Director's Comments:
CDHR denounces the Jeddah Summary Court and its presiding religious extremist Judge, Muhammad Amin Mirdad, for sentencing journalist Rosanna Al-Yami (R.A) to sixty flogs for doing her job. According to Saudi and global media outlets, R.A. “…was accused of being an accomplice to Abdul Jawad (Saudi male citizen) who provoked a furor because he boasted on TV about having premarital sex, provided explicit sexual descriptions and described how to pick up girls and women, “ Arabnews. “Imagine how busy the courts and public squares would be if every person in free societies where freedoms of speech and expression are protected under the rule of law are convicted and sentenced to flogging because they boasted about dating and sexual activities,” Said Dr. Ali Alyami, Director of the Washington based Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi religious courts (rule of law and freedom of expression are considered an immoral Western invention, therefore antithesis to Islamic teachings) and their mostly ultra conservative (extremist) judges issue arbitrary and severe sentencing based on their mood, religious orientation and preconceived notions. The courts use these same standards to determine methods of punishment that may have very little to do with the case at hand, with the intention of sending chilling messages to those who dare think out of the box. Public flogging is the most humiliating form of punishment and is administered with the intention of reminding people that they are perpetual minors incapable of being in charge of their own lives and actions. Verdicts and summary sentencing in Saudi courts are not designed to fit the actions or crimes at hand, but to create an all-encompassing and enduring fear of the system’s heavy handedness. Abdul Jawad, the primary bragger has been sentenced to 1,000 flogging and a 5 year term of imprisonment.
As the birth place of Islam, home to its holy shrines (in Mecca and Medina) and promoter of an austere interpretation of the Quran and Shariah Law, the Saudi establishment plays an influential role in Muslims lives and the perception they have of themselves as well as non-Muslims. What happens in Saudi courts resonates throughout Muslim communities. Sentencing the Saudi female journalist, R. A. to 60 floggings in a public square is not because she was an accomplice to a minor event, but to intimidate other Saudi journalists and the public in general into total submission to the rule of the jungle carried out by men whose ultimate goal is total control over people’s lives in the name of God.
Read More
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2009112355249
Showing posts with label CDHR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CDHR. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
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
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
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