Saudi Tribal Customs, Not Islam, Responsible for Male Guardianship Abuses
A battle is brewing among Saudi women over the touchy issue of male guardianship. Pressure from outside Saudi Arabia has been building to abolish guardianship laws, and a number of women who fashion themselves as activists have led the charge.
Perhaps the most visible is Wajeha Al-Huwaider, a Saudi who does a little showboating by being driven in a taxi to the border checkpoint to enter Bahrain without permission from a male guardian. She's always turned away by Saudi authorities and told to go home. She is the darling of Western conservatives who think this public demonstration will further the cause of Saudi women.
It's silly. Public acts of defiance are unseemly in Saudi society and few women want to give up their dignity when letter-writing and petition campaigns are more effective.
Additionally, advocating to completely abolish guardianship rules is not a productive means to deal with abuses in the system. The problem with some Saudi activists is that they want to make wholesale changes that are contrary to Islam, which requires a mahram for traveling women. If one wonders why great numbers of Saudi women don't join Al-Huwaider it's because they are asked to defy Islam. Al-Huwaider's all or nothing position undercuts her credibility.
Of course, there are a great many women who are abused and they are seeking to change the guardianship system. And these efforts have sparked a counter-campaign by women who want the system to remain the same.
Recently a campaign called "My Guardian Knows the Best for Me" was initiated in direct response to the anti-guardianship movement. I have mixed feelings about both movements, but I must say the guardianship supporters have me more worried.
The system currently in place is seriously flawed. Saudi authorities have abdicated their responsibility to see that laws are enforced in a fair and equitable manner. It has ceased being a religious issue and is more about patriarchal control.
Many families treat their wives, daughters and sisters with great respect and don't follow their every move. Permission to travel or to conduct business abroad is often granted carte blanche with a signed piece of paper from a mahram. Many women travel freely with this document and consult little with the men in their families about their movements.
But since there are no codified laws, most Saudi women traveling alone don't know from one day to the next whether their documents will pass scrutiny at the airport. And for every family that follows guardianship rules, there is another family that wields the law like a club. It's not a system ripe for abuse. It's already a system abused with regularity.
Guardianship opponents are waging a losing battle if they believe that Saudi authorities will abolish the law. The reality is that there is little incentive for the government to consider anything but maintaining the status quo.
More worrisome is the women's pro-guardianship camp that is perfectly happy for men to control their lives. That's fine for them. They undoubtedly live in households of unquestioned male authority and are pleased with the arrangement. But what about the women abused by the guardian system?
It was reported recently that a Saudi woman protested that her father rejected several potential husbands because they did not belong to the family's tribe. The father confined her to the house as punishment and denied her outside employment. He even sent her to a mental institution when she continued her protests. She sued her father in court, but found herself at the wrong end of a tongue-lashing from the judge who said she did not respect her father. She now lives in a women's shelter.
Here is a clear instance of the Saudi judicial system failing to protect the woman and tacitly endorsing abuse of the guardianship system.
If men follow the spirit of guardianship as outlined in the Qur'an and recognize at the same time there is no place for tribal customs within the system, then a happy medium can be found. But if the Saudi courts fail to implement checks and balances to punish guardianship abusers and to protect the victims, then the laws are pointless.
Tribal customs should not usurp Sharia. Yet, to listen to the pro-guardianship camp, Saudi customs and traditions should indeed be a central part of the system. In effect, they are placing customs and traditions above Islam.
By waging a campaign fully supporting existing guardianship rules dooms thousands of Saudi women to being housebound servants to male family members.
A campaign to encourage guardianship, but also to demand that codified laws protect the abused, makes more sense. Such a system respects an independent woman's right to move about, attend university and marry whomever she pleases. It allows the family to determine a comfort level, but also imposes consequences on guardians who manipulate the laws to their own advantage.
The argument that women are not competent to handle their own affairs is not valid and never has been. More Saudi women than men attend universities in Saudi Arabia and abroad. Most of the money held in banks belongs to women.
How guardianship laws are followed must be a joint decision involving the family. But Saudi judges also need to summon the courage to cast aside customs and traditions when faced with abuse cases and make the right call to protect victims.
At the invitation of the Egyptian media, I attended President Obama's June 4th speech in Cairo and witnessed first-hand its impact on the audience. President...
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"A campaign to encourage guardianship, but also to demand that codified laws protect the abused, makes more sense."
Author argues for codified religious law(Sharia) as protection for abused women?! Huh?
Let us review some of the factual applications of Sharia law in Saudi Arabia respect ( pardon the pun) to treatment of women.
Sharia Application In Saudi Arabia:
"In Saudi Arabia, a women's testimony in court is worth half that of a man's testimony, according to a Human Rights Watch report in 2002."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/ihavearightto/four_b/casestudy_art07.shtml
Whoever commits the offence of zina ( adultry) shall be punished: (a) with caning of one hundred lashes if unmarried and shall also be liable to imprisonment for a term of one year; or if married, with stoning to death (rajm)."
"In 2008, the religious authority in Mecca, Mohammad Habadan called on women to wear veils that reveal only one eye, so that women would not be encouraged to use eye make-up."
I'm not of Islam -faith , but on the out-side looking in at all this is it wrong to say Islam is a fine
reglion [IF] your a [man] ? LAWS written by men for men ! to be fair their is enough abuse in all walks of life towards women. ! Islam it seem to suffocate women 's choice's in life in some places ?
I think the author makes it very clear she is speaking as a Saudi and about Saudi women. Yes, interpretations of male guardianship are different in other Muslim countries. But she is attempting to find a solution for Saudi women, not Muslim women from different countries.
I agree that she is speaking of Saudi women; I disagree with her premise that it is Islam that requires male guardianship. It is not Islam, but the male-centered, male-created interpretations of Islam that are particular to Saudi Arabian teachings and some others in the Middle East and western Asia. This is not Islam speaking, this is cultural, tribal. As she states, very clearly. But she is also mixing the two up because what she considers a tribal basis for oppression of women is actually rooted in these patriarchal interpretations of Islam, which have become so intertwined that she (and others like her) have not been able to see the difference between them.
I see her point, but her idea that Islam requires this is not actually true; it is the patriarchal interpretations of Islam that requires it, and the culture upon which that patriarchy is based.
The author states that the activists seeking to change or remove entirely the guardianship laws are "contrary to Islam, which requires a mahram for traveling women". While this may be the understanding of Islam in Saudi Arabia, it doesn't seem to be the same understanding in other Islamic countries or among other Muslim groups around the world.
Indonesia has the world's largest population of Muslims, also almost entirely Sunni, and yet they do not have a theocratic, Shari'a-based state, and they allow the open practice of other religions, which Saudi Arabia does not. Women are free to move about without male escorts, and hold major positions of power in both the public and private sector. Though far from perfect, they are an example that what is "contrary to Islam" is actually quite flexible.
So the author is apparently speaking from her own cultural subtext and understanding of Islam, which seems to be the minority view in the rest of the Muslim world. Although Western views of women's rights are the only correct ones, neither are the misinterpretations of the Qur'an perpetuated by patriarchal interpretations which depart from the Prophet's (HNBP) actual, quite liberal, teachings.
The author is arguing for these male-authored, misogynistic interpretations, rather than for the true essence of Islam. But this is also true of Christian and Jewish teachings; there is much of our individual cultures getting in the way of the truth of what we profess to believe, and how we view ourselves in society.
Yes, a tribal culture as the author makes clear.
Ooops... missed an important word in my comment... "Although Western views of women's rights are ***NOT*** the only correct ones"
Having lived several years in the KSA I have attempted to explain many times this authors point that repression of women in the KSA could not occur without the acquiescence, support and approval of the women of the KSA.
This is the great take-away and most informative point of this authors post for WESTERN women. Arab women are not oppressed. Arab women like and endorse the system they perpetuate and support fully. They do NOT want western ideas and values applied to their culture.
The shortcut explanation simplified for dummies is this: If you love and live with women, who runs your home? Who's in charge? Not you buddy, and you know it.
The arguments founded in the quaran are just as irrelevant as the arguments founded in the bible. Both written by men to serve men's purposes and just as irrelevant as god.
GOD who has made ALL things in the HEAVENS & EARTH [everything ] should be praised &blessed
for it is of GOD ! And say anything is of [LESS] Worth is saying to GOD IT A BLEMISH . ISLAMIC THEROCRATIC in the abuse of all their women is shaming GOD good works in this Creation's =
humanity-life !
Expecting this segment of the female world population to adopt the same ideas of women's rights are unreasonable expectations. If it is women's rights or political rights, they do have the right to live in their religious and polical context.
I have to force my self to say this for the simple fact that I find so much about the treatment of others-women, children, the disrespect they show others of other sects of the same religion, and a host of other issues but they do have the right to live, worship, and if it comes down to it, experience the abuse they inflict upon one another.
It is a tough line dealing with this and exercising much patience or understanding as the region of the world and culture has opened up, become more expossed since the events of 9-11.
If anything, the region of the world needs to understand that they can treat one another as they like, inflict violence upon one another, do the things the feel is right but when they believe they can spread their behavior towards other who do not want it, that is where the tollerance ends and the push begins.
For countries such as the US, France, GB, and others who do not want to accept the influence of said religious laws and customs upon our societies, we have that right and have the right to prevent it as deemed fit.
Thank you for posting . . . It taught me something . . . I have read a bit about the Prophet. He seemed very liberal in the treatment of his wives. They were educated, they appeared in public beside him . . . he seemed to have treated them as equals something that was very radical in any society at that time.
Why pretend you're not a Muslim. Shouldn't you be proud of your religion?
If anyone has read this author's past posts or her blog know that she advocates for women's rights, but she advocates for these rights within Islam, not the Western ideal. She says right off that that to completely do away with guardianship laws is to "defy" Islam. It's not a matter of enabling, it's a matter of what Saudi women are comfortable doing. And Saudi women are not interested in going against Islam. To be practical, Ms. Jawhar says, "Keep the guardianship laws because we believe in our religion, but codify the laws to be consistent and recognize that we live in the 21st century." People make the mistake of applying Western values to the Arab/Muslim world. Doesn't anyone get it? Arabs and Muslims want freedom just as much as anyone else, but they are still want to be good Muslims. They can find a middle ground and be quite happy with it. Why does the West's interpretation of freedom is the end all, be all? Let them find their own way. Yes, Ms. Jawhar is a friend of Saudi women because she knows that Saudi woman think of themselves as good Muslims.
Islam suffers from the same problem as Christianity does; self-serving manipulative interpretation of scripture (not all of course). After something has been widely accepted and practiced for many generations, even centuries, it becomes "scripture" in people's minds. It's all in the interpretation. Not all Bedouin culture and customs of 1,500 years ago are appropriate for modern day civilization just as it isn't for Christianity.
Wrong , christianity & islam are [not] the problem it's the [men] who institute the abuse
[power] -voice of God ! [not ] just MAN'S OWN WILL to play -god !
"Islam suffers from the same problem as Christianity does; self-serving manipulative interpretation of scripture."
Yet in the West we fought against fundamentalist Christian oppression and won. Study up on basic historical facts: Renaissance, Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution.
Hence, the unparalleled burst of scientific and cultural progress
Still waiting to Muslim civilization to go through at least some of the same.
Certainly, little progress will emerge from people like the fundamentalist author of this article.
"If one wonders why great numbers of Saudi women don't join Al-Huwaider it's because they are asked to defy Islam. Al-Huwaider's all or nothing position undercuts her credibility."
No.
Islam's oriented "all or nothing" is the problem.
I have never understood how any woman in the world would allow an organized religion run by males to define their sex.
Women - we really need to get over this enabling addiction
So you now an Islamıc scholar? I wonder how many know nothıng Saudis we could get to offer an opınıon on Catholıc rules?
ALL ORGANIZED religion. Read the post again.
Organized along male needs = lousy planning
Time for the old laws to go. The only people who need supervision and "guardians" are the leaders. These people are as ridiculous as the C Street "Family" cult.
Is everyone reading the same post? I think that it's demeaning and pathetic that a grown women would need permission from someone else to travel. Women don't need mahram to decide whether or not they can go abroad for educational opportunities, business, or leisure purposes. Women like the author whom actively participate in their own oppression are equally as culpable as the men who perpetrate injustice against women in their country. Sabria may complain about the mistreatment of women in her country, but she is no friend to them either since she only wants them to have limited freedoms, not full fledge freedoms afforded to men.
I completely agree with you.
Men have full fledge freedoms ın Saudi?
Obviously people here do not know wht a Mahram is, please look it up. The author is speaking against the current male guardianship laws in Saudi, and that's great. However, she is not speaking against a woman needing to be accompanied by a Mahram or having to have a piece of paper from a Mahram to travel. This is not really some article about women's rights as Westerners would think, it's just a wish to make things a little less tyranic in Saudi. It is clear that she thinks that having to have a piece of paper from a male member of your family to allow you to go abroad or having to take a male member of your family with you when you go out in Saudi is just fine and dandy. I think some Westerners would have a hard time making the distinction.
Precisely correct.
There is often a conflation between folkways and the teachings of a religion.
Sometimes it is outward trappings - 25 December as Jesus' birthday, Xmas trees, Easter eggs.
Sometimes it is more sinister stuff.
But just because someone claims to be following the teaching of this or that religion, doesn't make it so.
After all we have the 666 Club on the TV in our own land.
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