently reviewing FGM in terms of its legitimacy within Islam and did not want to comment. Despite this assertion, last summer, their MPs – who won one-fifth of the People’s Assembly as independents – were the most ardent opponents of the bill.

Progressive Islamic scholar Gamal Al Banna – brother of late Brotherhood founder Hassan Al Banna – says there is simply no precedent in Islam for this kind of practice. He argues that it was imported into society as a means of forcing women into the background of everyday life.

“It didn’t exist in Islamic history and those who argue it is Islamic or part of the Shari’a are wrong,” the 87-year-old argued. “Religion does not subscribe to this kind of treatment that can cause death and other horrible results. It is un-Islamic.”

Al Azhar, the Sunni Islamic world’s leading religious authority, agrees with Al Banna. In 2007, the Council of Islamic Research issued a statement saying that FGM and cutting are “harmful, have no basis in core Islamic law and should not be practiced.”

But Egyptian society remains divided into opposing camps over the issue, says National Council for Motherhood and Childhood secretary-general Moushira Khattab. She believes that although the ban will remain permanent, it will take time to educate the population over the long-term effects of cutting a woman’s clitoris.

“Nobody is going to say no to something that has negative effects caused by the procedure and, in time, Egyptians will see this,” she begins. “So the punishments that are being handed out against those who conduct this practice are vitally necessary.”

UNICEF estimates that three million girls in Africa undergo FGM annually, including in Egypt. The practice is a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989.

The practice remains common in Egypt, especially among the rural communities outside the capital Cairo and Alexandria. According to a 2005 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey, the majority of FGM procedures have been performed by trained medical personnel.

Human rights groups and doctors in the country argue that the involvement of medical workers in the procedure is a major reason the procedure continues.

“We have to work slowly and cannot expect everything to change with one law. Egyptians are stubborn and if they believe this is part of their religion, then it is very difficult to convince them otherwise, even if they are trained doctors,” said a female doctor at the country’s Doctor’s Syndicate, who asked not to be named, as the controversy continues inside its doors.

With children in danger, the doctor argues that Egyptians must move forward in order to limit these sorts of practices.

“We are struggling as a country, and until everyone is being educated, it is so difficult to achieve progress on anything, let alone FGM.”

Like so many controversial issues facing Egypt today, the seemingly endless battle between secularism and Islam continues to put opposing sides on the defensive. Al Banna believes that issues such as FGM will not be resolved within society until there is space for open debate on all things, including religion.

“We need to be able to debate religion freely, or else we will not be able to have people making their own decisions; instead they will follow their local sheikh as if he were the only source for reason,” he concludes.

SOURCE: The Media Line
AUTHOR: Joseph Mayton
DATE: 20/04/2009

Bahrain: Mothers fighting for justice

By BASMA MOHAMMED, Posted on » Wednesday, April 08, 2009


THREE Bahraini mothers took their fight for justice to the gates of parliament yesterday, as MPs gathered inside the building for their weekly meeting.

They were hoping to persuade MPs to pass a much-awaited Family Law, saying they were fed up with women suffering at the hands of the Sharia courts.

Mother-of-four Amal Juma Abdulla led the hour-and-a-half protest and claimed women were crying out for a Family Law, which would put down in writing how courts should handle domestic disputes.

Sharia judges issue verdicts in divorce cases, child custody battles and inheritance disputes, based on their interpretation of Islamic law.

However, women's rights campaigners have claimed for years that judges often discriminate against women.

"We are demonstrating to call on MPs to find a Family Law for the Jaffari court (which handles domestic cases of the Shi'ite community)," said Ms Abdulla.

"They are discussing the Family Law for the Sunni court, but we are reminding them that we are suffering as well."

The demonstration was organised to vent frustration at MPs for failing to come up with a Family Law to protect women.

However, some clerics are said to oppose the move due to fears it could loosen their grip on the community.

"Some MPs are against this law," claimed Ms Abdulla.

"They should discuss women's problems - not only men's."

Disputes

It was her second protest in a week, having demonstrated outside the Justice Ministry with three of her children on March 31.

The GDN reported at the time that her divorce proceedings had apparently been cancelled after three years by the Sharia court, because she refused to accept child support of BD100 a month from her estranged husband.

She is still legally married to him because she rejected the final settlement, which would have also seen her pay him a one-off BD500.

She is also embroiled in a court dispute with her husband over ownership of their house, which is in her name and was given to them after they were forced to sleep rough because their old home became dangerously dilapidated.

The 33-year-old housewife was joined at yesterday's protest by Zahra Sabah Nasser Hassan and Fadheela Salman.

They held up signs that said: "Sorry MPs, but we are women suffering from injustice. Is our suffering forever?" and "We are abandoned women asking for a law that can protect us."

Ms Salman was there to extend support, but Ms Hassan appeared in the GDN in February after the Crown Prince's Court answered her call for a new home.

It offered her a new house after the Sharia court evicted her from the home she shared with her ex-husband.

The mother-of-two fought for child support and a housing allowance from her ex-husband between 2004 and 2008, but the Sharia court evicted her after ordering her ex-husband to pay her BD70 a month for housing.

Bahrain: New Family Law draft only partial

By MOHAMMED AL A' ALI, Posted on » Wednesday, April 08, 2009

A FAMILY Law for the Sunni community could soon be approved, with MPs yesterday passing a version of the bill to parliament's legislative and legal affairs committee for revision.

However, it will only apply to Sunnis since Shi'ite MPs opposed an earlier version following complaints from their religious leaders.

The government referred the new draft to parliament on Sunday, after withdrawing the original on January 13 following opposition from Shi'ite clergymen.

Opponents claimed only senior clerics should have the power to come up with such a law, with six senior religious leaders suggesting Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani should draft it from his home in Iraq.

Critics were backed by all 17 MPs from the Al Wefaq bloc, regarded as the Shi'ite community's voice in parliament.

The bloc had threatened to veto the original bill if not withdrawn.

Domestic disputes are resolved in Sharia courts, with separate systems for the Sunnis and Shias.

Sharia judges base verdicts on their interpretation of Islam, but a Family Law would standardise procedures.

Women's rights activists have long campaigned for the law, saying the existing system fosters discrimination against women.

Saudi Arabia: Women in Saudi media under fire

By Abdul Rahman Shaheen, Correspondent
Published: March 30, 2009, 23:52


Riyadh: Thirty-five prominent Saudi figures including scholars, university professors, judges, imams, researchers and government officials have warned the minister of culture and information against the prominence being given to women in the media. They described the projection of women in the media as a "phenomenon exceeding proper bounds of Sharia".

In a letter addressed to Dr Abdul Aziz Khoja, a copy of which was placed on the website Nurul Islam, the hardliners underlined the need for strictly adhering into the Kingdom's media policy, which prohibits women, including singers and artists, from appearing in the media. The statement, which was also carried by Al Madinah Arabic daily, urged scholars and reformers to examine the matter and come out with their proposals.

The 35 signatories of the statement included Shaikh Abdul Rahman Al Barak, Shaikh Abdul Rahman Al Mahmoud, member of the faculty of Usooluddin at Imam Mohammad Bin Saud University of Riyadh, and Shaikh Abdullah Al Sulaiman, judicial supervisor at the Ministry of Justice. They urged the minister to establish a supervisory Sharia committee at the ministry in cooperation with the Ifta Department, in line with Article 15 of the Media Policy of the Ministry of Culture and Information.

The signatories hoped the minister would undertake media reforms after rooting out "deviation" as far as radio, television, press, literary clubs and book fairs are concerned.

The statement, which was also carried by the Saudi news website Al Masdar, heavily criticised "plans to Westernise Saudi women and deprive them of their legal rights while travelling, as well as gender-mixing, opening doors for clashes with liberal ideologies, giving prominence for staging songs and playing musical instruments by women, publishing women's pictures, allowing women singers and broadcasters to mix with men at the ministry building, allowing entry of obscene newspapers and magazines with sexy pictures of women inside the pages and folders into the Kingdom", and described that all these are "no doubt, prohibited by Sharia".

According to the hardliners, all these phenomena are contrary to the laws of the country, royal decrees and the media policy of the Kingdom.

"This also involves violation of Article 7 in Item 2 of the Basic Governing System, which says that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia shall be governed by the Book of God and the Tradition of the Prophet (PBUH).

The statement also drew attention to the fact these trends were also in violation of the Royal Decree No 2/4185, which prevents the staging of any dance programme involving women or appearance of female singers or news readers on television.

The decree also prevents the appearance of any types of pictures of women on newspapers or magazines for any reasons. The statement urged the minister to grant permission for a meeting with a delegation of 10 of the signatories to discuss the matter.