Saudi women activists demand end to 'absolute' male control

Lebanon's Daily Star carried this story from AFP, dateline March 2, 2014. A link to the story is here, and the text is below.

RIYADH: Saudi women activists have petitioned the country's consultative council to back a demand to curb the "absolute authority" of male guardians over women in the ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom, a signatory said.

Saudi Arabia imposes a strict interpretation of Islamic law, forbidding women to work or travel without the authorisation of their male guardians.

It is also the only country in the world that bans women from driving, and a woman cannot obtain an identification card without the consent of her guardian.

Activist Aziza Yousef told AFP that "rights activists have petitioned the Shura (consultative) Council on the occasion of the International Women's Day (on March 8) demanding an end to the absolute authority of men over women".

They demanded "measures to protect (women's) rights," in their petition to the Shura Council, she said.

Laws in the kingdom enforcing such restrictions on women "are not based on religious" teachings, said Yousef.

The petition, signed by 10 female activists, also calls for allowing women to drive.

Women in Saudi must obtain permission from a male guardian to perform "certain surgeries" and to "leave the university campus during study hours," she added.

She cited a recent case in which a pregnant student had to give birth on campus after a women-only university in Riyadh denied access to paramedics.

And a university student died in February after paramedics were prevented from entering her campus because they were not accompanied by a male guardian, a must according to the strict segregation rules in the Muslim kingdom.

Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia suspended a notification programme that had been running since 2012, which alerted male guardians once women under their custody left the country, even if they were travelling together.

Three female members of the Shura Council presented a recommendation that women be given the right to drive in October, but the male-dominated 150-member assembly blocked the proposal.
The Shura Council is appointed by the king and advises the monarch on policy, but cannot legislate.

(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

Supporters of women driving to launch new plan on Feb. 25

This story from the English language daily the Saudi Gazette, translated from the Arabic paper, Al-Hayat. A link to the story is here, and the text is below. It appeared on January 28, 2014.


DAMMAM — Campaigners for women’s right to drive will launch a fresh initiative on Feb. 22, Al-Hayat daily reported.

Azizah Yousif, lecturer at King Saud University in Riyadh and one of the organizers, said it is to educate the public about the legal rights of women to drive a car and to raise public awareness about the issue.

She said: “We’ll post videos of women who drove their cars in the past and dispel the wrong views detractors have spread about this issue. “We’ll show the public these views are baseless.”

Advocates of women driving will continue to shed light on this issue until the authorities realize the right of women to drive is a basic one, she stressed.

Azizah, who has been campaigning for this right since 1990, described the campaign as a continuation of the Oct. 26 initiative.

“There is no doubt that the last campaign has achieved a lot of gains for women, despite the heavy criticism from opponents,” she said.

The campaign proved that there are staunch supporters, male and female, who believe that women should be granted this right.

In June 2011, 3,500 women signed a petition demanding women should not be banned from driving. The petition was submitted to authorities.

In 2012, a campaign called “My right, my honor” brought the issue to the public consciousness again.

The Oct. 26 campaign has so far been the largest since the one in 1990 when seven Saudi women were arrested for driving cars on the streets.