Editorial: Women’s Day
While the government can change the rules, it cannot change the attitudes of a people
Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day — and, as readers will have noticed, Arab News is observing it.
Why so? Because men control the world and its resources. Women do not. International Women’s Day was founded to focus on an end to discrimination, to ensure the rights of women to be trained, work (and in any job they chose), vote, have public office and have a voice that is heard and respected.
That International Women’s Day is still being observed is because discrimination has not ended. That is certainly the case in Saudi Arabia, despite the claims of some that women have full rights in the Kingdom. They do not. Just read Somayya Jabarti’s musings on this page. In the US and Europe, women complain that they are kept out of the decision-making at top level; they want to beak through the glass ceiling. In Saudi Arabia, they are still trying to get a foot through the door on the ground floor.
The discrimination is not just wrong, it is also wasteful. Half the country’s brains and talents are being ignored.
Some justify denying women the right to drive or work on the grounds that they need to be protected. Protected from whom? If from men, the answer is to punish those men who would abuse them. Others justify it in terms of Islam. Yet Khadija, the wife of the Prophet (peace be upon him) was a successful businesswoman. She was his support. Those who reject women in business effectively challenge the Sunnah of the Prophet. But they apparently think themselves better and wiser Muslims than those in the rest of the Muslim world where women drive, run businesses without a male guardian, enter politics, become ministers.
The objection is not based in Islam, it is based in outmoded cultural traditions.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah is a key supporter of improving women’s role in Saudi society. New women’s universities and colleges are springing up. Women are being provided ever more work opportunities; a woman minister has been appointed; women are entering the diplomatic service. But while the government can change the rules, it cannot change attitudes. That is something Saudis must do themselves. The fact is that while men increasingly want a wife who works and brings in an income, too many want one who will simply hand it over but still play the submissive wife.
Just as in Europe and America 100 years ago, there are even Saudi women opposed to change, who fear that change will threaten the one area where they have power —the home.
Women need to empower themselves and start thinking in terms of entitlement. A couple of years ago, at a business forum in the Kingdom, a male speaker refused to give his address until the women in the audience removed themselves. They meekly got up and left. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if they had stayed put.
That is why Women’s Day is important. Its prime purpose is not to celebrate women or their achievements. It is there to focus attention on what women could achieve if they had the right or the ability to do so. When the discrimination finally goes, that will be the time to celebrate, the time that International Women’s Day becomes redundant.
We are nowhere near that yet.
(Courtesy: Arab News)
While the government can change the rules, it cannot change the attitudes of a people
Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day — and, as readers will have noticed, Arab News is observing it.
Why so? Because men control the world and its resources. Women do not. International Women’s Day was founded to focus on an end to discrimination, to ensure the rights of women to be trained, work (and in any job they chose), vote, have public office and have a voice that is heard and respected.
That International Women’s Day is still being observed is because discrimination has not ended. That is certainly the case in Saudi Arabia, despite the claims of some that women have full rights in the Kingdom. They do not. Just read Somayya Jabarti’s musings on this page. In the US and Europe, women complain that they are kept out of the decision-making at top level; they want to beak through the glass ceiling. In Saudi Arabia, they are still trying to get a foot through the door on the ground floor.
The discrimination is not just wrong, it is also wasteful. Half the country’s brains and talents are being ignored.
Some justify denying women the right to drive or work on the grounds that they need to be protected. Protected from whom? If from men, the answer is to punish those men who would abuse them. Others justify it in terms of Islam. Yet Khadija, the wife of the Prophet (peace be upon him) was a successful businesswoman. She was his support. Those who reject women in business effectively challenge the Sunnah of the Prophet. But they apparently think themselves better and wiser Muslims than those in the rest of the Muslim world where women drive, run businesses without a male guardian, enter politics, become ministers.
The objection is not based in Islam, it is based in outmoded cultural traditions.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah is a key supporter of improving women’s role in Saudi society. New women’s universities and colleges are springing up. Women are being provided ever more work opportunities; a woman minister has been appointed; women are entering the diplomatic service. But while the government can change the rules, it cannot change attitudes. That is something Saudis must do themselves. The fact is that while men increasingly want a wife who works and brings in an income, too many want one who will simply hand it over but still play the submissive wife.
Just as in Europe and America 100 years ago, there are even Saudi women opposed to change, who fear that change will threaten the one area where they have power —the home.
Women need to empower themselves and start thinking in terms of entitlement. A couple of years ago, at a business forum in the Kingdom, a male speaker refused to give his address until the women in the audience removed themselves. They meekly got up and left. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if they had stayed put.
That is why Women’s Day is important. Its prime purpose is not to celebrate women or their achievements. It is there to focus attention on what women could achieve if they had the right or the ability to do so. When the discrimination finally goes, that will be the time to celebrate, the time that International Women’s Day becomes redundant.
We are nowhere near that yet.
(Courtesy: Arab News)
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