Noura al-Faiz: First Saudi Female Cabinet Member Bad On Women's Rights?

Guardian:

The appointment of Saudi Arabia's first female cabinet minister was seen as a big step for a country where a strict interpretation of Islam bars women from driving, voting and mixing with unrelated men. But Noura al-Faiz today confounded advocates of greater equality when she said she could not appear on television without permission.

Read the whole story: Guardian

Comments

[lvdragonlady]

So what is their point if they do not support this right?
Shame on them.

[escribacat]

When I went into seventh grade back in '69 or '70, I recall a day when a group of ninth grade girls all refused to wear the required dresses to school. They all came to school in jeans and staged a sit-in in front of the principal's office. After that day, we girls were finally allowed to wear pants to school. I have never forgotten those wonderful ninth grade girls who changed things for the rest of us.

[mat3]

Next thing you know they're going to want burka's in colors other than black and we all know what that leads to.

[escribacat]

LOL.

[yakaria]

It's hard to believe that behind that burka is a beautiful woman. Saudi men are disgusted by beauty.

[longtimegone]

Arab, Turkish, and Persian women have been ordered to cover up or to walk in public uncovered for a century, depending on which patriarchal entity claimed to govern them. When the "liberators" prove just as adamant about women behaving according to their theories as the "oppressors", I start to wonder.....In both Iran and Turkey, attempts were made to rid women of their "oppressive" clothing, in the same heavy handed way in which they are kept covered today; it wasn't that they were being offered the freedom to choose; they were under orders, as this was intended to be the first step in a fundamental change in their entire way of life and, if they resisted, they too were dealt with harshly, whether under Ataturk in Turkey or the Shah's father in Iran. Many, especially older women, did not necessarily feel comfortable with the change; but the choice was not theirs to make. The important thing is that women be allowed to choose for themselves and, if that decision is taken from their men, because they use it to perpetuate self-serving, patriarchal notions, it is not to be given to foreigners, male or female, in order to institute a new lifestyle built upon another set of self-serving patriarchal notions. If we truly mean only to liberate people, it is not for us to have any say in what they will do with their freedom; to do otherwise confirms us as having merely been imperialists all along.

[truthartbeauty]

oh yeah, that's the very image of women's rights isn't it??? women dressed like goons because the sexually threatened males of thier worthless cult are ALL cowards.

[whoa20]

I would like to see her lead a Tienanmen Square style protest, in which women gather with willing male sympathizers in the streets all over Saudi Arabia, rip of their veils, and protests. I wonder how the Saudi police would react to that? I wonder how the world would see it? The Middle East needs to do to Islamism what Eastern Europe did to Communism: to stand up, and throw off the shackles of evil!

[moonbay]

Sometimes the only way to get a foot in the door is for someone like this - doesn't rock the boat, a favorite of some powerful guy - to get the ball rolling. This gets some people used to the idea, then the younger women have to move into the small space created by this woman and make that space bigger. It is the history of women's right around the world - when it works.

There have been many failures. One such is Queen Bee Syndrome. The guys find a woman that is as big a jerk against women as they are, give her some false power - just enough for her to keep future women down, and for the guys to make themselves look good, ala the '50's in this country.

Another problem is women relying on the "young guys" changing along with new times. It looks good until these guys perceive the women as direct competition for money, jobs and power. It's the older guys who will never feel challenged, seeing that they were wrong and changing their minds, that often opens doors. BUT, it's always the women who come in and say, "this is my job, get out of my way while I do it better than it's been done when it was all guys here" that are the pioneers. Not easy, not fair, but historically accurate.

Don't know who this woman is, or where her place in history will be. Nevertheless, it's a start.

[Cintimcmomma]

It's rough being a pioneer. The fact that she's in this role is a good step. God bless her, keep her and protect her on her journey.

[blutigeroo]

Amen to that.

[DD1Prime]

Perhaps she is serving under threat from the religious police - or the Wahabbist (jihadist) clerics in government. It is wrong to second-guess the motivations of a woman in public life in a country where women are still banned from driving.

[PresidentRobertBooth]

Correction

Come on people.

Women's rights?

In Saud'i Arabia?

LOL

Never gonna happen

[GeorgeP922]

She needs to come to America and run as a Democrat.

Change stares her strait in the face and she bows her head to the conservatives.

Look, I know my example is extreme(as you can tell Im annoyed that Democrats have total control of the government but still bow their heads to the GOP),

My hats off to her, baby steps are better then none at all, but seriously Saudi Arabia, try entering the 19th century for a start.

This women in a way holds the future of not just her fellow female citizens, but all of Saudi Arabia.
I hope she knows this.

[PiscesPrincess]

I doubt it. obviously, the women of Saudi Arabia are educated to think they are second class maybe even third class citizens. what a terrible joke to appoint a woman and not allow her to function in the position. Consider the Madrazza. Now you see. Womens rights are a long way off there.

[GeorgeP922]

Good Point, I honestly am surprised women there and taliban controlled areas don't form rebel militias, alright justified terrorism.

Would that be good? Would it work? And no, Im a bleeding heart lib that would love to hear that every day women aren't equal, a man drops.

[longtimegone]

Did our first gay representatives fight for gay rights? You don't even know their names because they came long before whomever we recognize as the first gay representative; in other words, they were "passing." It isn't easy being the first in anything; if you push too hard, too fast, for the ruling elite, it may be a long time before anyone like you is given a chance again. Things can move at a breathtaking pace these days; I'd not count anything out. It's rather elitist to state what is "obvious" about the whole of Arabian womanhood; I'd bet that as their chances to create change for themselves increase, they will advance their own cause themselves.

[blutigeroo]

Actually that is wrong. Many women there are highly educated as MDs, professors etc and half of any uni campus is always made up of women. They arr aware that the govt's interpretation of Is.lam is wrong and try to point it out to their representatives but there are some men who dont allow for change, i.e., the so-called religious police, many of whom know that what they are doing is agains.t the teachings of Is.lam. Many women are trying to change the situation and teach the religious police a thing or two about relig.ion but change comes slowly. I would encourage you to read abou the Princesses of SA, they are campaigning hard for change.