Dec29

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Raquel Benson is a Senior Contributor to TDA, a journalism student, humanist, and artist with issues of chronic imagination. She may be brash, but it stems from a deeper concern for the world around her.

Running For Office?

Big Win For Saudi Women's Rights!

Civil Rights – Saudi Arabia, infamous for its misogynistic policies rooted in religious extremism, is making some long needed progress in terms of women’s rights. The women of the state officially no longer need a male guardian’s approval to vote or run in the upcoming municipal elections of 2015.

Although King Abdullah’s new decision is a major step in the right direction for Saudi Arabia, the rest of the oppressive male guardian laws remain unchanged. Saudi women still cannot work, travel, study abroad, divorce, or marry without the permission from a male guardian, and women’s history professor Hatoun al-Fasi in Riyadh, thinks that the new decision will stir controversy.

“Male guardianship laws are a problem that the Saudi woman has been dealing with for years. It’s our number one demand that these laws be revoked [...] It goes against the social rights that Islam gives women,” said Al-Fasi.

“These laws make the woman like a child in all aspects of her life. She is not dealt with as an adult with a fully developed brain, ” said Saudi female activist Wajeha al-Hawidar.

Playing the political field, King Abdullah still panders to the ultraconservative clerics, despite his recent support for women’s rights.