ISSUE #8 - Saudi Special - CONTENTS:
- Torn Apart: Can Legal Reforms Reunite This Family?
- Saudi Women Accelerate Push for Driving Rights
- Caught on Tape: Reformer’s Mother Expresses Outrage
- QUIZ: The Name Game
- Become a Partner in CRIME
SPOTLIGHT CASES:
Torn Apart: Can Saudi Legal Reforms Reunite This Family?
In 2005, a Saudi judge forcibly divorced Fatima and Mansour Al-Taimani. Why? Fatima’s half-brothers believe Mansour comes from an inferior tribe. Since Fatima is legally under the guardianship of her brothers, the judge honored their request. But now, newly announced judicial reforms are giving the couple hope.
Saudi King Abdullah recently announced an overhaul of the judiciary system, including a first-ever Supreme Court, as well as personal status and labor tribunals. According to some lawyers and officials, these measures will limit judges’ arbitrary rulings and give citizens the right to appeal rulings. Judges currently have complete discretion in sentencing and their rulings cannot be overturned.
Mansour, who has custody of two-year-old daughter Noha, is regularly harassed by police, who issue gag orders preventing him from speaking to the press and sometimes even throw him jail. His wife Fatima, who was jailed for refusing to return to her brothers, has been released and is now in a women’s shelter with the couple’s one-year-old son, Salman.
Mansour and Fatima are currently banned from contacting each other. Whether they will benefit from the newly-announced reforms remains to be seen
Saudi Women Accelerate Push for Driving Rights
For the second time in Saudi Arabia’s history, a daring group of Saudi women has launched an ambitious campaign asking King Abdullah to repeal the ban on women driving.
Back in the Fall of 1990, 70 veiled Saudi women asked their hired drivers for the car keys. They met up and drove as a convoy of 40 cars through the capital of Riyadh. Police officers quickly stopped the “renegade” drivers, who were then forced to sign a pledge not to repeat their actions. Many were also banned from traveling abroad and some even lost their jobs.
17 years later, the “right to drive” movement is re-charging its engines. This time, the campaign’s vehicle is a petition to King Abdullah that has already been signed by over a thousand Saudi citizens, both men and women. Unlike in 1990, the government seems mildly receptive rather than hostile.
"We don't expect an answer right away," said co-founder Wajeha al-Huwaider. "But we will not stop campaigning until we get the right to drive." Fouzia al-Ayouni, a 48-year-old mother of three, considered all the possible consequences of campaigning for the cause: "We could be detained, we could lose our jobs, and we could be banned from traveling," she said. "But if we get the right to drive, it would be worth it."
Caught on Tape: A Jailed Reformer’s Phone Conversation
For the past nine months, Dr. Saud al-Hashimi has been held in solitary confinement in a Saudi prison. Part of a group of nine jailed dissidents, he has been denied contact with family members for the first half year of his detention.
But now, al-Hashimi has at last spoken with his 74-year-old mother via telephone, and in a bold act, his mother allowed their conversation to be featured on the prominent Saudi blog of Fouad al-Farhan.
In the patriarchal society in which she lives, al-Hashimi’s mother’s outspokenness concerning her son’s situation is an act of courage. While other families stay silent as their members serve time in prison, this grandmother voices her criticism publicly. In the recorded conversation, she expresses her discontent and outrage over the detention of her son, stating that the government violated his rights.
Saudi bloggers are buzzing about her daring act - and the involvement of the blogger who posted the phone call. Al-Farhan himself recently entered the prison and spoke with another dissident, Abderahmane Ben Siddiq, marking the first time that a blogger was able to access the confines of a Saudi prison to meet with a detainee. Stay tuned for more developments.
QUIZ: The Name Game
What is the only country in the Middle East named after a person? If you guessed the theme country of this edition – you guessed right. In 1932, Abd al-`Azīz Āl Sa`ūd conquered most of the Arabian Peninsula and promptly renamed the lands of Nejd and Hejaz after himself. “Saudi Arabia” means the Arabia of Saud – sort of like renaming the U.S. “Bushish America.”
BECOME A PARTNER IN CRIME:
Here is a list of four quick ways you contribute to the Middle East civil rights movement:
- Forward this newsletter to friends & encourage them to subscribe.
- Write a letter to imprisoned Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer.
- Join 500 others in demanding citizenship equality for women.
- Apply to participate in HAMSA’s civil rights fellowship program.