Tag: women

Links for January 14th

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Links December 19th and January 5th

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Links for November 26th

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Tahawy on Saudi Arabia treatment of women

I can’t find it online, so I am republishing below this fine op-ed by Mona al-Tahawy where she makes the obvious yet crucial point that Saudi Arabia’s medieval practices (only one manifestation of its backwards ideology) have been tolerated far too long:

Gender Apartheid
by Mona Eltahawy

NEW YORK — Once upon a time, in a country called South Africa the color of your skin determined where you lived, what jobs you were allowed, and whether you could vote or not.

Decent countries around the world fought the evil of racial apartheid by turning South Africa into a pariah state. They barred it from global events such as the Olympics. Businesses and universities boycotted South Africa, decimating its economy and adding to the isolation of the white-minority government, which finally repealed apartheid laws in 1991.

Today in a country called Saudi Arabia it is gender rather than racial apartheid that is the evil but the international community watches quietly and does nothing.

Saudi women cannot vote, cannot drive, cannot be treated in a hospital or travel without the written permission of a male guardian, cannot study the same things men do, and are barred from certain professions. Saudi women are denied many of the same rights that “Blacks” and “Coloreds” were denied in apartheid South Africa and yet the kingdom still belongs to the very same international community that kicked Pretoria out of its club.

She rightly points out that, aside from the oil reason, Saudi Arabia has been enabled by the collapse of any alternative ideology in the Arab world, with the Saudis having bought the silence (or enthusiastic support) of most other Arab regimes. As they say, RTWT.
Continue reading Tahawy on Saudi Arabia treatment of women

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‘Polygamy’ soaps irk feminists in Egypt

‘Polygamy’ soaps irk feminists in Egypt:

Cairo: Egyptian pro-women groups are disappointed that several TV serials being shown on local and Arab TV feature polygamy as a recurrent theme.

“I have been working in the field of women’s welfare for more than 20 years and I have never seen so many polygamists in Egypt as portrayed in TV dramas,” said Eman Beibers, the chairperson of the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women.

At least seven television serials with polygamists are on the air waves every night of Ramadan – when viewing rates in the Arab world peak.

“These shows by no means reflect real life in Egypt where many young people cannot afford the spiralling cost of marriage,” Beibers told Gulf News.

My TV isn’t working well so I haven’t had a chance to watch this year’s soaps. But Beibers does seem to have a point about TV’s obsession with polygamists…

Saudi Religious Police Attacked by Girls

Saudi Religious Police Attacked by Girls:

Dammam, Asharq Al-Awsat – Members of Khobar’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice were the victims of an attack by two Saudi females, Asharq Al-Awsat can reveal.
According to the head of the commission in Khobar, two girls pepper sprayed members of the commission after they had tried to offer them advice.

Head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in the Eastern province Dr. Mohamed bin Marshood al-Marshood, told Asharq Al Awsat that two of the Commission’s employees were verbally insulted and attacked by two inappropriately-dressed females, in the old market in Prince Bandar street, an area usually crowded with shoppers during the month of Ramadan.

According to Dr. Al-Marshood, the two commission members approached the girls in order to “politely” advise and guide them regarding their inappropriate clothing.

Consequently, the two girls started verbally abusing the commission members, which then lead to one of the girls pepper-spraying them in the face as the other girl filmed the incident on her mobile phone, while continuing to hurl insults at them.

The Eastern Province’s head of the commission also revealed that with the help of the police his two employees were able to control the situation.

The two females were then escorted to the police station where they apologized for the attack, were cautioned and then released.

Fantastic.

New campaign for right to drive in Saudi

Saudi Women Petition for Right to Drive:

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 23 — For the first time since a demonstration in 1990, a group of Saudi women is campaigning for the right to drive in this conservative kingdom, the only country in the world that prohibits female drivers.

After spreading the idea through text messages and e-mails, the group’s leaders said they collected more than 1,100 signatures online and at shopping malls for a petition sent to King Abdullah on Sunday.

Wajeha al-Huwaider of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, co-founded a group urging that women be permitted to drive. The group sent King Abdullah a petition with more than 1,100 names.

“We don’t expect an answer right away,” said Wajeha al-Huwaider, 45, an education analyst who co-founded the group. “But we will not stop campaigning until we get the right to drive.”

Really, I don’t even see why the (mostly American) press bothered to cover tiny “democratic” improvements in Saudi political life when this retard-run country doesn’t even allow women to drive. Every time I am reminded of that ban I shudder at the thought that this is the most influential Arab country. If they have a lot of support, these women should give each other driving lessons and prepare for a wave of civil disobedience.

Introducing Hatshepsut

This is a (very long overdue) announcement that the Arabist family has added another member. Please check out the blog Hatshepsut, which has been up and running for some time now, waiting to be officially unveiled. It contains some gems.

Hatshepsut is dedicated to covering women’s rights and issues, the history of feminism in Egypt, and pretty much anything else that strikes Hatshepsut’s interest. While the (male-dominated) writers on the main Arabist blog have occasionally reported on women’s issues, I have to admit that this hasn’t been a strong suit of the blog and having someone dedicated to these issues (and with a journalistic and academic interest in them) is, in my opinion, a great and hopefully useful step.

Please check out the archives, whether to scan the mini-biographies of notable and injustly forgotten Egyptian women (where you can also find out about the queen that this blog is named after); to read one of the many strange or insightful conversations Hatshepsut has overheard in Cairo; or to hear from Hatshepsut herself about what life for a young woman in Cairo is like.

This is the first step in making some wider changes to Arabist.net. More news soon.

Liberation through shopping

Ever since I read this New York Times article a few days back about the identitarian fashion issues of Muslim American women I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what bothers me about it. It’s not just the article’s utter naiveté (the New York Times discovers that Muslim women–even veiled ones–care about fashion!) or the trite dichotomies it sets up. Here’s the lead, for example:

For Aysha Hussain, getting dressed each day is a fraught negotiation. Ms. Hussain, a 24-year-old magazine writer in New York, is devoted to her pipe-stem Levi’s and determined to incorporate their brash modernity into her wardrobe while adhering to the tenets of her Muslim faith.

(Wow, get it? Pipe-stem Levi’s = “brash modernity.” Muslim faith = the opposite.)

And it’s not just that it seems to be trying to turn a pretty mundane observation (what a Muslim woman chooses to wear “is a critical part of her identity,” says one interviewee) into a sociological phenomenon that is unique to Muslim women.

It’s mostly the way the article seems to subscribe to a “liberation through shopping” theory. The title is “We, Myself and I.” Presumably, in the outfits of the Muslim women interviewed, the “we” is exemplified by the veil and the modest long sleeves, and the “myself” by the brash, modern touches of Western coutoure. Theres’ no questioning of the assumption that fashion and consumerism do anything but allow the individual woman to express herself.