Whenever Saudi women are granted rights that they fought for so long to achieve, we squeal, jump up and down and clap like little girls. We tell the world media that Saudi society is joining the international community and on the right path in recognizing women’s rights.
Then reality sets in and we discover that it’s the same old story. A case in point is an incident recently in which a Saudi judge barred a female lawyer from his courtroom because she did not have a legal guardian accompanying her. Just a few months ago, women were granted licenses in Saudi Arabia to practice law and argue cases in the courtroom. The Ministry of Justice granted licenses to only a handful of women possessing a law degree. Women saw the move as a huge step in paving the way to rectifying the flaws in the Saudi domestic courts, which heavily favor men in custody, alimony and divorce cases. Now women could comfortably explain their case to another woman and have the confidence that her sister can argue her position before a judge.
Yet when a woman lawyer appeared in front of a judge to present her case on behalf of her client, the judge, according to AlWatan newspaper, reportedly said, “I am not obliged to overlook the condition that you must come with a mahram.” He then kicked her out of the courtroom. The lawyer’s law license proudly framed and hanging on her office wall would better serve as a coaster for her Arabic coffee. It’s a meaningless piece of paper. For all of its forward thinking, the Justice Ministry’s decision to grant women the right to practice law is a hollow promise. The judge easily managed to circumvent that right by insisting on the ridiculous notion that the lawyer needed a legal guardian in the courtroom so she could perform her duties. As we have repeatedly seen in the past, there are no laws and certainly no consequences for individuals who flagrantly prevent others from exercising their rights as human beings and citizens of Saudi Arabia. Any right afforded to Saudi women means nothing if the government fails to put teeth in laws to protect its people. Let’s consider for a moment the paper-thin validity of the judge’s insistence that a mahram accompany the woman to court. A female lawyer, who should be treated like any other lawyer on the planet, is conducting business in a courtroom with her client, the opposition counsel and the judge. Presumably, everyone is behaving professionally, including the judge, and no hanky-panky is going on. How exactly is this seclusion? How exactly is a mahram required in a professional setting that is more or less public? The fact that a husband should accompany his wife to work defies common sense.
Given all the flaws in the judicial system, it boggles the mind that the Justice Ministry would tolerate such behavior from the bench. That is the insidious nature of our society. We grant women the right to perform duties and tasks that should have been given in the first place, and then place obstacles in their path to ensure they can’t exercise those rights.
When the Labor Ministry deemed that women no longer need a legal guardian’s permission for a woman to seek employment, many private companies still demanded the requirement. Although higher authorities told the international community that women would drive when Saudi society is ready for it, local law authorities arrested any woman behind the wheel even when their legal guardian was sitting next to them in the passenger seat. So, ministry rulings carry no weight and Saudi society apparently consists of traffic cops.
Just recently, there was a short-lived campaign by women driving advocates to petition the Cabinet of Ministers to allow women to drive. They submitted these petitions through Saudi Telecom’s telegram service. These telegrams are sent directly to Cabinet members via STC. STC — a private company with authority only to provide mobile phone and Internet services and is not part of the government or representative of Saudi society — began rejecting the telegrams, telling customers that it will no longer send messages to the Cabinet if they contain pleas to allow women to drive. One of the benefits of living in Saudi society is our access to the king and people in high levels of government. This is not a right easily understood by the outside world, but common in Saudi Arabia. But now STC has cut off our time-honored tradition of access to these people because it deemed the messages as unworthy of the Cabinet’s time.
I am not one to succumb to the common disease that there is a conspiracy behind every action against us, but if there ever was evidence of a conspiracy to keep Saudi women barefoot and pregnant and in the kitchen, the emerging pattern of sabotaging our efforts for our rights guaranteed in Islam is clear. If the various ministries can’t enforce their rulings giving women their basic Islamic rights then why bother with the farce in the first place?
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