PROTESTING GENDER APARTHEID IN SAUDI?

I have been appalled at stories of the crushing system of gender apartheid in Saudi Arabia ever since childhood, when I first heard harrowing tales of life in that country from various friends who had lived there.  I was possibly even more appalled to be told, "It's just their culture, dear." 

The Saudi system includes the absolute and total relegation of Saudi girls and women to second class citizenship, including:

-- not being allowed to drive

-- not being allowed to travel without a husband or male escort

-- not being allowed to leave the country without one's husband's or father's permission

-- having to get one's husband's or father's permission to do other basic things, like change cell phone numbers

-- being required to be covered from head to toe

-- being subject to physical attack on the streets by the religious police if one is not deemed to be properly covered

-- not being permitted to vote or run for office (although supposedly the restrictions on voting may be lifted in a few years).

-- having the right to inherit from one's parents only half the amount one's brother may inherit

-- having to have corroboration from three eyewitnesses in order to prosecute a sexual assault (in essence, meaning one cannot prosecute a sexual assault)

-- having one's testimony in court be worth only half that of a man's

-- having one's marriage arranged by one's male relatives

-- automatically losing custody of one's children (those over the age of six) in the event of divorce

-- suffering gender segregation in all areas of public life-- separate and definitely unequal

And this is just a bare outline of the laws.  Imagine the day-in and day-out degradation of having to live under these rules every day.  Imagine being subject to total control by one's own family members and not being able to do anything about it.  The Makkah school fire of 2002 is one particularly atrocious example of how women's second class citizenship actually plays out:  the religious police essentially killed 15 young girls by preventing them from fleeing the grounds of a burning school because they were not clad in proper Islamic dress.

So here's my question.  I grew up in the '80s and early '90s when race apartheid in South Africa was a constant concern here in the U.S. and Europe.  Throughout my high school and college years, South Africa was constantly in the news.  There were plays and books everywhere devoted to exposing the injustices in South Africa.  There were rock concerts held to draw attention to the plight of black men and women under apartheid. Students at my high school and college were always demonstrating to protest my schools' investment in companies that did business with South Africa.  South Africa was considered a rogue nation and its athletes were not permitted to compete in the Olympics. 

So why is it that since the '70s I have only heard bits and pieces in our media about the mistreatment of women in Saudi Arabia? Why is there not more of an international outcry over this?  (I know, I know, oil and the U.S. need for a military ally in the region may have a little something to do with it.)  But where are the idealistic college kids? Where are the protests over investment in Saudi? Where is the outrage over the systematic degradation of half of the human race that is occurring in a modern, industrialized ally of the United States? 

It may be that there are more efforts underway than I am aware of in this regard, but if so, they certainly aren't getting much media attention, and certainly not compared to the constant outrage one used to hear over the situation in South Africa.  Indeed, I had never heard Saudi Arabia compared to South Africa until I did some internet research in preparation for writing about this idea and found this editorial from five years ago.  I will admit that I have never been much of an activist (time to rectify that now?) and I may not have too many effective ideas about this issue, but I would like to know why this doesn't get more attention at least from the liberal/activist community, what can be done about it, and how I can contribute. 

Other helpful information can be found in this article from women's enews entitled Taking the Gender Apartheid Tour.  Also see the segment on women's right from the webpage for The Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia.

Comments

[m.]

violence against them is so much a part of patriarchal culture,i guess its considered unremarkable. i worked with a slum domestic violence outreach program earlier,and it was tragicomic when we interviewed women.

"do you face domestic violence?"
"no"
"does your husband hit you?"
"yes".

they themselves thought it was the man's prerogative to abuse them. that it was nothing worth speaking about, or considering as violence unless they had to be hospitalised for it.

the really sad thing, was that most of these women couldnt just up and leave their husbands, so you couldnt discuss very progressive or radical ideas with them. because at the end of the day, they had to walk back to those chains - and the most awful thing in the world has to be being shut up again after a glimpse of freedom!

[anashi]

It's awful. I wonder how long it will take women to finally wake up to the fact that most men don't care about our suffering and are very willing to perpuate it or ignore it. My own father, who was in Desert Storm, witnessed the beating of a woman on the streets of Saudi Arabia. They were beating her with whips. He couldn't do anything, because he had been told by his commanders to ignore it.

[anashi]

The US has lost all of its moral highground by continuing to do business with the Saudi Arabians. I can't even beginning to describe how fucked up their Saudi government is. My father told me about how the Saudis had children in their army and that there only purpose was to pleasure the troops. And the US knows about this. Fuck. It's disgusting. Nothing is worth dealing with this kind of evil.

[a nut]

anshi - it's no different than why a military port in Thailand exists to begin with and why the sex trade business is booming there, too. Both are equally disgusting and wrong, but S.A. isn't the only country that uses it's young children for sex.

[will]

I would guess that it isnt viewed as being so horrible because it is allegedly religiously based. Who are we to judge their religion? Who are we to judge their culture? Perhaps that is the thought.

But you are correct. The treatment of women is appalling.

We shouldnt turn away from it because it is allegedly religiously based.

As a somewhat related note, I have wondered about the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) Feminist blogs that you have linked. Doesnt the Church teach women to serve men and not allow women to have any vote in how the Church is run? How is that related to feminism? Do we turn a blind eye to that because it is religiously based? That Church is growing extremely quickly and has been very effective at mobilizing the vote. Is that a concern?

[hafidha sofía]

I imagine it's due to several reasons: part of it is that Saudis justify this as living their religious beliefs; another is that the US itself has a lot of work to do in regards to the protection of women's physical safety. And of course there is the political reality of Saudi Arabia being an ally to the US.

[The Happy Feminist]

You know, I think that the religious angle may have a lot to do with the reticence of the idealistic set on this issue, especially kids on campus. Because it's an extra challenge to have to make clear that you aren't attacking Islam when you criticize the Saudi legal system.

Plus I am sure there are Saudi women who will stand up for this oppressive system because it is after all the system which many have been raised by their own families to believe is right and good. Whereas I doubt there were black South Africans who defended racial apartheid.

[The Happy Feminist]

As for Mormonism, I don't know as much about its views on gender as I should, nor am I as aware of the Mormons being politically active on the national stage. So I don't know much about it, although obviously I would like to learn more and am thus linking to at least one Mormon feminist blog (Feminist Mormon Housewives) and a blog by an ex-Mormon feminist (Self-Portrait As . . . )

I am concerned by any religious group that seeks to impose its religious views on others -- the ones I am most familiar with are Focus on the Family and various Christian Reconstructionist groups. I also feel for the children of American families who teach the subordination of women, but there has to be protection for families to impart their values to their kids (however wrongheaded I may personally find those values) and at least for the most part American girls grow up to have legal protections in the event they decide to break away from their family's faith. I also think it is appropriate to critique those values from the outside.

[michelle]

Of course religion gets a free pass for violating women's (and other) human rights. As much as we'd like to think that we have a secular culture apart and uninfluenced by our religion, we don't. As long we continue to grant Christian, Jewish, and Muslim denominations carte blanche to determine women's (and gays, people of the "wrong" color, etc.) status to be less than men's, abuse will continue and women's status will improve only marginally. As long as any patriarchal religion (Islam or other) remains outside criticism, the root of women's inequality cannot ever be addressed. For that is where it lies. The core founding principle of the patriarchal religions is that women's sexuality must be controlled and placed in the hands of men (husbands, fathers, priests, or mothers acting in their stead). Women cannot be trusted. Their minds cannot be trusted, their bodies (sexuality, physical workings) cannot be trusted, their emotions cannot be trusted, their version of reality cannot be trusted. This is spelled out quite clearly in the religious texts. The creation myths dictate this status. The laws spell out the degree to which women's sexuality, and subsequently, bodies, lives, choices, children, wages, must be regulated. These founding principles are not changed by the existence of kinder, gentler versions of Chritianity, Judaism, and Islam.

And that is why gender apartheid in Saudi Arabia will never be considered an important issue. It must remain feminist, not mainstream. To question the Muslim view of sexuality and women would open up the possibility of examining the underlying view of women in Christianity (as they are founded on the same principles; they differ only in the degree to which their tenets are enforced). That is far too dangerous. The status of women anywhere else in the world cannot ever be criticized too harshly by our governments or media; to do so would rock the very foundation of our culture and political structures.

As a former member of a Christian denomination that did indeed treat its female members as inferior to men, I am hurt by the attitude of liberals who believe that "there has to be protection for families to impart their values to their kids (however wrongheaded I may personally find those values)". Such an attitude fails to protect us. My experience wasn't extreme. For that, I could look at the women and girls who run away from Hutterite colonies every year, usually recaptured and dragged back to be beaten and married off to older men against their will. That's in Canada. Neither they nor their American sisters "have legal protections in the event they decide to break away from their family's faith". For far too many women, it is not possible and will never happen. And that's just the Christian side.

[a nut]

Oh yes, the Mormons. When I visited a friend in Vegas a few years back, I saw they had large gated communities where only they could live. They only helped each other out, as in, their money goes to other Mormons and that's it. My friend attended a Mormon church for a year I think. Once she decided it wasn't for her, other members stopped talking to her completely.

In Refuge (a book), Terry Tempest Williams details her life as both an ecofeminist and mormon. She writes how, when her mother was dying, they waited for all the men to leave the room before praying since women aren't allowed to lead prayer with men present. It was a good book and helped inform me about Mormons.

The book I can't recommend enough either.