New law gives greater role to businesswomen

Galal Fakkar | Arab News

JEDDAH: The new law for the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CSCCI) gives greater powers to businesswomen, Fahd Al-Sultan, secretary-general of the council, said yesterday.

“The new law, which replaces the existing 50-year-old law, will be passed within a few days,” he said.

Speaking to Arab News after attending a seminar on “Developing a new concept and culture of chamber elections” at the JCCI, Al-Sultan said the new law was designed to provide the council with necessary flexibility.

“The law has already been studied by the committee of experts at the Council of Ministers and has been passed to the minister of commerce and industry for his endorsement before presenting to the Cabinet for final approval,” he said.

Al-Sultan said the new law gives businesswomen a greater role in the council as well as in the development of the country.

“Even if only women are elected to the CSCCI board, there is nothing in the law to prevent it,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, three businesswomen, Madhawi Al-Hassoun, Lamy Suleiman and Nashwa Taher, yesterday announced their decision to contest the upcoming election to the JCCI board. They said they wanted to deepen the concept of women’s participation in elections to civil organizations in the country.

Kuwait: NA candidate organizes symposium for women

Kuwait Times
Published Date: May 12, 2009
By Nawara Fattahova, Staff writer

KUWAIT: Former MP and third district candidate Adel Al-Sarawi held a symposium for women at his diwaniya in Keifan on Sunday evening. He was a member of the parliament in 2003, 2006 and 2008.

Kuwait has the ability to be better than it is today. "We now have the depressive feeling of the present situation that came from the poor performance of both the parliament and the government. People are now wondering what the future strategies are for work in the coming period," Al-Sarawi said during the symposium.

Optimism is the first step to change the current situation. "We won't discuss who is responsible; we want to learn from our mistakes and not repeat those we have made in the past. I believe we should be optimistic about the qualified manpower and good legislation we have in Kuwait. We should believe that better times are coming," he added.

The Kuwaiti Constitution was issued in 1962. "The average age of those who wrote the Constitution was about 40, which means they were born around 1920. At that time, their education level was not high, but the Constitution is so complex that it can solve all of our present problems. We must deal with it seriously and we must protect this heritage so that it can be passed on to the next generations," Al-Sarawi said.

The negative political situation has caused many people to become frustrated. "The people feel resentment from all the problems. Some think they can affect the voters and persuade them not to vote, and this is a great mistake. I'm very optimistic and I believe that these elections will witness even greater participation than before. The challenge is not to give them the chance to destroy the democracy by not voting," he noted.

The future period is important for the nation. "Wrong practices in the parliament reflected a view of legislative corruption. There is no control over MPs. Many of them don't attend sessions of parliament or committee meetings, so where do they go? Some of them just say they discussed certain issues but they do not give any details because they did not make any effort," Al-Sarawi maintained.

He then proposed some solutions to avoid repeating the previous problems. Saying that there should be a strong government that is able to defend its opinions and not back down. He concluded, "We should have ministers that participate in making decisions and who are responsible for those decisions, not just their execution. The parliament and the government must cooperate according to Article no. 50 of the Constitution. As there are no political parties, the government should have the majority of the parlia
ment. It's not possible to carry out any projects without applying Article 50 by cooperating between the powers.

Bahrain: Five laws passed without changes

Gulf Daily News
MPs yesterday approved five laws passed to them by the Shura Council without discussion or amendments.

Both chambers are in dispute over several articles in the five laws but MPs decided yesterday that they could pass them without any delay because there were no major differences.

The laws will be now ratified by His Majesty King Hamad.

Among them is granting equal rights to the children of Bahraini women married to expatriates as those with Bahraini fathers.

The Shura Council decided to include a new article last month in the law.

It stipulates that children of Bahraini women have to be permanent residents in order to benefit from equal rights.

The bill allows expatriate wives the same treatment as their Bahraini counterparts in services such as government fees, education, health and an exemption from residency visa requirements.

Parliament also agreed with the Shura Council to reject an amendment among several others to the Trade Unions Law that would have allowed more than one union in the same establishment on the basis that it would create tension and division between employees.

MPs also agreed with councillors on setting up a new medical licences and services authority, after a vote to reject the Shura Council amendments was halted by parliament chairman Khalifa Al Dhahrani early this month, asking MPs to study it further.

They also approved an amended bill by the council granting GCC nationals equal rights as Bahraini businessmen when setting up businesses in Bahrain.

Parliament was also on its way to insist on its decision in regard to three other laws amended by the council but decided to postpone discussions until tomorrow's extraordinary session, which was later cancelled as MPs voted for a day off.

Parliament had earlier approved a bill to pay pensions of the deceased in the government, private and military sectors to distant relatives if they had no close family members.

However, the council rejected the bill, saying that pensions were not inheritance and could not be dealt with in the manner MPs wanted.

Services committee chairman Dr Ali Ahmed said parliament was hoping to approve all of Shura's decisions but found it difficult to approve the remaining three bills.

"I have been very lenient with councillors despite some disagreements on their approach to articles in the medical licences and services authority," he said.

"My committee liked the addition of children of Bahraini women and the ban on the formation of several unions in one establishment and according to that I recommended their approval. "But I have a huge dispute with councillors over the pension laws and parliament would have insisted on its previous decision if MPs did not decide to postpone discussing it. "Thankfully the major laws have been approved and are now in the hands of His Majesty King Hamad to ratify."

Tunisia: Tunisia hosts Euro-Med forum on violence against women

Maghrebia

By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis -- 27/04/09

Women's rights activists from North Africa, the Middle East and Europe met for a groundbreaking regional forum last week in Tunis, where they launched an ambitious programme to combat gender-based violence in the Mediterranean region.

The three day conference, part of the EU-funded Euro-Mediterranean Program for the Promotion of Equality between Men and Women, concluded Thursday (April 23rd) with an action plan to gather data and provide more accurate and comprehensive information to governments, media and non-governmental organisations.

Attendees agreed on a unified approach to collecting information on violence against women and set out guidelines for surveys that participating countries, "especially Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon, intend to conduct".

The workshop recognised the progress made in Tunisia in the field of women's rights, and called on the country to "to finalise a model document" on its achievements, expenses and problem-resolution mechanisms so as to help guide other nations.

The attention of Arab societies to gender-based violence is still far from the desired level, said former Egyptian minister Amina Chafik.

Heightened attention by non-governmental organisations, however, has "made governments pay attention to violence against women", she added.

"We are in need of long breath and a change of mentalities, as this must be made step by step and firmly."

Hassiba Houacine, head of a department in the Algerian Family Ministry, said that Algeria began working up a plan to confront violence against women in 2005. The plan is now in its second stage.

"We are now about to start a new experiment, which is the establishment of a unified information system to monitor violence against women," Houacine said.

In Jordan, meanwhile, physical violence against women includes honour killings and rape, journalist Samar Haddadine told Magharebia.

"The government and civil society organisations have tried to change the existing laws that punish the perpetrators of honour killings," Haddadine said, "but the Parliament rejects that because it is dominated by conservatives and Islamists."

According to Faiza ben Hdid, a European expert in social gender affairs, one in three women is subject to beatings, forcible sexual assaults, or other attacks. In most cases, the assailant is someone known to the victim.

"One in four women is subject to attacks during pregnancy," she noted.

Sarra Jeraya Kanoun, Tunisian Minister of Women, Family, the Elderly and Children's Affairs, said that to "achieve a better understanding of women's rights and protect their future, change must come from the people".

"We need to strengthen people's awareness to take practical and effective steps to establish policies and joint action plans that can produce a tangible and specific shift in the efforts aimed at combating discrimination and violence against women.”

Turkey: Religious-secularist mix impacts women's rights in Turkey

Common Ground News
Sertaç Sehlikoğlu Karakaş

Montréal, Canada - Turkey has strong ties both with its Muslim history and with secularism, understood as not mixing religion with politics. After decades of struggling between these two identities, this strategic NATO ally and EU contender has developed a hybrid identity that encompasses both. As a result, Turkey has been increasingly perceived as a liberal and progressive face of Islam on the global stage and, in congruence with the true spirit of the religion, it is demonstrating its commitment to the empowerment of women.

In order to positively affect women's daily lives, it will take engaged leadership by religious scholars and feminists in addition to government-initiated reforms.

The Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA), the government institution overseeing religious matters since it was established in 1924, and the highest Islamic authority in Turkey, is at the centre of the debate on religion and women. The PRA – which currently employs approximately 83,000 clerics in local mosques – was originally limited to the administration of mosques, but now focuses more on developing new interpretations of Islam.

Recently, the PRA initiated a review of hadiths (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) which was well-received by Turkish society and reverberated beyond national borders.

According to the PRA's explanation, the project's aim is to raise awareness about the inaccuracy of apocryphal hadiths accumulated after the death of the Prophet Muhammad by re-emphasising the importance of morally credible and viable sources. For example, many cultural traditions that were considered unfair to women were wrongly attributed to the Prophet and were added to hadith collections even though their chains of transmission were flawed.

The project is expected to yield a collection of hadiths on women combined in a five-volume publication. Its aim is to support women's rights activists in their fight against "honour" killings, violence against women and misogyny in general.

In addition, since 2005, the PRA has also offered its female employees the opportunity to upgrade their educational and professional skills so that they become better qualified for higher-ranking positions.

According to Ali Bardakoğlu, president of the PRA, the institution has suffered from a lack of women's contributions for decades. The PRA's goal in recent years has been to promote women to the highest levels of the institution, which Bardakoğlu hopes to accomplish by gradually incorporating them into the PRA structure. Women will be promoted to positions of assistant cleric, cleric and mufti (an official scholar of Islamic law). Bardakoğlu does not deny that men have thus far been more influential within Islamic institutions, but states that the absence of women in such positions has been due to their lack of higher education – a reality that can be changed.

Despite the women-friendly attitude and speeches of Bardakoğlu, parts of the institution appear reluctant to change. Soon after the PRA's declaration in 2005, which announced its intent to hire 200 new female preachers and appoint women as muftis and vice-muftis, a member of the institution authored an article on how women should behave around men so as not to arouse men's sexual desire.

Thanks to a vigilant feminist response, the article was removed from the PRA's website and the institute issued an apology. Strong female criticism – both from those outside the institution and those within it – is essential to holding the PRA to its goal of empowering women. Feminists continue to push the PRA to implement and institutionalise initiatives that are more inclusive of women.

Over the last four years, the PRA has successfully implemented target quotas for women in higher level positions – seven women have already been appointed to the position of vice-mufti – and established bureaus in 21 cities across the country to address concerns of local women.

The drive towards greater empowerment of women in Turkey has affected not only women's representation in the PRA, but also society more broadly. The well-known religious leader Fethullah Gulen wrote an article in the Turkish newspaper, Zaman, in September 2008 on the topic of domestic violence. He stated that a woman should be brave enough to take legal action against her husband if she is beaten. Gulen referenced a newer interpretation of religious texts with a Sufi perspective to support his advice.

Gulen explained that in the case of domestic violence the husband should be perceived as zalim, meaning tyrannical, and judged guilty of exercising unjust power. Such interpretations can give women the legal backing to press criminal charges against their husbands, or to achieve monetary retribution for mistreatment. His comments provide invaluable scholarly justification for the many women who have long been advocating similar views.

Developing modern religious interpretations to address women's issues provides a rich and strong foundation for feminist discourses. The PRA has made significant progress in developing modern and accurate religious interpretations generally and specifically on the subject of women. Though Muslim women still have a long way to go to achieve the rights due to them in Islam, the PRA's reforms – including giving women access to clerical positions and the prevalence of new interpretations of religious sources – are slowly paving the road to empowerment.

Feminists are prompting many of these changes in religious interpretation. In turn, strengthening women's rights by referencing religion provides guidelines for women living in other Muslim countries, a project which is consistent with Turkey's mission to become a model of a modern Muslim country.

Saudi Arabia: Women savour glimmer of freedoms

RIYADH - It is not exactly Riyadh Spring, but Saudi Arabia's first female minister and the free mixing of the sexes at a recent conference are giving Saudi women hope that some of the world's tightest restrictions on their gender may be easing.

In a sweeping government shakeup last month, King Abdullah named Norah al-Fayez deputy education minister in charge of women's education, the first time a woman has been given a ministerial post in the country.

Also last month, a princess called publicly for women to be able to drive their own cars.

And at a regional conference on child abuse in a Riyadh hotel, with Abdullah's daughter Princess Adela presiding, there was virtually no barrier to prevent the more than 1,000 men and women present from mixing.

"That was a very very big step for the leaders," said Fouziyah al-Ayoumi, who campaigns against violence against women in the eastern city of Dharan.

In other countries such moves would be minor, but in Saudi Arabia, where arch-conservative clerics set the tone of law and policy -- especially regarding women -- they are being hailed as revolutionary.

Saudi women activists speak hopefully and see King Abdullah's hand opening the door for them while simultaneously holding back the clerics.

"I have the feeling that King Abdullah wants this change," said Ayoumi.

But success is not a given, activists say. In his shakeup, the king targeted the clerics' power base in the justice and education systems.

But some doubt that the new progressive ministers will be able to overcome the entrenched bureaucracy as well as general Saudi male opposition to giving women more freedoms and putting them in positions of power.

According to French researcher Amelie Le Renard, the women's movement in Saudi Arabia has two very divergent tracks.

Some leading activists aim to break down barriers between the sexes.

But Le Renard said that others, including many young educated women, prefer the expanding equal-but-separate structure, where women have their own parallel structures to men -- a distinctly "Islamic women's rights" view.

This includes women-only bank branches, hotels and shopping centres, and strict women's sections taking care of women's affairs in government departments and corporate offices.

"In general young women in Riyadh really want to work," she said. "Segregation is not their main problem... Some of them are really for segregation," said Le Renard, a PhD candidate at Sciences Po in Paris.

In addition, for some women's rights supporters, the king's changes did not go far enough and leave the effort for more women's freedoms vulnerable.

Abdulaziz al-Sowayegh, a former member of the consultative Majlis al-Shura council, pointed out that in his shakeup, the king did not name any women to the 150-member council. Instead, six women have observer and consultant status.

"It's like avoiding putting women in the majlis. They are not full members, they don't have a vote. They will only be consulted on women's issues like feeding babies," he said.

- Middle East Online

West Bank: Two Palestinian women become judges in Islamic court

RAMALLAH (West Bank): The Islamic courts were among the last male-only bastions in Palestinian society, where women have been presidential candidates, police officers and even suicide bombers.

Now two stern-looking women in Muslim head scarves and long black robes have smashed through the thick glass ceiling.

Khuloud Faqih, 34, and Asmahan Wuheidi, 31, made history in February when they became the first female Islamic judges in the Palestinian territories.

Across the Arab world, only Sudan has had women judges in Islamic courts, West Bank-based academic experts on Islamic affairs said.

Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, all relatively progressive states in the region on women's rights, do not.

"I compare us to other Arab Muslim women, and I think we've done well," said Faqih, wearing a sash in the colours of the Palestinian flag across her robe. "I think I've opened a door for myself and other women."

She spoke between meetings with petitioners in her modest courtroom -- an office with a few couches, a desk and a coffee table with plastic flowers.

Muslim courts in the Palestinian Authority rule over family affairs like marriage, divorce, inheritance and custody, relying on Islamic jurisprudence rather than secular rules.

-- Associated Press

Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Looks to Soften Stance on Women, Christians

The Media Line, Written by Joseph Mayton

[Cairo, Egypt] Party politics have always proven illusive for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. As a movement entangled in a tradition based on Islamic Shari’a, and founded as a pro-Palestinian, anti-American organization in the late 1920s, the more traditional factions within the modern structure are apprehensive of change.

But that appears to be changing as the movement’s leaders are currently discussing reforms to its platform that could see changes to the roles of women and Christians.

In October 2007, the banned Islamic group released its platform, surprising many over its conservative overtones, including barring women and Christians from holding the post of president.

At the time, the Brotherhood argued that Christians could not become president or prime minister because both posts have Islamic religious duties, so “non-Muslims are excused from holding this mission,” the 2007 version reads.

It also says the president cannot be a woman because the post's religious and military duties "contradict with her nature, social and other humanitarian roles."

While the document attempts moderation, arguing that there is "equality between men and women in terms of their human dignity," it also warns against "burdening women with duties against their nature or role in the family.”

In February, the Egyptian newspaper Dar El Sharouk published a report that the Brotherhood was expected to announce a number of reforms to the platform, including the controversial issues surrounding women and Christians.

Essam El Arian, a leading member within the Brotherhood, and seen as a moderate, told The Media Line (TML) that a final decision had yet to be taken and “discussions are currently underway.”

He did not say whether there would be changes.

“We are debating these issues right now and it will be some time before conclusions are taken,” he said.

It is a view shared by a senior figure in the brotherhood Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh. "We are still discussing these matters, he said. "The Brotherhood is a democratic institution and we take all care to keep these types of discussions serious in light of our structure. There is debate ongoing and when a concrete decision is made, it will be known to the public. All I can say is that these issues are currently being debated."

The report of alleged changes to the platform has lifted the spirits of the reform-minded Brotherhood bloggers who have long called for their elder leaders to move forward on changing the perception of the movement’s conservative nature.

One blogger, who asked not to be named due to the tension growing between the young bloggers – those young people who have continued to write on their blogs that the Brotherhood must reform itself if it is to create a true democratic movement – and the leadership, says that it is a “victory for the reformers and the bloggers.”

He argues that for the last few years, the blogging movement within the Brotherhood has continually called on its leadership to look at changing the status of women and Christians.

“These issues have always been contentious within the Brotherhood and with the outside community. It only makes sense that this is going to change. I hope that people see that the people calling for reform are doing what they can,” he adds.

Another blogger, Abdel-Rahman Ayyash, 18, writes, "I think that talking about this is a first step for the movement and especially for the young bloggers to know they are making a difference.

"It is hard to call for reform without the older generation getting upset, so we understand that this is a delicate process."

Arian and the moderate factions within the movement are unsure of when a decision will be made public as to the status of women and Christians, but the mood in opposition circles here is that the Brotherhood is recognizing that they need to change.

“It is time for them to look at dealing with these issues. When they first reported the platform, I was disappointed,” says Copt and opposition leader George Ishaq. “I had a great relationship with them [Brotherhood] and since the platform was published we have not been on good terms.”

Khalil Al Anani, a political analyst at the Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo, believes that in the end, it is not necessarily what is written in a platform that is important. Rather, he considers that as a movement, its actual beliefs and views on women and Christians will have a major impact on how Egyptians and the world view the group.

“It is not confirmed yet if they [the Brotherhood] will remove these controversial aspects of the platform,” Anani says, adding that people should look beyond an actual draft platform and into the views of the movement.

“I think the problem is not whether they will remove these articles or not, but more what they actually think about women and Copts. That’s the point.”

The young bloggers have been pushing for real change within the movement in order to spur on democratic reform in the country. Much of the leadership has been strongly against such changes to the movement, but Anani says this is vital to the Brotherhood gaining support within the organization and among the skeptics.

“Regardless of whether they issue a new platform without these two main issues or not, the problem is the Brotherhood is facing a real crisis in understanding democratic values. One of these values is equality. They haven’t developed a progressive vision for equality of people regardless of their religious or ethnic background,” he continues.

Despite the large press that the reformers within the Brotherhood has been receiving of late, the realities within the movement, Anani argues, remain on the fringes of the mainstream debate.

“Unfortunately, the people who are behind this [platform] are the conservatives and the opinion of the reformers is still weak,” Anani adds.

Those within the leadership, such as Arian and deputy Mohamed Habib, may see reform as key to increasing the movement’s democratic appeal, but like many Islamic movements worldwide, the Brotherhood is faced with diverging opinions regarding future strategy.

“We can only hope that these small victories will create a more democratic ideology that will push forward reforms and make the Brotherhood a viable opposition movement for all Egyptians,” the unnamed blogger adds.

Saudi Arabia: Cabinet approves measures to increase jobs for women

Saudi Gazette report

RAWDAT KHURAIM – The Cabinet on Monday approved several measures to increase employment of women in suitable fields in public sector.

The Technical and Vocational Training Corporation has been tasked with increasing the absorptive capacity of technical and vocational training in areas that are suitable for women such as computer, office work and occupational activities at women’s detentions and care houses.

Similarly, the authorities concerned shall expand educational health programs for women, intensify such programs and create e-employment that enables women to work from home. The Ministry of Education and other concerned authorities have been directed to adopt administrative and regulatory measures to ensure jobs for women.

Saudi Arabia: Tiptoeing towards reform

From The Economist print edition

The king makes some striking changes, but gradualism is still the watchword

REFORM-MINDED Saudis cheered when Abdullah became king four years ago. The avuncular Custodian of the Holy Places, as Saudi monarchs title themselves, had a reputation for probity, tolerance and humility that augured change for the better. Yet few of his tentative reforms have stuck. Initiatives to modernise state schools and courts have stalled in the face of entrenched religious conservatives.

But in a move of rare boldness for the stately kingdom, on February 14th the 86-year-old king decreed sweeping changes in government. His reshuffle affected top posts in education, the courts, the armed forces, the central bank, the health and information ministries, the religious police and the state-appointed religious hierarchy, as well as the royally-appointed, 150-man proto-parliament, the Shura Council.

It was not the scale of the turnover that raised eyebrows; most senior ministers retained their posts. More striking was the injection of reformist blood into the ossified school and court systems. With his background in intelligence, and as a son-in-law of the king, the new minister of education, Prince Faisal bin Abdullah bin Muhammad, may be better equipped to flush out teachers who are failing to comply with curricula that have been revised to emphasise tolerance in Islam.

The departure of Sheikh Saleh Luhaydan as head of the supreme judicial council, along with several other senior judges, suggests a new push to modernise the courts.

Mr Luhaydan was notorious for rulings such as one that said it would be legal to kill the owners of TV channels broadcasting “immorality”. During his tenure judges faced little pressure to adopt new rules meant to make the kingdom’s unique and often harsh forms of sharia justice more open and consistent. Similarly, the sacking of the head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice will be seen as a response to a chorus of demands to curb the morality police, whose puritanical agents have often been accused of harassing law-abiding citizens.

Equally significant, the new appointments are markedly diverse. The 21-man board of senior clerics which issues official religious rulings, or fatwas, now for the first time includes representatives of all four schools of Sunni Islam, so breaking the monopoly, exercised solely in Saudi Arabia, of the arch-traditionalist Hanbali school associated with Wahhabism. The body still excludes Shias, a minority numbering about 10% of Saudis that faces widespread discrimination. But King Abdullah has compensated in part by increasing Shia representation in the Shura Council.

A far bigger slice of the population that has been kept to the margins of society, namely women, also got a boost with the appointment of a female deputy minister, the highest-level government post yet to be filled by a woman. Nora al-Fayez, an American-educated schools administrator, is to run the girls’ section of the ministry of education, a division managed until recently by Wahhabist clerics.

Should such personnel changes give an impetus to the deeper reforms that many Saudis long for, King Abdullah will have secured an important legacy. But a quite different reform, decreed by him three years ago, may bear fruit sooner. Addressing concerns that the line of succession to kingship, which traditionally passes between brothers before reaching their sons, would produce a series of brief reigns by dotards, King Abdullah created a 25-man family council to elect future kings.

The council was to meet only after his own brother had succeeded. But the current crown prince, Sultan, is in his 80s and said to be very ill. In all likelihood, it is the council that will choose Abdullah’s successor, in what might prove to be, even if restricted to a handful of senior princes from the Al Saud family, the first quasi-democratic transition of power in Saudi history. It would be a momentous feat. But it will also set nerves jangling.

Saudi Arabia: Academics applaud latest reform, but demand more

By Duraid Al Baik, Associate Editor, Gulf News

Dubai: Saudi women on Tuesday praised the reform measures undertaken by King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz this week, including the appointment of a female deputy education minister for the first time in the Kingdom.

In what is considered to be the largest government reshuffle in the Kingdom since King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz took charge in August 2005, 180 men and 1 woman were appointed in senior government posts, including 81 new members in the Consultative Assembly (Majlis Al Shura), 4 ministers and heads of the Supreme Judiciary Council, and the Senior Scholars Commission, as well as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (religious police).

Dr Fawziyah Abu Khalid, professor of Social and Political Studies at King Saud University in Riyadh, told Gulf News, that Saudi women, who have been involved in public service for more than 30 years, deserve more than such decorative appointments by the government.

"The appointment of Dr Noora Al Fayez as deputy education minister for women's education department is a small step in the long way to recognise the input of Saudi women in fields of national and private development in the Kingdom," Dr Fawziyah, a poetess and author of several books on social science, stressed.

The outspoken Saudi opinion writer and poetess, said she was disappointed with the naming of just one woman in such a big reshuffle.

"The very fact that the Majlis Al Shura was modernised in November 2000 and continued to function for five legislative chapters with no single woman representation is a matter of concern. The council was expanded four times for no justifiable reasons," she said.

Dr Fawziyah said women are the most under-represented section in the society, in both government as well as private businesses in the Kingdom. "Women were very optimistic with promises of reforms that marked the dawn of the King Abdullah era, but the [optimism] was shortlived," she said.

She said if someone looks at the empty part of the glass, the appointment of a woman in a government post - even though it is not even to the level of a minister - is definitely good, but is not what women in Saudi Arabia are looking for. We have waited too long to take such a small step forward and time is running ahead of us in many aspects.

She said women should not be looked down when they go out in public. "They need to feel they steer their lives by themselves. This is not happening in Saudi Arabia and the reason is not what the government blames on social norms. Many people in the society have no objection to women assuming leading roles in public life, but it is the government that always comes up with unfounded excuses to delay such an interaction.

Dr Hatoon Jawad Al Fassi, professor of History of Women at King Saud University, feels society is undergoing major changes and the government ought to keep pace with the changes.

Saudi king acts on legal reform

By Abeer Allam in Riyadh, Financial Times

Is stealing sheep a more serious crime than beating your wife to death?” asked Khaled al-Sulaiman, a Saudi columnist writing in Arab News, citing two recent judgments.

In one case, a judge handed down a sentence of two years and 200 lashes to a man who had beaten his wife to death. In the other, a judge sentenced a pair of sheep rustlers to three years in prison and 1,000 lashes.

That Mr Sulaiman had to ask the question reflects growing frustration among Saudis at the pace of a $2bn legal reform initiative proposed by King Abdullah two years ago.

That frustration has reached the top. At the weekend, King Abdullah sacked Saleh al-Lohaidan, head of the supreme judicial council, who has opposed reforms and efforts to codify Islamic law, or Sharia. Last September, Mr Lohaidan issued a fatwa condoning the killing of television station owners who produce or air “immoral content”.

But the problems afflicting Saudi Arabia’s legal system run deeper than one individual. Although every legal system produces anomalous rulings, in most countries lawyers say they can study the reasoning or facts used in a judgment. In Saudi Arabia, where judges rule according to their understanding of Islamic texts, there is no such recourse.

Fearing that judges may be misled by human wisdom, rather than adjudicating directly from religious sources, Saudi Arabia rejects the system of precedent used in common law systems and the extensive civil codes used in civil law systems.

Instead, trial proceedings are generally closed to the public and judicial decisions are not published. Judges can even bar attorneys representing parties from the courtroom if they decide the their presence is unhelpful.

“Transparency is one concern because there are fewer written laws,” says James Dallas, chairman of Denton Wilde Sapte, a law firm in Riyadh. “We try to manage expectations about how quickly things will happen and offer realistic timetables but the situation also forces us to be less dependent on legal remedies.”

Whereas other reforms launched in the kingdom over the past five years have borne fruit, changes to the legal system have moved more slowly. A “Doing Business in the World” report by the World Bank suggests that disputes in Saudi Arabia still require on average 44 procedures and 635 days to resolve.

Experts and diplomats suggest that the powerful and conservative judiciary accounts for the slow pace of change. About 700 judges serve 25m people in a country a fifth the size the US, almost all of them from Bukairiyah, a conservative redoubt in Qassim province.

Mr Lohaidan, for example, had once asserted that adopting civil codes would violate sacred customs that have the same legal authority as other written laws.

It is no surprise that most foreign companies in Saudi Arabia specify that dispute resolution occur in foreign jurisdictions, with a clear preference for London. However, enforcing foreign decisions in Saudi Arabia involves numerous legal procedures and raises the likelihood a judge will change portions of the judgment he deems incompatible with Islamic law, particularly interest penalties – or will start a trial all over again.

King Abdullah has established a supreme court that in theory can reverse judgments and thus rein in more junior judges. But lawyers say that in practice the tribunal has yet to establish its prerogatives.

Last month, Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al al-Sheikh, former justice minister, announced a 30-year strategic plan that includes measures to enhance commercial and intellectual property registration and enforcement.

Mr Al al-Sheikh was moved sideways in the weekend reshuffle. His successor is Mohammed Al-Eissa, previously deputy director of a tribunal to settle commercial disputes, who is described as pro-reform.

Other changes are being tested in pilot phases, and practitioners report new stenographers or computers in use in courts. But lawyers say the time between hearings can still vary from one to three months and, since each matter may involve dozens of hearings, trials can drag on indefinitely. “The situation is much better now than a year ago, but the whole process needs to be streamlined,’’ says Amgad Husein, a partner at Denton Wilde Sapte. “The courts are normally fair but there is a huge lag between decisions and it may take two or more years for a final verdict.”

Abdel Aziz al Qassem, a reformist lawyer, had grown disillusioned about prospects for reform, citing opposition in the judiciary. But following the weekend reshuffle, he is a lot more optimistic.

“This is a huge change,” he says. “They have removed the dams of resistance that halted judicial reform. Now I feel they are speeding up the reform finally after long delays.”

If Mr Qassem is right, Mr Sulaiman of Arab News might find an answer to his question sooner than he imagined.

Yemen: Minimum age for marriage set at 17

By: Nadia Al-Sakkaf, Yemen Times

SANA’A, Feb. 11 — Nojood, 10, Arwa, 9, and Reem, 13, are three girls who went through traumatizing ordeals after being forced into marriage by their families. The three girls’ stories have been an issue of debate in social sessions, conferences and the media. But most importantly the matter was discussed in Parliament, where members have finally approved setting the minimum age for marriage for both boys and girls at 17 years old.

The new law stipulates:

“No child under seventeen years of age is to be married, unless the marriage is seen in the best interest of the child by the judge. The girl’s guardian who violates this law will be penalized. The judge conducting the marriage has to present the marriage document within one month of the marriage at most to the concerned body and the marriage contract must include related documents such as birth certificate, dowry and identity cards. The guardian of either the wife or husband will be financially penalized if they do not register the marriage certificate within the mentioned period. No marriage is to be carried out at any age without the consent of the woman.”

“It is a grand achievement for both women and men in Yemen,” said Hooria Mashour,deputy chairperson of the Women National Committee.

She excitedly agreed that such legislation will help promote better education and health of the citizen and will contribute to the development of the country as a whole.

“I am grateful to all the courageous people who fight for women’s rights, and I am especially thankful to the men in the parliament that helped pass this law,” she added.

Shaqi Al-Qadhi, Member of Parliament (MP) and strong advocate for women’s rights said that the law amendments is only the beginning.

“Now we need civil society organizations, lawyer syndicates and anyone interested in women’s development to propose procedural steps and a detailed system for implementing this law,” he said.

MP Dr. Abdulbari Al-Doghaish said that there has been a change in the mentality of many MPs and people in general towards the issues of women.

Al-Qadhi agrees with this notion, “I believe that now we can say that Yemeni society understands that women’s rights are a case of humanity and not an imported concept from the West.”

This law comes a few weeks before the fourth annual women’s conference which is organized by the Women National Committee.

“This is the best gift Parliament can give to women on their national day,” says Mashour.

More reasons to celebrate

The law to define the minimum age for marriage is not the only reason for Yemeni women to celebrate.

The parliament passed this amendment among a set of legislations concerning women and children in two laws, civil status law number 14 for the year 2002 and civil status law number 20 for the year 1992.

The amendments include facilitations of pre-marital medical checks regarding genetic faults, dangerous diseases or health risks.

Amendments also conditioned polygamy to the practical ability of a husband being fair and able to support both families. Fairness is included in all aspects, such as time spent with each wife, housing and logistics. The first wife also has to be legally notified of his intention of marrying another to allow them to make future decisions.

Amendments included technicalities in the marriage procedure and contracts which clarify the issue of consent among other issues.

Divorced women also benefit from the new amendments as the law today clearly stipulates women’s right to alimony for her children even if the divorce is permanent.

Custody of children is exclusively granted to the mother for the first twelve years of the children’s life whether boys or girls, unless the judge sees that the best interest of the child lies elsewhere.

A divorced mother with children has the right to a suitable residence to be provided for by the father of the child.

The new amendments also recognizes the mother as the sole guardian of orphaned children if is seen fit to shoulder this responsibility by a judge.

Once orphaned children reach puberty, a judge can test their maturity and entrust their inheritance to them if he considers them responsible enough.

Egypt: Law Passed Banning Female Circumcision

Egyptian members of Parliament passed a new law that bans female circumcision. The new bill also changed the legal minimum age for marriage to 18 years-old for both genders.

The laws passed on Sunday impose jail time and large fines if caught practicing female circumcision. A maximum jail term of two years or a fine between $200 and $1,000 can be handed down by a judge.

The only means allowed for the process is in cases of "medical necessity." International rights groups welcomed the decision, saying it is a step in the right direction for Egypt.

The laws are enforceable immediately.

Some members of Parliament argued that the bill goes against Islamic principles and this is another attempt by the "west" to impose "its beliefs on our culture." However, most Islamic scholars welcomed the decision, saying it was long overdue to outlaw a practice that needed to be ended.

Some accounts argue that as many as 97 percent of Egyptian women have been circumcised. The practice is widespread in Upper Egyptian villages, and can often lead to death, infection and psychological trauma, Amnesty International has reported.

Previously Egyptian girls were allowed to legally marry at the age of 16.

By Joseph Mayton - AHN Middle East Correspondent

Saudi Arabia: Women: Small Steps Taken Where Giant Strides Needed

Saudi women today celebrate the inauguration of women’s sections at the Riyadh and Jeddah mayoralties. One hundred and twenty women in each city now officially take charge of municipal services for women after being provided with extensive training to qualify them for their posts.

The sections have started functioning in four municipalities in both Jeddah and Riyadh regions.

This follows the successful initiative to allow women to sit in the board of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI). Women in Jeddah have been better supported and have proven their capabilities as elected and appointed board members. The Jeddah chamber also established the Khadijah Bint Khowailed Center, which caters to working women and women in business.

The center is run by women, and its role is to facilitate programs that support working women and provide feasibility studies for their business endeavors. The women in the chamber have outlined many procedural obstacles that hamper their investments and, therefore, exclude them from contributing toward the economic development of their country.

They have also submitted a petition to the minister of commerce and industry calling for the elimination of the male guardian, who is imposed to run their businesses and to process their paperwork with government agencies. That rule has allowed many guardians to exploit the businesses of women and delay their work. Moreover, they called on the minister to allow women to be members of the board of directors of their family-owned companies, as well as to chair their boards. These women who have assumed leadership positions in the chamber have proven their professionalism and expertise to support their sisters in society and have been successful in creating better opportunities to help shape a better future for the next generation.

The experiences of businesswomen in Riyadh and the Eastern Province unfortunately have been very disappointing. Although they are no less capable or no less enthusiastic to serve, they have neither been given the support nor the backing they need from the community to be included as board members in their chambers of commerce.

Another lost opportunity for women was the ban on women running in the 2006 municipal elections. They are still hopeful to run in the next elections.

The media in the Kingdom have recognized women’s untapped potential and are constantly engaged in raising public awareness about the benefits of enabling women who are qualified to hold leadership positions in government and in the work force. Women in the media have been very vocal in their demands for better opportunities to address the concerns of women in Saudi society.

Saudi women today face as many challenges as they have aspirations. Although there are some who stubbornly argue that our women are content and satisfied with their lives, many others continue to protest the discriminatory policies that marginalize qualified women and exclude them from taking on leadership positions. Unfortunately, those who refuse to aspire to a better life for women continue to brainwash our youth and spread their poison toward women who wish to control their own destinies and make their own ways, which will contribute to the welfare of our society.

This frustrating debate has not hindered the determination of the educated and progressive women to remain optimistic and enthusiastic to have their voices heard and their demands fulfilled. There are those who have had an opportunity to speak with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, and there are those who have debated their issues at the National Dialogue Forums. Forum participants have called for the establishment of a higher commission for women’s affairs that would have direct contact with the ministers concerned and the king in order to address the growing needs and challenges facing women today. Perhaps these recent municipal moves are the first step toward realizing that dream.

Women have also called for representation on the Shoura Council so they can influence change and development. Others have also asked for inclusion on the board of the newly established Human Rights Commission in order to ensure women get the rights that their faith guarantees and their faith-based government also should guarantee.

Women should also have a role in correcting the situations of women victims and underprivileged women.

Our nation has taken some tiny steps to eradicate these iniquities, but giant strides are needed. Those strides will not be made without the support of all the people, and that is what is missing.

We need every qualified citizen man and woman to contribute to our nation’s progress and development. Educated and qualified women must be given the chance to play a role in modernizing our government and society. It is high time we work together as patriotic Saudis, men and women, to upgrade antiquated systems and replace the obsolete laws and regulations that hinder the progress of our economy and the development of our nation.

When we marginalize women who are qualified and ready to serve, or when we refuse to acknowledge that 54 percent of our college graduates are women who are treated as second-class citizens, we only ensure a bleak future as more competitive nations capitalize on our inability to come to terms with modern reality. The failure to serve the modern- day needs for all citizens destroys the dreams and aspirations of our youth who represent more than 60 percent of our population. It also alienates many of the brightest, who need only to leave our borders behind to get the guarantees of fair play and liberty, the merits of which are leisurely discussed here.

Marginalizing women in our society marginalizes our society. Positive policies that could ensure effective participation of women should be put in place. Our government could use its authority to allocate one-third of the seats in the boards of the chambers of commerce for women. The Shoura Council could have an equal share of seats for women. Such initiatives can pave the way for a more effective participation of women and allow the qualified to act as role models for our future generation.

We cannot afford to wait until our society can reach a consensus that allows women to be part of the decision-making process, and our government should have the will to act decisively and not wait for a delayed consensus.

The appointment of women in municipal councils is a step in the right direction. Let us hope that our government will continue to move forward and appoint women in the Shoura Council. After all, our society cannot progress with half of its qualified people sitting on the sidelines.

Samar Fatany, Arab News

Saudi Arabia: State to protect women and kids from domestic violence

JEDDAH — There will soon be new regulations to protect women and children from domestic violence in Saudi Arabia, according to Hussein Al Sharif, head of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR).

“There will be severe punishment for abusers and a new system to rehabilitate victims into society,” Al Sharif said. He said that people blame the NSHR when children are abused.

“People mistakenly think that the NSHR is an executive body. We are only tasked with monitoring and informing. Our role is to watch over governmental bodies and observe whether they respect human rights according to ratified international conventions and Shariah,” he explained.

“When we receive a complaint about child abuse we inform the concerned bodies, such as police and the ministry of social affairs, so they can take action. Then we monitor. This is the role of a human rights organisation, not only here but all over the world,” he said.

“We need to criminalise violence and all kinds of abuse. There is nothing on earth that justifies abuse,” Dr Majid Al Essa, head of the medical section at the National Family Safety Programme (NFSP), said recently.

“It is the foremost responsibility of every individual to help change the mindset that accepts abuse,” she added.

Dr Maha Al Munief, executive director, said NFSP aims to set up a national strategy to minimise the effects of domestic abuse. “We want NGOs to come forward in support of the programme. We want women and children to know their rights and ask for them,” she said.

In a study carried out by Dr Ali Al Zahrani, consultant psychologist for children and adolescents, on 3,000 students of primary, elementary and high school levels, it was discovered that 25 per cent of them were physically abused and 15 per cent sexually abused.

It may be noted that Princess Adela bint Abdullah has stressed the need for a professional strategy to create a balance in relationships between family members, because abuse of women and children is a real threat to the stability of the Saudi society.

Princess Adela said that one in every six women is abused daily verbally, physically, or emotionally. She said that 90 per cent of abusers are men.

“This is not a small number. Abuse against women and children is increasing astonishingly,” she added. Al Sharif said that there is a problem accommodating victims of domestic violence in Saudi Arabia.

During a meeting with General Turki Al Quinawy, head of the Makkah police, on Saturday, Al Sharif said that the holy city of Makkah area is in need of shelters to house victims of domestic violence.

Al Quinawy told Al Sharif that the police face difficulties, as there are only a few women’s shelters in holy city of Makkah. “We face a problem accommodating victims of domestic violence. Sometimes we leave them in the juvenile detention centres,” he said and suggested two ways of dealing with domestic violence.

“We need to increase people’s awareness about the problem and find official bodies — such as police centres, the Investigation and Prosecution Board, and the ministry of social affairs that could deal with the matter,” he said.

Speaking about existing shelters in Taif and Jeddah, Al Quinawy said that even the few in Taif and Jeddah need a lot of maintenance and improvements. Al Sharif said that during his visits to the Kingdom’s prisons, the NSHR did not find people illegally imprisoned.

“NSHR has not detected any cases like this, but sometimes papers are issued late,” he said.

“Through our periodic field investigations, we make reports that include positive and negative observations. We sustain the positive ones and try to offer suggestions to solve the negative ones,” he added.

By Habib Shaikh, Khaleej Times Online

Saudi Arabia: What Saudi parents want

Fables are stories that teach timeless lessons. We all remember the story of the Hare and the Turtle and the valuable lesson it has taught us over time.

The story is about a Hare and a Turtle who decided to compete in a race. The Hare, fully aware of his natural agility and speed, laughed at the challenge and arrogantly took his time to reach the finish line. He played and grazed till he got exhausted and decided to take a nap. Meanwhile, the Turtle, fully aware of her sluggish nature and heavy shell, put all her energy to the task and with each painfully slow pace, she got closer to her goal - one step at a time. The Hare, after waking up from his brief nap could not bring himself to believe that he had lost a race which (in his own frame of mind) was his to win in the first place!

The moral of the story is universal. Those who plan... and are focused... and are determined to stay the course will achieve their objectives, while those who leave things to chance and are blinded by overconfidence will end up watching the world pass them by. Today, as the need for economic status and prominence is on the rise, many countries are burning the midnight oil to design creative systems for learning to produce a "world class" labor force that is competent in subjects such as the arts, the humanities, the sciences, and sports. Those who chose to ignore these realities will tragically wake up to find themselves left behind - just as the tragic hero of the fable, our friend the Hare, did.

It is a simple fact of Economics 101. Alongside land, buildings, and natural resources, the people of a nation are the most important engines of economic growth - and an internationally competitive school system is its only fuel. Many countries have succeeded in transforming themselves from being poor economies to becoming leading ones by simply re-engineering their educational systems. Ireland, China and Korea are but a few who can serve as "best practice" models to show how countries can make this dramatic shift. The moral of the story also hits home.

Saudi Arabia is no exception to this rule. The burning issue here at home is that first, we have a chronic state of unemployment; secondly, our school system is disconnected from the developments of the rest of the world; and thirdly, our general education policies are in direct opposition to those of our higher education ones. So long as we ignore these three facts, we will never be able to intervene in time to compete in the global race for national prominence and prosperity. Last Friday, in my weekly column "Building our Nation: Whose Responsibility"? I wrote about the tragic impact our education system has on our youth. I referred to an article that was recently published in Arab News, in which it was mentioned that more than 200 Saudi students on Saudi government-funded scholarships were deported from the US because of poor academic performance, delinquency and small crimes.

I asked the question that had these students received a "world-class Saudi schooling system" early on during their childhood years here at home, would we be reading about their shame today? I then explained that our system of education has a missing link between our two most important ministries: The Ministry of Higher education and that of the Ministry of General Education.

Whereas the former has a large budget allocated for our youths to travel to foreign countries on government-funded scholarships, the latter has not done the job of preparing them well for that day - but instead it has imposed a ban on the enrollment of Saudi children in foreign schools operating in the Kingdom legally. Except for those children who have special learning needs, and that includes those who are poor in Arabic.

I concluded that it is because of this inconsistency in educational policy between our two ministries that our youth, as well as our nation, are paying a heavy price today. For decades now, many financially able, law-abiding, patriotic Saudi parents are left with no choice but to bridge this educational gap by sending their children off to foreign countries in pursuit of an education system that will secure them a bright future on their return home.

This self-imposed exile is not new. It started some 40 years ago in the 1960s and 1970s when Saudi Arabia had just began its modernization process and schools back then were still a rarity. However today, in spite of the abundance of schools Kingdom-wide, this phenomenon still exists. One wonders why.

There is nothing more difficult than separating a child from her parents at an early age. Children who are separated from their families before their teenage years usually suffer significant emotional and social trauma that accompanies them well into their adult years. The feelings of homesickness, resentment, rejection, loss of identity as well as problems of adjusting to the host country, are but a few of the initial setbacks.

Later on, as these children turn into young adults and return home, other maladjustment issues such as culture shock, alienation, and a sense of lost "citizenship" take hold and further handicap their struggling efforts to blend back into the social fabric of their homeland. I speak out because I have been there, and done that. Once upon a time, I was one of those children who were sent away to a strange country speaking a strange language.

Some six years later I came back as one of those returning youths -somewhat culturally and intellectually alienated. I also ended up becoming one of those parents who made the difficult choice of parting from my children so that they could have the prospect of a bright future waiting for them on their return.

Do I regret any of it? No. But I do regret that Saudi parents today still suffer from not having the right to enroll their children in a "world class school system" of their choice here, in the comfort and security of our country - something that was denied to my children some 12 years ago as it was denied to me some 30 decades earlier.

Arab News, Author: Fatin Bundagji

Saudi Arabia: Acquiring Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia: Between Gradualism and Haste

Riyadh -- During the relatively historic National Experts Meeting on Domestic Violence held at the Marriott Hotel in Riyadh, a glass shield was installed to separate the male and female sides of the audience.

The meeting was historic because it was the first of its type to openly address domestic violence, including sexual violence against women, and because the program to eliminate domestic violence was established by royal decree. Were it not for political will, such a program would have never seen the light, and neither males nor females would have met under the same roof with nothing separating between them but a low wall of glass, an accomplishment by all means in the long and difficult path to openness and breaking the walls of gender segregation!

Desegregation in hospitals between male and female doctors is permissible, as female autopsy teachers and students from the opposite sex revealed. But those female doctors and professors participating in such a progressive convention have almost rejoiced at the glass shield, as they compare it to the separate closed rooms where members of the two sexes could only convene through low-quality video screens during regular seminars.

Ultimately, the status of women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia remains different in contrast to the status of women in the rest of the world, including Arab women in several Arab countries. However, the developments in the Kingdom are stimulating evident curiosity among Western media, which constantly perceives the Saudi woman's path as a barometer indicating whether change will be short-lived or will be institutionalized, as women and human rights organizations wish.

Coincidentally and in parallel with the two-day meeting on domestic violence, the "Scientific Seminar on the History of King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz" convened at the Intercontinental Hotel along with an exhibition on the late King organized by Al-Faisal family and descendants of both sexes. The memorial photograph included only sons and grandsons though the seminar and the documents clearly indicated that King Faisal and Queen Effat have raised in tandem the banner of educating girls and establishing the model school for mixed education.

Today, Princess Loulwa bint Faisal chairs the Dar al-Hanan School and the Effat College board of trustees. She co-chairs with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, the World Economic Forum's C-100. The chairpersonship was assigned to Princess Loulwa who was nominated by her brother Prince Turki al-Faisal, in a move approved by King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz and perceived as a symbolic precedent with significant implications.

Princess Effat's upraising in Ataturk's Turkey where she was born before returning to the Kingdom at the age of 16 (she is of Saudi origin from Al-Thunayyan family) may have had an impact on King Faisal's perceptions of the education of girls and desegregation in secondary schools even though Islamic education enjoyed a much higher position among the King's priorities. The relationship between the two was based on respect and openness and was translated into the desire to entrench these two values in society.

Several factors obstructed this desire. These factors were the subject of debate, as the participants in the meeting discussed the background, causes, and elements behind the declining respect for women's fundamental rights and the hindered openness to religious regulations and legislations that offer women basic protection against the violations of men who have used religious traditions to achieve selfish goals.

A part of the women who belong to the openness-to-education generation under King Faisal and who later became degree-holding professionals is angry. These women are angry at the "step-by-step" gradual approach to acquiring self-evident rights of women. They are also angry at the "delight" of their comrades with the separating glass shield. Another part insists that the Saudi environment can only tolerate a gradual approach to attaining women's rights patiently and diligently, away from the media, and yes…celebrating the glass shield because, as one participant put it, "at least we now breathe the same air."

One of the women upset with the slow gradual approach says, "So many decisions and initiatives have been made, only to die in the crib because of the absence of administrative institutions. Institutionalism does not exist. Everyone behaves according to his cultural, tribal or regional nature and background." She adds that what practically happens is "one step forward and ten backward." Hence, "gradual change is not successful; we need a set of laws and a system to protect us."

According to this opinion, "no progress in science, education and health can be achieved without desegregation. Isolation is tantamount to backwardness and will persist even if the segregating wall is made of glass." This view admits that "something new is happening and there is change, namely the state's policy to improve the status of women." Those who embrace this view, however, speak of the control exercised by the clergy over the decisions issued or to be issued by the state. They refer in particular to the tradition of guardianship.

Dr. Asia Al-Ruwaf, who has been standing next to men inside the surgery room for 27 years and established a ward for pediatric surgery, blames the religious tide which started in 1979 with the Khomeini revolution in Iran and left direct marks on the progress of women everywhere. She says, "The problem lies in customs not in religion or law." She points out to "the divide in the religious voice between the hardliners and the moderates who are closer to the reformist movement." She sums up the situation as follows: "The politicians side with women, the clergy are divided, and the public still side with the hard-line religious current."

According to news from Riyadh reported in Al-Hayat this week, dwellers of Saudi mosques will notice new expressions such as "human rights" uttered by preachers during Friday prayers, "as the Ministry of Islamic Affairs vowed to mobilize its imams and preachers to spread awareness about human rights as part of a new partnership with the official rights entity." The task will cover this time the rights of children, girls, wives and servants.

According to the international definition of human rights, the concept of guardianship, like gender segregation, opposes the fundamental human rights. The Saudi woman is subjected to these practices because traditions - not religion or laws - require that she demand permission from her father, brother, husband, or son, even when she is in need of urgent healthcare, not just in matters of travel, education, work, and marriage. In confronting domestic violence, a woman has to practically seek her husband's permission to file a complaint against him.

None of this is the result of enacted laws but rather, the result of the lack of legislation that bars these violations and practices. This is exactly what the Saudi woman is gradually breaking down to eliminate the discrimination against her and to develop herself into a member of society that deserves respect and protective laws prohibiting such humiliating practices. Hence, women themselves are not divided over the need for change.

Yet, they disagree over the pace of change. In the eyes of some women, the participation of businesswomen in the official delegation that accompanies King Abdullah on official visits represents an unprecedented move that highlights the significant official support for women and proves King Abdullah's determination to support women in the path of change.

The advocates of gradual change believe that hasty change could be counterproductive, whereas gradual change offers more guarantees for women's rights. They speak of the importance of raising awareness among men and women alike. They say that there is no need to clash with the opposition, since the path is paved for change. As such, there is no need to rush things and end with a confrontation.

One woman underlines the importance of focusing on women's needs to have these needs met calmly and given the necessary care instead of being turned into a matter of rhetoric. The Breast Cancer Association, for example, established by Dr. Suad bin Amer and now headed by Princess Haifa al-Faisal, is a leading association in the region specialized in raising awareness, assisting female patients and setting up testing centers for women.

Led by its Secretary General Princess Moudi bint Khalid bin Abdul Aziz, Al-Nahda Association currently deals with girl unemployment and women empowerment as a means to help women retrieve the economic value they once enjoyed before the oil boom.

In turn, the executive officer of the National Family Safety Program (NFSP), Dr. Maha bint Abdullah al-Munif, concluded the National Experts Meeting on Domestic Violence by reading 22 recommendations reached by the male and female participants, including judges, police officers, lawyers, and psychiatrists. The first recommendation was the recognition of domestic violence cases in the Kingdom in such a magnitude that draws concern and demands immediate intervention to confront and prevent such practices.

Recognizing and speaking openly about these phenomena is in itself a matter of change. However, the recommendations demand actions and not mere recognition and admission. Efforts must be exerted to incriminate all kinds of domestic violence harmful to the victim or her family, and to impose reinforcing and deterring penalties against the perpetrator.

There is talk about compulsory reporting of assaults, protection to informants, and punishment of perpetrators. There is talk about the need to set up administrations that prevent and counter domestic violence, administrations that would promote cooperation within all concerned ministries and official institutions thanks to efficient mechanisms. Next year's plan of action will also focus on training and rehabilitating professionals engaged in domestic violence cases and on obliging workers in security entities to receive complaints. There are also recommendations to publish a Sharia'a-compliant log of personal status in the Kingdom to limit domestic violence. The recommendations also demand the activation of family courts to rule on cases of domestic violence.

This is not the first time that the issue of violence against women, children and the elderly is discussed in the Arab region. However, this is the first time that men and women speak out in Saudi Arabia about these matters. Princess Adila, King Abdullah's daughter who sponsors the program says, "We are benefiting from the Arab and western experiences because they have achieved far more progress than us." She specifically refers to Jordan, Yemen and Tunisia, where Arab expertise are of help. She adds that several steps are being taken in different areas, from public affairs to economics, to test the Saudi woman's qualification and responsibility as a new partner in national development. Half the population, about 49%, is female. Half the population, she adds, is under 15 years of age, and society cannot move forward by relying on one half.

Be it slow or fast, this process is part of the change underway in the Kingdom. Women are now part of change as a result of a serious political decision, a fact that must be acknowledged and encouraged. Incorporating the talk about human rights into religious preaching is commendable.

However, the slow pace remains an enemy threatening the path of change, as it leaves it vulnerable to the forces that resisted and continues to resist this kind of change.

The best deterrent that offers protection for gradual change lies in the quick enactment of laws. It is also the best deterrent against those who mistakenly think that traditions offer them permanent immunity and impunity. Let the removal of the glass shield be gradual one step at a time, but let it be accompanied by a quicker enactment of laws and lying of institutional foundations.

Raghida Dergham, Al-Hayat

Saudi Arabia: A first for Saudis: Mozart performed for both genders

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — It's probably as revolutionary and groundbreaking as Mozart gets these days. A German-based quartet staged Saudi Arabia's first-ever performance of European classical music in a public venue before a mixed gender audience.

The concert, held at a government-run cultural center, broke many taboos in a country where public music is banned and the sexes are segregated even in lines at fast food outlets.

The Friday night performance could be yet another indication that this strict Muslim kingdom is looking to open up to the rest of the world.

A few weeks ago, King Abdullah made an unprecedented call for interfaith dialogue with Christians and Jews — the first such proposal from a nation that forbids non-Muslim religious services and symbols.

"The concert is a sign that things are changing rapidly here," said German Ambassador Juergen Krieghoff, whose embassy sponsored the concert as part of the first-ever German Cultural Weeks in Saudi Arabia.

"Evidently the government has decided that a minimum of openness in our new world economy and in our information-based world is necessary for us and also for good understanding among cultures," he added.

Public concerts are practically unheard of in the kingdom. Foreign embassies and consulates regularly bring musical groups, but they perform on embassy grounds or in expatriates' residential compounds, and the shows are not open to the public.

In the past couple of months, however, there has been a quiet, yet marked increase in cultural activities in Saudi Arabia. Lectures and a couple of segregated folk music performances were held on the sidelines of Riyadh's book fair. And Jiddah's annual Economic Forum opened with a surprise this February — a performance of Arab and Western music.

"For half an hour, we did not quite know whether we had stumbled into an unknown Jiddah nightclub or whether it was some amazing mistake that would suddenly stop," wrote Michel Cousins in the English-language daily Arab News, describing the 30-minute show.

Friday's concert of works by works by Mozart, Brahms and Paul Juon was the first classical performance held in public in Saudi Arabia, said German press attache Georg Klussmann. It was advertised on the embassy's Web site with free tickets that could be downloaded and printed.

The excitement in the 500-seat hall was palpable as the largely expatriate audience walked in.

"We have not done a concert like this before," German diplomat Tobias Krause told the audience at the start of performance by the Artis Piano Quartet. Those gathered applauded enthusiastically after each piece and were treated to an encore.

Sebastian Bischoff, the German cultural attache, said the mission had received permission for the event from the Ministry of Information and Culture, which runs the King Fahd Cultural Center where the concert took place.

Japanese pianist Hiroko Atsumi, the quartet's only woman, said there was some debate before the concert about whether she should perform in an abaya, the enveloping black cloak all women must wear in public. She ended up settling on a long green top and black trousers.

Among the first to arrive was Faiza al-Khayyal, a retired Saudi educator, with her 15-year-old daughter.

"I came here for her sake. She loves classical music," said al-Khayyal. "There are cultural activities at embassies, but we don't get invited to them."

Al-Khayyal said she had inquired about seating arrangements and was told the audience would be mixed.

Did she mind bringing her daughter to a mixed gathering?

"It's OK with me," she said, and then added with a smile: "I'm with her."

Faleh al-Ajami, a university Arabic language professor, brought his wife and two sons to the concert — a rare opportunity for the whole family to do something fun together.

"It's a good step to introduce Saudis to classical music," al-Ajami, 50, said during the intermission.

"I was amazed at the sounds coming from the musical instruments," said his son Ziad al-Ajami, 11, a fan of hard rock. "I've never been to a live concert before."

For the expatriates, the evening was an opportunity to have a normal evening out in Riyadh, a city with no movie theaters and where women are not allowed in outdoor cafes.

One foreign couple held hands, while another husband put his arm around his wife's shoulders — rare public displays of affection in the kingdom. The mutuwwa, the dreaded religious police tasked with enforcing public morality, were nowhere to be seen for a change.

"I'm glad for an opportunity like this," said Mary Ann Jumawan, a 40-year-old administrator at the South Korean Embassy. "It's the first time in nine years here as a married couple that my husband and I go to a location like this."

But not everyone was impressed.

Abdullah al-Sabhan, his brother and three friends received invitations from a German business associate, but after half an hour, they snuck out.

"I'm bored," said al-Sabhan, 26, an engineer who prefers Egyptian pop music and had never heard of Mozart. "Let me leave before the second piece begins."

His brother, Saud, dismissed the notion that gatherings involving men and women together might one day become the norm.

"Saudi society wouldn't accept it. And girls aren't used to such mixed gatherings," he said, adding that if he had a sister, she certainly would not have been allowed to attend.

By DONNA ABU-NASR, AP

Morocco: Training female clerics to promote moderate Islam

Morocco has recently started recruiting and training mourchidat, female Muslim clerics whose role is to help usher in a more moderate Islam, according to a report published in the Telegraph on Saturday.The Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania – a madrassa training the mourchidat (female guide) – is training a second batch of 50 female students, after a first batch of 50 graduated in April 2006.

Men and women learn side by side, but only men will be able to lead prayers. The mourchidat help women with religious questions, with their education and give support in schools and prisons. The long-term hope is that by working face-to-face with the community, they will help foster a more moderate Islam. Funded by the government, the initiative is part of a wave of liberal reforms begun by King Muhammad VI in 2004.

“This is a rare experiment in the Muslim world,” Muhammad Mahfudh, the centre’s director, said.

Modern approach

More than 400 women applied for the 50 places. The prerequisites are an entrance exam, an interview and a BA degree. Candidates are also required to have a life grounded in the teachings of the holy Quran, by which is meant memorising it, and to have an understanding of tajwid, the art of Quranic recital.

The course includes Islamic studies, psychology, sociology, computer skills, economy, law and business management, along with three hours of homework a day.

“We want to help people know the Quran and to promote flexibility, and there are a lot of problems in our society - social, political, all,” one student, Halima Kachkach, 29, said.

“Before the mourchidat, women had no one to answer their questions,” said Dr Rajaa Naji el Mekkaoui, an expert in family law at the Université Mohamed-V in Rabat, and one of the architects of the mourchidat programme.

“They will try to find the answers in other areas, from fundamentalist imams - and this is a big risk to society. If they ask that if they are authorised to work, the imams will say, ‘No, that is not allowed’. If a woman asks ‘what must I wear’, they will say, ‘She must be covered with the veil’.”

El Mekkaoui believes that the mourchidat are a liberating force for women, and an inhibitor for radicalism.

The idea for the mourchidat was first discussed in 2003, but its roots go back to 1999, when Mohammed VI came to the throne. But the landmark event that paved the way for the mourchidat took place in 2003.

In a radical break with tradition, the king invited el Mekkaoui to give the Ramadan lecture at the royal palace in Rabat, attended by members of the government, high-ranking military officials and foreign ambassadors. It was the first time a woman had even been allowed to enter the room, let alone permitted to speak.

On graduation, each mourchidat is assigned a mosque, which can be anywhere in Morocco, although the ministry in charge aims to find somewhere close to their families. The mourchidat offer spiritual advice and teach women the holy Quran, but also discuss more contentious gender-related issues — about sex, women’s health, what to do if your husband beats you — issues that women would not dream of asking an imam.

They are paid 5,000 dirhams (£420) a month, and work long hours, both in and outside the mosque.

Since the introduction of the mourchidat, Turkey has also challenged traditional Islamic gender roles with the appointment of 450 women as preachers - or vaize. The Diyanet, or Directorate of Religious Affairs, which controls the Islamic faith in Turkey but also tries to improve women’s rights, sees the appointment of female vaize as a crucial step forward.

--Daily Times Monitor