Driving Is Not The Issue

The arrest and interrogation of Manal Al-Shareef, an inexperienced advocate for Saudi women’s rights to be permitted to drive so they are able to take their children to school and save their lives in emergency situations, is not the reason for the Saudi authorities’ arbitrary invasion of her house and snatching her while sleeping with her child at 3 AM on May 21, 2011.

The Saudi regime’s daunting fear is deeper than women getting behind the wheel. The theocratic and autocratic ruling Saudi men are scared that their captive population, male and female, might break away from the grinding fears through which the regime has been able to crush people’s aspirations, to treat them as less than human beings and to control every aspect of people’s lives for decades since the founding of the state in 1932 and historically for centuries before that.

Like many human rights advocates before her, Ms. Al-Shareef will be severely physically abused and humiliated at the hands of the Saudi Interior Ministry’s hired mercenaries while in prison. This is done not only to silence her but also to send a message to anyone who dares question the Saudi regime’s absolute rule. Like her predecessors, she will come out of prison apologizing for crimes she never committed and praising the system for its wisdom and just governing practices. Welcome to Saudi Arabia in the twenty-first century.

Shoura member: Saudis need attitude adjustment

Well known Saudi businessman believes “Saudis need attitude adjustment”

Director's Comment:

After complaining about the Western media’s negative depiction of Saudis, Dr. Najeeb Al-Zamil, a well-connected Saudi businessman and a member of an appointed national assembly of 150 men (Majlis Alshura, a powerless committee of advisors to the King) has commendably raised an issue that human rights groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and CDHR have studied and highlighted for years: The plight of mostly poor Asian expatriates in Saudi Arabia. Some have described the treatment of unskilled expatriates in Saudi Arabia as a modern form of slavery because of their unbearable living conditions, meager financial compensation and mistreatment by their employers. Dr. Al-Zamil correctly asked: “These expatriates who have come here to make a living and to improve their lives — why do they not like us?" He attributed it to assortments of anecdotes including gloomy facial expressions, “This is because Saudis are known for always putting on a grim face."

In this case, Dr Al-Zamil, like many Saudi officials and employers, shunned dealing with the real causes of expatriates’ resentment toward their employers. The dehumanizing treatment of expatriates begins the minute they arrive in Saudi Arabia. For starters, their passports are confiscated by Saudi authorities and handed over to their prospective employers. These expatriates consist of professionals, technocrats, cheap laborers, family drivers and the unluckiest amongst them, maids. Once they are in the custody of their employers, or masters in the case of maids and family drivers, they are treated as property of their employers. They cannot leave the country, try to escape abuses in the hands of their current employers, look for other jobs, form associations or other support systems with their compatriots, and if they happen to be non-Muslim or non Saudi-style Muslim, their plight gets worse.

The overwhelming majority of unskilled laborers live in shoddy and unhealthy camps where temperatures can reach 120 degrees in the shade during the scorching Saudi summers. Most expatriates are paid meagerly ($100 to $ 150 a month) and many of them work for months without receiving any financial compensation, depending on the mood of their employers since there are no labor laws to protect them from gross injustices and abuses.

For house maids, things get uglier. They are under their employers’ disposal 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Like other unskilled laborers, they are paid very little and expected to perform a variety of jobs including entertaining adult males in the households where they work. These are facts that foreign and some courageous Saudi men and women reporters and human right activists have written about. While Dr. Al-Zamil’s castigation of his country men and women for their maltreatment of expatriates is to be applauded, smiling won’t change the negative image the Saudis (not the global media) have efficiently and successfully created for themselves.



Read More from Arab News

Wajeha al-Huwaider : A Courageous Advocate for Saudi Women

Wajeha Al-Huwaider is a courageous advocate for Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia.

The Washington Post’s Outlook section this past Sunday featured an illuminating op-ed by Wajeha al-Huwaider, a Saudi woman who has daringly shed light on the quandary of Saudi women over the years.

Read her article, Saudi Women Can Drive. Just Let Them.

As explained in her article, Al-Huwaider’s latest campaign is for the abolition of the paternalistic male guardianship. Under this system, women are not permitted to travel, work, attend college, or even receive life-saving medicine without the permission of a male guardian, usually their husband, father, or brother. This system denies Saudi women their basic human rights. Victims of domestic abuse have little or no recourse and no way of escaping from their attackers, since consent of their male guardian, who is often their abuser, is required to seek legal action. Preposterously, this system is not written law, yet is enforced by Saudi authorities. This makes it exceedingly difficult to fight the system, as the Saudi government continues to deny its existence.

As a promoter of human rights and democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia CDHR staff and supporters held a peaceful demonstration on July 27 in front of the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C. to demonstrate support for Saudi women’s call for the removal of the unnatural, unnecessary and contemptuous male guardianship system, which is sanctioned and enforced by Saudi authorities.

In her article al-Huwaider talks not only about the need to abolish male guardianship, but highlights the multitude of impediments Saudi women face every day of their lives, including child marriage, the ban on women driving, being forced to wear an abaya in public, not being allowed to participate in sports, and the four wives system.

CDHR supports Wajeha al-Huwaider and her colleagues in their struggle to obtain their full citizenship and legitimate rights in the autocratically ruled Saudi kingdom.

Here's a link to an earlier article on al-Huwaider, also in The Washington Post, and her YouTube video of Saudi women driving for International Women's Day (in Arabic).

Saudi Human Rights Abuses in the Name of Fighting Terrorism

The Washington-based Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia has been highlighting the rampant miscarriage of justice in Saudi Arabia for years. The Saudi judicial system is based on the Shariah law, which does not recognize civil law and can easily be interpreted by the Saudi sectarian court system as presiding religious judges see fit.

In the past few weeks, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have released extensive reports on Saudi human rights abuses in the name of fighting terrorism.

Saudi Arabia has held more than 9,000 people related to terrorism charges since 2003 and announced plans to try only a portion (less than 1000) of the detainees in October 2008. Since then, little information about the trials has been made available, including the names of prisoners to be tried and whether they will have access to a lawyer. Amnesty International reports that those who have gone to trial have been subject to “grossly unfair and secret proceedings.” The legal limit for imprisonment without trial in Saudi Arabia is six months.

Some prisoners have been tried and have completed their sentences, yet continue to be held indefinitely. Other prisoners are forced to undergo religious reeducation in place of trials.

Saudi Arabia lacks a penal code and instead relies on Shariah law. Without specified criminal offenses, the judiciary has wide powers to impose brutal sentences, including the death penalty, and follow various interpretations of the religious law.

This denial of human rights, by denying trials to thousands of prisoners, setting up unjust, underground trials for a few, and imposing religious counseling should be condemned. The Saudi royal family should recognize the necessity for immediate judicial reform and begin to resolve this abusive situation by releasing detainees held beyond the legal six months and providing fair, public trials with impartial sentences.

Read the report from Human Rights Watch: Human Rights and Saudi Arabia's Counterterrorism Response and an overview of the report.

Read Amnesty International's report: Saudi Arabia: Assaulting Human Rights in the Name of Counter-Terrorism and coverage from The New York Times.

CDHR presents:

CDHR is pleased to invite you to attend and participate in an informative and thought-provoking conference:

How Empowering Saudi Women Can Undermine Islamist Extremism

This unique conference will be held on Wednesday July 29, from 10 AM to 2 PM on Capitol Hill, Room HVC 201 A & B in the Capitol Visitors Center, a short walk from Capital South Metro Station, Blue and Orange line.

Saudi Arabia is a country “Without Borders”. Because of its centrality to Islam, Saudi Arabia plays a major role in the lives, attitudes and perceptions of an estimated 1.5 billion Arabs and Muslims, especially the most vulnerable and poverty stricken who look to the autocratic ruling Saudi dynasty and its pre-modern institutions for religious guidance.

But more urgent and relevant to the world’s current economic stability and survivability, Saudi Arabia sits atop the world’s largest known oil reserves and has the capacity to produce and ship it to all regions of the world. The combination of grave religious and economic power in the hands of one of the world’s last absolute but shaky governments can cause domestic, regional and global havoc. Given these obtrusive realities, the international community has no choice but to be ominously concerned about Saudi Arabia’s security and stability which have been, until now, maintained by the sword internally and by US military might externally.

However, recent events and the unprecedented politicization of radical Islam in the Middle East have exposed the dangers and ineffectiveness of relying on brute methods and religious totalitarianism to maintain stability and ensure global peace. Luckily, there is a safe, readily available and attainable option: Empower the Saudi people, especially women, to secure and stabilize their country, which is in the best interest of all citizens, the Middle East and the international community. This can be done only if the large and ideologically divided autocratic Saudi ruling princes accept the fact that the country is not their private property, “Saudi” Arabia, and be made aware by the international community, especially the US, that not to move forward is not an option because of the country’s religious and economic importance to global peace and economic stability.

Having had been deeply involved in the Saudi Kingdom’s affairs since its inception in 1933, the United States is in a position to play hardball with the ruling Saudi oligarchs. America designed and constructed the Saudi ruling family’s infrastructure, created, armed and trained its armed forces, airlines, security apparatus and even designed its currency. In reality, if it were not for America’s protection of the Saudi monarchy and its vast desert domain, the country and its rulers could have been overrun by one of the dynasty’s staunch and stronger rivals in the region, Iraq or Iran or could have been overthrown by its repressed population. These facts are more salient now than ever and the US is the only country the Saudi princes can rely on to save them and protect their kingdom.

Empowering Saudi women will strengthen Saudi Arabia socially, economically and politically. It will also help protect and promote the United States’ security and interests and is in accordance with America’s revered and deeply held democratic values. Granting Saudi women their full incontrovertible rights is not only morally correct, but it will ultimately tilt the balance in favor of moderation and will help eradicate the root causes of oppression and religious totalitarianism, not only in Saudi Arabia, but throughout Arab and Muslim communities worldwide.

As documented by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Freedom House and even by the US Department of State, Saudi women are among the most oppressed and marginalized citizens in Arab and Muslim countries. In addition to its immoral and crippling political, social, educational and economic consequences on Saudi society, denying Saudi women their natural and human rights because of their gender is imitated in other Muslims countries, especially among poor and traditional groups and their Shariah court systems to justify abuses and marginalization of Muslim women.

As the only NGO in the US focusing totally on Saudi Arabia, CDHR has assembled a group of highly educated and sophisticated human rights activists Muslim women and men, as well as former US government officials to elaborate on the importance of empowering Saudi women.

Please join us on Wednesday July 29th from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Capitol Hill in the Capitol Visitors Center Room HVC 201 A&B to investigate this vital topic with us. Seats are limited so please RSVP. To reserve your spot or for further information contact Lauren Baker at lauren@cdhr.info or call us at 202.558.5552

The Frightening Effects of Saudi influence in Pakistan

The Saudi political and religious influence on countries worldwide should not be underestimated, as it is a significant menace for international stability and security. President Obama faces a host of urgent global issues; yet the continued US support for the Saudi royal family only works against US interests and allows Saudi Arabia to continue denying basic human rights to the Saudi people.

Saleem H. Ali, a Pakistani who is a professor at the University of Vermont, observes in this article for the Daily Times that the Saudi influence in Pakistan is shoring up the Taliban and feeding religious extremism. Saudi financing of institutions that preach intolerance and hate and the spread of its state-sponsored branch of Islam, Wahhabism, creates insurgencies, religious friction, and turmoil in regions all around the world, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Chechnya, Bosnia, Nigeria, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, and even the United States. Americans and the international community should be extremely skeptical about the Obama administration’s willingness to embrace autocratic regimes, including the Saudi royal family.

Why is Empowering Saudi Women so Important?

CDHR is hosting a conference on July 29^th on Capitol Hill about the importance of empowering Saudi women. The people of Saudi Arabia lack basic human rights, women in particular. Saudi women cannot make basic decisions about their lives, but must have the signed approval of male guardians to travel, receive surgery, to study, or to have a job, among many other basic daily activities. Saudi women are not allowed to drive. Saudi Arabia’s severe, exclusionary branch of Islam, Wahhabism, is the foundation for the denial of rights to Saudi women by the influential religious establishment and the Saudi royal family.

 

Wahhabism and Saudi Arabia’s forceful spread of this ideology abroad fosters extremism and poses a dangerous, growing threat to the security of the United States and the international community.  Additionally, many Americans do not realize that the United States continues to support the Saudi royal family despite its denial of basic human rights. The United States, as a promoter of democracy worldwide, and because of its influence as an international leader, has the moral obligation to cease supporting the Saudi royal family and lead a call for reforms. 

 

These informative articles outline the importance of empowering Saudi women and give examples of the horrific ways Saudi Arabia denies women basic human rights. 

 

Perpetual Minors: Human Rights Abuses Stemming from Male Guardianship and Sex Segregation in Saudi Arabia

A report from Human Rights Watch drawing on more than 100 interviews with Saudi women to document the effects of these discriminatory policies on a woman’s most basic rights.

 

What Drives the Youth into the Arms of Extremists

An article from Arab News on why extremism continues to thrive in the Middle East.

 

 Book Sheds Light on Flaws in Education System 

A female Saudi professor describes the Saudi education system as a “locked box” that encourages aspects that foster terrorism.

 

 A former Jihadist explains in an article for The Washington Post how he realized extremism was not the way of Islam and calls for an Islamic reform. Losing My Jihadism: A Cry for Change

 Mansour al-Nogaidan, author of the above article, explains his personal journey and calls for reform of Islam in an op-ed for The New York Times. Telling the Truth, Facing the Whip: 

Finally, in The Jihadi Who Kept Asking Why, Elizabeth Rubin examines the background of several ex-Jihadists, including Mansour al-Nogaidan. This in-depth article for The New York Times is very revealing about the causes of extremism and ways to prevent it.

An article from BBC News on the death of 14 Saudi girls who tried to flee a fire in their school. They could not escape because the school gates were locked, as they usually are to ensure strict segregation of the sexes. Schoolgirls Die in Mecca Stampede

 

 Saudi Police 'Stopped' Fire Rescue The Saudi religious police refused to allow schoolgirls to leave a burning building because the girls were not wearing the required headscarves and abayas. This resulted in the deaths of 15 Saudi schoolgirls.  

CDHR Calls for the Suspension of the Saudi Membership in the Olympics

The Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia calls on the International Olympics Committee (IOC), President Bush, the U.S. Congress, human rights organizations, and the media to deplore the Saudi government's decision to ban Saudi women from participating in the Olympics, which will commence on August 8, 2008, in Beijing. Denying Saudi women's full citizenship at home and excluding them from participating in international events is not only morally wrong, but in defiance of accepted international norms and declarations on human rights, freedom of movement, and respect for basic liberties.

Saudi Arabia plays a major religious and economic role in the lives of Muslims and non-Muslim because of its oil reserves and historical importance to Islam. As a result, the actions of the Saudi government resonate significantly in Arab and Muslim societies. Barring Saudi women from participating in the Olympic Games is contrary to the I.O.C. rules, which state that "Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympics Movement." Furthermore, this decision re-enforces and perpetuates the already offensive Muslim systems of segregation and discrimination against Saudi women specifically, and women throughout Muslim and Arab societies.

The Saudi government's manipulations of universal treaties and declarations of human rights, as well as its continued violations of human rights at home, is not only unacceptable behavior in the 21^st century, but ample grounds to declare Saudi Arabia a pariah state and to have its membership in the Olympics suspended until it abides by the rules of the International Olympic Committee. The King of Saudi Arabia initiated and presided over an interfaith dialogue in Spain (June 16^th through the 18^th, 2008) where he emphasized tolerance of differences and respect for all peoples. The king and his family should start to reconcile differences and respect their own citizens, men and women. There is no better chance for the Saudis to change their disdainful and unjust policies toward women than to abide by international norms and let them participate in the Olympics in Beijing, in August 2008. As the birthplace of Islam and host to its holy shrines, Saudi Arabia has an enormous obligation to show that Islam is not a religion of intolerance, extremism, oppression, segregation, and exploitation.

The Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia condemns the Saudi government's decision to deny Saudi women the right to be full citizens at home and full members of the international community. The Saudi government is practicing an Apartheid-like system that is similar to that of South Africa a few decades ago, for which it was barred from global events, boycotted, and declared a pariah government. The international community, especially Western democracies, should treat the Saudi government as they treated the segregationist Apartheid government in South Africa.

A Courageous Saudi Blogger languishes in Saudi Prison

When the courageous and well known Saudi blogger, Fouad Al-Farhan, was arrested on December 11^th, 2007, by Prince Naif’s Ministry of Interior, many Saudis knew it was because he had posted blogs demanding reforms in Saudi Arabia. Another belief is that his arrest was the immediate result of his refusal to retract some of his blog posts criticizing Saudi officials. Although the government denied these allegations, it has become clear that Fouad’s criticism and demands were what led to his unjustified and arbitrary arrest, because no other charges have been brought against him.

The Al-Farhan case is similar to those of other courageous Saudi citizens, who called on and petitioned their government for democratic reforms and political inclusion. Prominent among Saudi reformers who faced the same fate as Al-Farhan are poet and author Al-Doumaini, and doctors Al-Faleh and Al-Hamid. They, too, were rounded and thrown in Saudi penitentiary cells for over a year, and when pardoned by King Abdullah after he inherited the throne in August of 2005, they were forbidden to travel, talk to the media, or find jobs.

Fouad Al Farhan is considered to be the godfather of Saudi blogging. He is widely respected for sharing his views and ideas about certain values that he believes the citizens of Saudi Arabia should be entitled to, like the rest of the world. However, since his arrest, Al Farhan has been subjected to treacherous conditions. Aside from one exception on February 12^th, Al-Farhan’s family has been denied visitations and phone calls for the past three months. This is indicative that Al-Farhan is enduring tortuous interrogation, with the hope that he might confess to false allegations that the government has placed against him, such as spying for the CIA and complying with Zionist agencies and terrorist organizations.

This is the method used by Saudi authorities to silence any critique against them and to terrorize anyone who might be aspiring to make the same demands as Al-Farhan, notably to ask for accountability, transparency, rule of law, an independent judicial system, women’s rights, minority rights, privileges for expatriates, and respect for other people’s beliefs. The international community, especially the United States, has moral and practical obligations to demand that Al-Farhan be released, or at least that an open trial be held in a court of non-religious law, with the presence of a defense attorney. The Saudi-Wahhabi ruling elites should not be allowed to transgress international declarations on human rights, especially when they have signed them.

Source:

http://www.arabnews.com/services/print/print.asp?artid=107122&d=24&m=2&y=2008&hl=Blogger’s%20Family%20Urges%20Authorities%20to%20Allow%20Prison%20Visits

Release Fouad Al-Farhan

The Center for Democracy and Human Rights, located in Washington, DC

Reiterates its call for the immediate and unconditional release of the innocent Saudi blogger,

Fouad Al-Farhan

Saudi Arabia is considered one of the most censored societies on earth. All forms of free expression are banned, independent civil society is prohibited, and men and women are severely segregated and deprived of many of the same rights, benefits and social norms that are accepted and valued worldwide. The press is government-controlled and all editors of print and visual media are appointed by the government. The oppressive conditions present in Saudi Arabia, including the lack of freedom of speech, assemblage, and public debate, have forced Saudis to be creative and seek other means of communicating with one another, including sign language between men and women who know very little about one other due to their lifelong segregation. However, nothing can compare to the use of the internet by Saudis to express their feelings and views, particularly through the blog. Most Saudis, especially young men and women, who are denied their divine and natural rights to meet face-to-face in schools, public places, or entertainment houses may spend more time on their computers and phones exchanging romantic messages than they do studying, working, or doing household chores.

As Saudis became aware of blogging’s potential to work wonders in a stifling society such as their own, the new internet medium gained widespread popularity. The use of the internet became an empowering tool for oppressed Saudis because they could use it at anytime, anywhere they happened to be. Today, Saudis can use the internet at home, abroad, via mobile phones, Blueberries, and Bluetooth. More importantly, they can use it without the omnipresence of the Saudi government’s layers of ruthless spying agents. This empowerment gave the Saudi internet users, especially the bloggers, a profound sense of freedom to talk about politics, corruption, oppression, religion, sex, and individual liberty.

One such blogger is the courageous Fouad Al-Farhan of Jeddah, a major liberal and cosmopolitan city in the Hijaz region, by the Red Sea. Al-Farhan was one of the first Saudis ever to blog under his real name. He broke free from the self-regulated pattern, which most Saudi journalists and citizens are forced to embrace if they want to avoid imprisonment, the loss of their jobs, and stigmatization. Al-Farhan began to write about liberty, codified civil laws, accountability and transparency. Such topics are depicted by the Saudi government and its educational and judicial systems, as well as its extremist religious agents, as morally corrupting and un-Islamic infidel creations designed to destroy Islam and its adherents. These topics are deemed to be security risks and against God’s will, as well as an insult to the good judgment of Wali Elimr, the king.

Fouad Al-Farhan put his life at risk through his actions and opinions. It is for this reason that he is known as the godfather of Saudi blogging. On December 11th, 2007, Al-Farhan was snatched by the dreaded agents of Prince Naif’s Ministry of Interior, ostensibly for reasons other than his demands for better governance. Saudis know his arrest was the immediate result of his refusal to retract some of his blogposts criticizing Saudi officials. In order to avoid domestic and international condemnation, such as that which occurred in the case of the gang-raped bint Al-Qatief in December, the loathed Minister of Interior, Prince Naïf, did not close Al-Farhan’s blogging activities. However, Al-Farhan has been languishing in the notorious Saudi penitentiary, Dahban, since December 11th, 2007, and apparently has yet to be informed of the charges pressing against him.

The question is, why was Fouad Al-Farhan really arrested? If his arrest was due to his writings, which most Saudis seem to suspect, then this is direct proof that the reform King Abdullah and his hired propagandists in the West brag about is a farce. Why is it a crime for the new generation of young citizens to discuss issues that shape and affect every aspect of their daily lives, as well as the future of their society and fragile country?

On January 5th, 2007, Al-Farhan’s father-in-law was allowed to meet with him for one hour inside Jeddah’s Dahban Prison. The next day, blogs across the Middle East and around the world observed a “Day of Blog Silence” in protest of Al-Farhan’s detention. The New York Times also weighed in with a staff editorial condemning the arrest and calling for Al-Farhan’s release. Fouad Al-Farhan was once a minor celebrity within the limited scene of Saudi Arabian bloggers. Now, he is an internationally-known dissident with leading newspapers, organizations, and diplomats calling for his release. Over 1,000 people have already sent letters to Saudi and American officials calling for Fouad Al-Farhan’s immediate release.

CDHR urges you to do the same, because without global exposure and condemnation of harsh Saudi policies, the infringement of basic individual liberties and gross violations of human rights will continue under the autocratic political and religious policies of the Saudi-Wahhabi system.

Ali H. Alyami, Ph. D.
Executive Director, The Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia
1050 17 St. NW Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202) 558-5552; (202) 413-0084; Fax: (202) 536-5210
ali@cdhr.info; www.cdhr.info

Human Rights in Saudi Arabia

FIND OUT MORE

More on Human Rights in Saudi Arabia from CDHR

Freedom of Media

Freedom of Internet

Freedom of Speech

Human Rights Watch on Saudi Arabia

Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia

Women in Saudi Arabia are less represented in political, social, economic and scientific fields than women in any other Arab or Muslim country. Women were barred from participating in the only municipal elections in the history of the Saudi State in 2005. They are prohibited from studying certain subjects in schools, such as chemistry and biology. They may not legally drive and must obtain “permission” from a male “guardian” to travel within or outside the country. Women must ride in the back of public buses, even when the buses are empty. Saudi girls are not allowed to play sports in schools, which, by Saudi health official admission, is causing health problems and staggering expenses. All marriages are arranged by male relatives. If a Saudi woman divorces her husband, she loses custody of her children over age six. Women have little or no freedom to effectively prosecute sexual abuse cases, being required to produce four witnesses. In court, a woman’s testimony is equivalent to half that of a man’s. These conditions violate women’s human rights and have devastating personal and social effects.

These exclusionary policies have created a dangerously imbalanced environment that is hurting Saudi society and Muslim women across the globe. Such policies favor the views of extremist-leaning segments in the Saudi society. CDHR promotes the empowerment of Saudi women to become equal partners in the democratic development process in Saudi Arabia. As activists, elected officials, and constituents, the contributions of women are crucial to building a strong and vibrant society that embraces tolerance and rejects extremism and terrorism. Empowering women in Saudi Arabia is a moral imperative and a powerful path to promoting progress, tolerance and democracy in the country.

The alliance between the Saudi ruling dynasty and its extremist religious allies is at the heart of Saudi exclusion and mistreatment of women. The royal family has traditionally used a conservative brand of Sunni Islam (Wahhabism) to justify its rule. Present-day Saudi Arabia was founded by an alliance between Muhammad ibn Saud, great grandfather of the current ruling dynasty, and Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab, the founder and father of Wahhabism in the middle of the eighteen century.

Wahhabi religious police have free reign to enforce their interpretation of religious law, and Saudi women face severe restrictions in the political, economic, and social spheres. Women cannot directly write freely, or assemble and organize against inhumane and stifling restrictions. The system has stifled the development of the country and kept its citizens divided.

Increased participation by Saudi women will tilt the balance in favor of tolerant policies that are in the best interest of all Saudi citizens and the international community. Women’s inclusion in political and civic life would unleash a wealth of talent that could increase domestic economic activity, empower competition, reduce unnecessary costs of social segregation, enrich cultural and civic development, and help foster democratic institutions, thereby weakening extremist influences in the country. With Saudi Arabia’s significant religious and economic influence regionally and globally, empowering women in Saudi Arabia will radically increase chances for democratic reforms in other Arab and Muslim societies worldwide.

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More on Women's Rights from CDHR

Wajeha al-Huwaider, a courageous advocate for Saudi women's rights.

2008 Report from Human Rights Watch: Perpetual Minors

CDHR's campaign for women's rights in Saudi Arabia