Saturday, January 19, 2008

Saudi Women's Rights Activist Compares Saudi Life For Women to Gitmo


Countdown to a fatwa...5...4...3...2...
This does take some guts. Saudi Women's Rights Activist, Wajiha Al-Huweidar , held nothing back in an interview about the condition of women in Saudi Arabia as well as throughout the muslim world. Here is my favorite quote of Al-Hudweidar:


"Saudi society is based on enslavement - the enslavement of women to men and of society to the state. People still do not make their own decisions, but it is the women of Saudi Arabia who have been denied everything. The Saudi woman still lives the life of a slave girl. So in what way are we different from Guantanamo? At least in the case of Guantanamo, many prisoners have been released, while we remain in this prison, and nobody ever hears of us. When will we be freed? I don't know."

There really isn't much I can add but just to excerpt the quotes from the interview. The full story is here, but I have excerpted many of the key impactful points below:


Saudi Women's Rights Activist Wajiha Al-Huweidar Criticizes Middle Eastern Men, Saudi Society; Says Condition of Saudi Women is Worse than at Guantanamo

"We, in the East - and I am talking about the East in a broad sense, including Pakistan, Turkey, and the Kurds... The way I see it, these are all wretched people, wretched men. This is obvious. He who has nothing cannot give anything to others. These men have lost what could have given them a real sense of masculinity.

"I do not understand why there is no room for other religions in the vast land of Saudi Arabia. To this day, there is no church for the Christians, no synagogue for the Jews, and [no] temple for the Hindus, even though they constitute a large part of the foreign communities in Saudi Arabia.

Most women choose to be weak, because it makes their lives easier. The weaker the wife is, the stronger the husband feels. How can you rely on a man who does not draw his strength from within?

"Why do we fear other religions? What frightens us? We should have confidence in ourselves and in our religion. There is no religious text that prohibits the establishment of a church or a temple of any religion. If they want to oppose this in Mecca or Al-Madina - there could be a justification for this, but in the other cities, where there are many foreign workers... How can this be justified?

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