A recent newspaper survey of 100 Saudi women showed that 71 of them did not even know that the Kingdom was a signatory to the United Nations convention opposing discrimination against women. Half of those who did know about the convention were unaware of its contents, all of which deal with women’s rights.
Based on her practical experience in life, a woman knows it is her right to be treated as an individual and that laws guaranteeing her rights should be enforced. Some of the women surveyed spoke of cases of women being treated with contempt and humiliated in public by irresponsible men.
The recent conference on human rights in Riyadh addressed the problem from various perspectives. It was obvious that many saw human rights as part of a wider conspiracy against Muslims, aimed at undermining Muslim unity. No discussion on human rights will bear fruit unless people are educated on what these rights actually are. And this must come from a culture that allows for diversity and ensures that everyone has access to knowledge. Some people still think they alone understand these rights and that they alone should issue judgments and force others to accept them.
Not only that, some even go so far as to harass and oppress those who disagree with them. I personally have experienced this kind of treatment and, believe it or not, at the Riyadh Human Rights Conference. Leaving a dinner party held for women participants, waiting for my driver with some other colleagues, two men approached us. One of them was carrying a folder of documents from the conference. He began shouting at us abusively, saying we were blocking his way. Had he bothered to look into the folder he was carrying, he would have discovered that it is everyone’s right to use the street. It is not a right confined only to men. He was not concerned with women being respected and treated politely, especially in the presence of foreign guests who may mistakenly think that all men here treat women as rudely as he did.
Why should such people be allowed to attend a conference on human rights when they insist on seeing themselves as the only ones to enjoy those rights?
Arab News From the Local Press 19 October 2003
