RIYADH, 6 March 2004 — The recently established National Human Rights Association will soon start work to redress injustices against Saudi women, according to a female member of the 41-strong constituent body.
Not that the NHRA will start “at the top of the ladder,” such as lobbying for granting women the right to drive, said Noura Al-Jomaih, a columnist who has lived in the West for 10 years.
At issue are much more basic “moral and material rights, such as helping divorced women win custody of their children and alimony from their estranged husbands” in an environment where “men are invariably the stronger party in any dispute,” said Jomaih, herself a divorcee. Even more basically, women, like other members of Saudi society, need to be “educated” about their rights and the need to pursue them, the AFP news agency quoted Jomaih as saying.
Saudi Arabia has also announced plans to set up a government rights body as part of steps toward reform it insists must be compatible with Islamic tenets and local traditions, not made to Western specifications.
The NHRA will operate without violating the tenets of Shariah, meaning it cannot legally dispute the right of a man to take up to four wives.
Jomaih hoped that educating society and raising awareness could help convince men to stick to one spouse, “except when there is a compelling reason to do otherwise, such as sickness or infertility.”
Women and other related issues will be taken up by a family committee, one of four set up by the association, which has also created a “monitoring and follow-up” panel to identify injustices and try to remedy them.
As things stand now, the association still has to be granted a government license to start functioning, but it has received “approval in principle”, and has already picked a nine-member executive committee, including three women, and referred its proposed statutes to the authorities.
The association is headed by Abdullah ibn Saleh Al-Obeid, a member of the Shoura Council, but Obeid and his deputy, also a Shoura member, have joined the rights watchdog in their private capacity.
According to Jomaih, the NHRA, which groups academics and activists, plans to cooperate with international human rights organizations. The Saudi human rights body will pursue its goals in a “non-confrontational way,” making sure that rights enshrined in already existing legislation are granted and that “commitments to Arab and international human rights conventions are carried out,” Jomaih said.
