To those who responded to my earlier article about Islam in Saudi Arabia, I say thank you. Now I would like to make it clear to those who disagreed with me that I am indeed a Muslim. When I talked about the secrecy and concealment that in the name of protecting our values is so visible a part of Saudi society, I did not mean the religious kind. I was thinking about those that spring from culture and tradition rather than from Islam, contrary to what many of you seem to believe.
It seems obvious to me that all Saudi women are entitled to have their own ID. A photograph is not necessary since fingerprints could be used. The important thing here is to protect both women and society. Those who object to women having IDs are the very ones who often try to deprive women of their lawful Islamic inheritance or of their right to manage their own wealth and assets.
It is not necessary that everything private or confidential in the Kingdom be Islamic. If that were the case, then we would certainly hold fast to it. Inside many of us there is an irrational fear and what makes me even sadder is that we fear Islam as a religion. This kind of fear is unnecessary because Islam is strong and what we should fear is not the religion but the way we, as Muslims, practice it. Unfortunately, these fears manifest themselves in many forms; one of the simplest and most dangerous is to question the sincerity of someone else’s religion simply because we disagree with them. This often happens — even when the subject is very trivial and of no real importance.
Yes, we want our ideas and customs related to protecting our values to agree with Islam; we don’t want, on the other hand, the kind of protection of values that springs from — and produces — ignorance. Our culture controls our public utterances and sometimes, without our being aware of it, that very culture invades our religious practices and pronouncements. Let us look at some examples and decide whether the issue is religious or cultural. Saudi women ride in taxis with strange, and sometimes non-Muslim, drivers. Some of our young men seek entertainment in places far from local authorities. In some areas of the Kingdom, in the name of protecting our values, women are cut off from their inheritance. And sometimes we do not allow our sons to work in certain jobs in the name of protecting our values. Sometimes we refuse to accept certain men as husbands for our daughters on those very same grounds. In the name of protecting our values, a Saudi family is kept from enjoying themselves in some parks within the city of Riyadh, but that same family is allowed to amuse itself in parks outside the city. In the name of protecting our values, women are not allowed to work without their father’s permission; in its name we speak on behalf of other people; our economy is still isolated from the rest of the world at great cost to both business and population; and we have limited ourselves to one religious voice and dare not challenge it until blood has been spilled. All in the name of protecting our values.
Arab News From the Local Press 19 August 2003
