Gentlemen, Leave Saudi Women Alone! - UN/Womens Rights
Mohammed Al-Harfi; 12/2/08,
The United Nations’ interest in the situation of women in the Kingdom really puzzled me. It looked as though Saudi women live in a huge prison guarded by people whose only interest is to humiliate and degrade women as much as possible. It seemed as if the women in this country were desperately seeking words of help and promise of rescue from these organizations so that that they can begin life afresh enjoying all the freedom they lost a long time ago. I wonder how members of such organizations — whose hearts apparently bleed for those oppressed and suppressed — are so concerned about the Saudi women, but fail to realize the tragic plight of the women in Palestine and Iraq. I wish the UN addressed the concerns of the women in Gaza who are starving to death because of the Israeli blockade in place for the last eight months.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=106697&d=12&m=2&y=2008
Harassment Law Vital for Workingwomen
Mazen Balilah; 12/2/08
Two young girls were buying lingerie from a man in a lingerie shop. He told one of them that the item she had chosen wasn’t suitable for her but would be for her friend because her breast size was larger. Both of them were embarrassed and left the shop immediately. What the salesman committed was verbal harassment. If he had known that there were laws to punish him for what he said while doing his job, he might have thought twice before saying what he did. He should have been punished for his callous remark. This is the type of suffering Saudi women put up with and feel they cannot complain about. There was a decision that approved the idea of women working in lingerie shops but, for many reasons, it hasn’t been implemented yet.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=13§ion=0&article=106667&d=12&m=2&y=2008
As a Proud Saudi Woman, I Speak
Omaima Al-Jalahma; 12/2/08
I thank the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) for their serious attempt to evaluate the social status of women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and their appreciation of the Kingdom’s initiatives to issue legislation that grant women rights. I must be thankful for their efforts in seeing positive things in my country. Yet that doesn’t mean I must be quiet concerning the unfairness of CEDAW’s report against a country where women are given their rights fully, unlike women in many other countries, including those in the West. I sense the jealousy of many Western and Eastern women I meet in international events when I tell them that my male colleagues — who financially take care of their families — earn a monthly salary equal to what my female colleagues and I make.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=13§ion=0&article=106478&d=12&m=2&y=2008