veiled4allah: Saudi women speak out veiled4allah: Saudi women speak out"Rights are not given. We have to ask for them," computer programmer Alia Banaja said on the two-hour program. Maha Fitaihi, wearing a red and yellow scarf and a brightly colored long dress, criticized the lack of women in the Shura council. The government-appointed body advises the king and is the closest thing Saudi Arabia has to a parliament.You go, ladies!!!
"There are no women in the consultative council or even in the government's discussions about the employment of women," said Fitaihi, a social worker...
...Samar Fatani, another participant, said she received many calls from women who criticized the participants for not being more outspoken.
"This is just a feeler, a first step. We need to take things slowly so it doesn't backfire," said Fatani, who is not related to Siham Fatani, the professor.
Women came together to watch the program on the Saudi-owned satellite channel Orbit. For three days beforehand, women publicized the show by word of mouth and text messages on cell phones. "A program on Saudi women Wednesday. Watch it. Circulate this to everyone you know," a typical message read....
...One participant, a divorced mother of two, spoke of the plight of divorcees and widows.
"Some of us need to work. I wish more attention was given to the divorced and widowed women in society," said Zein Darandari, a banker.
"Driving is no longer a luxury, it's a necessity," said Samar Fatani. "Some people have a hard time making ends meet and have to borrow money to afford drivers," she said.
Fitaihi, the social worker, said there were many important issues the show did not cover, such as domestic violence and divorce laws.
"I hope we have more shows like this. We need to be able to speak out and be heard," she said...
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Subject: Re: Saudi women speak out
Very awesome, I hope all the "The Saudis are our enemy" types pick up on this and realize that some people can liberate themselves, on their own terms.I'm glad these women are being smart and taking the cautious route, explaining that there are real practical problems with the Saudi policies that keep women out of the public sphere. Bra-burning or throwing off scarves is not going to gain the sympathy of the general public. I think the issue really needs to be framed as a matter of giving Saudi women more opportunities to take care of themselves, or else the public will have to take more responsibility for their welfare.
I don't think that there will be a backlash from this; it sounds like they did it in a very appropriate way.
Subject: Re: Saudi women speak out
Absolutely! One thing that struck me reading this is that all of the women on the program were white-collar professionals. One is a banker, another a professor, and so on.Subject: Re: Saudi women speak out
There is a very easy solution to the "Women's rights" in Muslim countries and within Islam in general.Simply give women the right, or even push for them, to train up to the the level of highly-qualified `ulema. There is a tendency to restrict women's education in modern Islam to the Qur'an (with a commentry of course - don't want to give them dangerous ideas of interpretation now do we!), some Ahadith (again with comments) and a few essentials of Fiqh (e.g. housekeeping, family-relationships etc.). The restriction on, for example, women judges seems simply a by-product of the societies which have traditionally housed Islamic culture (btw, this is not a slur - it is a statement of fact; my parents too are from such a cultural background).
It is better to ground them in the vast corpus of Islamic literature (for unlike, say Christianity, Islamic literature is a lot more in-depth simply because of the nature of the two dogmas), including the speculative legal theories and the massive amount of work in the moral-ethical field. Then simply let them excercise creativity in expressing their knowledge. Being Muslims, their efforts will, insha'Allah, be in correspondence with the "spirit of Islam".
Allowing this sort of moral-intelletctual endevaour from Muslim women would also test the limits of the common (Muslim) notion of "women and Islam" I see trotted out by men (always men!) everywhere, from the TV to collections of fatawa to those pink pamphlets handed outside a mosque or on a da'wah table (you know the sort; they are always entitled "Women and Islam - The Truth" or "Women - More Secure in Islam" and so on).
This would rebutt the, often condescending and hypocritical, prattle from the secular humanist male `ulema in the 'West' - as well helping them to assert themselves in their own communities. Don't forget these efforts would not be lost - not only do we hope that God grants them blessings in the Next Life for their efforts, but in this world their efforts would be fruitful. For women are the Ummah - they are one-half of it and give birth to the other half. And education, not just 'intellectual', but moral and ethical instruction (that is education as a life process) always begins and ends in the home.
The irony of this effort would be that the ones to defend the 'old-fashioned' outlook (though who am I to say that women do not feel comfortable with "old-fashioned"?) would probably be women.
But God knows best!
Salaam `alaykum
P.S (My apologies for the immense waffle!)
Subject: shura of women?
اذا كان امراؤكم خياركم واغنياؤكم سمحاءكم وامركم شورى بينكم فظهر الارض خير لكم من بطنها...(رواه الترمذي وقال هذا حديث غريب )ٍٍٍـــ
When your rulers are your pious ones, when your rich people are your charitable people and when your matters are resolved through mutual advice then the surface of the earth is better for you than its interior (living is better than dying)وامركم شورى بينكم shows many things
1)Mashwarah must be among yourselves not with Kuffaar
2)Mushwarah is with the saliheen, the poeple addressed were the sahaabah Radhi Allaahu Ta'ala 'anhum, the greatest of the saliheen
3)Mushwarah is among men as shown through the use of "كم"
Does it make sense to take the advice of most women when women are naaqis in the deen and in 'aql?
Shurah is just not women's shubah, why force them into a thing against their nature?
Subject: Re: shura of women?
excuse me, i had no idea that 2 dashes next to a open bracket will turn into an ugly face. I was perfectly serious about what I had written.Subject: Re: Saudi women speak out
I've edited your comment to remove the face. Please be aware that most visitors to this site cannot read Arabic and have no idea what you said in most of your comments, or even what your name is. You will have an easier time communicating your views here if you use English.So you believe that women are so deficient in their intellect that it is not right to consult them on any matter? How do you explain that the Prophet's (sAas) wives like Aisha (rAa) and Umm Salama (rAa) gave rulings to many people who came to consult with them? Or that many women were considered trustworthy to transmit hadiths?
Try again.
Subject: Re: Saudi women speak out
Our mothers Radhi Allaahu Ta'ala 'Anhum are not like other women. Our Mother Aaishah Radhi Allaahu Ta'ala anha was a faqeehah. She gave fataawah. However even she wasn't in any shura.Subject: Re: Saudi women speak out
Your argument is that women are mentally deficient. The last I heard, Ummahat al-Muminin (rAa) were biologically the same as any other women; they were raised to an exalted status because of their marriage to the Prophet (sAas) not because they were of a different biological nature. So if they were intelligent enough to be consulted about fiqh, then women as a class are capable of producing memebers who are intelligent enough to be consulted about fiqh.
You also didn't explain why if women are mentally deficient, they were deemed trustworthy to transmit hadiths.
If all you've got to offer is sexist garbage about women's supposedly inferior nature, I'd appreciate it if you'd take it elsewhere. You haven't offered any actual Islamic proofs.