Saudi Arabia: women drivers are terrorists!

Once again, Saudi Arabia makes the headlines for criminalizing virtually everything a woman does outside the home.

Attached is a direct excerpt from an AP article by Aya Batrawy that describes the latest arrest, and classification as terrorist, of women Saudi drivers.

 

 

Often, what I enjoy most about such articles is the comments.  Here are a few:

Reader Comments:

Our allies......worse than many of our enemies.

The United States needs to put their foot down and not do any business with these countries and to ban all their flights into the United States until they change their policy about women. Treating them like second class slaves is disgusting. Just because of the oil we allow these crimes to be accepted and their treatment of women would never be allowed in our country.

This Saudi terrorism court has plenty of wealthy Saudis to prosecute who have been funding terrorism for decades and haven't touched a single one of them. They funded the terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan and they funded ISIL. Yet here they are, prosecuting women for vile (non) crime of getting behind the wheel of a car.

It tells a lot about you by the friends you keep

"For example, this year it sentenced a revered Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a vocal critic of the government, to death for sedition and sentenced a prominent human rights lawyer, Waleed Abul-Khair, to 15 years in prison on charges of inciting public opinion."

The US supports one of the most repressive regimes in the world, yet Republicans are upset about normalizing relations with Cuba?

 

The United States needs to put their foot down and not do any business with these countries and to ban all their flights into the United States until they change their policy about women. Treating them like second class slaves is disgusting. Just because of the oil we allow these crimes to be accepted and their treatment of women would never be allowed in our country.

 

Saudi Women Drivers Referred To Terrorism Court

By AYA BATRAWY Associated Press12/25/2014

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Two Saudi women detained for nearly a month in defiance of a ban on females driving were referred on Thursday to a court established to try terrorism cases, several people close to the defendants said.

 

The cases of the two, Loujain al-Hathloul and Maysa al-Amoudi, were sent to the anti-terrorism court in connection to opinions they expressed in tweets and in social media, four people close to the two women told The Associated Press.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

They did not elaborate on the specific charges or what the opinions were. Both women have spoken out online against the female driving ban. Activists say they fear the case is intended to send a warning to others pushing for greater rights. The four people spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of government reprisals.

The Specialized Criminal Court, to which their cases were referred, was established in the capital Riyadh to try terrorism cases but has also tried and handed long prison sentences to a number of human rights workers, peaceful dissidents, activists and critics of the government. For example, this year it sentenced a revered Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a vocal critic of the government, to death for sedition and sentenced a prominent human rights lawyer, Waleed Abul-Khair, to 15 years in prison on charges of inciting public opinion.

Human Rights Watch recently warned that "Saudi authorities are ramping up their crackdown on people who peacefully criticize the government on the Internet." It said that judges and prosecutors are using "vague provisions of a 2007 anti-cybercrime law to charge and try Saudi citizens for peaceful tweets and social media comments."

This was the first time women drivers have been referred to the court, activists said.

The detention of al-Hathloul, 25, and Maysa al-Amoudi, 33 — both arrested on Dec. 1 — has been the longest yet for any women who defied the driving ban. They were vocal supporters of a grassroots campaign launched last year to oppose the ban, and have a significant online following with a total 355,000 followers on Twitter for the two of them at the time of their arrest.

Though no formal law bans women from driving in Saudi Arabia, ultraconservative Saudi clerics have issued religious edicts forbidding women from taking the wheel, and authorities do not issue them driver's licenses. No such ban exists anywhere else in the world, even in other conservative Gulf countries.

The four people close to the women said their lawyers appealed the judge's decision to transfer their cases. An appeals court in Dammam, the capital of Eastern Province, is expected to decide on the referral in the coming days, they said.

Authorities have a history of clamping down on Saudi women who attempt to drive. In 1990, 50 women were arrested for driving. They had their passports confiscated and lost their jobs. More than 20 years later, a woman was sentenced in 2011 to 10 lashes for driving, though the king overturned the sentence.

Should business always adapt marketing tactics to adhere to local cultural norms?

If a business aspires to succeed in other cultures, isn’t the rule unequivocal that “you must adhere to that culture’s rules and norms?!”.

Here is an article about IKEA producing different ads to conform to Saudi Arabian standards.  In the ad produced for the Saudi market, they remove women in order to comply with the law banning depictions of women who don’t comply with the Islamic dress code.

What do you think of IKEA’s move?

Swedish version of ad

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saudi (airbrushed) version of ad

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the article and reader comments here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/01/ikea-saudi-arabia-catalogue_n_1928635.html

Saudi female judo competitor allowed to wear Islamic headscarf in competition

The Saudi Olympic Committee, International Olympic Committee and International Judo Federation have agreed that a Saudi Female judo competitor can wear a headscarf in competition at the Olympics.

Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shaherkani is one of just two women Saudi Arabia has sent to the 2012 Games in London. But she claimed she would only compete if she was allowed to wear an Islamic headscarf, or hijab. Originally judo officials refused, claiming it was dangerous, but now a compromise has been reached.

Razan Baker, a spokeswoman for the Saudi National Olympic Committee told Reuters of the agreement reached. "They agreed on a design and she will compete wearing this design," Baker said.
The IOC pushed Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei to end their bans on allowing women in the Olympics. All three countries have representatives in London.

The IJF's rules for the Olympics state that headgear can't be worn because of the danger it could cause. Obviously they made an exception in this case.

Shaherkani will compete in the heavyweight division on Friday.

London 2012 Olympics: Saudis allow women to compete

By Frank Gardner BBC News

King Abdullah has long been pushing for women to play a more active role in Saudi society

Saudi Arabia is to allow its women athletes to compete in the Olympics for the first time.

Officials say the country's Olympic Committee will "oversee participation of women athletes who can qualify".

The decision will end recent speculation as to whether the entire Saudi team could have been disqualified on grounds of gender discrimination.

The public participation of women in sport is still fiercely opposed by many Saudi religious conservatives.

There is almost no public tradition of women participating in sport in the country.

Saudi officials say that, if successful in qualifying, female competitors would be dressed "to preserve their dignity".

In practice this is likely to mean modest, loose-fitting garments and "a sports hijab", a scarf covering the hair but not the face.

For the desert kingdom, the decision to allow women to compete in the Olympics is a huge step, overturning deep-rooted opposition from those opposed to any public role for women.

As recently as April, the indications were that Saudi Arabia's rulers would accede to the sensitivities of the religious conservatives and maintain the ban on allowing women to take part.

But for the past six weeks there have been intense, behind-the-scenes discussions led by King Abdullah, who has long been pushing for women to play a more active role in Saudi society.
'Subtle reform'
In secret meetings in Jeddah, officials say a consensus was reached in mid-June between the king, the crown prince, the foreign minister, the leading religious cleric, the grand mufti and others, to overturn the ban.

An announcement was ready to be made but then had to be delayed as the country marked the sudden death of Crown Prince Nayef.

"It's very sensitive," a senior Saudi official told the BBC. "King Abdullah is trying to initiate reform in a subtle way, by finding the right balance between going too fast or too slow.

"For example, he allowed the participation of women in the Shura council [an advisory body] so the Olympic decision is part of an ongoing process, it's not isolated."

The official acknowledged that to refuse to let women take part would have looked bad on the international stage.

"Partly because of the mounting criticism we woke up and realised we had to deal with this. We believe Saudi society will accept this," the official said.

It is not the first time a Saudi monarch has backed a controversial reform against domestic opposition.

King Faisal, who introduced television in the 1960s and was eventually assassinated, insisted on introducing education for girls.

Today, Saudi women graduates outnumber their male counterparts.

Saudi Women Use Facebook To Ban Men From Working in Lingerie Stores

I am all for egalitarianism and equal opportunity in all aspects of life. There are exceptions to equal access to jobs, however, especially in societies where woman are dehumanized, such as Saudi Arabia. Women should not have to endure the presence of males in clothing store dressing rooms, nor in lingerie or swimwear shops. I find few things creepier than having a male carry hangers of undies while taking me into a dressing room. ICK!

Here is an article about how in Saudi Arabia, where woman possess no civil rights, banned together on Facebook to effect a ban of men from working in lingerie shops. Bravo to these brave women.

Women only to work in Saudi Arabia lingerie shops
By Emily Buchanan BBC world affairs correspondent


A law allowing only women to work in lingerie shops in Saudi Arabia is coming into force.

Campaigners hope this will end decades of awkwardness in the Islamic kingdom where women have always been served by male shop assistants.

The heated issue of the total lack of female shop workers in Saudi Arabia has simmered for years.

Many Saudi women say they have felt particularly uncomfortable buying their lingerie from men.

Female campaigners recently increased the pressure for change through a Facebook campaign and a boycott of lingerie stores.

Now King Abdullah's royal decree finally comes into effect, banning male staff from selling female underwear.

"It's about time, it's been a long struggle and the authorities have finally come to their senses," says Radio Jeddah journalist Samar Fatany.

She says she, and any woman who could afford to, would often shop abroad rather than face the embarrassment of giving her underwear size over the counter to a man.

The campaign has gained extra momentum from the increasing number of young women who want to enter the workplace.

The Saudi women who can work are usually the educated elite who do professional jobs in medicine or government.

The new law could potentially create up to 40,000 jobs for ordinary Saudi women who have hitherto had little or no access to employment.

But it also means that male clerks, most of whom are foreign workers, will be out of a job.

It is not far short of a social revolution being pushed through in the teeth of fierce opposition from the kingdom's top clerics.

They do not want to see an increase in the number of women working outside the home.

The kingdom's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh, has warned shop owners that employing women is a "crime and prohibited by Islamic sharia law".

"There is already a growing tension between liberals and the religious conservatives in the country and this issue could provoke opposition from the religious police," says Abeer Mishkhas is a columnist for the Saudi paper Asharq al-Awsat.

The Ministry of Labour will be posting observers in shopping centres to make sure the new shop assistants do not get harassed in their first weeks of work.

The ban on male staff in lingerie departments is due to be extended to cosmetics shops from July.

Ban on All Things Red In Saudi Arabia Because of Valentine’s Day

In some Muslim nations, symbols of romance are banned. Read this article to find out where “love is taboo”.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi religious police launched Thursday a nationwide crackdown on stores selling items that are red or in any other way allude to the banned celebrations of Valentine's Day, a Saudi official said.

Members of the feared religious police were inspecting shops for red roses, heart-shaped products or gifts wrapped in red, and ordering storeowners to get rid of them, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Red-colored or heart-shaped items are legal at other times of the year, but as Feb. 14 nears they become contraband in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom bans celebration of Western holidays such as Valentine's Day, named after a Christian saint said to have been martyred by the Romans in the 3rd Century.

Most shops in Riyadh's upscale neighborhoods have removed all red items from their shelves. A statement by the religious police, informally known as the muttawa, was published in Saudi newspapers, warning shop owners against any violations.

"Those who don't comply will be punished," the statement said, without spelling out what measures would befall the offenders.

The Valentine's Day prohibition is in line with Saudi's strict Wahhabi school of Islam that the kingdom has followed for more than a century. The birthplace of Islam also bans several Muslim holidays except the two most important ones because it considers them "religious innovations" that Islam doesn't sanction.

Even birthdays and Mother's Day are frowned on by the religious establishment, although people almost never get punished for celebrating them.

Many Saudis, who still want to mark the popular Valentine's, do their shopping weeks before the holiday.

Each year, the religious police mobilize ahead of Feb. 14 and descend on gift and flower shops, confiscating all red items, including flowers.
Attitudes toward Valentine's Day vary across the Arab world, with devout Muslims opposing the holiday as a Western celebration of romantic love that corrupts Muslim youth.

The Egyptian capital, Cairo, is a sharp contrast to the Saudi restrictions, with shops and restaurants going overboard in red ribbon and heart decorations.

Dubai, a conservative Muslim city-state with a Western outlook, is every year taken over by a Valentine craze. Luxury hotels are draped in red, offering romantic dinner specials. Malls and cafes are decorated with giant hearts and flower shops offer promotional deals on roses and fancy bouquets.

Apparently prompted by the Saudi ban, a group in the Philippines advocating the welfare of Filipino overseas workers – a million of whom work in Saudi Arabia and another million elsewhere in the Middle East – cautioned its countrymen to celebrate Valentine's Day only in private and refrain from publicly greeting anyone with "Happy Valentine's" across the region.

"We are urging fellow Filipinos in the Middle East, especially lovers, just to celebrate their Valentine's Day secretly and with utmost care," said John Leonard Monterona of the Migrante group.

He said the group advised against carrying anything that is red, including toys, hearts, and flowers, or even wearing red dresses or T-shirts. Instead, he urged Filipinos to visit Internet cafes to chat with their loved ones, give them a call or send text messages.

ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI | 02/11/10 01:13 PM |
Associated Press Writers Hrvoje Hranjski in Manila, Philippines, and Barbara Surk in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.

Women-only hotel in Saudi Arabia

By Stephanie Hancock BBC News, Riyadh From the outside, the Luthan Hotel and Spa in Riyadh's diplomatic quarter looks just like any other modern hotel.
But step inside the discreet, frosted-glass building and you enter a women's world which men are forbidden to enter.

The Luthan is the Middle East's first women-only hotel, and as well as catering just for female guests, all the staff are women too.

Western travelers like the Luthan because, once safely inside the hotel's walls, they can remove the headscarves and long black abayas that all women must wear in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia.

As you might expect, the hotel's decor is a tribute to all things girly.
Instead of the corporate beige that many top hotels favor these days, rooms at the Luthan are decorated in bright pinks and purples, and tea lights twinkle around the clock - the staff is constantly lighting candles.

"It's delightfully feminine, I think," says hotel manager Lorraine Coutinho.
"The concept was an all-women idea, the owners and investors are all women, and the designer was a female. It's a place created by women, for women." You might think that staffing a hotel entirely with women in Saudi would have been problematic, but Ms Coutinho, who has hired women from around the Arabic-speaking world, insists the recruitment process was easier than expected. "We have female duty engineers and IT technicians, and it wasn't at all difficult to find women for front office or housekeeping positions," says Ms Coutinho.

"We don't survive entirely without men - we haven't been successful in finding plumbers or electricians - but I feel it's more than an achievement and we are making history." At just 26, Samira Ali is the hotel's chief IT engineer and says the women-only environment at the Luthan has allowed her to find work in what's still a male-dominated field.

"As an IT specialist here in Saudi Arabia it's difficult for ladies," says Samira, who comes from neighboring Yemen. "It's not easy to work in a company, male and female together, so I feel really lucky. It looks like women can do anything and everything in their world, and nothing is difficult."

The Luthan also employs what are possibly the world's first female bellhops.
Kenyan Mildred Obaga originally applied for a job as a room attendant but, when offered the bellhop position, jumped at the chance.

"At times the guests will come with heavy, heavy luggage," admits Mildred.
"I find it so hard to lift the luggage but I try my level best because I like challenges. In most of the hotels in the world you only have bellboys, so I think I'm the first pioneer bellgirl!"

Several Saudis also work at the hotel, a sign of how much the kingdom has changed over the past few years. Saudi Arabia's ruler, King Abdullah, recently appointed the country's first ever female minister to his cabinet, and barriers to women working are being gradually stripped away.

That is especially important because, despite its vast oil wealth, the country currently has a big unemployment problem. Things are particularly grim for women - official estimates say 25% of women are unemployed, but some analysts suggest the real figure could be far higher.
Concerted efforts are now being made around the kingdom to lure Saudi women into the labor market.

Susan Alshami runs a specialist training academy where women are taught how to make goods from home that can later be sold on to shops. She says that 10 years ago, few women actively sought employment, but today things could not be more different.

"Every year the demand for ladies to be employed is increasing and the private sector is now asking for more females," explains Susan. The emergence of a niche "women-only" market in the kingdom is also helping to create more jobs.

Shopping malls designed exclusively for women are now all the rage in Saudi Arabia.
As well as providing an income for female shopkeepers, everybody from the security guards to the malls' marketing managers are women too. At least 20 such malls will open in Saudi Arabia over the next few years, and there is a sense that women are finally starting to get a proper foothold on the job ladder.

But for all its advances, Saudi Arabia is still deeply conservative at heart.
Although women can now work everywhere from the private sector to the government, they still have to be driven to work by a man, as the law forbids them to drive.
Saudi women may be making strides in the workplace, but - for now - men are still firmly in the driving seat.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7922279.stm

Published: 2009/03/04 08:34:28 GMT

Religious Police in Saudi Arabia as Harsh as Ever

Widow sentenced to 40 lashes, four months in jail for meeting young men who are like sons to her.

CAIRO - A 75-year-old widow in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in jail for mingling with two young men who are not close relatives, drawing new criticism for the kingdom's ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.
The woman's lawyer told The Associated Press on Monday that he would appeal the verdict against Khamisa Sawadi, who is Syrian but was married to a Saudi. The attorney, Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, said the verdict issued March 3 also demands that Sawadi be deported after serving her sentence.

He said his client, who is not serving her sentence yet, was not speaking with the media, and he declined to provide more details about the case.
The newspaper Al-Watan said the woman met with the two 24-year-old men last April after she asked them to bring her five loaves of bread at her home in al-Chamil, a city north of the capital, Riyadh.

Al-Watan identified one man as Fahd al-Anzi, the nephew of Sawadi's late husband, and the other as his friend and business partner Hadiyan bin Zein. It said they were arrested by the religious police after delivering the bread. The men also were convicted and sentenced to lashes and prison.
Ruling based on 'citizen information'

The court said it based its ruling on "citizen information" and testimony from al-Anzi's father, who accused Sawadi of corruption. "Because she said she doesn't have a husband and because she is not a Saudi, conviction of the defendants of illegal mingling has been confirmed," the court verdict read.

Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islam prohibits men and women who are not immediate relatives from mingling. It also bars women from driving, and the playing of music, dancing and many movies also are a concern for hard-liners who believe they violate religious and moral values.

Complaints from Saudis have been growing that the religious police and courts are overstepping their broad mandate and interfering in people's lives, and critics lambasted the handling of Sawadi's case.

"How can a verdict be issued based on suspicion?" Laila Ahmed al-Ahdab, a physician who also is a columnist for Al-Watan, wrote Monday. "A group of people are misusing religion to serve their own interests."

Sawadi told the court she considered al-Anzi as her son, because she breast-fed him when he was a baby. But the court denied her claim, saying she didn't provide evidence. In Islamic tradition, breast-feeding establishes a degree of maternal relation, even if a woman nurses a child who is not biologically hers.
Sawadi commonly asked her neighbors for help after her husband died, said journalist Bandar al-Ammar, who reported the story for Al-Watan. In a recent article, he wrote that he felt the need to report the case "so everybody knows to what degree we have reached."

The woman's conviction came a few weeks after King Abdullah fired the chief of the religious police and a cleric who condoned killing owners of TV networks that broadcast "immoral content." The move was seen as part of an effort to weaken the hard-line Sunni Muslim establishment.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29601858?GT1=43001

The Associated Press
updated 6:08 p.m. ET, Mon., March. 9, 2009